I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This novel is like a detailed tour of the Roman Empire as seen through the eyes of a young soldier. I don't know enough about that period of history to nitpick the historical accuracy, but it has the feel of being exceptionally well-researched. This is the book's greatest strength as well as its weakness. It was difficult to keep holding my interest because the author spent more time lovingly describing the details of the setting than he did creating an interesting and well-rounded protagonist. Lucius Metellus is simply too perfect. In a world of whoring-and-fighting would-be soldiers, he's a good-hearted intellectual who just wants to restore his family name, against his father's wishes. I would have loved more of this family drama, but instead Lucius goes off to fight in the Parthian Wars and walks around describing everything he sees. The plot lags as the author takes us through a few brawls and trips to the brothel reflecting the macho ideals of the Roman soldier. When Lucius himself finally goes to a brothel, we are treated to a highly improbable episode of Gary Stu-ism as "The Amazon," a very picky prostitute who has already turned down some of his comrades, not only allows Lucius to sleep with her, but praises his lovemaking abilities and lets him be with her for free. This young man is about 18 years old and up until that point has shown no indication whatsoever of being such a stud. Besides, what plot purpose does this serve? Is Lucius supposed to be so hot no woman can resist him? This is the first hint of such a possibility. That could be interesting, especially if played for comedy, but it just left me scratching my head. Then, he goes to a temple to make an offering to Zeus, but in a spurt of incongruous magical realism, his sacrifice comes back to life and flies off to a temple of Apollo. So we see that Lucius is "special," at least to prostitutes and Greek gods. But why? He's opaque and one-dimensional. I would have liked to see what it is about him as a person that marks him out, instead of random reactions NPCs have to him. At that point I just couldn't take this story seriously and it was taking a long time to get through it so I DNF. But I gave it three stars because I don't think it's a bad book, rather it's just not my kind of book. Stories that focus on war and battles while leaving aside interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict just don't grab me. In the beginning this book reminded me a lot of the work of Rosemary Sutcliff, one of my favorite historical fiction writers, but the spark of character development burned out as soon as Lucius left home so it had none of the depth of her books. But I would still recommend it for readers who are interested in military history and I would try another of the author's books just to give him another chance. His sincere love for history shines, and having read a lot of poorly-researched historical fiction I'm hoping the characters in future stories by him will be more interesting, because an accurate AND compelling story would be a treasure.

A Dragon Among the Eagles is a fantastic and entertaining book. I read it in one sitting. Well written and interesting characters.

Great book about ancient Roman armies. I enjoyed reading and look forward to the sequel. It's an easy read.

I really enjoyed the Roman empire setting in this novel, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the plot and the author's writing style.