'Give Me Back My Legions!' by Harry Turtledove - Book Review

Give me Back my Legions! by Harry Turtledove is a piece of historical fiction centering on the significant Roman defeat by German warriors in the first century AD Battle of the Teutoberg Forest. While a strong entry, the book is neither Turtledove's best nor the best in the historical fiction genre.

Turtledove doesn't start Give Me Back My Legions! with slashing stabbing violence. Instead, this book supposedly about a great battle begins with an extended overview of the circumstances leading up to the Battle of the Teutoberg Forest. The action is seen through the eyes of several major characters in varying roles. The cultures and relations of the various individuals and groups are not simplified to a dumbed down good guys versus bad guys. Instead, we see admirable qualities and goals as well as brutality and hatred in both Romans and Germans. We also see that neither Romans nor Germans act as unified groups, but instead as dynamic, bickering, divided forces. Through all this complexity, Turtledove makes clear each individual's interests and the driving forces behind the eventual battle. He shows how it may have happened, but does not fall into the trap of assuming events had to occur as they did. One thing Turtledove makes clear in all his books is that humans make choices and determine events, historical inevitability is not in his vocabulary.

Despite these strengths, Give Me Back My Legions! does not rise to the level of greatness. It is shabbily edited. It also reads as an engaging account of how things might have been. Truly great historical fiction, like Shaara and the historical fiction parts of Gingrich's alternative history books, makes you believe not simply that events enfolded as described, but that you are there in the midst of them as they happen.