Marcellinus is back in the final volume of this alternative history saga. He and his Cahokian allies aid the Romans in confronting the Mongol horde spreading east from the Western Ocean. Plenty of fighting, plenty of betrayals, and a decent ending that leaves open the opportunity for more adventures in this universe.

Alan Smale conjures up a mighty alternative trilogy of Roman imperial adventures in America with American indigenous allies facing the invading mongol hordes. In the concluding Eagle and Empire Marcellinus must decide where his real loyalties lie, with the Cahokians and their allies or his past with the Romans under Hadrianus III. Well rounded characters, interesting non stop adventures, and excellent plotting.

Once again, I have been captivated not just with the cultural elements new to me but the rocky coming together of different people. The misunderstandings, both deliberate and not, and the respect given when lies or manipulations are found out, give this story a complexity that makes it feel true to life. This book is similar to the two previous ones in bare summary, and yet, each time the scope is bigger and the risks higher. Not only that, but because we encounter new peoples, there is a need for constant growth in understanding and the opportunity for grave errors when the rules of one culture are imposed over another.

Like the whole of this series, Eagle and Empire offers an elaborate dance with lives, hopes, and nations on the line. It demonstrates the dangers of assumptions and expectation, of hypocrisy and double-dealing, but at the same time shows how honor can span cultures and school those who see only what they want to without valuing what is right in front of them. There will always be those like Agrippa who cannot learn, but also those like Tahtay, Marcellinus, and Hadrianus, who can see beyond assumptions and recognize foolishness among their own people and even in themselves.

This is the third in a complicated and layered alternate history that posits a Rome that never fell and so reached the point of expanding out across the Atlantic Ocean. It speaks well for the series that, though years have passed since I read the first book, I recalled not just the characters but also the major (and many minor) events. From the very beginning, I was enveloped in a known environment, visiting with old friends and enemies. Now, having finished the story, I feel it is a fitting successor to the first two, maintaining the focus on cultural clash and uneasy alliances while providing new challenges and twists rather than rehashing essentially the same story despite this again being a tale of war with Marcellinus torn between his first home and his new one.

When I ran across a line from Marcellinus stating how the mythology of a newly encountered people was as transparent as the nations he’d already encountered, I was worried. This lasted right until I read to the end of that very line where he clarifies how he doesn’t understand even the mythology of his adopted people some thirteen years since he’d come to them. This is part of what makes the series strong. The characters admit to ignorance rather than assuming understanding (at least some of the time), and familiarity is not easily won because the cultures encountered are as deep and complex as any other. At the end of the book, there are numerous appendices that give insights both into the cultures Smale includes in the story (with references) and into the historical changes he used to rewrite history. His logic is fascinating and well researched.

You might, by this point, have come to understand how much I enjoyed Eagle and Empire, but in case it wasn’t clear, the series conclusion continued to win me over by providing fully fleshed cultures and exploring how they interacted with both successes and disasters in turn. The technical ingenuity of the native cultures fits my understanding of the sophistication found in the archaeological record despite how these same cultures were dismissed as savages in our timeline, something the book deals with both overtly and through showing the comparison without comment. The skilled storytelling also shows when a choice in battle could have been illogical considering their enemy but before that impression settles in, a quick line or two explains the logic without disrupting the tale.

The underlying theme is one of honoring promises and working together rather than assuming those you encounter are little more than impediments. Sadly, this unity is driven by the need to destroy a common enemy rather than by a challenge too big for any one people to manage alone. I still like the message of cooperation and honesty, which is not to say either of these are consistent factors in the story but rather they prove more effective than other paths taken.

I’m talking a bit around the story because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say I was satisfied with the end of the book, which stayed true to the underlying themes and does not fall back on a simple ending rather than addressing the more tangled aspects of the situation.

If you enjoy alternate history and complex tales that feel real because they don’t depend on pat or simplified answers but explore the myriad of problems that would most likely arise, this series should prove an enjoyable, and thought-provoking, read. It certainly was so for me.

P.S. I received this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Eagle and Empire (Clash of Eagles #3)
by Alan Smale
This is an amazing book, looking at a collision of cultures that never met, the author takes his series from Rome to Cahokia, to the plains of America through the canyons of the southwest. This new story looks into the idea of Chaco, and the dying culture of religious belief that created Pueblo Bonito, with a sampling of the Mongol Horde.The mongols have a way of spreading the news of their power in a curious way... how can you pass on the message to solve the world's problems is to make people surrender.The Battles of ships and countries and societies is epic. The description of different cultural weapons used in an epic battle to show supremacy in its nature. Looking at what nature of strategy is the fenial of the Art of War. The clash of culture and peoples is the anthropologist dream. How would Native American cultures face an undefeated Roman Legion, or the Mongol Horde? How would the various cultures from the Iroquois to the Anasazi battle each other. The ideology that if these disparate cultures had united earlier in their conception would the Conquest of the Americas taken place. The Steampunk aspect of this book would give any modern reader the tease of technology changing the past. Just talking of this series has made my kids dive in head first.
Praetorius Marcellinus Gaius the head of the 33rd Roman legion has survived ten years in Cahokia. His exploits in the previous books laid the groundwork for his relationships that come to fruition in the pages of Eagle and Empire. His children have grown matured in their live rolls. His love has blossomed and become a commitment he could not deny. In these pages he is found to lead a new legion the 6th, in the battles against the Mongol Horde. His ingenuity and the children whom he influence are the turning point of the battles, causing the sensation of war. This is the readers epic battle book, that puts all the great historical empires into one pre industrial war.

Eagle and Empire is the stunning conclusion of a detailed, realistic re-imagining of world history. A fast-paced epic adventure which brings to life the nearly forgotten Native American civilizations, and casts a colorful cast of characters into a brutal war between Mongol hordes and Roman legions. Every chapter filled with clash after clash, leaving one breathless as Alan Smale fills the pages with a war for the New World!

For those unfamiliar with the Hesperian Trilogy, imagine, if you will, an earth where the Roman Empire and the Mongol Empire control the Eurasian Continent. Armies of the two empires locked in a never-ending war for control of the globe. This seemingly eternal struggle eventually spilling over onto the untouched North American continent; each empire sending their best to fight for control over this rich, untouched land.

Caught between these two forces are the Native American tribes. People who have had little contact with the rest of the world and find themselves woefully unprepared for the conflict that is coming. Well, all of the people except for those of mighty Cahokia; this powerful city-state having destroyed the Roman expeditionary force sent against it, capturing then befriending its leader Praetor Gauis Marcellinus, who thereafter helps this fierce people form their own legions, even as they advance their technology. All of Gauis’s efforts focused on strengthen the people he has come to respect, aid them in building a mighty “League” of allied tribes, and prepare for the day they must face off against the most destructive armies in the world. A day which has come!

Having followed this story from beginning to end, it is probably obvious that I am a fan. I have thoroughly enjoyed each installment of Alan Smale’s epic, alternate history yarn, but I can unequivocally admit that I have been waiting for this book, desperate to finally see the clash of Roman and Mongol, Native tribes against Native tribes. And I wasn’t letdown in the slightest by this climactic conflict. Alan Smale doing it justice, making me feel as if I was down on the rivers facing down Viking longships or standing upon a battle field staring up at a hail of Mongol arrows or cowering in trench from Cahokia fliers. This war-to-end-all-wars truly as epic as it sounds, ending in a conclusion which was satisfying in its finality.

As for the characters themselves, all the familiar faces are back. From Gauis to Kimmimela, they still remain, changed due to the consequences of the last book, but still struggling with their own issues and learning to adapt to their new circumstances. And added to them are more than a few new people; individuals whom a reader will either grow to love or hate. Old and new alike facing down a war for survival, one which is filled with brutality and kindness, joys and anguish, hope and despair, victory and defeat.

The only issue I had with this narrative the tendency for the characters themselves to get lost in the sweeping current of events. It was somewhat inevitable that personal issues and character development would take a backseat to the titanic clash of Roman, Mongol, and Native American, but I was disappointed when people I had grown to care for seemed to vanish in the fog of war.

Even with my one criticism, Alan Smale’s Hesperian Trilogy is a masterful work of alternate history, one which amazes with its focus on the intriguing, colorful civilizations of Native Americans. Eagle and Empire bringing this delightful epic to a breathtaking conclusion that surprises yet still satisfies.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

Eagle and Empire offers a satisfying conclusion to Smale's alternate history of Rome, the Americas and the Mongols. Loose ends are tied up and those rooting for 'the Hesperians' as well as Marcellinus and Sintikala's romance will be happy to learn of the ending. Rome also gets what it wants, Smale does leave a small window open for possible future adventures for the characters. The trilogy was an interesting exploration of possibilities that didn't come to be.

A fantastic series. While a little slow at parts, this was the best alternate history book I have read.