Silk Road Centurion
Silk Road Centurion is a remarkable story of a Roman soldier, Manius Titinius, whose duties mean he avoids the devastating Roman losses at the battle of Carrhae, in 53 BCE, but is nonetheless captured and taken far to the east and enslaved to a particularly savage group of wandering warriors, the Kets.
Despite horrendous treatment including being hamstrung, he manages to escape with the help of some Chinese fellow slaves. He finds refuge in a Chinese village, learns the language, and is accepted (somewhat hesitantly) by the villagers. His problems are not over as, with grim determination, his previous owners seek him out to exact revenge. The once sympathetic Rahmeg seems incapable of letting go and is dogged in his pursuit of Manius. He will only stop if one of them dies. Manius, aided by his faith in the goddess Fortuna, is forced to help the villagers fight against the marauding barbarians to protect them and their simple farming way of life.
Scott Forbes Crawford has woven a very enjoyable story which, because of the setting, is more fiction than historically accurate, but this does not detract from the novel. Clearly very well researched, particularly from the Chinese viewpoint, this is a fascinating, speculative story of something that might have happened, rather than definitely did.
There are a few minor irritations, e.g., dialogue sometimes slipping into modern vernacular, and the actions of the grandfather at the end of the first attack on the village seem totally out of character from the very carefully developed, much-loved figure from the earlier pages. However, this is an excellent first novel from a writer this reviewer will certainly be looking out for in the future.
