Give Me Back My Legions!

by Harry Turtledove

Bestselling author Turtledove turns his attention to an epic battle that pits three Roman legions against Teutonic barbarians in a thrilling novel of Ancient Rome Publius Quinctilius Varus, a Roman politician, is summoned by the Emperor, Augustus Caesar. Given three legions and sent to the Roman frontier east of the Rhine, his mission is to subdue the barbarous German tribes where others have failed, and bring their land fully under Rome’s control.
Arminius, a prince of the Cherusci, is playing a deadly game. He serves in the Roman army, gaining Roman citizenship and officer’s rank, and learning the arts of war and policy as practiced by the Romans. What he learns is essential for the survival of Germany, for he must unite his people against Rome before they become enslaved by the Empire and lose their way of life forever.
An epic battle is brewing, and these two men stand on opposite sides of what will forever be known as The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest—a ferocious, bloody clash that will change the course of history.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, War, Historical, Alternate History, Roman

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

It would be appropriate if I ran around my house screaming "Turtledove! Give me back my time!" and banging my head against the wall.

It's been awhile since I have read this author, and I never liked him before, but he's prolific so figured I might have just encountered something not his best in the past. Give Me Back My Legions isn't helping his case. (Would like to also note that I did not read this book by choice--was another foisted upon me by my father.)

One of the LAZIEST and most repetitive books I have ever read. Is this all it takes to get a book published nowadays? I kept reading in disbelief because I couldn't believe the author was truly this bad. Example:

Random Chapter: Varus talks to his Greek secretary about how much he hates Germany--the rain, the uncouth men--though the women aren't that bad. The gay secretary sighs.

Random next Chapter: Arminius talks to his father about how much he hates the Romans--their preference for garlic, how they water their wine, and they're corrupting the women!

Chapter following this one: Varus is writing a letter to Augustus, stops to ask his secretary if it's still raining. It is. Long dialogue about how much nicer Antioch was in comparison.

Chapter Etc. Arminius rides along on a mangy pony in a swampy forest, thinking of how much he hates the Romans and how Germany just needs to be free. If only they had better organizational skills! Instead, he'll have to use the rain to his advantage.

So, take the above four sample chapter plots I have above, and just repeat them endlessly for like 300 pages, until of course, the show down in the forest, which for all the build up was incredibly stupid. I'm not kidding about this either--it is really the same four above chapters endlessly repeated. I bet if I got a set of colored highlighters, and marked phrases and PARAGRAPHS that are used more than once in this book, the whole thing would be a rainbow of colors.

There's more things wrong with this book than just inanity, cardboard characters, suspense so forced it becomes parody, and repetition galore. One star is a star too much. Ugh.

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malo je repetitivno, ali zanimljivo. Povijest bitke kod Teutoburške šume ispričana kroz odnos glavnih likova- Arminija i vara- uz plejadu sporednih likova. malo me smetwe što harry ne može odoljeti igrama riječi tipičnim za engleski jezik koje stavlja u usta likaovima koji defginitivno nisu govorili engleski. Sve u svemu, vrijedno čitanja.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast read ( I skimmed through it) by Turtledove, the Master of Alternate History. This is different from others of his I've read, as it's straightforward historical fiction. "Give me back my legions!" was the cry of Caesar Augustus when he learned that Publius Quinctilius Varus had gotten three of Rome's mighty legions destroyed in the German forests. This was the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, in which the German leader, Arminius, defeated and destroyed the Roman legions who were invading Germania. It was all the more shocking as the Romans had gone from victory to victory and had built the world's strongest empire ( except for the Han Empire of China). It was a decisive victory as the Romans gave up trying to annex Germania and instead would try to contain the German "barbarians"--which would fail by the end of the 4th C. C.E.
It could make for an interesting alternate history. Could the Romans have defeated the Germans and "civilized" them, made them part of the Empire, like Gaul or Egypt or Greece? Most likely not, as there would have been unending revolts ( I think) until Rome would have been completely exhausted trying to hold down the Germans...and Rome might have fallen sooner than it did in our timeline.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

An 11 hour unabridged audiobook.
For an author known for alternate history here is a book thats moreso historical fiction. Real people, places, and events where the dialogue is added to fill in the storytelling.
Nicely done here. I enjoyed it. 3 stars.

[Ozymandias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest written for the bimillenial of the actual event. The book’s focus is on two men: Publius Quinctilius Varus, the Roman governor of the newly-established province of Germany, and Arminius, a Cheruscan nobleman and Roman citizen. These two are the chief adversaries (although one of them doesn’t know it) who will determine the fate of the empire. We also get to see a few other viewpoints, the cavalry commander Vala Numonius, a prefect called Lucius Eggius, the centurion Caldus Caelius, and Cheruscan nobleman Segestes, but none of them do much to flesh out the story beyond providing a few additional details the leaders don’t know.

I found the subject matter very interesting and enjoyed the book for its gloomy depiction of briefly-Romanic Germany. The terrain simply drips atmosphere, among other things, and you can truly feel why this seemed such an oppressive place to the Romans. I enjoyed the bookends with Augustus planning affairs in Germany and the historical context about Tiberius campaigning against the Pannonians.

Here’s what I don’t like about the book, and it’s not what it does it’s what it doesn’t do. There’s no internal conflict. Arminius hates the Romans. Full stop. He isn’t torn between a desire to remain a member of the most powerful army in the world and an urge to free his people. He isn’t even persuaded to the viewpoint that the Romans must die by seeing what they’re doing to his homeland: he’s decided on it before he even arrives. Varus is similarly stationary. He hates Germany and all that he has to do there. It’s wet, forested, miserable, and he yearns for civilization. This never changes. Nor does his attitude towards Arminius oddly. He becomes more fond of him over time, but he clearly forms an attachment to the man (and an antagonism to Segestes) from their first meeting. But the Varus and Arminius we see as they march under the eves of the Teutoburg Forest are the same people we met back in the beginning of the book. And that’s boring.

Varus is actually fairly likable for a blithely arrogant man. He loathes Germany, but given the dangerous and undeveloped nature of the region it’s perfectly understandable why. But he’s nice to his slaves, polite to everyone he meets, and seems to really enjoy Arminius’ company. His faults are in his unwarlike and trusting nature not avarice and cruelty. Arminius is actually less of a character than he is. This is a man who united the Cherusci and other tribes of Germany under his rule, and convinced tens of thousands of men to join in an attack on the most powerful army in the world. And won. He is no man’s fool and must have had godlike charisma. But here he’s strangely hollow. He’s young is probably the chief thing we’re told about him (on and on and on) and he’s full of passion for freedom. But what does freedom mean in his mind? He’s about to make himself king of the Germans. How free are they really going to be? And what is it about Roman rule that he detests? Because we only seem to get surface issues.

This is tied to a general problem which rather astounds me. If there’s one thing Turtledove has demonstrated in the past it’s a skill at capturing the feel of other cultures. His Byzantines, Greeks, Nazis, Elizabethans, Confederates, etc. all feel authentic. I’d say he’s much better at characterizing cultures than characters. But for some reason this skill is the very thing that’s lacking here. The Romans aren’t too bad. He gets the details of their basic society right: governors commanding the army, the awkward hierarchies of slave and free, the general appreciation for Mediterranean climes... But something’s missing to make them feel real. Part of the problem is that he insists on inserting badly modified English expressions into Roman mouths. “What the demon do I know?” is probably the most egregious and it’s repeated (with variations) endlessly. But I think the bigger issue is we get no references to Roman cultural cornerstones. We get a total of two references to Homer in the whole book and none at all to Latin authors like Ovid or Virgil. These aristocrats (who are our leads) should be breathing this stuff, not to mention using such literary allusions to speak over the heads of barbarians as a way of emphasizing their superiority. This was how they perceived the world. Without it they feel empty.

