Hannibal: Fields of Blood: Hannibal 2

Hannibal Barca leaves his foot print on history during his bloody march across the Roman countryside. Hanno , Aurelia and Quintus lives are for ever entwined yet they are on opposite sides of a deadly struggle for survival of each other's Countries. Family, honor and loyalty are tested time and again during this epic saga.

Good fast read. Situations in which some characters are depicted are a stretch like commanders of Hannibal troops going missing for several days without notice. Entertaining.

I would have given it 1 star except I have enjoyed many of his other books, but not this one. This is not really a book about Hannibal at all, which I was interested in reading about. This was a novel about the time and surrounding circumstances but very little about Hannibal. Only in the last 50 pages was there much description about the Cannae battle. But the direct interaction of Hannibal was only a paragraph. I read a lot of historical fiction but the "fiction" is typically woven around creating some realism of the primary historical characters. This gives zero insight into Hannibal or his brothers, their Roman foes, their reactions to the circumstances or anything of interest. Very very disappointing. So read "Pride of Carthage" by David Anthony Durham instead of this trilogy. But I guess that is why this is a trilogy, just taking up pages with print about his fictional characters in a typical storyline rather than an engaging story about Hannibal. His books about Spartacus and The Lost Legion were far better in the style of Bernard Cornwell, Sharon Kay Penman, Alex Rutherford, Jack Whyte and Jack Hight to name just a few. I hope his future books are more inspired. The research and information delivered here about Hannibal could have been done in one chapter. To add a little more tarnish was the use of "come on lads" and "bloody mess" in frequent dialogue amongst the Cathagenians. Really. Mr. Kane you can do so much better, your readers expect it and deserve it.

Great book! Historical novel that is entertaining and exciting! Not really about Hannibal, more about the soldiers in the opposing armies. Great read.

Well written. Kane doesn't disappoint. Historically accurate on the campaign of Hannibal Barca with a flair of historic fiction that follows the lives of a Carthaginian and two Romans.

The first book of this series was good (not great but pretty good, good enough to order the sequel). The sequel, however, was very disappointing; I almost put it down half way through.There seems to be a trend in literature these days to fill pages with introspection, doubts, and regrets, and this book has that in spades. Every action scene is preceded by pages of introspection and doubts, and the action itself is interrupted by same.Furthermore, the three main characters in the book are all idiots - they never seem to learn from their experiences and constantly blunder into difficult and often deadly situations. It's difficult to feel connected to such mindless characters. Perhaps mindless is the wrong word, since they're always "introspecting" (is that a word?). It's like stupidity and testosterone gone wild; no cunning, no clever plans, just an endless stream of foolish actions.I do not recommend this book; it was slow reading and I sometimes found myself losing my place, since it was just so much unnecessary blather. Are the creative writing courses teaching people to write this way these days? Give me Bernard Cornwell, Daniel Silva, Dewey Lambdin,and Lee Child any day, and Anthony Riches for great stories about the Roman empire; except when you run out of those books, you have to read this kind of stuff.

Great book with a fictional story of two friends, join for the enslavery and separated for the war between Hannibal and Rome

Great book, I like it, can't wait more books from this author

It has taken me longer to finish reading Hannibal Fields of Blood than it has taken me to read any of Ben Kane's other books, and I've read them all so far. It wasn't that I found the story hard going or boring in fact the opposite, I just realised after buying it, that I wanted to take my time with it as I normally consume his novels within a couple of days. So I deliberately rationed myself to a few pages at a time, whilst reading other books and generally being very busy in between sessions.However, I'm glad to say it was worth it but I don't think I'll be doing that again, because it was very difficult to resist picking it up every time I looked for a book to read. I'm not going to go into the story itself because some people might not have read it but suffice to say, it's another cracker and a worthy addition to the bookshelf containing the Forgotten Legion trilogy and Spartacus series (so far).One of the really engaging things about this story is that you come to like the characters from both sides, there isn't an inherent 'bad side' and so reflects reality in my opinion. Hanno and Quintus, two of the main characters and childhood friends, find themselves on opposite sides of the Carthage versus Rome war and each story is as enjoyable as the other and you find yourself rooting for both.Ben Kane's research combined with his great story telling ability and passion for Rome, has produced another fantastic novel and I'll certainly be in line for more to come over the next few years.

Generally, one would think when buying a book with the name of a famous historical character in the title, the story would evolve around that character. Not so ! I'm afraid, Hannibal features in nothing but name on just a few pages in the book. The whole story centres around two families on either side of the conflict. I found this difficult to understand, especially as Ben Kane's Spartacus novels do centre around the title character and the reader can share the emotions of the heroes and heroines registered in history.I can only assume that not enough genuine sources are available to allow for Hannibal to feature as a main character and the author chose not to let his immagination run free where Hannibal was concerned. He chose to develop fictional characters with whom he can do what he wants in the novels. Nevertheless I would have preferred to experience this period of history through the eyes of real "historical" characters.However, nothing should take away the fact that Ben Kane is a great story teller and his descriptions of the times are extremely well presented. And despite the disappointment of Hannibal not featuring, Kane's incredible ability to describe the events especially the horrors of the Battle of Cannae make this novel a very enjoyable read.

Ben Kane excels in the second book of the Hannibal Series - Fields of Blood. This book continues to follow Hanno and Quintus as they lead up to and fight in arguably one of the bloodiest battles ever.Hanno is a Carthaginian officer (previously a Slave of Quintus's family) fighting for Hannibal, while Quintus was a Roman equestrian who joins the Infantry. Friends in the same battle, on opposite sides, both fighting for there very survival.The book follows both of these characters on the path to Cannae. Along the way there is many Ambushes skirmishing and even time for Love to blossom. In typical Ben Kane style the fighting scenes are superb with just enough detail to not be too graphic. The detail to which the book covers both sides, how they formed up for battle, the armour they wore, even down to the Helmets & Spears is magnificent.Like all of Ben Kane's books, this was excellently written and I always looked forward to reading the next page, next chapter and next book.

Yet another superb story from Ben Kane, apart from a good idea where Carthage was and a limited understanding of the impact to Rome of Hannibal and his armies, I really knew nothing about this era in history. Ben has managed to bring the history to life in such a way, turning the Romans into the bad guys and making me cheer on the Carthaginians. A cracking read, and leads to the anticipated next volumes! Can't wait to find out what happens next to Hanno, Quintus et al. Thanks Ben you have inspired me to look at some of those research books you have been poring over.

Whenever I buy a copy of Ben Kane's latest offering, I give myself chance to savour the thought of becoming deeply immersed in his world of Roman history and the characters which he brings so vividly to life. I think the reviewer 'Parm' has said everything (and more) that I could possibly think to say. I can only add that Ben Kane's books are on my list of 'must buy' books and I am so pleased that there will be a sequel to Fields of Blood - in the not too distant future, I hope. Whilst the subject matter is sometimes toe-curling bloody in the heat of battle, he depicts wonderfully well how life was, most probably, in the years BC. Roll on the sequel!