Book Log 2009 #50: Give Me Back My Legions! by Harry Turtledove

Rather than dabbling in alt-history, this book is fictionalized account of the Battle of Teutoberg Forest, starting a few years before the battle and ending a short time afterwards. I think I'd have preferred an alt-history take, as this straight history was quite repetitive, as we'd be reminded every chapter or so that the main German character really doesn't like the Romans, and the main Roman character trusts the main German character even though all the other Romans tell him not to.

There's surprisingly little going on outside of this set-up, and the final battle provides relief mostly by signaling that the book is almost over. I get the sense that Turtledove has more ideas than time to write them, resulting in works primarily written to meet a deadline. I'd have preferred he didn't write this at all and spent more time improving The Man With the Iron Heart.