But the Germans have it much worse. Where are the bloodfeuds and low-level warfare between tribes and steadings? Where are their bards and lords and wizards? You’d think there was no authority above that of petty village elder and that Arminius and Segestes were the only two Germans of any importance. This world should feel like Beowulf or one of the Poetic Eddas. Instead it doesn’t really feel like anything. And even more disappointing to me, the book is entirely uncritical about questions of German identity. German and Germany are terms that are used frequently (as is Fatherland) but what does this mean to a 1st century audience? There is very little indication that there was any sort of pan-German nationalism at this time. Even Tacitus said the Germans had no word for themselves until the Romans gave them one. Instead there were Cherusci and Chauci and Marsi and Saxons, etc. They allied with each other to take out the Romans because they all recognized them as a threat, but if Arminius thought of uniting the tribes permanently under one Pan-Germanic banner he can only have have conceived of the idea because he spent much of his life on Roman soil. Only an outsider could have seen all the rival clans as one people.

Another element noteworthy for its absence is religion. In a 400-page book filled with minutiae we get but two references to Jupiter and not one single sacrifice or religious ceremony, Roman or German (excluding whatever madness goes on at the end). The Germans have it worse, with but a single reference to even the names of their gods and that merely the origin myth given in Tacitus. We hear nothing of their myths or legends or heroes or any religious practices and/or beliefs. Something else that’s missing is any sort of political/military organization. Even the Germans had some, even if it was vestigial and eternally in flux, but it’s Roman organization that seems strange. Apart from Varus as governor and Vala as cavalry commander we’re not given the position of any of the officers. They’re just sort of floating around inside a bloated military machine. He’s focusing on known soldiers so we’re limited in our options, but since we don’t know the names of any of the legionary commanders (legates) and he doesn’t invent any we can’t know where these guys fit in the grand scheme of things. Eggius, for example, as praefectus castrorum would have been the legate’s number two man. I think most people’d be surprised to hear he wasn’t commanding a legion or cohort. And this novel is about a military disaster with soldiers as our chief characters.

If I had to describe this book’s problems in a single word it would be superficial. There’s no depth to any of it, just a basic narrative that takes us from point A to point B. What do we find out about the two cultures beyond the fact that Romans are very organized and deceptive while the Germans are super honest but disorganized? I disagree with some of Turtledove’s conclusions (particularly regarding the final battle) but it surprises me, in a 400-page book already prone to repetitions, just how much he leaves out of what little data we have. What happened to the fake rebellion among the Chauci that Varus was supposedly marching to crush? Or Varus hosting a provincial council where he dispensed justice and administrative reforms? Or Arminius’ raising of a military force under the ruse that it was to serve as auxiliaries for the Roman army? Instead we get the standard Turtledove problem of having every fact repeated ad nauseum. Did you know the Romans think beer and *shudder* butter are barbaric? How about the fact that Greeks toss their heads back to indicate no? Or basic character traits like Varus hating Germany and Arminius hating Rome???

If you’re looking for a basic narrative of the Teutoburg disaster and nothing else this book is quite suitable for the task. It gives clear reasons for everything that happens and establishes the different characters in a way that only fiction can. There’s nothing here that can be dismissed as impossible given our limited knowledge (although I’d argue strongly against his depiction of provincial administration and “romanization”), but on the other hand there’s little new added onto what we already know. I’m still looking for a better book on the subject, but I think this will have to do for a general overview of the battle and its causes. Blood Forest looks interesting (from a more grunts up perspective) and Ben Kane’s Eagles trilogy will doubtless be good, even though I don’t like the love of awfulness that pervades his books.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Straightforward retelling of Battle of Teutoburg Forest, A.D. 9. Very easy reading, level of writing--a YA novel. He gave backstory -- why Varus was chosen as governor, Roman legionary life, Arminius' plans for ambush -- then the actual battle, (description of which was very exciting!) but it seemed the story could have been a novella, rather than padded out as a full-blown novel. The author has an interesting afterword in which he explains who were actual historical figures and why he fictionalized motivations as he did.

