Parthian Dawn
This is a sequel to ‘The Parthian’ and is set in the time after the Spartacus slave revolt. When I was approaching the end of ‘The Parthian’ I realised that I did not want to kill off the lead character, Prince Pacorus, so I had him and his band of followers escape from Italy and make it back to Parthia.
‘Parthian Dawn’ continues the story of Pacorus and his new wife Gallia, the Gallic woman he fell in love with during his time with Spartacus. The backdrop to the story is the civil war that breaks out in the Parthian Empire in the aftermath of the death of the aged King of Kings, the man who ruled the other kings of the empire. The Parthian Empire was one of the two superpowers of the ancient world, the other being Rome, but surprisingly little is known about Parthia, which at its height occupied an area from the River Euphrates in modern-day Iraq to the foothills of the Himalayas.
“This book carries on where the first left off – Prince Parcorus is back in his homeland, now made a king with his very own kingdom. His time in Italy, fighting alongside Spartacus, has clearly paid dividends as he puts his foes to the sword with alarming regularity. Juggling a double enemy of the dastardly Romans and the treacherous rival Parthian kings, this book again bowls along at a cracking pace.
“There is sufficient military detail in the book to make the reader feel that Darman has done his homework well whilst recognising that this is a work of fiction based on an ancient civilisation away from the epicentre of the Roman Empire.”
British Army Rumour Service review, February 2012
