Stunning! Superbly written, fast flowing and well worth a read. There is a second book in the series which follows on, The Fall of Rome. ( )

The story follows the lives of Aetius, field marshall of the western Roman forces in the mid-fifth century, and Attila the Hun. It paints Aetius and Attila as leading parallel lives, meeting briefly as children, when Attila and Aetius are exchanged as hostages to cement a treaty between the Romans and Huns, and becoming close friends years later when Attila returns and Aetius stays on in service of the Hunnish king. Yet later, they become rivals and enemies, their rivalry culminating in the historic battle of the Catalaunian Fields.

The book is interesting for breathing life into a critical period in late Roman history, and it is historically reasonably accurate, as far as I can tell, except that it gives credence to some numbers that are surely wildly inflated. For example, the battle of the Catalaunian Fields could not possibly have involved anything like 1.5 million combatants.

The book is middling in writing quality and structure. It is all a bit wooden and uninspired.