The Legion of Videssos(The Videssos Cycle #3)

The Legion of Videssos(The Videssos Cycle #3)
by Harry Turtledove
The third book of Harry Turtledove's Videssos Cycle - the story of Marcus Scaurus and his misplaced Roman
legion.
This book relates the stories of Marcus through and after a successful war in the west lands along with a separate
story of the Legion's Greek physician, Gorgidas and their huge fellow-misplace Celt, Viridovix (on the run from one
of his doxies) sent to the far north on another, diplomatic, mission.
This story has the master's touch that Turtledove is famous for. I usually read to relax before bedtime and I was
late to bed many nights while enjoying this story.|** spoiler alert **
The next volume in this mostly-interesting series is a bit of a mixed bag. A lot of the basic politics and challenges
that the main protagonist (Marcus Scaurus, a Roman commander caught with his legion in another world) faces
are very similar in flavor to the previous book. In some sense, Marcus spends this book spinning his wheels in one
way or another, either chasing down allies who turned into bad guys (by rebelling againt the Emperor of Videssos,
this world's equivalent of Rome), or sitting in an office job (as penance for letting prisoners escape) - the reasons
are different, but he spent a lot of the previous book doing the same things. Still, the story does go someplace, as
the wife of his child betrays him (helping those prisoners escape) and this alters his relationship with the Emperor
and the Emperor's sister, who Marcus has been greatly attracted to even when paired with the woman who
eventually betrayed him.
Other main characters from the Roman contingent get to go do very different things - a group travels to distant
lands looking for allies, and ends up getting split, and the characters face different sorts of adversity. In many
ways, these events provides a lot more interesting tale than what's going on for Marcus.
Overall, this felt a lot like an extended setup for what is supposed to be more interesting events in the next and
final book in the series.... likely mostly necessary, and maybe a lot of the plodding will turn out to be relevant, but
the book sort of dragged in places, especially when watching Marcus get dragged through the mud (at times
quite literally...)|Loved this series and the idea of a lost Roman unit transported through dimensions. There was a
lot of politics to go through but it was an excellent story with plenty of detail for the imagination. I hope that
future books build off this series, possibly on the children of the emperor and the Romans. I was a little sad the
writer did not sort out what happened to certain family members at the end but again I hope that's a possible tie
in for another series to build off of this one to progress the videssos timeline.|Come allungare il "brodo"... alla
cattedra, il Sig. Turtledove.
Ho fatto molta fatica a terminare di leggere questo terzo volume del Ciclo di Videssos, in parte per la noiosità
delle vicende narrate, ed in parte perchè mancano i bei dialoghi ed i fitti rapporti interpersonali, finora i pilastri di
questa saga.
Cinquecento pagine di una scialba guerriglia della legione contro i Namdaleni, unita al prolisso vagabondare
senza meta di Viridovix e Gorgidas, per finire con Marcus che si fa beffare da completo inetto.
Non è completamente da dimenticare, però sarebbe ora che "i buoni" cominciassero a prendere a bastonate gli
Yezda, invece che farlo tra di loro.
L'unico obiettivo raggiunto è stato quello di farmi odiare definitivamente il popolo dei Namdaleni, che passano
dagli uomini fieri e pieni di dignità descritti nel primo volume, ad un branco di zingari privi di qualsiasi codice
morale, pronti a cambiare bandiera con la rapidità di un battito d'ali.|This is a great series, which has really kept my
interest the whole time so far. The characters are interesting and the story fun to read.