La fratellanza dell'impero

Camulod Chronicles #0

by Jack Whyte

Un epico viaggio da Roma alla Britannia
In cerca della sua vendetta
IV secolo d.C. Il giovane aristocratico romano Quinto Varro è in fuga dal massacro di tutta la sua famiglia. Solo lui e uno zio sono riusciti a sfuggire alla furia degli assassini e intende scoprire chi ha ordito il complotto per avere la sua vendetta. Così, incerto su chi sia meritevole di fiducia, decide di rifugiarsi nella remota Londinium, in Britannia. Teme per la sua vita e il dolore per la perdita dei suoi cari lo tormenta. Quando incontra una giovane donna irlandese di nome Lydia, le loro vite si intrecciano e il padre della ragazza si offre di trovargli un lavoro come fabbro. La copertura perfetta per pianificare la vendetta. Ma gli assassini non hanno dimenticato Quinto e sono sulle tracce del giovane per completare, una volta per tutte, lo sterminio della sua famiglia. A salvargli la vita e a conquistarsi la sua fiducia è un uomo che, come lui, ha un conto in sospeso con chi si nasconde dietro la cospirazione. Quinto non sa che la verità che cerca potrebbe essere molto più sconvolgente di quanto immagina.
Un autore da oltre 1 milione di copie
È l’unico sopravvissuto di una congiura che ha sterminato la sua famiglia.
E il viaggio per la vendetta sarà lungo e pericoloso.
Hanno scritto di Jack Whyte:
«Uno straordinario autore che riesce a intrecciare magistralmente la storia nelle storie.»
The Globe and Mail
«Jack Whyte è un maestro della scrittura. Riesce a far immergere il lettore nel mito grazie alle sue ricostruzioni storiche.»
Tony Hillerman 
«Questo scrittore ha saputo costruire un intero mondo che emerge vivido attraverso le leggende.»
Diana Gabaldon
«Un modo originale di raccontare la storia. Straordinario.»
Rosamunde Pilcher

Jack Whyte

È nato e cresciuto in Scozia, ma vive in Canada da anni. I suoi romanzi sulla creazione del mito di Re Artù hanno raggiunto un notevole successo, grazie alla scelta di porre l’accento sulle condizioni storiche della caduta dell’Impero Romano e non sull’uso della magia.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Canada, Arthurian, Historical

544 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

Jack Whyte is an author and writer born and raised in Scotland, but has been living in western Canada since 1967, and in Kelowna, British Columbia, since 1996.

Whyte's major work to date is the A Dream of Eagles series (as it is titled in Canada, but known as The Camulod Chronicles in the United States and elsewhere). This series of historical novels presents the tale of King Arthur set against the backdrop of Roman Britain. This retelling of the popular legend eschews the use of magic (as in T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone) to explain Arthur’s ascent to power and instead relies on the historical condition (with some artistic license) of post-Roman Britain to support the theory that Arthur was meant to counter the anarchy left by the Roman departure from Britain in 410 AD and the subsequent colonization and invasion of Britain by various peoples from Northwestern Europe, including the Saxons, Jutes, Franks, and Angles). Whyte incorporates both traditional Arthurian names, places and events (albeit in gaelic or Latin form) as well as the names of various historical figures that have been suggested as being the possible basis for the original King Arthur legend. The tacit implication is that Whyte's version of history is the true story that has become distorted over time to become the legend and stories of magic that we know today.

Jack Whyte served as the official bard of The Calgary Highlanders and performed several tracks of poetry and song on the 1990 recording by the Regimental Pipes and Drums of The Calgary Highlanders entitled Eighty Years of Glory: The Regimental Pipes, Drums and Bard of The Calgary Highlanders.

Reviews

[Shannon Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing prequel to an even more amazing set of books. The characters and story are built with obvious love and passion. Jack Whyte has a way of putting you right beside these characters, this ancient land and story. This book was so good, I’m re-reading the Camulod Chronicles. I haven’t read these books in years and years, but I got them out of storage because this prequel made me want to re-introduce myself to this mystical land and story. Do yourself a favor and read these books or any of the books Jack Whyte has written. You won’t be disappointed.

[Rich · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've had shits that were more interesting.

