The Far Shore

The Far Shore by Nick Brown, Agent of Rome #3

When the deputy commander of Rome's Imperial Security Service is assassinated on the island of Rhodes, Cassius Corbulo swiftly finds himself embroiled in the investigation. Assisted once more by ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara and servant Simo, his search for the truth is complicated by the involvement of the dead man's headstrong daughter, Annia.

Braving hostile seas, Cassius and his allies follow the assassin's trail south aboard a ship captained by a roguish Carthaginian smuggler and manned by his disparate, dangerous crew. Their journey leads them to the farthest reaches of the empire; to a ruined city where the rules of Roman civilization have long been abandoned, and a deadly battle of wits with a brutal, relentless foe.

When I read The Siege, Nick Brown’s debut in the Agent of Rome series, I was pleasantly surprised with the authenticity that he managed to show in this story. He gave from the beginning of the series a little nudge to it. The Agent of Rome series, as the name implies, goes about the Roman Empire, what you might expect of these types of stories might be political intrigues, assassinations, court poisoning and the like, but Nick Brown steered away from this. He made a very fresh, exciting and interesting entry about an unlikely Roman officer Cassius Corbulo, who had to rise to the occasion to defend their fort against the Palmyran invasion. So I was quite interested to see how this series would work out, namely so because The Siege ended in a way that everything would be possible for Cassius’ future. Now unfortunately I haven’t read The Imperial Banner, book #2 in the series. But I did find out that several events can be linked towards The Siege and that The Far Shore can feature as an excellent stand-alone.

The Far Shore focuses on Cassius Corbulo an agent of the Imperial Security Service, a secret division that gathers intelligence and the like in ancient Rome. In The Siege he was fresh out of officer training and The Far Shore sees him much more in his role as an full-fledged officer. This secret service is based on the real deal as in ancient Rome these special officer were referred to as the frumentarri which literally translates into “grain men”. Supporting Cassius in his task is his servant/slave Simo and his bodyguard Indavara.

What really falls to note (and is huge plus to the series) is the amount of time that Nick Brown has invested several characters of the book. The focus is still on Cassius, but Indavara’s character does go through quite a development as well, Simo stays a bit behind the scenes overall. Even though I was presented with a much more grown up version of Cassius, he still goes through a nice development in The Far Shore. Cassius is on some level more confident but might growing a bit more into his role as a leader, wanting to have things his way and when other do it differently it kind of collides. Cassius likes to think actions over before carrying them out, and directly opposite this stands his bodyguard Indavara whose ex-gladiator style, makes him “act first, think later”. Early on there is a chase and here both personalities are confronted leaving their relationship in a fragile state. To my pleasure, Nick Brown takes both Cassius’ and Indavara’s characters further, when they talk this out, though you can still feel a certain tension at times, the coming clean and talking it out showing each other how they feel about it was really great to read about. Even in the end of the book when they are both again reliant on each other, you can really feel that the earlier encounter between them bolstered their overall relation and that when push comes to shove they work great as a team. Like I said I was very pleased with how this was shown overall in the book, the way that Nick Brown writes his characters is a nice feat since he does not let them overtake the focus of the storyline itself but the story and the characters are in perfect balance, making it all that much more impressive.

Next to the characters mentioned above there are also new introduction, and like I said, the description and the actions these characters take are planned to details. Just to name a few, Annia’s character was quite impressive, she is a young girl, confident and determined to find her father’s murderer. She is so determined and strong that she plays more than once on Cassius’ nerves, describing this in the dialogues and how Cassius went about this was really good to read about. Besides Annia there are also a few of the “bad-guys” in The Far Shore that you are introduced to. Think corrupted officials. The encounter with the Armata is still fresh in the back of my mind, Nick Brown gave this encounter such a tension that you could cut it with a knife. And this only just progressed once Cassius was introduced to Carnifex. Carnifex’s description of his character just screams that he is bad-ass. These secondary characters were given such details that they didn’t feel like secondary at all. The characters from primary to secondary were superbly put together.

For the story itself, you are also in for quite a surprise. The aim of the Agent of Rome series is to show how the frumentarri navigated through ancient Rome. The Far Shore doesn’t take place in Rome or any large city, Nick Brown introduced a kind of case files for Cassius to solve. In The Far Shore Cassius is tasked to retrieve a document on the island of Rhodes, but finds himself intertwined in a murder investigation. Now Cassius could have just waited for reinforcement but his determined self comes in the spur of the moment and he decides to lead the investigation himself and chase down the assassin. This investigation takes him overland, across hostile seas and encounters with wild tribes. In this journey all the events that unfold aren’t without their own twists and turns. Cassius, and you as a reader are in for a big surprise at about 2/3 of the book as the evil mind behind the assassinations makes his appearance. With 1/3 of the story still to go I was curious as to how it would prolong. The last part of the book didn’t falter any moment and it is just a full stream of action packed scenes that guide you to the end of the book. Don’t expect any large battlefield battles in The Far Shore, instead it has a cleverly and brilliantly plotted murder investigation that stands central. I haven’t encountered such a storyline in Roman Fiction and much give a full praise to Nick Brown that he managed to translate the idea of the frumentarri into a gripping and action packed book which for me now comes to full fruition in the Far Shore. I might have said there aren’t any large scale battles, but don’t think that this book doesn’t see any action, it full of it, it’s fast paced, engaging, brutal and viscous at times.

The Far Shore reminds me why I like Roman Fiction so much. A series based on historical events can quite often be heavy material but Nick Brown brings the story and idea of the Agent of Rome to you in a perfect manner, giving balance to real history and fiction. His writing style only further makes this book and idea behind it that much more approachable as he truly engages you as a reader into the story, both by the great descriptions of the surroundings, exploring those ancient exotic places, and the cast of relatable characters. Cassius and Indavara’s characters kept on developing till the end. The Far Shore is the third book in the series but has a well rounded story to it making it work as a stand-alone as well. However I can only recommend that you read his other books as well (still got to read The Imperial Banner myself) but The Siege was just as amazing. What is even better is the fact that it isn’t over for Cassius just yet as in 2014 till 2016 will see three new editions to the Agent of Rome series, which I will eagerly await.