The Forgotten Legion: (The Forgotten Legion Chronicles No. 1) - Tapa blanda

"Historical fiction has never been more visceral and engaging than Ben Kane's debut novel The Forgotten Legion." - James Rollins, author of The Last Oracle"I thoroughly enjoyed The Forgotten Legion -- so much so that I stayed up until 2am to finish it. Where others play in the rarefied world of senators, legates and upper class merchants, Kane delves into the grim underbelly of slavery, prostitution and gladiatorial carnage; a place where life is cheap and the thirst of the conquerors for the blood of the conquered knows no bounds. Here, we smell the grime, lie on the cold floors, face death daily with little to live for beyond the faint spark of hope that one day there might be revenge. His creation of the Etruscan Haruspex is fantastic -- a man of a defeated nation who can yet give hope, and does so, to both Roman and captive alike... and the conclusion leaves us waiting for the sequel." - Manda Scott, author of the 'Boudica' novels

Romulus and Fabiola are twins, born into slavery after their mother is raped by a drunken nobleman on his way home from a good night out. At 13 years old, they and their mother are sold: Romulus to gladiator school, Fabiola into prostitution, where she will catch the eye of one of the most powerful men in Rome, and their mother into obscurity and death in the salt mines.

Tarquinius is an Etruscan, a warrior and soothsayer, born enemy of Rome, but doomed to fight for the Republic in the Forgotten Legion.

Brennus is a Gaul; the Romans killed his entire family. He rises to become one of the most famous and feared gladiators of his day - and mentor to the boy slave, Romulus, who dreams night and day of escape and of revenge.

The lives of these four characters are bound and interwoven in a marvellous story which begins in a Rome riven by corruption, violence and political enmities, but ends far away, at the very border of the known world, where Romulus, Brennus and Tarquinius find themselves fighting against the Parthians and overwhelming odds