debitha | I've been beat up, I've been thrown out, but I'm not down

I had forgotten how clever this story is.

It is the story of a young Romano-British man in the Legions at the beginning of the Dark Ages. Saxon mercenaries have been called in to guard the North against the Picts in return for land, and more and more of them are flooding into the country to settle, pushing out the incumbent residents if necessary. If Rome could just provide a couple of extra Legions, they could be pushed out once and for all. A letter is sent asking for help. The only response they ever receive is the recall of the existing Legions back to Rome.

The hero, Aquila, deserts as feels he just can't leave his country. Badness ensues (well I don't want to spoil it for you completely), and he is left with nothing to show for his devotion except a lot of anger and bitterness. He goes to offer his service to the usurped ruler of "Rome in Britain", Ambrosius. Ambrosius is going to need all the help he can get as, once he launches himself onto the political scene, he is going to be fighting Irish raiding parties, the invading Saxon flood, and his own treacherous uncle who is himself being played like a harp by the Saxons.

Among Ambrosius' men is his young nephew Artos. Yes, that Artos. And that is where you realise just how clever this book is. Because this is the political background to the Arthurian legend, without it ever really being about Arthur. He appears, he is discussed, but he is a secondary character to Aquila's story of a young man desperate to preserve something, anything, of a nation he loved but which is falling apart in front of his eyes. And as such Sutcliffe is able to end on a positive note, even though you know the bitter end of the whole story, because this is Aquila's story and at the end of his story things are getting better for him.

One of the things I love most about Sutcliffe is her ability to evoke times long past without making them seem alien. There is a very real sense of living in the faded glory of an empire long past its peak. Despite being essentially speculative historical fiction, this feels very real.

In summary, <3 <3 <3 this book, with a deep and abiding passion. Thank you Oxford University Press, for bringing the Sutcliffe books back into print. Now where's Warrior Scarlet?

Yes, it got bigger again. This is... not working out quite the way I imagined it.

The Prince - Machiavelli
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden - Morgan Spurlock
Personal Demon - Kelley Armstrong
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain - John O'Farrell
The Lantern Bearers - Rosemary Sutcliffe
Small Favour - Jim Butcher
Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
The Incredulity of Father Brown - GK Chesterton
Tithe - Holly Black
Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
The Mark of the Horse Lord - Rosemary Sutcliffe
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
Freakonomics - Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
A Snowball in Hell - Christopher Brookmyre
Churchill's Wizards - Nicholas Rankin
The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton
The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television - Stephen Pinker
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte