Gaius, an ordinary sheep herder living in the countryside, has always longed to be a soldier in the Roman army. He gets his chance when he attracts the attention of a passing proconsul, who turns out to be Caesar himself. At Caesar's invitation, Gaius joins the Roman army, eager to fight exciting battles, avenge his father and find his fortune. Sure enough, his legion is soon engaged in all sorts of bloody battles, with Gaius and his friends often finding themselves fighting for their lives. But the battles are not Gaius' only concern. He's barely stepped into camp when he runs into Lanius, another soldier who immediately takes a disliking to Gaius. When he discovers a sword protruding from his bed after Lanius sneaks into his tent, he can't help but suspect Lanius' intentions are more sinister than he first thought.

I personally like to read historical fiction once in a while -- though the only other title I've read with a setting in Ancient Rome is the Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff back in university. I do remember enjoying the action and plot in the book, so I was interested in trying this series by Adam Nichols.

The first book of the series, War in Gaul, has a bit of a slow start and I found myself anxiously waiting for some serious action in the battlefield. There's a fair bit of conversation and description of the various characters and warring nations and it's not until near the middle of the book that you see the first large scale battle -- and Gaius ends up watching it, rather than actively participating. The book is written in old 'Roman speak', which helps to establish the era and culture, but has the potential to make things more tedious to read. That said, things steadily pick up after that, and Gaius has some exciting encounters with enemies trying to hack him up with various weaponry. The scenes are quite descriptive at times as well, and give a glimpse of the horrible, chaotic massacre the battles really were. There are plenty of historical, geographical and religious references in the story that are explained by footnotes at the end of each chapter. It was good to have these at this location instead of within the text, because I'm sure so many details would really bog down the plot.

I found the second book, The Golden Eagle, to be more interesting, mainly because the plot moved faster -- but I am still waiting for events and characters to come together to build and reach a real climax. Lanius is definitely a mysterious character that I hope will continue to add intrigue and an extra layer of complexity to the story.

I think this series will appeal to teens who are looking for historical fiction that gives a real sense of the era in which it takes place. And once they hit the bits with swords hacking and spears flying, they might want to read the entire series.

Check out the Legionary Chronicles on Adam Nichols' amazon page. 

Thank you for stopping by our blog for the Falling Kingdoms blog tour.

A story of three neighbouring kingdoms and the young people who are caught up in a brewing war, all because of a reckless display of power by an arrogant young lord that resulted in the death of a wineseller's son.

Princess Cleo of Auranos witnessed the whole thing. She could have prevented the tragedy, but she didn't. Now, bearing the guilt of an innocent death, Cleo is sneaking back to Paelsia to chase after a legend to cure her dying sister.

A dangerous endeavour, since Jonas Agallon will hunt her down if he knows she is back in his territory. Jonas, who swears to avenge his brother's death, is planting the seeds of a revolution and forming an alliance between Paelsia and Limeros to take on the wealthy and abundant Auranos.

The focus of Limeros' King Gaius though is not so much on the impending war but on a prophecy surrounding her daughter Lucia that is supposed to come true when she turns sixteen. He is starting to have doubt and is getting impatient, but it's only because Lucia hasn't revealed to him what she is turning into.

The only person she can confide in is her dear brother Magnus, but lately, he seems aloof and temperamental. Little does she know that Magnus suffers everytime he sees her, struggling with growing feelings towards his very own sister.

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes (pen name for Michelle Rowen) is a very readable high fantasy, and readers will easily immerse themselves in this world of political intrigue. The chapters alternate among the three kingdoms, and as the story builds to a crescendo, you eagerly await the inevitable collision of the characters. The cast is a bit uneven though. Cleo and Jonas are much more proactive characters that are fueled with a strong purpose, and the other two pale in comparison and it's difficult to sympathize with everyone's stories. Scenes that should make a bigger emotional impact often felt rushed or came out of nowhere, so they are not as convincing as they can be. I also wish the book will explore and expand on the magic mentioned, but overall, it's a good start to a series.


