The Siege

Agent of Rome, Book 1

By: Nick Brown

Narrated by: Nigel Peever

Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

AD 270. Rome has ruled Syria for over three centuries. But now the weakened empire faces a desperate threat: Queen Zenobia of Palmyra has turned her Roman-trained army against her former masters, and the once invincible legions have been crushed. Arabia, Palestine and Egypt have fallen, and now Antioch, Syria's capital, stands exposed.

Cassius Corbulo is a young intelligence agent fresh from officer training. He has been assigned the menial task of rounding up wounded legionaries, but then urgent new orders arrive. He is the only ranking Roman officer left in the line of the Palmyran advance. He must take command of the fort of Alauran, the last stronghold still in Roman hands, and hold it against the enemy until reinforcements arrive. What Cassius finds at Alauran would daunt the most seasoned veteran, let alone a 19- year-old with no experience of war.

A mere scattering of divided and demoralised legionaries remain, backed up by some fractious Syrian auxiliaries and a drunken Praetorian Guardsman. With the Palmyrans just days away, Cassius must somehow find the discipline, resourcefulness and courage to organise the garrison, save Alauran and secure Rome's eastern frontier....

©2011 NH Brown (P)2014 Oakhill Publishing

Critic Reviews

"Once the action kicks off you won't be able to put it down." (Anthony Riches, author of the Empire series)
"The Siege is an excellent debut novel and delivers a thrilling and fascinating coming-of-age adventure." (Book Gazette)

It Took Awhile

This book was slow to open but finally opened and told a great story of bravery and sacrifices It told a story of a different time and ape. To give a glimpse into a time long gone.

what an excellent listen

the story built from the start to am amazing climax. couldn't put it down.

Very good, I have found a new author to listen to

Great story
Well written
Very well read
Audible who the hell do you think you are dictating how many fucking words I have to use for a review.

Excellent

When you've read everything about Macro and Cato, but still need a fix of Ancient Rome this is the best treatment

It is a great book

shall be getting more books like this one
got it to listen to on holiday and could not stop listening it was great

a decent enough read / listen

fair enough storyline but a bit of a lack of attention to detail in places i.e. when the relief column arrived their horses didn't have a problem with the calthrops that had been used against the enemy cavalry but maybe that's just me being picky

He tried

I found the story and reading all a bit 'boy's own'; I struggled to believe any of what I was hearing and couldn't empathise with the characters. The oh so Hollywood ending about summed the book up. There are much better books out there (same genre) and although the reading was decent and consistent his voice(s) never once made me think of Rome.

Good story, good characters

A good story, and pretty easy to listen to. The main character is brilliantly relatable.

Dubious narration

Third time writing this review! I had to write as I couldn't believe that no one appeared to have commented on the narration. By the second book I quite enjoy it although there are some real 'Frankie Howard' moments. Some sentences are over dramatised with inflections in the wrong places as well as being scattered with out-of-place accents - Scottish 'Sicilians' and 'Gauls' from Liverpool etc?!! It takes some getting used to. Having said this, the story is entertaining and you do get attached to the characters... even the cockney Thracian! Definitely worth a go, just be warned!

Engaging story

very entertaining. only downside was the narrator using a Brummie accent for one of the characters. Sort of distracted from the story