[Robert]

DNF about halfway through.

All the reviewers complaining about repetitiveness are spot on, sadly. I wasn't keen on listening to another 5 hours about how Romans don't like butter and Germans prefer wine to beer when they can get it.

[Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a former Latin teacher fascinated by the history of its time, I happened upon this on a library shelf and rolled the dice. The historical significance of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D. is well-known; less so are the details of what happened there. Harry Turtledove has gamely taken on the challenge of telling the story and emerged with modest success. The tale moves steadily along, but the balance seems off; much more (and often repetitive) attention is given to the buildup than to the battle itself. The visceral horror of battle and its aftermath, vividly described by the author, deserved more time on stage given the pivotal nature of these events. Another tricky aspect of historical fiction, particularly that set in foreign lands long ago, is dialogue; Turtledove's, while clunky in places, mostly blends in.
Overall, the novel is an entertaining read, and there is an afterword directing a reader so inclined to further background. I look forward to reading more of Turtledove's work for comparison.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the pivotal moments in world history written out for us with some creative license. Harry Turtledove remains a master of historical fiction and alternate history taking full advantage of the exciting episodes of our past. If you like Roman history, legions clashing with barbarians, and historical fiction, then this is something to add to your list.

I will say that I wish Turtledove was a little more detailed on writing his combat scenes. Whole battles pass by in a chapter when I feel as if people reading for action want to see that expanded on.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1:2 stars . Most of this book was boring and repetitive. I’m a German get out of my country , but not yet I have to learn your ways. I’m a Ronan and if you like butter and not olive oil your a barbarian. That’s basically 85% of the book. The end is a good reimagining of the battle, but basically not Turtledove best.

[Liesl de Swardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set towards the end of August's rain it's the story of the Roman legion's in Germany and how it came about. Its fascinating, not least of which is the far reaching consequences of those events. The book is well written and researched and I loved every minute of it.

[Walt O'Hara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harry Turtledove never shied away from overuse of exposition in his long and successful writing career, and GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS! is definitely no exception to that rule. The subject of the novel is very interesting, the famous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, where German leader Arminius (also known as Hermann) united tribes to annihilate three Roman Legions on their march to their Winter quarters. The battle was a classic ambush; unable to deploy to maximize their infantry formations due to the tight terrain, the Romans were slaughtered. The big mystery about this novel is how Turtledove, a scholar of the classics and ancient history, can find a way to make such a great subject become dull. Yet, find a way he did. This is no series book. Almost all of the characters in it are real historical characters. The outcome in the novel matches the historical outcome. Turtledove clearly knows this subject. Yet he dilutes the reader's interest in it time after time with a repetitive, dull story that repeats the same expository comments again and again and again.... Governor Varus hates being in Germany, but will do his duty to Augustus. His Greek slave despises anyone who isn't Greek. Aremenius despises the Romans for corrupting Germany. Unfortunately you can open just about any page in the book and read the same conversations and plot points over and over and over again. Turtledove basically restates his story premise in every chapter. The most interesting part of the novel is the battle of Teutoburg Forest itself and the Historical Notes in the afterward. Turtledove pads the book to restate the obvious (there's going to be a big trick paid on the Romans by Arminius) again and again to get the page count up, I suspect. When they finally get round to the actual battle, it is told almost as an afterthought and told in episodic, choppy and almost claustrophobic fashion. The reader never gets the sense of enormity that this battle conveyed, he or she is just soaking up a vignette here or there. The actual history was fascinating-- and it's clear from the after-notes that Turtledove knows the history and read good sources for it, such as there are. The big problem with the book is that this is a novella's worth of material stretched out into a novel, and the whole suffers as a result. If you like Turtledove, you'll probably like this too, as it is much of the same kind of material as you're already used to. If you're interested in the battle, you won't learn that much about it from GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS! I was not enthused.

