It’s The Last of the Mohicans meets HBO’s Rome in this exciting and inventive debut novel from Sidewise Award-winner Alan Smale that will thrill fans of alternate history, historical fiction, and military fiction.

In a world where the Roman Empire never fell, a legion under the command of general Gaius Marcellinus invades the newly-discovered North American continent. But Marcellinus and his troops have woefully underestimated the fighting prowess of the Native American inhabitants. When Gaius is caught behind enemy lines and spared, he must reevaluate his allegiances and find a new place in this strange land.

The main issue I had with Alan Smale’s alternate-history tale of Roman legions battling their way across pre-Colombian North America is that, quite frankly, I’ve read or watched it so many times before. Alternate history as a genre seems to be in love with the idea of a Rome that never fell. And the plot itself is the same rehashed White-Savior story that was old in Avatar—only Avatar and The Last Samurai did a better job of it, because at least the damaged veteran was portrayed as actually damaged, whether with PTSD or career-ending injuries. Both Avatar‘s Jake and The Last Samurai‘s Nathan had somewhat plausible reason to forsake their own and reinvent themselves in a new culture. In Clash of Eagles, Marcellinus turns and becomes complacent among his captors so quickly that I lost all interest in him as a character. If there had been more complication and inner conflict on his part, I would have found it easier to invest in his story. As it was, I found him simply despicable. I have no motivation to continue on to the second book of this series—though the story in this first novel is by no means complete. In fact, the ending is so abrupt that it feels as if Smale just decided to stop writing at that point, regardless of whether anything was resolved.

I received a free review copy of this book from NetGalley.