[G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scarso. Scarso. Scarso.
E vorrei conoscere chi ha scritto la quarta di copertina per chiedergli che libro ha letto, di che libro sta parlando... non di certo di questo. 🤐☹️

[Terry Calafato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Whyte è sempre una certezza.
Immergersi in uno dei suoi romanzi storici è un vero toccasana: le sue capacità narrative, le ricostruzioni storiche, gli intrecci accattivanti, i personaggi coinvolgenti (forse solo un po' tutti d'un pezzo a volte, ma non per questo meno riusciti) sono gli ingredienti che rendono la lettura davvero piacevole e soddisfacente!
Poi ammetto di aver subito in passato la fortissima fascinazione di questa saga, e scoprire l'esistenza di un nuovo capitolo è stato un vero piacere.

Questa è la storia di nonno Quinto Varro, il fabbro che segnerà la vita di Publio, il protagonista dei seguenti volumi, che aprirà la strada alla leggenda di Artù, Camelot ed Excalibur.
Questo è un romanzo su dei romani e sulla Britannia, prima della caduta dell'impero.
Se vi piace questa ambientazione (e i romanzi arturiani), ve lo consiglio vivamente.

[Al Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's my review - https://www.alwroteabook.com/2018/09/...

[Chris Diotte-Kelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good prequel to Jack Whyte's Dream of Eagles series, albeit he tends to get bogged down on some nitty gritty details that don't serve the plot or pacing well. Overall I enjoyed it, and it has rekindled my interest in this series; I might just reread them!

[Louise Pronovost · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF I so wanted to like this book. I have read everything Jack Whyte has written and I thought of myself as an unconditional fan. Turns out, I am not... The Burning Stone drags on, the historical details supersedes the flow of the action and it moves at such a slow pace that kept putting it down to find something more interesting to do. (And we are 5 weeks into the pandemic at this point so the options are limited!) I finally decided to abandon it, unfortunately.

Out of curiosity, I read the end and I think it would have made an intriguing short story.

I would recommend Jack Whyte’s series Dream of Eagle which is an all time favourite of mine.

[Diane Jalbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this book, I felt it sometimes went a bit over the top explaining all the levels of Roman military and background and this took away from the flow of the story.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love any work written by Jack Whyte! This story is the prequel to Whyte’s Arthurian legend that began with The Skystone. The plot revolves around the life of young Quintus Varrus, whose entire family with the exception of Quintus and his uncle have been murdered. Quintus has lived with the blacksmith at one his family’s estates and has learned the blacksmith trade. When he is older, he decides to try to find out who killed his family. His travels take him to Londinium, where he saves the lovely Irish lass, Lydia McCuil from ruffians who attack her in the city. Quintus also saves Lydia’s brother from being arrested. The McCuil family takes him in, and he grows to love Lydia and her family. He moves to Camulodunum to work as a blacksmith with Lydia’s uncle, where he remains hidden from the murderer of his family. He then works in the armory at the Roman camp, where he learns of a secret brotherhood of army men. He also learns that his grandfather was once in this secret brotherhood that tries to keep corruption in the army in check. Quintus becomes close friends with these military men. He marries Lydia, but is later kidnapped by the mercenaries who killed his family. But he is rescued by one of the members of the secret brotherhood.This man, Marcus Licinius Cato (Rufus) tells Quintus about the plot to kill his family and the man who ordered the killing. Cato vows to kill the man because he also ordered the death of Cato’s sister and brother-in-law, who was an important military leader and a leader in the secret military brotherhood. Later on, Quintus hears news about a man who has killed an important political leader of Rome. It seems that Cato has kept his promise.

[Brentman99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Burning Stone is a prequel to Jack Whyte's previous series about Arthurian legend Camulod series.

As with his previous books, I love the characters that Whyte presents. In this case, it is Quintus Publius Varrus's grandfather who provided the riches that helped him establish Camulod early on.
Whyte gives the reader good, full characters that the reader invariably ends up caring a lot about what happens to them.

The introduction of the Secret Order of Mithros (not so secret if 80% of the legions belonged to it) adds an interesting dimension that I don't recall reading about in earlier books, but does help move the plot along.

Most interesting was early in the book when the grandfather describes a scene many years earlier where what must have been a meteor passes very close to his group and causes men and animals to go deaf and blind. The description of the devastation and impact on people was quite something.

