Dreaming the Eagle

Dreaming the Eagle , the first volume of Manda Scott's "Boudica" sequence, is as much about establishing our sense of the issues at stake as it is about Breaca, the future Boadicea, herself. We are given a comprehensive and complex picture of pre-Roman British society--one which neither excludes the down-side of an aristocratic warrior society full of powerful mystics and touchy snobs nor regards it as significantly stranger or more primitive than the Romans these Celts are bound sooner or later to have to fight. Breaca is a talented fighter, but her real interest is in breeding and training horses; for once, we get a picture of ancient Britain in which economic activity is a serious factor. Scott has an imaginative sympathy with opposed ways of life--Breaca's brother Ban spends time as a slave in Roman territory before being rescued by a Roman friend, and he comes to see much of what is worst and also what is best about Rome. This is the best sort of historical fiction--exciting, full of a sense of how different times feel, and also intelligent about historical issues; Scott knows that at the point when historical events happen, they seem as if they are open chances. -- Roz Kaveney