The Druid King

The Druid King by Spinrad, Norman. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780375411106.

Vercingetorix, the great Gallic warrior, was both a man of history and a man of myth. Druid King of Gaul, King of One Hundred Battles, he was among Julius Caesar’s greatest opponents; his eventual defeat at Caesar’s hands was said to prove Caesar’s unstoppable power. Yet Vercingetorix has remained, to this day, a French national hero. And now he is the heart and soul of this enthralling and evocative historical novel. Witness to his father’s harrowing death, Vercingetorix spends years deep in the forest living with the druids. Although they raise him as one of their own, his father’s honor and the looming shadow of Rome force him to become a warrior. After an ill-fated alliance with Caesar, he gathers the tribes of Gaul against law and custom into a single army, ragtag but determined to face down the might of the Romans. This dramatic and momentous life, played against a brilliantly created background of the disparate worlds of Gallic and Roman soldiers, is riveting. The final battle that pits Vercingetorix’s will against Caesar’s own rounds out a novel that richly traces the arc of a hero’s life and the origin of a legend.