EAGLE IN EXILE

Kirkus starred review: 'Compelling heroic characters'. AD1218, Praetor Gaius Marcellinus was ordered to conquer Nova Hesperia and make it a Roman province, but outside the walls of the great city of Cahokia his legion was destroyed. Accepted by his captors, Marcellinus vowed to fight with them against all enemies, Roman or native. After successfully repelling an invasion by the fearsome Iroqua tribes, the Cahokians are weakened, and Marcellinus knows that the divided people of Nova Hesperia will be unable to resist the might of Rome. But rival factions threaten to tear Cahokia apart, and the empire he once served will not give up its dream of conquest. Even as he struggles to unite his new comrades, a new legion is preparing to set sail. Described as a modern masterpiece of what-if speculation this is a superb kind of alternative history "epic, bloody and hugely imaginative" as John Birmingham describes it. 528pp, paperback.