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A review by shell_s
Legio Damnati by Brandon Ketchum
4.0
In Legio Damnati, not only does Brandon Ketchum combine a realistic Gallic War era Roman soldier's firsthand account of the battlefield and politics with several speculative fiction genres--alternate history (natch) but also horror, and sword-and-sandals pulp adventure, and mythic fiction--but he does them all justice.
Ketchum's next book probably won't be a sequel to Legio Damnati, but whatever it is can march straight to my shelves and stand at attention with my other must-own authors.
I picked this up expecting Roman legions fighting zombies, but that was only the tip of the spear in these bite-sized tales! The eight sequential stories, besides being full of thrilling combats against myriad supernatural threats, also magnificently captured the uniquely powerful Roman national identity and belief in symbols and portents and mercurial gods. It exemplifies the Roman experience particularly well through the musings of its honorable narrator, Verum Venatoris, and his devotion to his country and the brotherhood of soldiers under the eagle and bull signum banners.
I am low-key hoping this volume might get a sequel, however, because of Verum's dilemma of an ending--which while NOT a cliffhanger still caught me off guard.
Full disclosure, I'm not an avid reader of history or historical fiction generally, but to my mind the author zoomed in on enough period detail of battle dress and weapons and politics to make it feel more authentic and immersive without ever bogging down the drama or action. Plus I was fascinated by Ketchum's perfectly chosen brief historical excerpts from Julius Caesar's own account, De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War) that preceded or bookended the tales for extra context.
If you're intrigued by the exploits of Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius and other (in)famous orators, and by odd trivia like the naval commander who was punished for blasphemy with sacred chickens, you'll particularly appreciate the primary source excerpts and how Ketchum's mythical monster mash-up hews close to history.
(All puns in this review are intended, especially the last one, and I salute the author's own clever wordplay with a few of his eight stories' titles, starting with "Rank Decimation.")
As I do with most any story, I deeply appreciated the humorous moments sprinkled in to offset some of the starkness and grimness of elements like warfare and political scheming and horror.
My only reason behind rating four stars instead of five (which, in my reviews, purely indicate my enjoyment, and are not an objective reflection on the author's skill or ambition of scope) is as follows. However vague and brief the scene, and almost certainly included for historical accuracy, soldiers rape unnamed Gaulish women in the seventh tale. Such scenes pull me out of stories to contemplate brutal realities, reflexively, like how touching a hot stove makes me retract my hand.
In this scene as in certain others before it and after it, there's no available solution to leave Verum's conscience clear. If he defies orders or chain of command and brings censure on himself, he will also bring doom on his dependent family back home. Plus defying his superiors would cost him the opportunity to lead and look out for his men, and cost him Caesar's interest in being his patron to boot. I can understand all that, I just don't tend to enjoy reading about that sort of stark realism and no-win situation.
Moving on, the Air and Nothing Press paperback edition of Legio Damnati is so gorgeous with its French flap full illustrations and cover art that I just have to mention that as a plus of owning it.
My first exposure to Brandon Ketchum's writing was this alternate history adventure short story, "The Hazard of Lake Erie." I think it gives somewhat of an idea of the adventurous atmosphere you can expect from Legio Damnati (and also the author's choice to make some of the language less formal and archaic sounding), if you want to check it out free here: https://aurorawolf.com/2018/05/the-hazard-of-lake-erie/
That said, Legio Damnati as its title implies is definitely darker and more violent than the above tale, as befits stories that take place on blood-soaked battlefields with ruthlessly ambitious commanders who are in some ways as monstrous as the man-eating juggernauts the special legion must defeat.
WHEN A SHORT STORY COLLECTION MIXES COMPELLING HISTORY AND SUPERNATURAL THRILLS, IT EARNS A RALLYING CRY---BOOST THE SIGNAL!
Ketchum's next book probably won't be a sequel to Legio Damnati, but whatever it is can march straight to my shelves and stand at attention with my other must-own authors.
I picked this up expecting Roman legions fighting zombies, but that was only the tip of the spear in these bite-sized tales! The eight sequential stories, besides being full of thrilling combats against myriad supernatural threats, also magnificently captured the uniquely powerful Roman national identity and belief in symbols and portents and mercurial gods. It exemplifies the Roman experience particularly well through the musings of its honorable narrator, Verum Venatoris, and his devotion to his country and the brotherhood of soldiers under the eagle and bull signum banners.
I am low-key hoping this volume might get a sequel, however, because of Verum's dilemma of an ending--which while NOT a cliffhanger still caught me off guard.
Full disclosure, I'm not an avid reader of history or historical fiction generally, but to my mind the author zoomed in on enough period detail of battle dress and weapons and politics to make it feel more authentic and immersive without ever bogging down the drama or action. Plus I was fascinated by Ketchum's perfectly chosen brief historical excerpts from Julius Caesar's own account, De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War) that preceded or bookended the tales for extra context.
If you're intrigued by the exploits of Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius and other (in)famous orators, and by odd trivia like the naval commander who was punished for blasphemy with sacred chickens, you'll particularly appreciate the primary source excerpts and how Ketchum's mythical monster mash-up hews close to history.
(All puns in this review are intended, especially the last one, and I salute the author's own clever wordplay with a few of his eight stories' titles, starting with "Rank Decimation.")
As I do with most any story, I deeply appreciated the humorous moments sprinkled in to offset some of the starkness and grimness of elements like warfare and political scheming and horror.
My only reason behind rating four stars instead of five (which, in my reviews, purely indicate my enjoyment, and are not an objective reflection on the author's skill or ambition of scope) is as follows. However vague and brief the scene, and almost certainly included for historical accuracy, soldiers rape unnamed Gaulish women in the seventh tale. Such scenes pull me out of stories to contemplate brutal realities, reflexively, like how touching a hot stove makes me retract my hand.
In this scene as in certain others before it and after it, there's no available solution to leave Verum's conscience clear. If he defies orders or chain of command and brings censure on himself, he will also bring doom on his dependent family back home. Plus defying his superiors would cost him the opportunity to lead and look out for his men, and cost him Caesar's interest in being his patron to boot. I can understand all that, I just don't tend to enjoy reading about that sort of stark realism and no-win situation.
Moving on, the Air and Nothing Press paperback edition of Legio Damnati is so gorgeous with its French flap full illustrations and cover art that I just have to mention that as a plus of owning it.
My first exposure to Brandon Ketchum's writing was this alternate history adventure short story, "The Hazard of Lake Erie." I think it gives somewhat of an idea of the adventurous atmosphere you can expect from Legio Damnati (and also the author's choice to make some of the language less formal and archaic sounding), if you want to check it out free here: https://aurorawolf.com/2018/05/the-hazard-of-lake-erie/
That said, Legio Damnati as its title implies is definitely darker and more violent than the above tale, as befits stories that take place on blood-soaked battlefields with ruthlessly ambitious commanders who are in some ways as monstrous as the man-eating juggernauts the special legion must defeat.
WHEN A SHORT STORY COLLECTION MIXES COMPELLING HISTORY AND SUPERNATURAL THRILLS, IT EARNS A RALLYING CRY---BOOST THE SIGNAL!