If you enjoyed the Camulod series, you will be equally happy with this prequel. I thought that the book held together very well and filled in nicely some of the knowledge that is helpful in understanding the main stories. It was well worth the time spent reading.

[Hypatia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - I was somewhat disappointed by this book. I read most of the Dream of Eagles series as a teenager and absolutely loved them. I loved the historical take on the Arthurian legends, and the way all of the historical details made the myths seem plausible. So I was very excited about the prequel novel.

This is really a standalone story. There is a connection to the Dream of Eagles books obviously, but it’s not a straight line. The characters are ancestors, and the story is set about 100-200 years before the Dream of Eagles books. You don’t need to read this to read Dream of Eagles, and I don’t think reading this really adds anything. There were a few minor things that bothered me (characters wearing knitted socks before knitting is thought to have been invented; characters who can’t do math) but I also found the book could have used some more editing. In the first few chapters, we learn about how Cato’s wife left him, and when we return to Cato later in the book, it’s summarized (in detail) again.

The story line seemed a little far-fetched to me as well. That said, I did enjoy the main characters, and there is a wealth of detail about the Roman world.

[James Blackwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was excited buying this book. I’ve read all of his works and The Publius Varus section has always been my favourite. So when I saw that there was a prequel with the legendary grandfather who taught Publius as it’s main protagonist I leapt at a chance to read it. But this was a major disappointment. The plot managed somehow to be both too fast and too slow. Things just happened and there wasn’t really any build up to them and in between plot points was page after page of historical notes and way too much detail. Look I am a history nut, I love this stuff truely. But if I wanted to read a history text book or a work of non fiction I would have. This is historical fiction, the history serves as a setting and narrative tool but shouldn’t be the souls focus of the novel. The prose was slow and tortured. It didn’t read at all like any of his other works. All in all if you loved the dream of eagle series you can skip this book. It doesn’t particularly add anything.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quintus Varrus arrives in Londinium, fleeing a massacre that has claimed the lives of his entire family in Dalmatia, save an elderly uncle who serves in the Roman Navy. When he sees four men attack a beautiful Irish girl, he steps in and kills them all, then must flee to Camulodunum, where he must learn the skills of the metal workers there. He slowly falls under the protection of members of the cult of Mithras, who reveal that they know why his family was murdered, and who is ultimately to blame.

Writing a myth without magic is difficult enough, but here Whyte creates a prequel to his popular 'The Camulod Chronicles', managing to create both a satisfying novel in its own right but also setting up the story to follow. His novel is easy to read and his characters are well drawn and the plotting is exquisite.

[Vanessa MacNeil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a poor shadow of the rest of the series, it breaks my heart to say. Important parts of the story are explained through long exposition. Things just seem to magically fall into place for Varrus: everyone he confides in is trustworthy, despite him being an actively hunted man; he’s gifted at everything he tries his hand at; everyone likes him; he’s rich and successful. I found the book long in history, which was wonderful, but short on any real tension or conflict until it’s awkwardly, forcibly inserted. It is, primarily, a book about people speaking about the story over cups of wine or cider.

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

It occurs to me that I’ve been reading Jack Whyte for nearly 25 years and I’m overdue for a re-read of all of his works. After his last book, I wondered where he would go next and this prequel seems as good a place as any.

The last few of Whyte’s books have been so heavy on dialogue! The narrator is nearly invisible because the characters do so much talking. This is a fine device to get some exposition out in the open but it’s almost used too much here.

Nevertheless, it was interesting to see what Whyte did with more Roman content. I’d be very happy to see him jump even further back in time to the origins of Roman Britain.

[D Nichols]

Another great book. It caught my attention right away and kept it throughout. I found the story of Rufus, a secondary character, very interesting but by the end of the book, we're not sure where he is or what he's doing - he's disappeared again! The main character has some interesting experiences - with meteors specifically relating to meteors that have struck the earth. Based on his father's and uncle's experiences, he starts to get a glimmer of an idea about how he might smelt them and then be able to use the metal but we're left hanging at the end of the book.

