This is not deep, cerebral, historic fiction such as you get from authors like Colleen McCullough or Hilary Mantel. What it is though is a good, fun, historic adventure. Based on the governorship of Serotoninis Paullinus leading up to Paulins' famous defeat of Queen Boudica in the 1st century Roman province of Britainia. The story centers on the rise of the future governor of Britainia Gnaeus Julius Agicola as a young Tribune of the Roman army.if you want deep history with complex plot and characters that goes on for a thousand pages then read Ms McCullough but if you want a quick fun lesson with lots of action and historic setting this is good stuff. My only complaint for this book can be that the narrator tries a little too hard to create different voices for the characters, consequently he can get a little nasally or high pitched at times. I found this a trifyl annoying at first but managed to get past it.