Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle

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Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle

By: Manda Scott

Narrated by: Jerome Flynn, Liza Goddard, Philip Stevens

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About this listen

In AD 60, Boudica, war leader of the Eceni, led her people in a final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome. It was the culmination of nearly twenty years of resistance against an occupying force that sought to crush a vibrant, complex civilization and replace it with the laws, taxes and slavery of the Roman Empire. Gloriously imagined, Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle recreates the beginnings of a story so powerful its impact has survived through the ages, recounting the coming of age of Breaca, who at twelve kills her first warrior. This is the unforgettable world of tribal Britain in the years before the Romans came: a twilight world of Dreamers and the magic of the gods; a world where warriors fight for honour as much as victory. It is a world of passion and courage and spectacular, heart-felt heroism pitched against overwhelming odds.©2003 Manda Scott (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing

Fiction

Historical Fiction

Science Fiction

Thought-Provoking

Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

'The best in the current crop of novels about Rome, its empire and its victims ... never sentimental and always tough-minded.' (The Independent)

'A powerful novel, alive with the love, deceit, wisdom and the heroics of humanity.' (Jean M. Auel)

Most relevant

I've listened to all four of the series. It's is a hugely impressive imaginative effort. The series spans the period from the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD to the end of the Iceni revolt. It focusses on Boudica from her youth, members of her family and the tribe, and some key Roman characters. The cast of characters is large and varied.

From someone who knows nothing of the history, it gives a pretty convincing and rich sense of tribal life: their closeness to the natural world, the trading and political alliances between tribes, and the presence of Rome as an initially distant threat. The life of the Roman legions is also interestingly evoked. The author was previously a veterinarian, and there is a lot of detail (too much for some, perhaps) about horses and dogs, which were both fundamental to the lives of the tribe and the Roman soldiers.

There is also a lot of time taken up with the characters' relationships with their gods. One Roman is a follower of Mithras, and the Celts have a caste of people called Dreamers. They communicate with the gods, make prophecies and give guidance. They are a re-imagining of ancient Druids. This is also pretty interesting and well imagined, although some may be unconvinced by their apparently infallible insights and find the time given to this aspect a bit excessive. I enjoyed it.

There is also quite a lot of action – full-scale battles and guerrilla activity – and a few horrors along the way, although the action is often slow in coming as the narrative extends over such a long period.

A few things I thought were less successful... The narration is pretty average: both narrators are quite one-note. Also, the main Celtic characters are almost universally a little bland. They have an inner life related to the gods and their destinies, but there's very little convincing conflict between them at a personal level. They're generally just a bit too nice to each other, and too easily convinced by the struggle and the rightness of the cause. Also, as the whole story is predicated on the importance of Boudica and her family line, which is fair enough, it creates a real hierarchy of who the novels are interested in. Potentially interesting and self-interested peripheral characters don't get much of a look-in unless they have a role in the great struggle.

Finally, the writing is a bit flat, despite the imaginative effort of the whole thing. It doesn't always successfully evoke landscape and spectacle, although there is a lot of description of the natural world. This may also be an effect of the narration.

Those things aside, I'd recommend it to anyone with a lot of time on their hands for a series and with an interest in the clash between Rome and other ancient societies.