Kingdom of the Damned: Rebellion in Judea

The Great Jewish Revolt #1

by James Mace

**Previously Titled 'Kingdom of the Rebellion in Judea'** In the year 66 A.D. the Roman province of Judea exploded in rebellion. Far from being a revolution of unified peoples, the various Jewish factions of Sadducees, Zealots, Sicarii, and Edomites are in a state of civil war; as anxious to spill the blood of each other as they are to fight the Romans. The Judeans find hope when the Romans commit a serious tactical blunder and allow their forces to be ambushed and nearly destroyed in the mountain pass of Beth Horon. Following the disaster, Emperor Nero recalls to active service Flavius Vespasian, the legendary general who had been instrumental in the conquest of Britannia twenty-three years before. In the northern region of Galilee, a young Judean commander named Josephus ben Matthias readies his forces to face the coming onslaught. A social and political moderate, he fears the extremely violent Zealot fanatics, who threaten to overthrow the newly-established government in Jerusalem, as much as he does the Romans. Soon Vespasian, a tactical and strategic genius who had never been defeated in battle, unleashes his huge army upon Galilee. His orders are to crush the rebellion and exact the harshest of punishments upon those who would violate the Peace of Rome. Lacking the manpower and resources to face the legions in open battle, Josephus knows he will need plenty of cunning, ingenuity, and, perhaps, even the intervention of God Himself, lest the once proud Kingdoms of Judah and Israel should become a kingdom of the damned. **This is the re-release of a title that was previously called, "Kingdom of the Rebellion in Judea". Please note that the content of the book has not been changed.**

430 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 30, 2014

About the author

James Mace is an author, historian, and life-long storyteller. He began writing as a hobby in the early 2000s, penning physical fitness articles for a bodybuilding website and a magazine called Hardcore Muscle.

James wrote the initial draft of his first novel, Soldier of Rome: The Legionary, as a cathartic means of escapism while serving in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. He has since released thirty-five books, including fifteen Ancient History best-sellers, and five South African History best-sellers. His works currently span his two favourite eras: Ancient Rome and the British Empire.

Outside of writing historical novels, James is a Research Historian and Script Writer for the channel, Redcoat History. He maintains a blog called The Buffed Historian, sharing random fitness articles and other tales from across history. His hobbies include weightlifting, road cycling, foothills hikes, travelling across the globe, live theatre, video games, and sitting down for a game of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.

James can be reached via his website: www.legionarybooks.net
Official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/legionarybooks
Instagram: @legionarybooks
Threads: @legionarybooks
BlueSky: @legionarybooks.bsky.social
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/james...

Reviews

[Kristjan · Rating 2 out of 5]

An imaginary retelling of the Great Jewish Revolt of 66 AD as a narrative story ... except it feels like it was alternating between lecture and story and never really hit its stride in either. While accurate in broad strokes, much of the detail is supposition at best … and while we will never know how accurate the author’s imagination is here, I felt that in many cases he did not accurately capture the context nor the nuance of the history … and so I had a hard time connecting with the story. The 14+ hours of narration was adequate, but it didn’t help with improving the real feel missing in the story as written … in fact I felt it made it worse. Still, for anybody wishing to know a little more about the The Jewish Wars, it was an okay diversion and as mentioned above it spot on in summary.

I was given this free review copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#RebellionInJudea #AudibookFree

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"Incinerate by the Fires of hate."
I am an enormous fan of well researched and written Roman military tales which prove to be both entertaining and informative. This book by James Mace is one such, with hgood, strong characters, very visual depiction of both siege and battles and the terrifying carnage wrought in human lives This is a place and period (66 AD, after the death of Nero) about which I know very little so cannot comment on the accuracy of detail, But the stage was large, the characters many and colourful and, despite at times not being able to remember names of a few players, I found it a riveting and addictive read. The narrator, Jonathan Waters, added to this pleasure, his reading of the text well paced and imbued with the passions of the story and the various protagonists given distinctive voice appropriate to auuthority. There was one irritation, however, and curiously the exact opposite of many readers: when a natural break appears in the writing either in or at the end of a chapter, instead of ignoring it as many do Mr.Mace verbally leaves that space, but of so long a duration that I had to check that my playback was still happening. It did somewhat break the absorption into the story. And, just sometimes, his pronunciation of names seemed slightly odd, but they were always consistent so perhaps it is simply an alternative rendering previously unknown to me.

My thanks to the rights holder of Rebellion in Judea who, at my request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy via Free Audiobook Codes. I enjoyed it enormously and look forward to continuing with book two in the Great Jewish Revolt series.

[Tammy Bulcao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised!

(Books1-3)
I suppose I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I started this book. In the beginning and actually often times during this series I found myself a little confused, but a lot intrigued lol. But “it’s not you it’s me” lol I’m not exactly a historical genius (not even much of a historical fan 🤷🏻‍♀️) so the places & names were somewhat unfamiliar to me. That said, I couldn’t stop reading/listening to this amazing story. Devastating, sad and disheartening, but at the same time, fascinating and extremely entertaining.
I have to admit, the only reason I started this series is because I think narrator Jonathan Waters is one of the best story tellers out there. He has a great voice which is absolutely perfect for this genre.
This review is for books 1-3 in this series. If you are a fan of this era I highly recommend this series.

Sisters Spotlight 💜

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!! Anything James Mace writes is gonna be great!!!!

[Sherrie Lynn Grimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

I truly enjoyed reading this book it tod the story of both sides in this war it was fast moving