| The Lantern Bearers | 
 enlarge | Author: Rosemary Sutcliff
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Category: Book
List Price: $6.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 236350
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 40
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0374443025
EAN: 9780374443023
ASIN: 0374443025
Publication Date: June 30, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Threatened by a tide of invaders, the last of the Roman Auxiliaries are to leave Britain forever. But Aquila, a young legionnaire, chooses to stay behind, in order to join the fight to save his native land.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Not Free SF Reader September 25, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Another of Rosemary Sutcliff's Roman series is book, this again steps
further forward in time, to after the Roman withdrawl of Britain.
One particular Roman decides to stay behind, and it costs him dearly.
Attacked, his family are killed or taken as slaves. This leaves him
bitter and angry, especially as his sister joins his captors.
 A bittersweet journey through dark ages Britain August 5, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Most people know the drill already regarding Rosemary Sutcliff: she wrote beautiful, melancholy children's books on key moments in British dark ages history that are so complex and beautiful that they appeal to adults as well. As many reviewers have noted, "The Lantern Bearers" is just such a "children's" book, but will appeal to readers of any age who enjoy rousing tales based on both fact and legend. This book follows the adventures of a Roman soldier who decides to stay in Britain when the legions depart in the early 5th century. He is quickly captured and enslaved by the invading Saxons but manages to escape and join the Romano-British resistance to the Saxon onslaught. This is one of Sutcliff's finest--surpassed only by its adult-oriented sequel, "Sword At Sunset"--and her prose captures the sadness of seeing the end of an era. But like many of her books, it also has a message of redemption and hope and ends on an uplifting note. The action is gripping, the characters are three dimensional and interesting, and the historical detail is astounding. Highly highly recommended.
A fading but still fierce light December 20, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I brought this book with me a month ago for my first trip to London a month ago and reread it for likely the fourth time in 40 years under an oak tree in Hyde Park. Ranking along with Flowers for Adonis as one of Sutcliff's most bleak but sweeping books, The Lantern Bearers features a a classically great and complex hero who is a tough, thorny, quiet brooder caught between old and new worlds. As both the young romantic risking all to give his world one last blaze of hope and the bitter general fighting to hold back the enemy tide, Aquila is an engrossing study of a man trying to make sense of his duties to his families, friends, and ruler. The choices he is forced to make at the twilight of British-Roman England are heartbreaking but of a piece with the man and his world.
Arguably the most complete of Sutcliff's novels as she weaves the bits of recorded history into a tale that pulls together an important era for England, this a hard but rewarding novel. Full of great settings including the Roman lighthouse, Saxon war camp, British mountain stronghold, and various battlefields, the book also includes the dolphin ring that ties together a string of Sutcliff's novels from early Roman Britain to Norman England as she highlights the many peoples who made England.
Bitter but magnificent July 5, 2005
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is a book that I have to force myself to read, despite the fact that I love it dearly. The first time that I ever read it I was reduced to tears several times and even now, almost twenty years later, I still have to steel myself before dipping into it again.
This is a book about a lost world, the moments when the Roman Empire in the West flickered and died and the black cloak of the Dark Ages descended, almost swamping the light of civilisation. This is a book about the start of the fall of Roman Britain as it began to fall under the sway of the Saxon barbarians. This is a book about a small group of people who, as in the title, became lanternbearers, trying to keep alight the flame of civilisation as the darkness and chaos of the Dark Ages threatened to swamp Britain.
It is not a cheerful book for obvious reasons, and as such is more for older children who are starting to look into darker literature. It is a book that deals in issues such as anger, despair, revenge, fortitude and resolution. It is also a book about loss, about what Britain lost when the English came, and speaking as a Welshman it has more than once reduced me to tears.
Very evocative but not that gripping for some reason... July 18, 2004
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
I feel strangely unsatisfied with this book. I liked the attention to detail and atmosphere as well as the historical context and references, especially to 'Artos' and his father 'Utha' - very subtly done. There were some moments of incredible bitter-sweetness, such as when Aquila watches the Romans leave without him at Rutupiae Light.The characters were well-drawn, a few lines of description necessary to give a good impression of each. There's nothing to really criticise; it was a very solid piece of work. However, I certainly wouldn't want to re-read it - I wonder why? I think perhaps the main character, Aquila, just didn't click with me. His bleakness and bitterness was understandable but it meant he never really interacted with any other characters as a friend - deliberately done, but it made for quite monotonous reading. We never saw closely into any other characters; there were brief, well-written encounters with people, but nothing very fulfilling. I find that I enjoy a book most if it has good characterisation, and while Aquila was sufficiently bitter for his role, I found him lifeless (perhaps I was meant to? I certainly didn't enjoy reading about him though...) and the other characters not well fleshed-out enough. Years and events flashed by, and before I knew it Aquila was getting old, and I still didn't really know him, or the people around him, even his wife. Events were sketched over and I never felt caught up in the story entirely because of the jumps forward in time. However, there was a lot of beautful imagery in this book, right down to the last sentence; that's what kept me reading.
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