[Angus · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was the worst Harry Turtledove I have read so far - which really isn't saying that much. I don't know how this book got to be published. My three-year old brother could have written a better novel.
Turtledove's writing is so flawed. He repeats himself ENDLESSLY, and spends 30 pages at a time drilling one single, easy, simple concept into the readers' heads. He wastes a bunch of time and page space by writing about what could have happened - every time a character makes some choice, Turtledove helpfully informs the reader in great detail about what could have happened had the character not made that choice. These may seem like minor, nit-picking points, but Turtledove makes the same mistakes so many times that it seems like the book is just one big flaw - which it is.
Turtledove managed to fill up 310 pages with what could have easily been written in about 100. I'm not saying that this should have been a novella or short story instead, but Turtledove could have written about more than he did. He basically wrote about two things: the Germans plotting revenge, and the Romans complaining about being in Germany. (The book is set at the time of the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in 9 AD, in which the Germans drove the Romans out of their lands). Oh yeah, and Turtledove also sticks a battle in at the end, almost as an afterthought. Instead of taking so much time to write about so little, Turtledove could have concentrated on other things, such as the main character's wife, for instance. All she gets is a passing mention. Or he could have spent longer on the actual battle, which is the reason I picked this book up in the first place. Terrible novel.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really slow plodding book that takes an eternity to build up to a disappointing climax.

The setting is the Roman occupation of Germania during the first few years of AD times and how relations between the Romans and German tribesman broke down and lead to the violent conflict described in the book.

What might have been an easy task for any historical fiction writer was done so awkwardly by Turtledove that this book just isn't fun to read. The narrative is slow, meandering, and often pointless. Every chapter is devoted to lengthy conversations between characters or internal monologues about the meanings of freedom, civilization, barbarism. But even more so, the culinary differences between the cultures. Over and over again Turtledove points out that the Germans like beer and butter while the Romans like wine and olive oil and how much they despise each other because of it. And this made all the much worse by how awkward and juvenile the dialog sounds. It sounds like it was written for a middle school play.

And that's pretty much the whole book. At the end there's a final battle, which isn't really a battle, not in the way Turtledove wrote it. He doesn't do much to describe it, he just hops between his main characters' heads and goes through whatever internal monologues they might be going through whilst there's supposedly a battle going on.

So don't bother with this book, it's a waste of time.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good historical fiction. The events leading up to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest were only mildly interesting, but the plan hatched by German born Roman citizen Arminius is cunning in its simplicity... befriend the newly appointed Roman Governor of Germany, Publius Quinctilius Varus, who is more of a politician than a military might, and over the course of years, during which you are building a German army on one hand and playing the good Roman soldier on the other, convince him to alter his route back to the easier winters across the Rhine to a more accessible, less swampy route of your choosing wherein lies your hidden army, just waiting to strike and take out three legions of the Roman army in the Teutoburg Forest. The battle is well described but over too quickly. Nice read for my introduction to Turtledove.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important aspect of European history. This the story about Rome's failure to dominate the Germanic kelts east of the Rhine River. Had they conquered the Germans Western Europe would be as it is. The Franks would probably not conquered Gaul and thereby the Romans would have remained in Britannia, and of course no Holy Roman Empire.
I think that it has been a good balance having both Germanic and Latin cultures.
The History Channel did a program on this showing visually how the battle took place.

[Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting historical fiction, however I found it to be very repetitive - to the point of being annoying at times. Still and all, worth the read I guess.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

In AD 9, the German Arminius who had served as an auxiliary in the Roman army persuaded P. Quinctilius Varus, Roman governor of newly conquered Germany, to take his army to winter quarters in a way that allowed hostile German forces to wipe out the Roman garrison of three legions at the Teutoburg Forest, effectively ending the Roman attempt to turn Germany into a Roman province. This novel is an okay effort to investigate how this took place. It reminds me a lot of the work of Bernard Cornwall. The book mainly revolves around the plot and the characters are underdeveloped. Both they and the story signify nothing much beyond the plot. There is no "backstory," the characters learn nothing, and the writing doesn't really give much texture to the story. You have characters interact, and the narrative does nothing much beyond giving the setting for the dialogue.

