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Hey, what’s up, people? What's new with you?

Ok, you got me, I really don't care about your lives. Not one bit.
Well, since this virus paradise is almost over – ah, being away from people, wearing masks, never being in contact with the, let's say, humans (I use that term broadly) – paradise.
But no, “let's have some freedom”... Neanderthals.

So, as I said paradise is over, so I have to give you another book review.
“Yaay!“
Fuck off.

There was questions of what to choose for my glorious return, so I decided to read about best of human history ever – Roman Empire. Of course, I was thinking, was it possible to improve on that, somehow?
It turns out that answer is yes – Roman Empire with elves, dwarves and magic.

So, book I'm presenting to you plebs today is: Stiger's Tigers, first in series called Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer, by Marc Alan Edelheit. All books have been released but author is continuing publishing works set in that universe.

First book is nothing spectacular (Editor’s Note: you’ll see how this is actually a good thing by the end of the article…). It follows Imperial Legionary Officer named Ben Stiger who got lousy assignment to train one cohort to deliver supplies to some fort that is close to enemy. Most of first book is about how he trains cohort and gets there. You've all seen that before, I hope.
What is interesting is that along way he finds some dwarven ruin, some magic stuff, and it all looks like it will be really important in future.

I don’t want to give too many details so I don’t spoil plot.

What to say about this book? Simply, it's very good. (E.N.: told you.)

It follows one cohort of Roman army... ok, full disclosure - it’s never said explicitly in book it is Roman but if you know anything about how Roman army was – it’s quite obvious. I'm not sure if author was inspired by Rome so he literally copy/pasted how legion works or he actually plans to connect this world’s Rome with his fantasy one. If I was betting man (which I'm not because I'm not moron) I would say option two is far more likely. Besides that it's regular military fantasy.

If you are fan of those you know what to expect in first book: lots of training, strong leader who is complete badass, his friend (in this case elf – I know this is where some of you racist bastards will stop reading; E.N. good thing you kept it for the second half of the article!) through who we see main protagonists’ human side and his reasoning. And, of course, there is enemy you hear but you actually don’t see until end of book.

I almost forgot – there is mandatory plot to fuck up protagonist by his boss. I like that part because it’s completely realistic. That happens everyday to good people, like me.
Stop it, I don’t care about what happens in your life. (E.N.: funnily enough, this last sentence was not an Editor’s Note.)

So would I recommend this book? Absolutely – it’s great start of series, characters are fun and interesting, world seems deep and complex with lots of mysteries and best of all it has Roman legion in it. This isn't’ groundbreaking fantasy of any kind but it’s really fun and I will definitely read further books in series.
Will I review them?
That I do not know because I'm lazy.

Now you can freely fuck off!

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Tags: Ivan Grabar, Books