Boudica is set in tribal Britain in the first century. It tells the story of Braeca, daughter of Graine, who at the time is the leader of the Eceni people. Braeca wants to become a dreamer, a spiritual leader, but instead she finds herself destined to be a warrior, killing her mother Graine's murderer at the age of twelve. How Braeca turns into Boudica, leader of the Eceni, who wants to rid her people and the rest of Britain from the Romans, is at the center of the book.
Click here to see the rest of this review
The review of this Book prepared by Sabine Schneider
Delacorte, Jun 2003, 23.95, 480 pp.
ISBN: 0385336705
In 32 AD Britain, eleven years old Breaca only wants to be a Dreamer foretelling the future for her tribe. However, destiny provides her a different role when she slays the warrior who just killed her mother, Graine, the hereditary leader of the Eceni. Her father Eburovic reacts with elation as he concludes he needs no son with a fighter like his daughter Breaca.
Over the next seven-eight years Breaca becomes a warrior leader of the Eceni. She meets and falls in love with Caradac, perhaps the only male that can claim to be her peer as a warrior. She also cherishes, perhaps loves, her half-brother Ban, as powerful a Dreamer as there ever has been though he wants to be a warrior like his sibling. However, their world of magic and tribal disputes is on the verge of ending as an outside force, the Romans, has crossed from Gaul intent on conquering.
DREAMING THE EAGLE, the first of Manda Scott's Boudica trilogy, is a tremendous ancient historical biography that brings a vivid a picture of Britain during the decade just prior to and at the beginning of the Roman invasion. The story line is rich with a feel for the atmosphere of Druid Britain yet cleverly interwoven into the prime theme of the life of the legendary warrior queen. The cast is cleverly used to enhance understanding of the heroine in her late preadolescent and teen years so that the reader receives a deep well-written, gripping novel that never slows down. Perhaps the only disappointment is that readers will have to wait for Manda Scott's next installment.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
