Review Summaries

• Readers admire the rich historical atmosphere and the way the story moves from loss toward hope. Many note that, despite its heavy themes, it leaves a quiet afterglow and a sense of resilience.

Reviews

• I Love Rosemary Sutcliffe. Ideal reading for my 12 year old son. We read it together and I enjoy it a great deal too. THe vocabulary is a little more challenging, so it's able to stretch the reading potential of the 11-14 age group. It's the third in a trilogy (Eagle of the 9th; The silver Branch; The lantern bearers). Deeply historical, grounded in fact, but elegantly woven fictional characters that have compelling stories. By this means, the history of Roman Britain, and in the Lantern bearers the decline of Roman Britain and the rise of the Saxons is brought to life for older children, young adults and older readers like myself. Won't spoil it by revealing the plot, but it knocks Harry Potter for six ;)

• The story is deeply moving and wonderfully written, one of Sutcliff's best, in my opinion. I read it as a child, loved it and regularly reread the book as an adult. The characters are unique and brought to life. One of the things I have always enjoyed about Rosemary Sutcliff's writing is how she includes details about the environment which ground the story in reality for me. She takes the trouble to name trees and birds. She will describe the last flurry of a rain-shower in a way that feels real and helps to make her world that much more believable. I recommend this novel and two which precede it, though the stories are seperate. They are 'The Eagle of the Ninth' and 'The Silver Branch'.

• The Lantern Bearers is the fourth in Rosemary Sutcliff's loosely-connected series about a Roman family in ancient Britain. The story begins when the last Roman legions are leaving Britain. Beseiged by wars with Germanic tribes on the European mainland, the empire can no longer afford to spend any of its military capital fighting off Saxon invaders on this remotest of its territories which it had by now largely abandoned, anyway. Young Aquila, a cavalry officer in the Roman army, is spending a rare leave with this father and sister on his family's homestead when he is urgently recalled to duty. Immediately upon his return he learns that preparations are being made for the last boatload -- literally -- of Roman legions to leave the island of Britain forever. Over the ensuing few days Aquila wrestles with his thoughts and feelings and finally, at the last moment, realizes that, though he considers himself a Roman, Britain is his home. His family has lived on the island for generations, he knows his father and sister will never leave, and he decides that he cannot leave either. So he hides in the lighthouse on the coast and watches while his ship sails off without him, then makes his way back to his family's villa. Just three days later his world is forever turned upside down when Saxons raid his home, burning it to the ground, killing his father, carrying off his sister, and leaving him tied to a tree in the woods for the wolves to find. By an ironic turn of events he is rescued and taken to the homeland of the Jutes (present-day Denmark) as a slave. Desolate at the loss of his beloved father and sister and the only life and world he has known, beset by bitter loneliness in a strange land, the desire to find his sister is the only thing that keeps him going. Thus begins The Lantern Bearers, a story that traces Aquila through the ensuing decades of his life as he journeys through hatred, grief, desolation and bitterness in a quest first to find revenge and then to find some measure of peace. At the same time the story traces the story of Britain as it gradually loses the influence of Rome and descends into the Dark Ages. As always, Sutcliff's writing is lovely, detailed and evocative, whether she is describing the British countryside, or a battle scene, or the physical decay of society in the wake of Rome's departure from the island. Unlike her earlier books in this series, The Lantern Bearers really isn't about a young man's quest for honor or bravery, and doesn't involve adventure per se. Instead, it explores, through the life of Aquila, the painful overtaking of an older culture (in this case the Romano-Celts of Britain) by invaders (the Saxons). The bitterness, hatred, crossed loyalties, fragile peace and uneasy acceptance that Sutliff so skillfully depicts resonated with poignant realism; I am sure this is how it was in the many times in Britain's history (and that of other parts of the world as well) when two vastly different peoples battled for the same piece of ground, and their cultures (as inevitably happens) uneasily merged. The book also introduced the character of young Artos; the amount of attention given him, and the fact that he was a Romano-Celtic young man who was a charismatic battle leader, made it obvious that he was the King Arthur of legend. I look forward to reading the next book in this series to see how Sutcliff develops his story.

• This is a children's story about Britain after the Romans have left it, volume 3 of a trilogy but it can stand alone.. I have loved this book for years. I hope it never goes out of print.

• Wie immer bis zur letzten Seite spannend beschreibt Rosemary Sutcliff Leben und Gefahren im Britannien der Roemerzeit. Durch ihre Imagination werden Freude und Leid der Menschen damals erlebbar, als haette es wirklich so geschehen koennen.

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