[Larry Epp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early to mid 310s, Roman Britain. A "pre-quel" to Skystone series. The Varus family is murdered at a family villa in Dalmatia except for Quintus and uncle Marius. Quintus ends up in Londuin saving from rape Lydia Mcuil and becomes involved with her father and sons blacksmithing. And there's a conspiracy to loot legionary supplies thwarted by secret Mithraic soldier society. And a lot of stuff about smithing and a ton of stuff on Roman history and legion functioning which often got in the way of the story. A lot of sitting around drinking wine and explaining.

[Kwang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes me want to read the Skystone. It takes a bit to get back into the Whyte style of telling a story, but once it gets going, I'm always wanting to read a bit more. There's a bit more politics, which grounds the feuds that are frequently seen in later books, but as a prequel, I do wish there was some key events told that are only referenced in the Skystone. Still, you begin to get an understanding of smithing and weaponcraft, which figures prominently in the lives of future characters.

[Andrea Oliverio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro indubbiamente scritto bene ma la storia si muove con lentezza e poca azione. Anzi l’unico momento di massima azione è verso la fine del libro quando un martello volante gettato senza troppa consapevolezza accoppa un cavaliere lanciato al galoppo....l’ho semplificata per non fare spoiler.
Le storie che si mischiano e si intrecciano, le sottotrame, non sono ben riuscite. Il finale poi è super confuso con un pistolotto fantasioso di congiure alquanto improbabili. Ripeto 3 stelle solo perché riconosco all’autore indubbie doti di scrittura.
Tutt’altro che un libro memorabile.

[Richard West · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read Whyte's Dream Of Eagles series, you need to read this. It's a prequel.
Not exactly action-packed, there's no battle scenes for example, and at points, kind of plodding and slow. But, it does introduce some key characters that pop up in the series.

A must read for fans of the series. If you haven't read the series, you might want to read it first, then read this installment.

[Ed Lehming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I struggled at first with this book. It seemed disjointed with excess detail, a plethora of seemingly unconnected characters with complex names and nicknames that did not flow well for me. Much of the introductory text did not make any sense till the conclusion of the book. Had I not enjoyed Jack Whyte’s previous series, I would have given up. But I persevered and began to enjoy the book, but not till page 83, where the second part of the tale begins.

[Braunda Bodger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story!

Well worth waiting for. Is there to be a follow on book? The Sky stone series are my all time favourite books, several since my daughter gave me an author autographed copy of my first book back about 1985 or 1986. I liked the Templar series very much too, but not so much the stories of Scotland. Keep writing Jack, I am an avid follower.

[Thomas Hense · Rating 3 out of 5]

A extensively researched historical fiction. Heavy on history and details, light on character development.
I had first read The Skystone and then this prequel. It was not what I thought it would be. Certainly isn't as character driven as the Skystone.
Looking forward to continuing with The Singing Sword.

[TMHstarscream · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been and will always be a fan of Jack Whyte's Dream of Eagles Series. This book was fun in getting to learn the back story for some of that series characters but sadly it fell short of what I was hoping for.

If you're reading the books you won't miss anything by skipping it but it's also fun to see the foundations of some of the old characters in his older novels.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid fan of the Dream of Eagles series, I enjoyed the prequel, but I'm not convinced it would stand up on its own. The plotting is odd - lots of people sitting around drinking wine, listening to someone talk about stuff that happened somewhere else.

[Riversue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not his best. The lead character did not solve the main problem and the character that did , did so off screen so to speak. But as usual I learned a lot about the time and place. Whyte's research is impeccable.

[Michelle Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Rare, But Excellent Prequel

If you were a fan of the first series of this (Starting with The Skystone), this is a pleasant return to the original characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and found myself easily transported back to Britain in the waning days of the Roman Empire.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prequel to the Dream of Eagles series - sets the stage for The Skystone and the rest of the Arthurian legend series which I did enjoy very much. Having read those first, I could recognize/was prepared for the story of the characters that this newest book introduces.

[Thomas A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire series is a brilliant combination of well-researched historical fiction and arthurian legend. NOTE - This title is a prequel to the others in the series and, while not critical, renders the reading of the others (beginning with The Sky Stone) more enjoyable.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very naive writing, difficult to relate to the characters. Disappointed after JW’s unbelievable work. He set the bar high, and he completely underwhelmed with this one.
:(