Hadrians Wall: A Novel

Hadrian's Wall [Adrian Goldsworthy] on leondumoulin.nl *FREE* Barry Strauss, Cornell University, author of The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Greatest .
Table of contents

We've emailed you instructions for claiming your free e-book. Tell us more about what you like to read so we can send you the best offers and opportunities. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bookperk and other HarperCollins services. You may unsubscribe from these email communications at any time. Mass Market PB E-book.


  1. Galakta, la ville deau (Histoires à raconter pour les grands) (French Edition).
  2. Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach (The HR Series).
  3. Header Image.
  4. Hadrian's Wall - William Dietrich - Paperback.
  5. What is the best book on Hadrian’s Wall to read next? | Per Lineam Valli?
  6. A Modern Guide to Medicinal Herbs;
  7. Courante Jewel;

Specialty Booksellers Interest-specific online venues will often provide a book buying opportunity. International Customers If you are located outside the U. About Product Details A fusion of Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire and the movie Braveheart; a novel of ancient warfare, lethal politics, and the final great clash of Roman and Celtic culture.

Seven Days in May by Kim Izzo. Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day. Heathcliffs I Have Known: Year Year X Tell us more about what you like to read so we can send you the best offers and opportunities. What kind of books do you like to read? Scene of the Crime mystery fans. From the Heart romance readers. Book Club Girl book clubs. HarperCollins Children's Books books for young readers. Harper Perennial literary fiction and nonfiction.

sarah's bookarama: Novels Set In Roman Britain

Epic Reads young adult. Harper Voyager science fiction and fantasy. But when Valeria, a senator's daughter, is sent A fusion of Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire and the movie Braveheart; a novel of ancient warfare, lethal politics, and the final great clash of Roman and Celtic culture. But when Valeria, a senator's daughter, is sent to the Wall for an arranged marriage to an aristocratic officer in AD, her journey unleashes jealousy, passion and epic war. Valeria's new husband, Marcus, has supplanted the brutally efficient veteran soldier Galba as commander of the famed Petriana cavalry.

Vindolanda, Northumberland

Yet Galba insists on escorting the bride—to—be on her journey to the Wall. Is he submitting to duty? And what is the mysterious past of the handsome barbarian chieftain Arden Caratacus, who springs from ambush and who seems to know so much of hated Rome? As sharp as the edge of a spatha sword and as piercing as a Celtic arrow, Hadrian's Wall evokes a lost world of Roman ideals and barbaric romanticism. Mass Market Paperback , pages. Published March 1st by HarperTorch first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Hadrian's Wall , please sign up.

Lists with This Book. Jul 14, Jane rated it liked it Shelves: I love this historical period but this book fell way short of my expectations. To be honest, I didn't like rating this Roman book lower than most others I've rated but I felt there was enough justification. Inspector [ Agens in Rebus?? The latter is t I love this historical period but this book fell way short of my expectations. The latter is the author's explanation for the 'Barbarian Conspiracy. I best liked the presentation of the Celtic culture and culture clash between the Celts and the Romans: Valeria, the senator's daughter, makes her way from Rome with an escort and marries Marcus, the awkward, shy, indecisive aristocratic commander; he's more of a scholar than a warrior and much, much older than she.

I didn't take him as unloving. He was not a bad man, but just ignorant of women's feelings and how to act with women, which he admits. He's fixated on his legion and his Duty, as he sees it; his attitudes represent typically those of his class. This political marriage and the influence gained from the senator are what keep Marcus in his high position.

The feisty tomboyish Valeria is taught to ride a horse the regular way [considered unladylike] and with her maidservant goes to explore north of the Wall. They are captured by a band of Celts and taken to the chieftain's fortress. Then of course, what I guess was predictable and inevitable happens, but I just rolled my eyes and kept mumbling to myself: The romance and so heavy an emphasis on it spoiled the novel for me. She escapes and re-enters the fortress to warn of an impending attack from the northern tribes. The Epilogue led smoothly and directly into the subject of Eagle in the Snow , one of my favorite novels ever.

