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Member Reviews

Another great instalment in the series, in fact I think this is my favourite yet.
We follow Agricola back to the shores of Britain where he retraces his old steps across the province, only this time as a fully verified big dog. Along with Luci, his steadfast, deadpan humoured sidekick, they form quite a duo and you can’t help but fall in love with their Ying and Yang type relationship.
Compared to my previous comments about the last book being more like a timeline of events rather than a story, this instalment was absolutely fantastic and really drew you in to the plot from start to finish.
All in all an epic read.

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Thank you Netgallery for the advanced copy of Agricola: Commander. I truly appreciate this author’s historical research and his means of drawing you into the time period. His books often leave me wishing to read more on the subject. I am an avid historical fiction reader and I find Simon Turney to be one of the best in the genre. I love to learn and historical fiction books on Agricola are limited. It is wonderful to see authors take on lesser known subjects/ time periods.

Agricola: Commander gives us a wonderful glimpse into
Agricola’s posting in Britannia, the make up of his Twentieth legion and his battle and pursuit of Venutius and the Brigantes. Unfortunately, I have read only this third book in the series. I wish there was a greater introduction to the characters and their prior history for those of us jumping into the series at this point. With that said, it motivates me to go back and read the prior novels in the series and pleasantly await the next.

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Read the first two installments back in April, and really enjoyed this Roman military-inspired historical fiction. It was the first time I read anything by Turney and I was pleasantly surprised. Simon's writing skills are up there with the better authors in the genre.

In this 3rd entry, Agricola has risen in the ranks to legionary legate, and has been sent to Britannia to quell a revolt over there. As with the previous books, a strong and precise focus on the historicity of the occurrences, although according to some experts occasionally some small errors pertaining to the color of a toga or certain words that would not have existed in their vocabulary at the time, occur. To be honest, that doesn't bother me. Those details are a bit too minute for me, and as such did not detract from the reading pleasure in the slightest.

More importantly, Simon weaves an exciting story based on the limited historical evidence available, with great action sequences and likeable characters. I found the previous book a bit too dry at times, but that was luckily not a problem here. This was such a fun read, and I simply could not put it away. I cannot wait for the fourth and final installment in this series!

Well-deserved 5*.

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Another great book in this series that highlights Agricola's vast ambition hampered by the Roman bureaucracy. Agricola's hopes on stabilizing Britain are threatened by both internal and external enemies, making for a gripping and suspenseful read.

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