The story is basically about Arminius and Varus, and each has a side kick (a slave assistant in the case of Varus, while Arminius has his father). There are a few other characters on the Roman side. These are just insubstantial soldiers, who are hard to tell apart because they have no story of the own (either in the immediate setting or as "backstory"). They basically serve as foils to Varus's actions, and when they finally participate in the climactic debacle, their final stories have make little impact. There are a few Germans running around apart from Arminius and his father, but they don't count for much.

Overall, the book does a pretty good job of explaining how Varus could have done something that in retrospect seems to monumentally stupid, and it's interesting enough in that regard. But there really isn't much too it beyond that, and even the final battle is portrayed in a rather unengaging way. The action isn't all that vivid, and the readers doesn't have enough investment in the characters to care that much about their fates.

The book doesn't have enough substantial detail to give rise to an overall evaluation of its historical accuracy, but there are a few signs of a less than full understanding of the period on the author's part. He seems to think that it was possible for a senator like Varus to become governor of Egypt, though it's a pretty rudimentary element in the system set up by Augustus that Egypt was anomalously governed by an equestrian-rank prefect (senators were actually forbidden from setting foot there without imperial permission, and Tiberius's nephew and adopted-heir Germanicus got into some trouble for visiting the place without permission despite being a sort of plenipotentiary in the east). Also, Varus's slave assistant is constantly referred to by the title pedisequus, but that's actually a very lowly function (the term literally means "foot follower" and signified a flunky who would accompany the master on foot). And in the name of the gods, Roman personal nomenclature, while different from our own, isn't all that complicated, and it drives me nuts when the writers of historical fiction screw them up, as here.

So, overall an okay investigation of the motivations and behavior of the two main protagonists, but not all that engaging. For example, the final scene when Augustus gets word of the debacle has no real emotional heft, and is defective historically speaking in that while the Pannonian revolt of AD 6-9 is occasionally alluded to, no mention is made of the fact that the disaster at the Teutoburg Forest was so final derived from the fact that during the Pannonian Revolt Augustus had found it very difficult to come up with reinforcements, and after that effort, it was pretty much impossible to make good the loss of about 10% of the overall Roman military force as a result of Varus's bungling.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay book. The character development was so-so. There was a lot of repetition throughout the book, so it felt like the story could have been shorter as a result. On the bright side, it did hold my interest enough for me to want to finish it, so that was a good thing. On the downside, I am not sure there were any characters I truly cared about or wished would have survived, be they Roman or German.

We are constantly reminded about how much Arminius hates the Romans, how if Augustus would punish his own flesh-and-blood daughter then he surely would not hesitate to punish Varus for failing conquer Germany, how much Romans hate butter, the merits of butter versus olive oil, how only barbarians use butter, how much Romans prefer wine over beer, how the Germans are slowly coming around to certain Roman ways (or will eventually come around), how the ground was always muddy, how the Romans always did the same thing the same way every time (such as setting up and tearing down their camps), how some fort would eventually make a nice Roman town after enough time had passed because other former forts were now nice Roman towns. I guess I never realized how tall the Germanic people were during this time period. Every time the Germans are compared to the Romans, the Germans are taller, more muscular, stronger, and have longer hair. The advantage the Romans have is how well they can fight in formation and with discipline - something their German opponents are generally not able to do, especially for an extended period of time. So that was an interesting "fact" - how much shorter and smaller the Romans were when compared to the Germans.

