Caledonia

Veteran Of Rome #1

by William Kelso

"Autumn 83 AD. At the battle of Mons Graupius the Roman army led by Governor Agricola destroys the Caledonian confederation that has formed to oppose the Roman invasion.

In the aftermath of the battle a Caledonian boy reveals a secret that has the potential to change Roman strategy in the north forever.

Marcus, an auxiliary Roman cavalry soldier is ordered to investigate and
promptly disappears into the remote trackless wastes of the north.

In Rome his estranged father and retired Legionary, Corbulo sets out to find his only son and bring him home. So starts an adventure that will take Corbulo to the remotest parts of Caledonia and plunge him into the low intensity conflict that is raging between the scattered Caledonian war bands and the Roman forts and garrisons of Agricola's occupying army. Corbulo will need all his wits, courage and experience to fend off hostile and proud Barbarian warriors, a gang of murderous mercenaries and the lure of a dazzling prize."

Genres: Historical Fiction, Scotland, British Literature

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2013

About the author

Hello, my name is William Kelso.

My stories are all about ancient Rome and Carthage, especially the early to mid-republic as this was the age of true Roman greatness. I have written 25 books so far with an aim of reaching a 100.

Reviews

[Mary Rocco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is challenging because it is written as if a non-English speaker had written it using a foreign language/English dictionary. Words are used without consideration for case or tense. Homophones used are invariably the incorrect choice for the context of the sentence. (Case in point: a character who loves to eat "muscles"). Apostrophes are not used except when applied incorrectly. It's more than just poor editing. Maybe a second-rate voice recognition application was used and the result was never proofread after its interpretation was rendered into print. Whatever it is, no matter how good the storyteller, it's a waste when language is so misused. And, again, Amazon Kindle is selling a defective product as if it were not and refusing to take responsibility for it. I find it hard to be believe that there are as many illiterate authors as it would appear from reading Kindle books. Even if they are self-published, how can there be so many that show no evidence of proofreading or editing?

[Vann Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kelso’s novel, Caledonia, an historical novel about the Scot resistance to Roman aggression, beats with the human heart. With his storycraft, Kelso makes us care about his characters: Corbulo, the worthless father who drove his wife to suicide and beat his son, but who now seeks forgiveness; Emogene, a strong woman refusing to believe her husband is dead and striving to protect her people from Roman aggression; Agricola, former governor of Caledonia denied his rightful triumph.

It is a gripping tale, well envisioned, complex in its interplay of factors and personalities. It is an occasional infelicity of language that kept me from awarding five stars. An excellent read from an author who deserves to be watched.

[CathyW · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful! Full of factual, spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, for which there is no excuse in this day and age, and I mean a lot of mistakes! Even if these were corrected, it wouldn't make a readable book since the plot is unbelievable, characters clichéd, and the dialogue wooden. It has nothing going for it except being set in an interesting period and location. So very, very disappointing.

[P McL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable

It is so nice to read a book that is thoroughly entertaining this is one of those books. Nice story, interesting characters, I found I fly difficult to put down.

[MADOAP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to number two in this long series. Why not five stars ? When I think of Roman warfare I imagine legions on the march and glorious battles fought, alas not so here but still a very good book. Would recommend.

[Peter Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent adventure

Good read. Set up for the next in the series(?). I enjoyed the hero. More of an anti hero. He never gave up.

[Robert Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not think much of the writing. Too much left out. To disjointed.

[J.F. Ridgley · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow what a wid read

wild crazy and very well written...exception of using the medieval word "sir" now onward to book 2 i enjoyed this

[LMW · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to take a break from the Anthony Riches series, and give this one a try. On one hand, it has an interesting plot line. On the other hand, it is not very well written. The story jumps around a lot, with huge gaps in the time frames. While that may be better than too much tedious detail, after all to get from southern Britannica to the Northern frontier would take weeks in those days, but a bit more fleshing out would be in order. The characters are also very two dimensional, a little added depth would be nice. There are also several sever inconsistencies, such as Corbula jumping off a cliff into the sea to save himself, and yet later says he cannot swim.