Böcker av Deke D Wagner

FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD!IT IS THE YEAR A.D. 85-Veteran cavalry officer Aulus Artorius, rugged and battle-scarred, is stationed on the frontier of Germania, known as the Agri Decumates, during a bloody war with the Chatti, a barbaric Germani tribe. Artorius is attached to the newly created First Legion Minervia, a nascent and untried military force. The Roman cavalry and cohorts of the First Legion engage in bloody skirmishes on a daily basis. Artorius is also "married" to a Germani woman who has bore him a son, a curly four-year old named Rubio. During a provisioning sortie to Moguntiacum, Artorius reunites with his old commander, Lucius Saturninus, governor of Germania Superior. Artorius learns of the governor's plan to overthrow the Emperor of Rome, the much-hated Flavius Domitianus, second son of the renowned Emperor Vespasianus. The story moves to Rome as Artorius returns for a much needed furlough. But events in Germania begin to unravel as a rebellious Germani auxiliary murders a Roman officer, Aulus' best friend. An Imperial manhunt begins. On his way home, Aulus runs afoul of Gallic bandits, the angry sea, a haughty Tribune, a traitorous Senator, and the Emperor himself. He is unexpectedly separated from his Germani family for a extended period, when he accepts an appointment to the Praetorian Guard. Aulus begins to question the Emperor's sanity, finding him to be cruel and capricious. And just as things come to a head, another war breaks out in the eastern provinces... AN ADVENTUROUS TALE OF REBELLION, WARFARE AND IMPERIAL INTRIGUE SET DURING THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

A NOVEL OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN AIR SERVICEA TALE OF AERIAL ADVENTURE set in France during World War I. Willi Wissemann, an impetuous Bavarian officer, joins the German Air Service in 1916 to escape the drudgery and hardships of trench warfare. He is sent to the Front after a brief stint in flying school and begins his career as a recon-bomber pilot, excelling at the seemingly menial tasks of aerial bombardment and photographic reconnaissance. But Wissemann soon realizes that flying single-seat fighting scouts is his true destiny. When the German High Command reorganizes the Air Service into specialized "hunting-squadrons" and re-equips them with their latest scout, the Albatros D.III-the air war takes on a fiercer and more deadly course. Finally, after many months of pestering the Army High Command, Willi Wissemann gets his chance to take command of a Jasta-a fighter squadron. Once he arrives at the airfield in the Champagne sector, he realizes he has his work cut out for him. He must reorganize an insubordinate bunch of misfits, misanthropes, castoffs and drunks, into a real fighting-squadron. Then during the height of the French spring offensive of 1917, Wissemann is asked to fly a special mission to Paris, transporting a Secret Service agent. What happens next will have a profound effect on his life, his career, and his outlook on the war, changing him forever, scarring his soul for eternity.

THE EPIC SEQUEL TO AGRI DECUMATES. IN THE YEAR 86 A.D. After being dismissed from the Praetorian Guard, Aulus Artorius is sent east to Moesia to fight the invading Dacians. As a Decurion, he takes command of an auxiliary cavalry troop and trains it for the coming campaign. The troop is assigned scouting duties for the Seventh Legion, which encounters minimal resistance as they penetrate deep into the Dacian countryside-modern day Romania. Then, days later, the Fifth and Seventh Legions are ambushed by ruthless Dacian warriors. Both legions are slaughtered wholesale. Aulus is gravely wounded and evacuated to Dalmatia. Aulus and a thousand other troops are sent back to Rome for rest and rehabilitation. After an inflamed meeting with the Emperor Domitian, Aulus is discharged from the Army and exiled from Rome. He returns to Germania with his Germani wife, son and infant daughter. Officially retired from the cavalry, Aulus settles into a carefree rural lifestyle, breeding horses and raising a family. He is eventually contacted by his old friend Governor Lucius Saturninus, who revives his plan to overthrow the Emperor of Rome. With the discovery of a hidden cache of gold and Aulus' fealty, Saturninus plots a rebellion. Coercing the Twenty-First and Fourteenth Legions into joining his cause, mainly by seizing their savings accounts, Saturninus delivers an ultimatum to the Emperor and then marches on Rome. Incensed, Domitian mobilizes his Legions and the Praetorian Guard, and decides to confront Saturninus before he invades Italy. What follows is a bloody showdown on the plains of Germania and the slopes of the Alpes. Thousands of troops are slain and the course of Imperial Roman history is threatened. The will and resolve of two mighty Romans is severely tested as the battle rages on, and caught in the middle of all of it, Aulus Artorius Celsus, the greatest cavalryman in all the Roman Army, must sacrifice his ideals and possibly his life, or see Rome fall to ruin and total destruction.*(Originally published under the title "Agri Decumates" ACT IV & V)