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Legionary (Legionary 1): An epic military adventure set in the late Roman Empire. by [Gordon Doherty]

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Gordon Doherty

Legionary (Legionary 1): An epic military adventure set in the late Roman Empire. Kindle Edition

by Gordon Doherty (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

1,025 ratings

Book 1 of 9: Legionary

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The Roman Empire is crumbling, and a shadow looms in the east…

376 AD: the Eastern Roman Empire is alone against the tide of barbarians swelling on her borders. Emperor Valens juggles the paltry border defences to stave off invasion from the Goths north of the Danube. Meanwhile, in Constantinople, a pact between faith and politics spawns a lethal plot that will bring the dark and massive hordes from the east crashing down on these struggling borders.

The fates conspire to see Numerius Vitellius Pavo, enslaved as a boy after the death of his legionary father, thrust into the limitanei, the border legions, just before they are sent to recapture the long-lost eastern Kingdom of Bosporus. He is cast into the jaws of this plot, so twisted that the survival of the entire Roman world hangs in the balance…

Epic Roman fiction, brimming with adventure, battles, blood and gore.
A perfect novel for fans of Bernard Cornwell's Last Kingdom series, Conn Iggulden's Emperor series, Simon Scarrow's Macro and Cato saga or Ben Kane's Forgotten Legion series.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

November 8, 2013
File size

4750 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gordon is a Scottish writer, addicted to reading and writing historical fiction. His Legionary and Strategos novels have been an Amazon smash-hit, and have gone on to be translated and published in Russia, Italy and Greece.

Gordon's love of history was first kindled by the ruins of Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall, and travelling around the ancient world has kept the fire burning brightly ever since. He finds the Late Roman Empire and Byzantine eras intriguing, particularly the metamorphosis from late antiquity into the 'dark ages' and the medieval period. Equally, the Bronze Age and Classical Greece are firm favourites of his.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004SV2EBK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ www.gordondoherty.co.uk (November 8, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4750 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #198,955 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #18 in Greek & Roman Literature
- #140 in Greco-Roman Myth & Legend Fantasy eBooks
- #1,163 in War & Military Action Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
1,025 ratings

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Gordon Doherty

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Gordon is a Scottish writer, addicted to reading and writing historical fiction. His novels have been Amazon smash-hits, and have gone on to be translated and published in Russia, Italy and Greece.

Gordon's love of history was first kindled by visits to the misty Roman ruins of Britain and the sun-baked antiquities of Turkey and Greece. His expeditions since have taken him all over the world and back and forth through time (metaphorically, at least), allowing him to write tales of the later Roman Empire, Byzantium, Classical Greece and even the distant Bronze Age.

For exciting news, extracts and exclusive content from Gordon:

Visit www.gordondoherty.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @GordonDoherty

Follow his author page on www.facebook.com/gordon.doherty

Subscribe to his YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/c/GordonDohertyAuthor

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

1,025 global ratings

5 star		51%
4 star		28%
3 star		10%
2 star		7%
1 star		4%

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Brook Allen

Storytelling at its BEST!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2021

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Legionary is one of those reads that leaves you feeling content after finishing it. It has the promise of a sequel, since it's the first in a series. However, it's more than that. Doherty is a MASTER of plotting. He has interwoven multiple POV characters and their stories into a finely designed web of intrigue, vivid (and graphic) battle scenes, and personalities. And there's nothing I love more than an in-depth multiple POV story when it's done well.

Pavo is a former slave, sent to join the XI Claudia legion, not suspecting that the next six months of his life will turn into his formative years in a really huge way. His former master, the corrupt Senator Tarquitius is in league with a rather nasty piece of work who happens to be a Bishop. Let's just say that the man isn't exactly a model Christian. Then there's the Emperor of the eastern Roman Empire at the time--Valens. Doherty depicted him so very well in the book, that I felt as though I could shake the man's hand after the book ended. But my favorite character had to have been the gritty centurion who held this entire tale together like super-glue. Maybe I should refer to Gallus as "Superman", because his immense concern for his men, his honor, and diligence in both battle and everyday legionary life was a powerful testament as to how real Roman legions operated.
The entire story takes place in the late Roman Empire--a period not as familiar to me and shaded with much political upheaval within and without. Doherty treats his period with a father's care and the detail and world-building was most impressive, as was his brief but informative author's notes at the end.

Doherty's knack for plotting and overall story-telling is what kept hitting home for me and it hit the target. I was engulphed in his detail, the nuances of character and the way each man or woman was built. But I kept returning to the fact that it's Doherty's STORYTELLING expertise that made this book flow. Indeed, I foretell that Book #2 is in my future!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Exciting Story but Not Really Believable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 23, 2012

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I just finished reading this book in two days and I'm torn about it. There is the good and the bad in this book.

