The Falling Sword (Clash of Empires)

Product Information

So Falling Sword the latest from Ben Kane is an unmissable tour of the ancient world, full of emotion and action, drama and reality, humour and heartache. I purchased this on a whim as I’d exhausted my current selection of Roman historical fiction in my library and I’m very glad I did! But, on opposite sides, legionary Felix and Phalanx soldier Demetrios have more pressing concerns: staying alive long enough to taste glory…. Tell us why you liked or disliked the book; using examples and comparisons is a great way to do this.

For one thing, at times things get confusing as hell and you aren't too sure what's going on, who's who, or what's what. She [Jacqui Smith] may just fall on her sword, or Gordon [Brown] might humiliate her with a demotion to something like the Department for International Development. It is quite mind-blowing to think that tens of thousands and men were commanded by word of mouth with precision.

This can be read as a standalone, as the background information on the characters is provided, but I would highly recommend you read Clash of Empires too which is also a fantastic book, and will help you fall in love with the characters even more. Even if I disliked Flamininus and some of the soap-operaish theatrics that went with him, the broader story continued to hold my attention. Superheated: damage type changes to Fire, and the ground at the impact location also burns for 6 seconds, dealing 310% damage as Fire per second to all enemies who pass over it.

Ben Kane always has a great way of making you feel the weight of decisions and the results of those choices, from battle changing or just simple immediate life for the soldier, the death and destruction isn’t just washed away with a new sentence, and yet at the same time it isn’t modern post traumatic reactions, because life and death are so much closer in the ancient world, there is regret and loss and also an inevitability of war. The story was paced brilliantly, I didn’t feel that at any point the story was under or over done, there were faster and slower places granted, but nothing felt rushed and nor did anywhere feel like the story dragged, it flowed wonderfully from scene to scene. Ben Kane doesn’t waste any time in the sequel to “Clash of Empires” and the action picks up instantly, a mere six weeks after the closing events of the aforementioned prequel. The Falling Sword” continues the struggle between Macedonia and Rome, the same four main characters giving a wide ranging scope and depth to the conflict from the rulers to the soldiers. Through the hard work of Charlie Viney, my amazing agent, I managed to land a book deal in the summer of 2007.

Told from the POV of the two opposing generals and two of their soldiers, Ben gives us a wide scope of the everyday lives of all involved.