This book is quite different from the kinds of books we usually talk about on this blog, so just to add a note from our blog's perspective, even though the Assassin's Creed like character on the cover may suggest a promising read for boys, the melodramatic romantic scenes and the overarching theme of forbidden love can be off-putting to some.

Thank you to Razorbill, Penguin Canada, for providing the advanced copy of Falling Kingdoms and inviting us to join the blog tour. Visit the official website.

After a world war where the majority of Earth's inhabitants are killed by biological warfare, Stephen, his father and grandfather struggle to stay alive by keeping to themselves and scavenging whatever remains they can find among the destruction. His grandfather has always taught Stephen to be on his guard and lookout only for himself. Others survivors cannot be trusted -- they might be thieves or 'Slavers' who will capture you and force you to work for them or sell you off. His grandfather is a harsh and abusive man, but Stephen knows he's the one who has kept them alive so far.

So when Stephen's grandfather dies from the deadly virus that wiped out the majority of the world's population, Stephen is afraid things will change for the worse. It's only a couple nights later when his father tries to rescue a mother and son from dangerous Slavers when everything goes wrong. His father is injured and falls into a coma and Stephen has no other option than to accept help from a group of strangers who claim they can take his father to a doctor. Stephen soon finds himself in Settler's Landing -- a hidden community where people have houses, food and carry on with things like school and farming as if the world catastrophe had not happened. Stephen is wary of everything, especially since there are some people in the community who obviously do not want him there. He wonders how long the community can hide themselves from other survivors who would kill to have access to Settler's Landing and is intrigued by Jenny, the rebellious adopted daughter of the family he is staying with. Before long he finds himself in the middle of a deadly battle where Settler's Landing is under attack from a group of Slavers and a neighbouring community.

The verdict on this book: a simplistic plot with some good tension and a couple exciting scenes (being chased by Slavers, the big battle at the end) but I found the characters too cliche and needing more development (Stephen falling for the mysterious, rebellious girl was much too predictable). The story just wasn't original enough or powerful enough to make it stand out from other dystopian novels out there. Would I recommend it? Sure, I think someone looking for something straight forward, grounded in our real world (most things are pretty believable and there are no elements of paranormal or fantasy) and not overloaded with romance might like this...

I have to admit, I don't really like reading stories about zombies. I like monsters, scary villains and I don't mind a bit of gore... but there's something about decaying, flesh eating corpses that turn me off. But when a teen guy at our library kept raving about World War Z, I thought I'd just take a peek.

World War Z is a collection interviews and first person accounts of a world wide human war against zombies. It's put together like a historical account, with a serious tone to make it as realistic as possible. Since it's a series of oral accounts from various people, the book doesn't read like your typical chronological novel where the plot is held together by a single narrator. This makes it a bit more choppy and I could see some readers getting bored with it at some point. I found myself randomly flipping to different sections of the book -- it's definitely not a thriller that had me biting my nails all the way through. If a reader is looking for a high octane zombie read, I'd suggest the Enemy series by Charlie Higson or Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry rather than World War Z. That said, I was actually impressed by the way the story is presented -- I thought I'd be laughing or dismissing the whole thing as melodramatic, but instead I found most of the chapters quite interesting. It had plenty of gory moments - but I didn't find this gratuitous or so repulsive I couldn't read on.  I liked the choice of perspectives included in the book: the organ harvester whose operations spread the zombie infection, the child whose parents tried to kill her to prevent the zombies from eating her, the Palestinian who believed it was all an Israeli conspiracy. Interestingly, it made me consider deeper themes like corruption, greed, politics and the different ways humans respond to threat and catastrophe. Yes -- all this from a fictional account the world being taken over by zombies! I wouldn't expect the typical teen reader to react the same way I did; I'd expect them to just think the whole zombie war idea is pretty cool (which it is).  The great thing is, these are real zombies: gross, terrifying lumps of rotting flesh that will eat your arm off -- not zombies that are portrayed as marginalized population that need to be included in your groupie at high school.

 This is definitely one I'll be recommending to teen guy readers, along with Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead and Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. There are also plans to make World War Z into a movie in December 2012, so it's probably be a good idea to make sure you've got at least a couple copies of all three in your teen collection, as I'm sure the demand for them will only be increasing.