The Lantern Bearers

By: Rosemary Sutcliff

Narrated by: Johanna Ward

When the last of the Roman Auxiliaries leave Britain forever, they abandon the country to internal strife and the menace of invasion by Saxons.

These are dark days indeed for Aquila, a young Roman officer who returns to his family villa to find all that he loves destroyed by the invaders. He escapes slavery only to learn that his sister has married a Saxon, and the knowledge fills him with bitterness.

It takes many years of hardship and strenuous fighting under the Roman-British leader Ambrosius before Aquila finds a measure of contentment, learned partly from the kind and gentle Brother Ninnias, partly from the loving loyalty of his wife Ness, and partly from an encounter with his sister's son, who is fighting with the enemy.

This exciting chronicle, full of stirring incident and bitter conflict, brings to vivid life the turbulent period before the Dark Ages.

©1986 Rosemary Sutcliff (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great story, great for sleeping!

This is one of my favorites, but now I've listened to it so many times I just put it on for falling asleep. The reader's voice is very soothing, and the prose is beautiful.

Another wonderful book!

The Lantern Bearers is another heart-rending masterpiece by a genius at historical fiction. The narrator was made for the story. Couldn't put it down!

All around great story

Wonderful story great storytelling very descriptive once you get into it it’s very suspenseful at the beginning it’s a very slow moving story but as you get farther in it just draws you in. I listened to this with my sixteen year old daughter and she found it a little boring at first but as the story progressed she seemed to be drawn in.

love it

interesting. on the edge of my seat.wow and well wort it in every word.great material

Excellent

What an incredible piece of literature. So well written and read. Sutcliff deserves all the recognition and honors for her writing. Now to track done more of her work.

Beautiful and sad, like the best and worst of people.

This book, is where the budding of the author’s best talent -which we begin to feel in her first works- has broken into spreading flower.

I almost left my phone in my car after the first rainy night’s listen. There are, sometimes, enough real hurts in our world, that we don’t wish to hear of too real a pain for the newest character to meet us on the pages of a fresh story. His hurts resonated forcefully enough to unsettle my own old wounds.

Next morning, I’d forgotten my desire to throw the book across the room. A bracing sip of strong coffee and a half hour for the story to win its place above a distracted morning’s thoughts, then to find its feet.. and I felt myself well and truly caught up.

I won’t say this is among the best listens… or actually. Yes, I will say that. It isn’t perfect. It’s frustrating even in some ways. But there’s something real, and something quite beautiful about it. How else would a story of pain and honor and the stumbling best effort of one man, and of an entire people, sum up the pain of dusk or the hope for morning? Here is honor. Foolish manliness. And something encouraging about it, despite and because of how real the unfortunate parts of this story and this character are.

Some older works deserve to be forgotten in the mist. This one, I hope is remembered and discovered by more people for a while yet. There’s something refreshing about a well crafted story, where the main sense of triumph, has more to do with the man we walked alongside through it, than in how he helped save his imperiled kingdom or universe.

It was a great adventures book!

The narrator was great, and I loved the story. I don't really like to read but this is a book I really enjoyed.

Typical Rosemary excellence

I have to listen/ read a Rosemary Sutcliff book that I do not thoroughly enjoy. I really enjoyed Aquila as the main character as he was very relatable as a man with a broken spirit. Very well written.

Beautiful Story Beautifully Read

Rosemary Sutcliff creates the most cinematic and enrapturing stories. They stick with you for life.

Great historical fiction

This is one of my favorite Rosemary Sutcliff novels about Ancient Britain and a group of "lantern bearers" who try to keep the flame of civilization lit as the Dark Ages loom with the fall of the Roman Empire. The main character, Aquila, is a complex man with a strong sense of duty and decency who faces difficult choices and mixed loyalties. I was introduced to Rosemary Sutcliff's novels in a children's literature class in college, but after listening to all of her books offered by Audible and reading a few in print I realized her writing is more suitable for older teens, young adults and adults. She takes what little is known for sure about Ancient Britain and weaves it into a realistic story line, creating characters that tell us who they are through their actions without wasting words or using unnecessary explanatory narrative. Her style is very lyrical and Johanna Ward has the perfect voice for narrating her books. Sometimes I hit the rewind just to hear a particularly lovely descriptive passage again.