Some people know how to use a lot of words and not make the readers skim over them. Sadly, this book wasn't that. I found myself skimming through it. It also didn't click with me. Maybe I expect too much from Arthurian legends?

This book is about a ‘decurion’ in the roman army whose family home is ravaged and destroyed by Saxon raiders. He additionally loses both his parents and his beloved wife in the raid. He and his brother {also a decurion} obtain 10 days leave to ‘recover’ from their loss.

During that time they ride North to the ‘wall’ and join up with the battalions there. Although the battalions are known as ‘dragons’ due to their standards. Ambrosius is keen to follow through on a plan that he has been working on since his devastation of his loss. His brother is supporting him and riding alongside him, despite not knowing ‘the plan’. So even Victor is surprised at Ambrosius’ actions during the battalions multi-faith ceremony.

And from there, it is history, of sorts (in other words, you will have to read it for yourself).

There was a short explanatory section at the front giving the background and details of the story, in such a manner as to not spoil the book for anyone. At the end of the book was a further explanatory along with references.

The language of the book was modern British English, though the explanatory had already given details of roman equivalents to give the reader a ‘setting’.

I liked that the author took the time to give a background to the story at the beginning, as I like to know how to pronounce names etc in my head as I’m reading. I did also like having the map of roman places to get my bearings in the story.

The longer explanatory at the end along with the references support the factual elements of the story and substantiate the ‘arthurian’ and ‘amazonian’ aspects.

The book is quite a short story (and having subsequently had communication with the author about this, I understand that this is due to a word limit imposed by the publisher), so I was disappointed when the story came to an end. I do look forward to the rest of the trilogy in due course, to see how the relationship between Ambrosius & Geneva (an amazon) continues.

This book will probably suit those who like books with historical reference. I have in mind the style of Ken Follett, when he wrote his historically based “pillars of the earth”.

<blockquote>"... he necessarily shucked-off his erstwhile hunched demeanour of a grieving widower, now standing straight and tall, once more, like the military man he was..."</blockquote>

Normally I like books of these kind but I found this one a bit difficult to follow. It did not interested me from the beginning, I read the first 50 pages, normally what I do with every book and if I lose interest...the book is abandoned for better ones. Sorry but this is what happened with this one, I could not finish it

The legend of Arthur is one that has lived through history. Mike Weatherley brings the legend back to life in the form of a military officer who lost his entire family. While wishing for death, he remembers the stories that his father told him when he was younger. As he heads off in search of the raiders who killed his family, he hopes for death wishing to get back to his wife.
As he works through the countryside, he comes to another military unit, one that bears his family name. He and his brother do some quick talking, and Ambrose manages to pull the ancient sword from its sheath on the alter. Everyone is silent, as they stare at the man who has become their new Arthur.
Leading the troops through the countryside, they come to the rescue of the countryside who have been harried by the Anglo-Saxon pirates. Ambrose is after just one though, the one who left a silver horse in his wife's hand. He found it on her body as he prepared her for burial.

While Weatherley is a little wordy, the book was really good. There were a few places that were slightly historically inaccurate, but the book in itself does a great job in setting up the legend of Arthur to take off on another spin. Get ready for another dive into folklore. I cant wait to see what follows this one!

As a previous reviewer notes, this is a very wordy book. It could have done with a very thorough pruning, which would have cut the word count down considerably but said the same thing. The author needs to step away from the italics for emphasis; trust the reader to understand what you are trying to get across. People who like their history will appreciate the very thorough Author's Note and Historical Note that top and tail the book. However this left me wondering why the author chose to write a novel rather than writing a non-fiction book or article.