The Lost Legion (Booktober)

 

"Go towards your destiny, faithful heart, and we towards ours."

 

 

This book by H. Warner Munn is a little bit of a dark horse, because I feel like most people will know The Last Legion, but not this one. The Lost Legion tells the story of a (you guessed it) Roman legion which is sent by an insane emperor to find survivors of an ancient battle. The emperor just wants to get rid of it because he senses its commander is dangerous, but said commander has too much pride and honour to turn back once this comes to light, and continues on the trek towards China and the Great Wall on his hopeless quest. And tagging along with them is a woman who, if all goes well, just might become the ancestor of none other than Attila the Hun ...

 

 

 

The mad Roman emperor Caligula sends a crack legion on a hopeless task to recover the standard of a Roman Army that disappeared 100 years earlier ...

(from Goodreads)

 

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*image not mine

 

The Bourne Trilogy (Booktober)

Becoming Mrs. Lewis (Booktober)

Lord John Grey (Booktober)

The Last Wish (Booktober)

The Inheritance Cycle (Booktober)

His Dark Materials (Booktober)

The White Queen (Booktober)

The Thorn Birds (Booktober)

The Bourbon Kings (Booktober)

Cop of the Year (Booktober)

Nefertiti (Booktober)

Timeline (Booktober)

The Murder at the Vicarage (Booktober)

Persuasion (Booktober)

The Longest Ride (Booktober)

Midnight Sun (Booktober)

Percy Jackson & the Olympians (Booktober)

The Chronicles of Narnia (Booktober)

Atlantis (Booktober)

Origin (Booktober)

Quo Vadis (Booktober)

Death on the Nile (Booktober)

The Little White Horse (Booktober)

The Sign of Four (Booktober)

Harry Potter #2 (Booktober)

Troublemaker (Booktober)

The Lord of the Rings (Booktober)

Quo Vadis (Booktober)

 

"Quo vadis, domine?"

 

 

 

Well there HAS to be one of these in here, hasn't it? Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote many, many books in his life, most of them concerning Poland and its history, but Quo Vadis isn't one of them. This is the story of Emperor Nero and all his depravities, which certainly might give you chills appropriate for wrapping up in a warm blanket. But the romance between a pagan centurion and Christian slave is a must-read for any true bibliophile. Written against the backdrop of an ailing Rome, you get a little bit of everything: history, intrigue, murder, romance - and most of all, hope.

 

 

 

 

Set at a turning point in history (A.D. 54-68), as Christianity replaces the era of corruption and immorality that marked Nero's Rome, Quo Vadis tells the story of Vinicius, the proud centurion who has fallen deeply in love with a mysterious young woman who disappears the night they meet; and Ligia, the elusive beauty. Vinicius will not easily win her love, for she is a Christian, one of the group of dedicated believers led by the apostle Peter. Christians are rare in pagan, hedonistic Rome, and suffer great persecution by Nero, a despotic emperor who plunges Rome deeper and deeper into depravity. As Nero's appalling plans for the Christians become ever clearer, time appears to be running out for the young lovers. Vinicius must come to understand the true meaning of Ligia's religion before it is too late ...

(from Goodreads)

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*image not mine

Death on the Nile (Booktober)

The Little White Horse (Booktober)

The Sign of Four (Booktober)

Harry Potter #2 (Booktober)

Troublemaker (Booktober)

The Lord of the Rings (Booktober)

Tome Thursday: Angels & Demons

Hello everyone!

It's book talk time again, and with my e-reader situation still the same as it was around Christmas (aka alas, poor Kobo, I knew thee well), I have to resort to different tactics if I want to read certain books.

Luckily, however, some of them are pretty easy to grab right off my bookshelf.

Which reminds me that I should at some point continue with my bookshelf tour, but maybe not right now. Maybe I'll do it in May though?

Anyway, for this particular blog post I've decided to go with the tried-and-tested trope of an author who people love and hate at apparently the same time. For me, I tend to enjoy reading his books because I don't necessarily go into the reality of it all and just ... you know, read it for the enjoyment of reading.

I'm talking about Dan Brown, of course.

Brown is one of those authors that just LOVE stirring up the pot, and his book Angels & Demons is definitely no exception.

Tome Thursday: Roman Crazy

Hello everyone!

Back with another book blog in between watching Downton Abbey (yes, I finally caved in and started this, and I have to admit I'm loving it so far) and catching up on random shows before the regulars return from their last pre-finale breaks. I did have to take some time off, however, because even that can become a bit tedious if you don't mind me saying so.

So, instead, yesterday when the weather here turned windy and completely icky, I pulled out all the stops and went for the author that always, always makes me laugh.

Humour, thy name be Alice Clayton.

I believe I've reveiwed all of her Cocktails series here on my blog, but just in case, I'll look it up and the links will, as always, be down at the bottom of the page. For this installment, Roman Crazy, which seems to be the first in what I suspect will be at least a trilogy, she teamed up with another writer, Nina Bocci, and honestly it made for some great fun.

What could be better when you're trying to pretend it's warm outside than reading about sunny, sultry Rome in the middle of summer?

Talkie Tuesday: The Last Legion

"Hail, Caesar!"

Hello everyone!

To be perfectly honest, I seem to be bouncing back and forth between genres when watching movies and/or TV shows, because I wanted to actually do a different review today, one about Star Trek, because, hello, I watched Beyond this weekend and YES is all I can say! 

But sadly, I also finished reading a Roman-esque book today and I'm still pretty much under the sway of that particular influence, ergo I went back to find this Roman-inspired movie I had watched waaaay back. I think it was last summer, but in any event, who cares about the when, if I get to them at some point, right?

Anyway.

After finishing Simon Scarrow's Eagle book (number three, to be exact), I fell into the whole Roman craze and dug through my sheep notebook until I found the movie called The Last Legion.

Which, to be honest, I originally watched only because of a book I'd read of the same title, but in the end realised it wasn't even CLOSE, content-wise.

Well, it did have Colin Firth, if nothing else.