1965 historical fiction for young people. Phaedrus the gladiator wins
his freedom, but has no idea what to do with it, and rapidly runs into
trouble. Then he is offered a role in a cunning plan: to stand in for
the rightful king (deposed, blinded so as to be unable to rule, and
thought dead) of a North British tribe and lead the counter-coup.
Well, yes, structurally it's in the halo surrounding books like
The Prisoner of Zenda, Brat Farrar and The Ivy Tree, complete
with early scenes of Phaedrus being coached in the imposture and
worries about who will see through it. But most of what the book is
about is Phaedrus' life as warrior-king of the Dalriads; the
counter-coup doesn't go quite as planned, the usurper gets away, and
he's thrown into a very uneven war.
I am not usually good at picking up foreshadowing but I found it very
apparent here: perhaps that means it was heavy-handed, perhaps I was
just unusually on form. No spoilers, but there are hints of a sequence
of events that will be followed, no matter what the people involved
may think of the business.
And since it's Sutcliff, there are real hard choices to make, not just
an obvious best thing to do that will make everyone happy.
The only Sutcliff I'd read before starting this recent batch was The
Eagle of the Ninth and I am increasingly impressed with her writing.