Praetorian

Eagles of the Empire, Book 11

By: Simon Scarrow

Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

If you don't know Simon Scarrow, you don't know Rome!

Praetorian is the gripping eleventh novel in Simon Scarrow's best-selling Eagles of the Empire series. Essential reading for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden.

AD 51. Legionaries Cato and Macro have forged a bond that has survived war, rebellion and torture. Yet nothing has prepared them for a daunting mission on the deadliest battlefield of all: the bloody streets of Rome.

Traitors are threatening to plunge the Empire into bloody chaos and no one can be trusted. The Emperor has ordered Cato and Macro to go on a deadly mission, working undercover to root out the traitors before Rome tears itself apart.

As the true scale of the corruption dawns, they realise they are facing terrifying odds. Two men against many, in a desperate race to save not only the Empire, but each other....

©2011 Simon Scarrow (P)2011 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic reviews

"I don't need this kind of competition." (Bernard Cornwell)

"A good, uncomplicated, rip-roaring read." ( Mail on Sunday)

"A new book in Simon Scarrow's series about the Roman army is always a joy." ( The Times)

These Are Enjoyable

Praetorian is a fun story to listen to. Indeed, the entire series is great to listen to. It seemed like the first couple of books made some references to historical events which sort of provided a bit of grounding. The later books don’t seem to do this. Or, if they do, the references are too obscure for me. Who cares, just listen to them!

What you've come to expect

Brilliant story where we left off, from the heart of Rome this time. New narrator again, but he too worked out nicely. Great job.
Next please.

it's a fresh change for Cato and Makro

Cato and Makro being in Rome is a fresh change and the spy aspects is nice. having anyone but Jonathan Keeble narrate or David Thorpe makes this book kind of dull though. it was easy enough to get through but I felt like I was just rushing to get to the next one that Jonathan narrates

Good read

If you like the Cato /Macro dynamic...this is a good one. A long "detective" style adventure!

Barely adequate narrator, good book

Another well written Simon Scarrow novel (though he really needs to stop with the attempts at witty repartee between Cato and Macro - it has no imagination and really falls flat). Unfortunately, the narrator is barely up to the task - he has a conversational style which tends to make everything sound pretty much the same, without much dramatic tension, and not a great deal of vocal flexibility - his parts either being high tenor, low tenor or nasal tenor. Also, his version of shouting is the amateurish high thin voice trying to seem like shouting, but just sounds like, well, high thin voice. I think he would be far better simply reading non-fiction.

Best plot line yet

Just a fun listen to a great story!! Can’t wait to start the next one tonight.

An ancient who done it.

This was my first venture into audiobook fiction.
If you like Roman history, and you were a fan of HBO's 'Rome', You'll be glued to this one.
Im going to seek his other stuff out, post haste.

The best Macro and Cato to date

I have read all of the books and listened to unabridged audio of the series.

This is without doubt one of the most thrilling Macro and Cato stories in the series. It is the only volume set completely in Rome - the others are set in various countries where the two are sent and are more concerned with Roman Legion in which they serve.

In this book we are dealing with a conspriacy to murder the Emperior Claudius in 51AD. Macro and Cato go undercover as members of Praetorian Guards to ferret out the conspiracy against the Emperor. As usual they are working for Narcissus, the Emperor's Secretary. Some of the great historical names of the period are involved in the story such as Agrippina, Tigellinus, the future Emperor Nero etc.

As always the story moves along at a fast pace and it is hard to stop listening to it, as it is so excitement.

Simon Scarrow brings the period to life as he does in all the books of the series. It is unfortunate that Audible only has some of the earlier books in abridged format.

This is a great series and a great you won't be sorry you listened to it.

I'm biased because I like the series

again fast because I like the serious I think it's funny well written. apparently our view has to be longer than 15 words so Roman history is cool if you get past all the horrible stuff they used to do.

Continuing an exceptional saga.

what I really love about Simon scarrow is that he fills in those are blanks in history