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The Legions of Fire (The Books of the Elements #1)
by
David Drake
In this novel of magical menace to the survival of all humanity, David Drake introduces a new fantasy world, Carce,based on Europeduring the later Roman Empire.
Far in the north, a group of magicians perform a strange dance on a volcanic island intended to open a gateway for supernatural creatures that will allow them to devastate the whole Earth and destroy all life. Two y...more
Far in the north, a group of magicians perform a strange dance on a volcanic island intended to open a gateway for supernatural creatures that will allow them to devastate the whole Earth and destroy all life. Two y...more
Paperback, 496 pages
Published
April 26th 2011
by Tor Fantasy
(first published 2010)
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This one I started and put down many times but after the superb Into the Hinterlands I decided to give it a final spin - either read it and go to the next or drop the series; the fantasy 30AD Rome of the setting is very intriguing and David Drake is always very dependable to write good historical stuff with no anachronisms (especially of the social kind that are so often encounters in modern books about Rome who take our values and mindset there).
His using Carce instead of Rome but keeping every...more
His using Carce instead of Rome but keeping every...more
I've come to think of David Drake as a fairly good fantasy writer and a really terrific science fiction writer, so I approached this first volume of a new series more or less wishing that the characters on the cover had on space suits rather than togas. However, I was most pleasently surprised and enjoyed the story very much. The characters are a family and a few friends and the book reminded me more than anything of Christopher Stasheff's wonderful Warlock books... a much, much darker world tha...more
While this was supposed to be a romping fantasy, several items really detracted from my enjoyment of it.
1: This was a Lord of the Isles remix[which I loved by the way], with several character types and personalities mixed around a bit and a very blase badguy. I was hoping for something original, but it felt like David Eddings The Tamuli, formulaic regurgitated rehash.
2: several sexual situations that added nothing but titillation to the story. They weren't necessary and it really felt like the s...more
1: This was a Lord of the Isles remix[which I loved by the way], with several character types and personalities mixed around a bit and a very blase badguy. I was hoping for something original, but it felt like David Eddings The Tamuli, formulaic regurgitated rehash.
2: several sexual situations that added nothing but titillation to the story. They weren't necessary and it really felt like the s...more
This was a New Year's gift from Chris Swanson. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though perhaps for the wrong reasons - the writing isn't great, nor is the plot particularly lucid. But it is set in an alternate-history world in which Rome is replaced with a city called Carce, and is set during the Principate. The alternate-history world is on a collision course with more magical worlds, seemingly based on Norse mythology. Drake does a good job of understanding Rome, even an alternate-Rome, and of weavin...more
Drake made the mistake of labeling it an "altnerative history fantasy" to Rome. Except he used literal geopolitics of that time and literal classical labels, only changing "Rome" to "Carce."
Unfortunately, it also contained a lot of the degeneracy of ancient Rome, thus showing, perhaps unwittingly, that Christianity is superior and paving the way for the rise of the German over that of the Roman.
Unfortunately, it also contained a lot of the degeneracy of ancient Rome, thus showing, perhaps unwittingly, that Christianity is superior and paving the way for the rise of the German over that of the Roman.
In brief: Drake creates a fantastic world of feel-it-in-your-bones magic, a great, great sphinx duel, and some quite interesting characters atop a richly layered, well-researched, might as well be speaking Latin it's so authentic ancient "not Rome". First in a series; fantastic cover artwork of Trajan's column (plus... bonus surprises).
A new world for David Drake (roman not greek) but a similare experience as with the Lord of the Isles series. I find that I hate his character setups (please show don't tell and don't tell me what to think) but, once the action starts, I get pulled in and can't put it down.
Aug 22, 2011
Derek Broughton
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantasy,
alternate-history
Excellent pseudo-historical fantasy. Set in "Carce", which isn't eve a thinly disguised Rome of the Empire period, The Legions of Fire blends Greco-Roman and Norse mythologies in a heroic fantasy of Apocalypse-averted. I'd just finished Lord of the Isles, and was disappointed that, for all the great reviews it's received, I didn't find it up to the standards of his SF work. This book certainly meets, if not surpasses, those standards.
Probably deserves one star, but I didn't really *dislike* it - I just didn't care enough about either the characters or the plot to finish it. 3/4 of the way through, and I can't be bothered to read the last pages.
First sentence, "Corylus had ordered Pulto to wear a toga because he thought that he'd need his servant to swell the audience for the poetry reading by his friend and classmate Varus."
Fantastical mixing of Norse/Germanic and Roman mythology in an alternatively named Roman society. First in a series, next up water.
a nice interlude.
Apr 30, 2013
Kayla
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-i-own,
book-backlog
Apr 03, 2013
David Zhou
marked it as to-read
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David Drake, an attorney and veteran SF and fantasy author, lives near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
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