The second in what is proving to be a brilliant trilogy, following the warrior Kai, and his Sarmatian tribe across the Roman empire.
As with the first, and every other book Tim has written, the prose is beautiful, the world brilliantly evoked, and the character development from book one to this one is spot on.
The Sarmatians have been enrolled intoarmy the Roman , forced to serve as auxiliaries for twenty-five years, with the promise that they will be able to return home when their service is done. Kai leaves his daughter on the steppe, and the thought of seeing her again is his driving force.
To Hadrian's Wall they are sent, Britannia is painted as a desolate land, the Wall described as the last outpost of Rome. Officers despise being sent there, feeling too far away from Rome and the riches of empire. Lucius though, is content. He has his tribe, the tribe he has brought across the breadth of the empire, and they are safe.
War, though, is an ever constant in the far reaches of empire, and the Sarmatians will soon have to fight, with enemies from both across the Wall and within.
This book for me is more than an equal to the first (A Winter War), with battles, betrayals and an underlying story of love and betrayal, it had me gripped all the way through. I can't wait for the third.