The characters were too stereotypical and two-dimensional for me. I was especially angry at Marcus' reaction towards Valeria on her return. The villain really put on a different face from his real one; his motivations for his actions were well explained although I still disliked him. The Celts did have some personality; the Romans were colorless except in extremes. I did not like the italicization of Draco's sections--his interviews of the principals; those hurt my eyes and gave me a headache.

Dietrich did write well; the book was a page-turner, but the romance cheapened a good story. As far as the cover art: Apr 20, Mandeep rated it it was amazing. First time reading a book by this author. Really enjoyed his writing. He did a great job on portraying what Roman Britain, and the Roman Empire might have been like - and brought it alive for me.

His descriptions of the surroundings, the character's motivations, and the battles were very vivid and not rambling. I also loved the device of using a Roman inspector to ferret out the story. The weakest part was probably the idealism of the underlying love story - but it read like it would make a good movie because of it. Sure doing your own housework might seem novel initially, but I can't see someone from that background not missing the benefits of having someone pour a nice hot bath for her etc.

Nevermind the fact she'd never get to talk to or see her parents or family ever again either. Anyhow I will definitely check out more by this author. Oct 02, Julia rated it really liked it Shelves: This book really helped Hadrian's Wall come alive for me. I'd heard of the wall and seen picture of the ruins, but never really thought about the people who lived by the wall.

Dietrich does a good job of describing the characters and their motivations. I really enjoyed that the Inspector never met the main character, Valeria, and that he had to piece together what happened from people's biased memories and views. The negative points are that plot is easily guessed at some parts and the character This book really helped Hadrian's Wall come alive for me. The negative points are that plot is easily guessed at some parts and the characters are a bit predictable.

See a Problem?

That said, I really enjoyed the setting and cultural insights both Roman and Celtic. I'll definitely be reading more by Dietrich. It seemed to me a majestic wall, the thought of which gave me shivers of excitement and a bit of fear. That is why I decided to pick up this book as soon as I saw it. I really liked the way the story is told - from the points of view of several people interviewed by an inspector - and i really liked the endig - the idea of receiving the freedom on Hadrian's Wall has long fascinated me, especially after I found out that it was an inspiration for the Wall in George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

I really liked the way the story is told - from the points of view of several people interviewed by an inspector - and i really liked the endig - the idea of receiving the freedom one longs for. I found the descriptions of the Roman life and its contrast to the Celtic one interesting.

However, what prevented me from rating this book higher was mostly the 'woman marries a man she does not love and falls in love with someone completely different' cliche. Given that the book is named Hadrian's Wall, I expected it to have more of a focus on it. Here the wall served just as a background to this love story, I did not feel the majesty and awe and fear that I wanted to feel simply because it was just a backdrop. I expected more focus on it and on what it means to the soldiers around it and their commanders, and also to all of Rome.

I did not feel that here due to the big focus on the love story. Mar 14, Ashley rated it really liked it. He was a very ambitious emperor and builder. This book gives insight into England in the first century. There is discussion of Christianity, Paganism, and other religious influences. Politics are also a huge part of the book.

Hadrian's Wall

Understanding of the culture, particularly of Calendonia now Scotland is very useful. There are ficticious characters that are Roman and Celt to help in understanding the era. This book does have more sexuality than I would like to read or recommend to someone else. The Roman aristocrat Valeria is brought to the wall to marry the Roman aristocratic military leader Marcus.

Theirs' is a short and unloving relationship. She is kidnapped by the Celts, with Arden Caraticus as their leader. Galba is the villain, as is Marcus in a way. The approach to telling the story is also interesting, a Roman investigator is trying to unravel the mystery of the missing woman and the attack on the wall. Jan 15, Julia rated it really liked it. This is a book of historical fiction and I love to get my history this way. The Celts were relentlessly fierce and independent and their land not worth bothering with, but the Romans needed to protect themselves from them and their sporatic raids into Roman territory.

This is also a story about a young Roman wife that gets taken by th This is a book of historical fiction and I love to get my history this way. This is also a story about a young Roman wife that gets taken by the Celts and becomes aquainted with their culture and their dynamic and, of course, attractive leader. Aug 16, Cleo rated it really liked it. Historical fiction of AD concerning the confrontations that occur when a border separates two totally contrasting societies - that of Ancient Rome and the Celtric region of Britain.

