Review: A new story with a familiar face...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 12, 2012
I swear I need to pay closer attention to my favorite writers. How in the world did I miss this release!?  I knew that Simon Scarrow was releasing a new novel in the fall, but I completely missed this gem!  OK, well not completely...This is the first installment of a series of who knows how long. If it's anything like what I've come to expect from Mr. Scarrow, this will be an exciting, brutal, bloody, piece-by-piece epic.  I of course have no proof of that, only hoping.  Wherever the truth lies, all I know is this series is off to a very good start.Pavo is the son of a rich family who has ended up on the wrong side of the Emperors wrath. He is given one year to live but must spend that year fighting as a gladiator. Harsh. The only remotely positive part in this death sentence is that his trainer is everyone's favorite surly centurion, Macro. This is not a prequel by any means but it does hint at Macro's life before he became a Centurion.  And I swear, this man must have been born craggy!  Anyway, Macro finds himself in the usual situation of being "maneuvered" into an impossible situation by the Emperor and his oh-so-wonderful circle of friends.Side note: this happens so frequently with Macro that one tends to wonder that in his afterlife if he will pave the streets with blood with the sliced throats of everyone that has wronged him. Ah well, their problem, not mine.Well, once the die is cast both Pavo and Macro have nothing to do but what they must. This is a short story (93 pages according to Amazon) but Scarrow still manages to fit in his magical storytelling. And according to him we only have to wait until next month (December) for the next installment.  That will give me just enough time to read his new one entitled `Sword and some `s' word I can't pronounce'.