I could not believe how muddy Germany is described as being! I do not recall any books I read about the Allies advance into Germany encountering as much mud as the Romans do marching through Germany. Granted, I have not read a lot of books about the end of WWII, and I have read very little about the Russians march westward as they drove the German army back, so perhaps there are books that describe the environment being just as wet and muddy as it is described in this book? Or perhaps that is either the climate of that period, or the author is taking some artistic license in this aspect of the story?

The best part of the book is the “Afterward” where the author talks about his sources and how he came up with the motivations for the “characters” in the book (most of whom actually existed) since we do not know why Varus trusted Arminius like he did.

The "battle" felt like an afterthought granted, with the disposition of forces and the Romans being spread out in a line with no room to maneuver - I can see why the three legions were so completely destroyed like they were. So perhaps it is fitting, on the one hand, that so little is said to describe their destruction, as anticlimactic as it was, because of how thoroughly the Romans were defeated in this battle.


I wanted to like this more than I did. The latter portion of the book was a giant letdown for me. I read it and was "That's it? That's what I spent my money on?" (maybe this will finally teach me to start visiting my library more often, hahahah! Save myself some money in the process, hahaha!). I cannot say I would recommend it to anyone else, either. I haven't read any of the author's books recently, so perhaps this book is a one-off and his other "more recent" books are better than this one.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

If one knows anything about Roman History, it would be almost impossible to resist Give Me Back My Legions!, based on Caesar Augustus’ dismay when a huge military setback was announced to him. This historical novel is about that crushing military defeat brought about by the ineptness of one Publius Quinctilius Varus, a former governor of Syria promoted via The Peter Principle to his level of incompetence.

Even for a masterful writer of historical fiction like Harry Turtledove, using his Ph.D. in History as his foundational understanding of the circumstances, Give Me Back My Legions must have been a difficult book to write. First off, we are only aware of Caesar Augustus’ alleged outburst which provided the title for this novel from Suetonius (if I remember correctly), so we don’t even have a contemporaneous source. Yet, we do know that Augustus sent Varus to tame the German frontier and that his incompetence combined with his gullibility cost Rome three legions and the capacity to pacify Germany.

One would think that the book would lose a major element of suspense since most readers would already know the outcome of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest before starting the novel. Yet, one wonders just how it might have been that a Roman auxiliary, indeed a Roman citizen, originally from Germany could have concocted an ambush that would prove so decisive in terms of halting the Empire’s expansion to the north. Turtledove suggests some intriguing ways this might have occurred and offers some very plausible encounters between Romans and the German tribes, as well as Arminius’ (the German who leads the ambush) encounters in trying to get hostile tribest to cooperate with each other.

Still, as a matter of personal preference, I’d rather have a historical novel somewhat further off the rails than one so tied to such a well-known event. Give Me Back My Legions reads well for what it is, but I prefer to have less awareness of the actual history when I’m reading a novel.

[Karalee Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-researched and mildly fictionalized retelling of a real event, the battle of Teutoburg Forest (09 CE), in which three Roman Legions, as many as 20,000 battle-hardened warriers, were slaughtered by a temporary amalgamation of undisciplined barbarian Germans who objected to having their territory occupied. I was previously unaware of this specific event, though it is said to have had a tremendous impact on the future of all of Europe, and possibly to have been the greatest military disaster/victory of all time.

The German leader, Arminius, was about 26 at the time, and rather brings to mind Alexander the Great for his charisma and leadership abilities despite his youth. The Roman governor who led the legions, Publius Quinctilius Varus, was a civil servant rather than a military man, and he suffered from either the Dunning-Kruger Effect or from the impact of an overwhelming dictatorship: his emperor, Augustus, could not be wrong, so his underlings were not able to give him bad news or doubt his strategies. They in their turn could not listen to the advice of their subordinates, and so on down the line. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, right?

I must confess I did not like Arminius. He comes across as a snake in the grass, somehow lacking honour. I guess if you’re going to defeat the greatest force on earth, you do what you must, but it seems rather weaselly to me.

