Posteguillo’s “Lost legion” (#3 Trajan trilogy)

Santiago Posteguillo, La legión perdida. El sueño de Trajano [The lost legion. Trajan’s dream], 2016.

The third installment of a bestselling trilogy on the Roman emperor Trajan (53-117 AD, Wikipedia), born near today’s Seville, Spain.

Publisher’s summary:

In the year 53 BC the Consul Craso crossed the river Eufrates to conquer the Orient but his army was destroyed in Carrhae. A complete legion of Roman soldiers was taken in captivity by the Parthians. Nobody knows for sure what happened to this lost legion. 150 years later Trajan is about to cross the Eufrates again. The Parthians are waiting on the other side of the river. The troops of the Cesar are in doubt as they fear to end up in the same way as the lost legion. But Trajan doesn’t fear and starts the biggest Roman military campaign to either victory or disaster. Intrigues, battles, two adolescent women, foreign languages, Rome, Parthia, India, China, two Cesars and an empress intertwine in the biggest epic history of Antiquity, La legión perdida, the novel with which Santiago Posteguillo closes his acclaimed trilogy on Trajan. There are emperors who end a reign, but others ride directly to legend.

«It’s the most complete novel and the one I am most proud of so far.» «It will be a tremendously spectacular novel as we don’t see only Rome, but also Parthia, India and even China. It will surprise. » Santiago Posteguillo

The preceding titles of the Trajan trilogy were

Los asesinos del emperador [The emperor’s assassins]

Circo Máximo. La ira de Trajano [Circo Maximo. Trajan’s rage]

Though a professor of English literature, Santiago Posteguillo (Valencia, 1967) has dedicated most of his literary attention to the Romans, but there are other titles too. Among his books are

Africanus, el hijo del cónsul [Africanus: son of the Consul] (2006, first book of a trilogy on Scipio Africanus, 236-183 BC, Wikipedia)

Las legiones malditas [The accursed legions] (2008, Scipio #2)

La traición de Roma [The betrayal of Rome] (2009, Scipio #3)

La noche en que Frankenstein leyó el Quijote [The night Frankenstein read Don Quixote] (2011, on surprising enigmas of literary history)

La sangre de los libros [The books’ blood] (2014, short stories on literary history)

Some more information on these titles can be found in the English Wikipedia article dedicated to Posteguillo.

SOURCE: Planeta (publisher); author homepage (Spanish); review in La Vanguardia, March 26, 2016, p. 39 [printed edition]