Book review: The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff

The second book I read in 2016 is The Silver Branch, a sequel-ish to The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff.  While it is advertised as Book Two in the Roman Britain Trilogy, it doesn't deal with the same characters as the first book but with descendants of Marcus and Cottia over a century later.

As with The Eagle of the Ninth, the book opens with a Roman soldier newly posted to Britain, but the setting is very different: instead of a Britain being steadily pacified under Rome, in this Britain, Rome is on the retreat from rebellious tribes in the north and under attack by Saxon raiders from the east.  Back in Italy, the empire has already been split between two co-emperors, and Carausius, once a soldier in Rome's army himself, has declared himself emperor of Britain; due to rebellions and attacks from outlying tribes throughout Europe, the co-emperors have no choice but to accede to his claims for the time.  It's a time period I know next to nothing about, as I don't recall ever learning any British history before William the Conqueror and the Roman history I had didn't go much beyond "All Gaul is divided into three parts" north of the Alps.

Justin is the junior surgeon sent to Britain, a place his family came from but he has never seen.  At his posting, he meets his cousin Flavius, and we the readers come to understand that both are the descendents of Marcus and Cottia.  Later on, the story takes the cousins back to the farm that Marcus promised Cottia at the end of The Eagle of the Ninth, as well as Uncle Aquila's house in Calleva; the eagle itself even makes an appearance, as does Marcus's father's emerald ring.

Despite the similar opening scenes, The Silver Branch evolves much differently from The Eagle of the Ninth, turning into a tense spy story, as the cousins work in an undercover resistance group, rescuing dissidents and waiting for the arrival of the Roman legions.  Sutcliff introduces compelling secondary characters, from the upstart Carausius to the unlikely hero Paulinus to the stiff-upper-lip Aunt Honoria.  I enjoyed this book at least as much as the first installment and look forward to reading more of Sutcliff's books.