I wish in school we had been taught history the way novelists present it. In my day, it was all names, dates and places to memorize, without a whole lot of why? It wasn’t until I got out into the world that I began to realize history was actually interesting, and worth spending my time on. And, of course, Asterix and Obelix played a part …

[Fred Schwarz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately I have to say that this book is simply bad. I've read Turtledove in the past reading through his first alternative history series up to one of the WWI books. I thought those books were fine and had hopes that a historical novel by him would be good. But this one disappoints. It does not have a plot except to weakly follow history. Turtledove's telling of the story is black and white and the writing style is adolescent especially when it comes to the sordid sex he writes into the book. The Germans are portrayed as brutes on one hand but wise warriors on the other; Turtledove falls into the myth that Germans are great warriors forgetting that in war and battle one does not have to great, but simply better than who you are fighting at the time of battle.

Another problem I had with this book was that I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator overdid the accents. he made the Romans British and Augustus sounded like Winston Churchill eating oatmeal. These British accents for Latin speakers simply took me out of the story. Only through the discipline of a legionary was I able finish the book.

Thankfully I borrowed this through the Libby library app, otherwise I would have flung my phone across the room screaming: "Turtledove, give me back my money!"

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Give Me Back My Legions!" is a good book for fans of Roman historical fiction but nothing unduly special.
I liked the characters: Varus and Arminius are both given amble time to develop as characters, and Turtledove does well at presenting both sides of the fence--there are pros and cons of being both Romans and Germans and what works for one wouldn't work universally for all. Not a bad theme. Most of the side characters are also solid as well.
The setting is very well realized--one feels as if they are transplanted to classical Germania.
The big epic battle at the end is exciting, although it does take a while to get to it. I thought as a whole the talking-to-action ratio was a bit higher than necessary, too much dialogue and sometimes this dialogue is repetitive (the "is Arminius a true friend to Rome or tricking Varus?" conversation is had about a dozen times). I do wish the book had had more Romans liking Arminius; this book presents it like Varus is a fool to ignore literally everyone else's advice when surely in history Arminius had to have more supporters or he wouldn't have been able to pull his trick off.
This is a fascinating moment in history, and the book does a solid job capturing the drama.

[Dessa Meehan · Rating 1 out of 5]

How on earth was this published? It was one of the most excruciatingly boring books I have ever read (and I am including dry archaeology and anthropology textbooks in that assessment). If only for the fact that once I start a book I have to finish it, I never would have continued to read it. This book literally took me 9 months to read, not because it was challenging, but because it was so boring that I kept falling asleep and/or figuring out better things to do with my time. I finally made myself finish reading it in an airplane where I have nothing else to do. Turtledove is so repetitive, grammatically flawed, and flat in his writing that I honestly can't understand how this book has the 3+ star rating on goodreads that it does. I am so glad I finally finished it and will never be picking up another book of his again.

[Jaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content was interesting and Turtledove's battle descriptions were excellent. His descriptions stayed true to the time period, so parts were graphic. But, he definitely kept you on the seat of your pants during the battle scene. The rest of the story, though, was long and drawn out. Turtledove also had a habit of repeating himself again and again and again and again.... If the repeated parts were edited out, and he had stuck to a brief storyline, I would have loved this book.

[Anton T. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely repetitive. Should've been at least twice shorter. No character arcs, a very limited number of ideas. Basically, it's a short story that's artificially bloated to look like a novel. The writing itself is fine, though. Still, it's a one star rubbish, because the whole repetitiveness thing is a crime against the reader's time. Sad!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good depiction of a tense period of history, with plenty of detail to make the historical atmosphere live. The first part felt a lot like the author was just making time pass until the good part of the battle, so I could have used more of the battle and its aftermath and less of the build-up.

[Nicole Geub · Rating 3 out of 5]

just meh. the idea was there but the execution was weak. the historical note at the end was more useful than the rest.

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

very good

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a big fan of the alternative history that Turtledove is famous for, but this is historical fiction that is quite gripping and informative at the same time.