It predates King Arthur legends and in a way sets the stage for this well loved lore. I am hesitant to pick up a historical fiction book of these early eras, but this one proved to be captivating. Don't be afraid to venture into this one. Aug 16, Colin rated it liked it Shelves: I finished re-reading this book, and was astounded to discover that it was exactly as I remembered it - a mix of good historical fiction set in Roman Britain and highly speculative junk lit.

Interestingly enough, the Romans are not really the heroes nor villains of the piece, but on the whole their portrayal is more negative than positive. Dec 23, Jelena rated it really liked it. Oko cetvrtog veka nove ere, meni totalno nepoznato istorijsko razdoblje. Prica o ratu i ljubavi.

Paperback Editions

Lepo epsko putovanje u daleku proslost. Oct 28, Mimi rated it it was ok Shelves: A really slow read that was surprisingly romancy. Jan 18, Melina rated it it was ok. I had not expected this book to be a historical romantic novel. And as such, I feel like everything was just a background to the main love story. Oddly though, I also think it is not your traditional romantic novel because we never actually meet the main characters.

The story is told from the point of view of those around them, and that is one thing I liked about this novel. The author has an interesting way of playing with point of view, and I thought it was relatively well done. And possibly, I had not expected this book to be a historical romantic novel.

And possibly, one of the main reasons why I kept reading. Also, the author's writing style was very good, and his characters plausible. She plays her part of a Roman matron, and that of all other Roman matrons of the past, well. Her male counterpart is also portrayed as a realistic character. He is everything she is not, and I liked how this duo represented the opposition between the Roman and Celtic cultures.

Valeria's love for Arden and her gradual acceptance of his Celtic culture represents, in my opinion, the eventual defeat and dominance of the barbarians over the Roman Empire, which as stated in the epilogue, fell a mere 32 years after this war. Also, the duality of oppression represented by the Roman culture and freedom represented by the Celtic culture was very well portrayed.

Given the title of the novel, though, I thought the book would be centered more on this war and the attempts of the northern tribes at breaching the wall, not the love story. Galba, however, was a very interesting character. Not so much a villain, he was a frustrated commander who'd given his life to the Wall, and had it all taken from him due to politics.

And though the setting is different nowadays, this is still something very current today and Galba's transformation from a loyal commander to a frustrated and duplicitous soldier who seizes what he thinks he deserves without any mercy for none was shown to him was a very interesting turn and read.

The reason why I am giving this book 3 stars only is because I still think it was too much of a love story than I had anticipated. I was expecting something different. A silly genre historical romance, but a good one. None of what happens in this book is possible or believable, and the weird story-in-a-story device never really works because the narration includes considerably more than the inspector could have known. The characters are such stereotypes that they are laughable, and any who read this novel and didn't know that the raffish brigand leader was both working in cahoots with Galba NOT A SPOILER and was going to win the undying love of the sprightly A silly genre historical romance, but a good one.

Equally contrived is the "Noble Savage" garbage that contrasts the stolid and patriarchal traditions of tottering ancient Rome with the vigorous egalitarianism and we-are-nature's-children of the Celts. Where nearly every action south of the wall is described as a duty, and the true Roman men are emasculated when not boorish - it's always be intimidated by a woman or try and rape them - the Celtii are a communal free love society that treasures its women and the men respect them for their choices. Virtually every sentence spoken north of the wall includes the word "freedom" or a variant.

This is silly, but it still works. The events are invented, the conditions at the wall are made up, the Celtic culture and traditions are obviously unreal, the battles make almost no sense, and humans just don't behave like this. On the whole, this is exactly the type of book that it set out to be. Pure romance and fiction, and entertaining fiction at that.

100. What is the best book on Hadrian’s Wall to read next?

Jun 10, Courtney Lake rated it liked it Shelves: This book was a good, non mental gymnastics read. None of the characters were particularly surprising or unexpected, the plot ending was outlined from the beginning, and anyone who had ever read roman era historical fiction will find the setting familiar. That's not to say it wasn't good! Just that it was an easy read, which can be exactly what you need sometimes. The plot follows the aftermath investigation of the assault and breach of Hadrians wall in Roman Occupied Britain.