Give Me Back My Legions! | ||||||||
Harry Turtledove | ||||||||
Narrated by Simon Vance, unabridged | ||||||||
Tantor Media, 12 hours | ||||||||
|
A review by Gil T. Wilson
Arminius is a German by birth but serves in the Roman army, where he gains Roman citizenship and an officer's
rank. However, he does not wish to see his fatherland, Germany, come under Roman rule or its people to become
slaves. While serving as an officer in the Roman/Pannonian front, Arminius receives word the woman betrothed to
him has been taken away by her father and betrothed to an older German. Arminius is granted leave to return
home and defend his honor and while traveling through Germany, he decides that Germany must remain
free. Determined to stay in Germany, Arminius seeks assistance from the newly appointed Roman Governor to
Germany, Varus. Varus takes an immediate liking to Arminius and treats him as his own son.
Varus is told by the father of the betrothed girl that Arminius is gathering German forces to defeat the
Romans. Varus sees this as merely an old man getting back at the loss of his daughter to Arminius. When
Varus receives the same reports from some of his own officers, he defends Arminius by mentioning that Arminius
is a high ranking officer and a Roman citizen. However, the deceptive Arminius is gathering forces and finds
the place where the Romans can be defeated. Using the Romans own military maneuvers against them, Arminius
must get the Legions to march into the mountains on small trails between swamps.
Arminius continues to win the trust of Varus and spends the summers in Varus' camp as the XVII, XVIII
and XIX Legions cross Germany to conquer the Germans and collect taxes. At the end of each summer, the
Legions must return south to survive the rough German winters. During these excursions, the Roman Legions
are bogged down by the swamp lands and the constant rains. Arminius hints to Varus that he knows of a better
route that could take them back south without as much difficulty. Varus thinks about the idea but decides
not to take Arminius up on the offer -- until that fateful third summer, when everyone except Varus
suspects treachery from the German officer.
In writing this novel, Harry Turtledove took poetic license in creating some events and characters to help
explore the hows and whys of the Germans' victory over the Romans. This military tale has many lessons for
modern military and war planners in that the Romans were so confident of their victory they forgot to watch the
people of the land. The summer Varus decides to take Arminius' route he is composing a "Mission Accomplished"
type letter that is sent to Augustus Ceasar.
This audiobook features the wonderful voice actor Simon Vance. However, I'm not so sure if the casting of
Vance in this book was the best decision. While Vance does read each character's speaking part with distinct
different voices, his British accent does not quite fit in with the Roman and German characters. Some of the
minor characters seem to have a Cockney accent or other British Isles accents, while Augustus Ceasar has a
vocal quality that sounds like an impersonation of Sean Connery.
Another aspect of this audiobook production that made it a little bit hard to absorb, especially at first,
was the lack of pauses between segments. During each chapter there may be two or three separate scenes, such
as one with Arminius, one with a Legion officer collecting taxes and one of Varus being approached by
someone. There were no pauses between these scenes and they blended together as though they were one continuous
scene. Throw in the similar sounding Roman and German names and the story becomes hard to follow. On a
good note, after about five chapters, this became easier to follow and was more tolerable.
In spite of these complaints, this is a great historical story worth the time spent listening. Turtledove
even adds a final chapter which discusses the differences between fact and fiction and what sources he
used (and why) to develop historical accuracy.
Gil T. has spent a quarter of a century working in radio and has lots of spare time on his hands and reading or listening to books takes up all that time. Check out his blog to find out what he's up to at any given moment. |
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