The Legate\'s Daughter by Wallace Breem

[Nathan Ross]

The editor's pen appears to have passed far too lightly over this novel.

I think the original novel was published by Arrow in the early 70s as a cheap paperback - sort of pulp fiction really. Editorial standards were perhaps not their highest priority. It's only been since the rediscovery of Eagle in the Snow in the wake of Gladiator (it was republished c.2001 after being out of print for decades) that Breem has gained any real attention.

Having said that, editorial standards are none too good today either. I'm often struck by quite obvious repetitions in recent novels; one 'Roman' one (I don't actually remember which - maybe by Scarrow?) had somebody raising their eyebrows on every page, or so it appeared. The effect rapidly became comic. Even the brilliant Lion Wakes by Robert Low has a strange way with speech verbs at times - three characters in succession all 'declaring' something, for example. Clearly the editorial pen was doing something else at this point...

Anyway - I read the book a few years back and liked it, although I was left a bit puzzled by the lack of resolution. The central character was interesting, but I wasn't convinced by his 'Parthian' background or strange hat (if I'm thinking of the right book...) What really stuck in my mind was the trek through the desert, and the method of exploding rocks using water - taken from Pliny, I think.