Subject: Rosemary Sutcliffe is fan-tas-tic.
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Posted on: 2022-05-21 17:36:22 UTC

The series Nesh refers to starts with The Eagle of the Ninth, about a son of a lost centurion trying to learn the fate of his father and the legionary eagle. The series continues with descendents of the pair, down from ~2nd century Roman Britain to after the Norman Conquest in 1066. You might find the first three* bundled together as "Eagle of the Ninth saga" (that's Eagle, The Silver Branch, and The Lantern Bearers), but the rest are well worth a read too.

*Sort of... "Frontier Wolf" actually takes place before Lantern Bearers, but because it was written later it's not deemed part of the trilogy.

"Sword at Sunset" is actually an ancillary part of the series - the descendent is a side character, not the protagonist. I heartily recommend the entire series (plus "The Shining Company", which seems to take place in the same timeline without actually featuring any relatives of the original character).

My other Roman series is "Roma Sub Rosa" by Steven Saylor, which are a long series of Roman murder mysteries. Gordianus the Finder, the detective character, doesn't go to Britain, but he roams most of Italy and ranges further at times. The series spans the late Republic - I think the very last book is the assassination of Caesar.

(I would not particularly recommend "Roma" and "Empire" by the same author. Between them they span over a thousand years, following the same family like Sutcliff, but they just don't click for me.)

hS

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