Dawn of Empire

Dawn of Empire by Sam Barone is an excelent example of the historical novel that relies heavily on the writers imagination to fill in the gaps in the historical record. Sam Barone takes the reader back six thousand years to the first attempts to create settled communities in a land ranged by nimadic tribes of hunters and herdsmen. Every few years war bands of wild tribesmen sweep down from the steppe lands to pillage the defenceless settlements in the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is the story of the settlement that decided to fight to defend what it had built. The village of Orak on the banks of the Tigris is a prosperous and growing settlement reborn from the ruins left by the violent tribe of the Alur-Meriki fifteen years before. Now word has reached Orak that the barbarians are driving down from the steppes again. Nicar, the leading man of the village, is determined that the cycle of re-building followed by destruction must end and commisions Eskar, a barbarian warrior to organise the defence. Sam Barone has written a fast paced narrative of war and adventure that had this reader hooked from the first page. On the book jacket historical novelist Diana Gabaldon compares this book to Wilbur Smith at his best and I cannot disagree with her. Just the book with which to pass a cold winters night.