On the positive side, the depiction of the late Roman empire appears good based upon all the sources that I have read (which are many). The author does a good job of depicting the late Roman legion, including its size, equipment and leadership. Also, his depiction of the cities of the Eastern Roman Empire including Constantinople seem accurate. The depiction of graft, corruption and political intrigue is appropriate also. Finally, the depiction of the armies of the Huns and Goths appear to be accurate, including size, equipment and leadership. The story itself is fast paced and exciting, to a fault. I had a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to see what happenend to the main characters who are likeable and well developed in my opinion. However, about 2/3rds of the way through the book, something happens...

This leads to the negative side, about 2/3rds through the book, we find the IX Claudius legion marching across the Kingdom of Bosporus (current Crimea peninsula) with the Huns chasing after them. (Don't ask me how they got there, read the book which is very good up to this point.) At this point, a number of strange and rather unbelievable things happen in the storyline. I won't ruin it for the reader if you want to experience it, because it may be worth reading the book up to this point and past it in order to say, what I said, "Huh?" At this point, the story becomes quite unbelievable and it almost seems that the author is (1) trying to determine where to take the story next and (2) doing this in order to make the story more exciting. However, it makes the story more and more unbelievable..

One of the key unbelievable points is that the head of the IX legion sends three men to the Emperor in Constantinople to ask for a relief army to save them from being destroyed by the Huns. Apparently, this trip back and forth from the Crimea to Constantinople takes about three days by ship, including a day escaping from the Huns, a day approaching the emperor and... it is beyond belief. (The distance from Sevastople, where the fighting was occurring, to Istanbul, or Constantinople at that time, is approximately 250 miles one way or 500 miles round trip via sail/oar driven boats. The correct amount of time would probably be at least one week and probably two...) And, to think that the author could have sent a group on some of the vessels that the legion had days earlier when the tribune determined that they were being tracked by the Huns. However, that would not have been as exciting.

In spite of this lack of credibility at the end of the story, this book may be worth the read for the individual interested in this period (who wants to get a chuckle or two by the last 1/3rd of the book.) I am planning to read his next book in the series and hopefully, that one will be more believable and I am wrestling with the paperbook copy for my brother and others to read.

10 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Adam

Surprised how much I enjoyed this.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 23, 2022

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I don’t know how this series passed me by when it came out. I found it really enjoyable and a slightly different take on so many other legion tales. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. My only slight criticism is a couple the very small battle details are a bit unlikely, I say this as someone who trains with swords etc. But not a big deal. Very good book overall. You could argue I just interpreted text in a way it wasn’t intended!

One person found this helpful

M. J. Blake

Up there with the best of my reading in 2020

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 4, 2020

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When I first opened this on my Kindle the reading of time nine and a half hours gave me cause to wonder if a slog was ahead of me. However, as I progressed through the early chapters I found myself being drawn deeper into the story, characters, and period of history due to the completeness of descriptions and plot covering Pavo and his progression from slave to Legionary hero.

Upon finishing the book my thoughts turned to the future and a strong wish to read the next incredible adventures of the XI Claudia. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book and intend to seek out more from the author whose obvious knowledge of the subject shines through the adventure, for this was not merely something to read and enjoy but a book that took me on an adventure, held me until the end and left me seeking another dose of great story-telling.

One person found this helpful

Drek

Not keen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 13, 2022

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I am a big fan of Messrs Scarrow and Cornwall et al. So I was looking forward to this story. However I thought the main character was weak and the plot too disjointed. However it was an introduction to
Pavo so soldiering on. The second instalment grabbed my attention immediately. With a fast moving and decisive opening. Great. I look forward to reading it

One person found this helpful

Dennis Chapman

A real page turner

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

I have long been an avid reader of the Roman genre of books and a few years ago had marked Gordon Doherty as an author I should try because of the outstanding reviews of his legionary series. I finally got round to sampling Legionary book 1 and certainly wasn't disappointed. It starts off fairly gently, allowing you to get to know the main protagonists, then the action accelerates more and more, finishing at a pace that almost leaves you breathless. A really good read and I can't wait to get into the rest of the series.

One person found this helpful

Andy Whitley

Gripping

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

Actually based on a famous Legion, the Eleventh: Pavo a recruit thrown into the mire of a struggling Empire goes through a series of life and death scenes to save his Legion. Well written with great battle scenes it's hard to put down and I can't wait to get into the next book.

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