Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Amazon Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Amazon Digital ISBN-10:  1481071106 Type: Fiction Pages: 529 Copyright: May 29, 2011 ISBN-13: 9781481071109 A fast-paced story of the Spartacus slave revolt. When Rome transgresses upon his father's domain that lays between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Pacorus, a prince of the Parthian Empire, is sent to exact revenge. After a string of victories Pacorus and his men are captured in Cappadocia, clapped in chains and sent to Italy to live out the rest of their days as slaves. But fate intervenes and Pacorus and his companions are saved from a living hell by a renegade gladiator named Spartacus. In gratitude, Pacorus agrees to help Spartacus build his army as Rome musters its legions to crush the slave uprising. And so begins an epic adventure of glory and savagery played out across the length and breadth of Italy, as Spartacus defeats the armies of Rome and Pacorus leads his horsemen to victory after victory. But will Pacorous and the slave army escape from Italy, and will he win the love of the fierce and proud Gallia before the most powerful man in Rome, Marcus Licinius Crassus, takes the field against Spartacus? Excerpt I felt that he was studying me, weighing me up to determine his next course of action. His hair was cropped short, like all Romans. But was he a Roman? His dark eyes were boring into me, like a cobra does with a rabbit before it strikes. I glanced left and right and saw that others were also looking at him, waiting for his orders. They were a fearsome lot, with blood on their weapons and bloodlust in their faces. But their leader held them in check by. By what? For he had not spoken. By his will, I guessed, the same will that was now looking into my soul. My heart was still pounding in my chest. The silence was excruciating. I decided to break it, even though it might cost me my life. I looked at their leader, this fearsome man of stone who stood before me. ‘Who are you? What do you want?’ He took a few steps forward until he was but a few paces from me, his piercing eyes looking momentarily away from mine to glance at my sword that I held at my side. Then he fixed me with his iron stare. ‘I am Spartacus.’

British Army Rumour Service review, June 2011
Darman has researched this novel extremely well, as one would expect with his military non-fiction background. This detail is meshed with great story telling which flows along with great gusto. Less for the fact that this book is about a Parthian rather than a Roman, I would describe it as a ‘Roman Sharpe’. Darman’s style is similar to and as good as Bernard Cornwell’s, one of my favourite authors.