Satisfying read, even for an adult This book is skillfully done in many ways. The story is smooth and the pacing good. There are several exciting and suspenseful parts. If you are an adult you might think of this as chocolate ice cream rather than double fudge macadamia crunch. Good, but not overly complex.
One of the reviewers imagines some kind of wrong relationship between a 20 something man and a 13 year old girl. If anything like that is implied, it must be awful subtle because I didn't see it. Anyway, in ancient times it wasn't unusual for girls as young as 13 to get married. When average life expectancies were in their 30's, you had to start families young.
Remember it is a Young Adult Novel Like many others who have written reviews of "Eagle of the Ninth", I read this novel as a teenager and was very impressed by it. I am now middle aged and I can see why the book has sold more than a million copies. Is well written and tightly plotted. Rosemary Sutcliff was a worthy successor to H.E. Henty and the Victorian English tradition of the "Boys Own Adventrue Story". It is sad to see that the young adult historical novel has declined. That youthful need for adventure has been taken over by the science fiction and fantasy genre of young adult literature.
When reviewing this book, adults need to keep in mind that this is book was written for teenagers. There is a young adult sensibility to which many adults can no longer relate. This book is a classic of its genre and should be judged in its young adult context.
Save yourself!! Don't BUY this book!!! Eagle of the Ninth is a book about a near-twenty year old man, Marcus, and is set in the early A.D's at the time of the great Roman rule. Marcus, a commander in the Roman legion, wounds his leg in a battle, and the effect is he gets booted out of the legion. No longer knowing what to do he runs off to his uncle's house to stay there until he can walk. He meets some pretty interesting people there, like a gladiator named Esca. Marcus bought Esca to free him from the cruel world of fighting in the arena, and for a while Esca remains Marcus' slave until he frees Esca from slavery altogether. He also meets a girl named Cottia, who is originally Britain but lives with her Roman family members, and is forced to abide by their customs. It is hinted that Marcus has some sick relationship with this girl-who by the way, is thirteen (gag). After about 2 years of living with his uncle, Marcus' meets and ex-general and has the idea to go out and find his fathers lost legion and the symbol for it, so the legion may once again be started. After many travels in the great Britain they come to find the eagle by some strange events, and the last 100 pages are told about how they get home. FINALLY, when they reach the original setting, they are tired, worn out and beaten down, and they don't even do what they had originally planned- they don't make the eagle into a new legion and the legion is pretty much forgotten. And it is finally thought that Marcus will return to his home land of Rome, to live with his young wife and his sort-of-a-still-slave. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Personally, I think this book brings a large significance to the world, I mean think about it. If we brought this book to war, we could threaten to make our entire prisoner's read it till they die of torture, and by the time we got to the end of the first paragraph we would know where all the nuclear bombs and missals were hidden! Just think of the wonders! Thank you SO much Sutcliff! Ok, seriously, the book was boring, snooze-fest, that moved about as fast as a snail, no, a dead snail, no, a dead 100 year old snail that got ran over with horses at the turn of the century. It was confusing, and WAY to many unnecessary commas. If you read this book you honestly wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on until chapter two (if you hadn't already fallen asleep). For boys and girls it wasn't very good, no matter what they say, there's not a lot of action and definitely not a lot of Romance. But for all those people that have problems getting to sleep at night, this is the book for you!
Eagle of the ninth Wonderful, accurate depiction of both military and civilian life in Romano-Britain. Good character development and well-plotted with plenty of action.
A moving adventure tale set in Roman Britain The Eagle of the Ninth is a moving adventure tale set in Roman Britain of the 2nd century AD. The straightforward, uncomplicated story was probably intended for children and certainly for young adults. Nevertheless, adults of all ages will find in it much to enjoy. The characterization of life in early Britain is quite convincing. Rome and the Senate are but a distant echo. Here we live the provincial life of a barely pacified country. A young Roman centurion recently injured in battle and so unable to serve in the legions, sets out to find the lost "eagle" (i.e. battle standard) of his father's legion. That legion, the Ninth Hispana, along with his father, had disappeared twelve years previously in Caledonia (the north of modern Scotland). In the course of many adventures the hero will learn of his father's fate. Interestingly, the book reminds me of the works of Rudyard Kipling dealing with the Indian subcontinent. Ironically, instead of English colonizers living among "noble savages", the shoe is on the other foot, and colonial Romans live among the barbarian tribes of Britain. Anyone with an inclination towards historical fiction will enjoy this moving adventure story. Commentators have pointed out that this is probably an apt description of how the British national identity was forged over the centuries.
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