The Eagle's Prophecy

Eagles of the Empire, Book 6

By: Simon Scarrow

Narrated by: Russell Boulter

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

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

The Eagle's Prophecy is the powerful sixth novel in Simon Scarrow's best-selling Eagles of the Empire series. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell.

The Adriatic Sea, AD 45. Cato and Macro, centurions of the Roman army, are horrified to learn that they face possible execution after the death of their commanding officer. Fortunately, the Emperor's secretary is willing to offer them an alternative: to join the marines and hunt down a band of brutal pirates who are decimating not only Rome's reputation, but also a critical supply chain.

As they discover the true horror of battle at sea, Macro and Cato must also remember their real mission: to recover from those pirates a set of scrolls that hold secrets vital to the future of the Roman Empire. Rome will do anything to get them back....

©2005 Simon Scarrow (P)2012 Headline Digital

Critic reviews

"It's Spartacus meets Master and Commander in this rip-roaring, thoroughly entertaining tale of swashbuckling adventure from one of the most exciting writers in historical fiction." ( Brisbane News)
"Ferocious and compelling." ( Daily Express)

Intrigue, treachery and lots of action

This is book six in the series. I have been able to read only episodes one and three as Audible does not carry the other volumes. The year is 45 AD; Centurions Marco and Cato are in Rome awaiting the results of an official investigation of the death of a fellow officer in Britain. Cato may face a death sentence. Imperial Secretary Narcissus sends Marco and Cato on a special mission to rescue an Imperial agent captured by Illyrian pirates and return the Delphic Scrolls the agent was carrying.

The book is well written, fast paced with lots of action and naval battles as well as land battles. Scarrow features the Roman Navy in this story including its structure of command as well as information about the type of ships used. Our Hero's fight side by side with the Roman Marines and learn techniques to fight aboard ships. Russell Boulter did a good job narrating the story. I wish the publisher's would stay with one narrator throughout the series.

Regrettably the weakest in the series so far.

Aside from the change in tone/performance, the story is lacking aswell. it's alright, not great.

Voices of the main characters need more.

Voices were hard to differentiate between the main characters. Story was fun and entertaining though!

voices all seem off

can't tell the difference in voices between the two main charcters. still fun listen thou

Great exciting story and a great performance.

I always enjoy the Macro and Cato stories. I read the previous books prior to this one. So this was my first audible one. I think the narrator did a fantastic job using distinctly different voices for the different characters. Lots of action and intrigue in this story.

Awwsome

I absolutely love this series just as good as Conn Igleden and Bernard Cornwell. good read

Frustrating narration!

If you're a follower of Macro and Cato, this will be familiar territory. An enemy to face and overcome, internal treachery and Roman politics, all going at a cracking pace.
But the big issue I have with this book is the narration. Not in itself - Russell Boulter is a fine narrator and in isolation does a good job. But Macro has apparently relocated his accent from London to Liverpool/ Manchester and it's off putting because it doesn't fit with the mental image of the character built up in the earlier audiobooks.
So far in narration for this series we've had three David Thorpes, two Jonathan Keebles and two Russell Boulters. Next we're going back to Jonathan Keeble all the way to book 16 - oh apart from book 11 which is Gareth Armstrong! Why can't the publisher retain the same narrator, or if that's not possible, at least agree with the new narrator that the characterisation remains consistent?
But all that said, another good yarn from Simon Scarrow.

A filler story with a poor performance...

Ok, so I've enjoyed the other books in this series. The camaraderie between the two lead characters is endearing and the historical slant of their adventures is engaging.

This story however struggled to keep my interest with a series of clanging hints of what is to come and a protracted ending that left me hoping the pirates would just do me the favour of finishing off the Roman's whilst Vitelius trundles down another well trod path of deception.

With all that said the plodding story line is nothing compared to the reader on this book. As has been said on other reviews I understand that the same voice actor can on occasion not be used book to book however at least let them listen to the previous book to get a feel for how the audience expect the characters to sound and have their names pronounced.

It appears from this book's performance that Macro has spent too long campaigning in Britain as he now has a Lancastrian accent whilst Verspasian (previously pronounced Ver-SPAY-tion, now Ver-SPASS-ion) presumably wants to hide his identity and has started sounding like Christian Bales' Batman. Other former characters are treated to a selection of nasal whiny tones and it also appears that Michael Caine puts in an appearance thankfully stopping short of asking to blow the doors off the citadel.

All in all not great, it seems that the author is trying to setup further intrigue for later books in the series but to be honest a short summation would have been enough and certainly would have saved me a number of hours groaning and shouting at the voice actor for making this audio book frustrating at best to listen to.

Okay but very hammy performance

The story is fine, a good adventure romp and a good addition to the Makro and Cato books, but this book sees a change of narrator. The book was played out to impressions of Terry Thomas, Leslie Phillips, Michael Caine, Captain Pugwash, Ernst Blofelt and Quasimodo. It was pretty ridiculous.

I Finally Caved In!

About a year ago I said that I was stuck because books 4 and 5 in this series were not available. Sadly at the time of writing that's still the case but I finally caved in. This series is massively fun and despite missing the two books it was excellent to catch up with Macro and Cato once again.

Things have obviously changed since I last spent time with them but all of the things that were strong previously are still very much in evidence. Simon Scarrow ably demonstrates an excellent knowledge of the time period and this time we are treated to some chariot racing and naval action.

The humour between the two main characters made me smile, particularly the scene where Cato charges the enemy!

There is lots of action, no little intrigue and at times a light touch. I won't be leaving it a year before the next one.

Good book spoiled by the reader

Another good book in the series but the narrator is just not right which is a shame

Narrator!

Some people say it doesn’t matter about the narrator if the story is good, I disagree. The narrator can make or break an audiobook, after all you are going to listen to his/her voice for the duration of the book!
Just when I’m getting to enjoy this series of books they spring a surprise like Russell Boulter on me! Nothing against Russell but he simply isn’t Jonathan Keeble is he? Books 1,2 & 3 were poor in performance because of the narrator (David Thorpe) then we get the brilliant Mr Keeble for 2 books then Russell for 2 books, then thankfully we go back to JK for the remainder of the series. The performance for this book is poor, the story is decent not one of SS’ better books. Roll on JK.

Great story, poor narrator

The story of this book, as always, is superb. However, this time, the narrator does not compare well with that of the previous narrators. Thankfully there's only one book after this one with Russel Boulter.

🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈

this performance is a disaster it's very off putting I don't understand why someone would not listen to previous books before taking on role macro has turned into a Northerner there is pauses in the story gaps it's just not well put together the story has been the worst one the series so far .

Monotone

One voice for absolutely everything and everyone made it difficult to listen to especially as the previous 5 books seemed to have put more effort in.

Great Story - odd narration

Great story as ever by Simon Scarrow. Odd narration - Machro and Cato are suddenly Northern after 5 books of being Southern. Vespasian (pronounced wrong throughout the book) sounds like a cross between a constipated Batman and Marlon Brando in The Godfather. Quite extraordinary. The story wins though in the end thankfully