Attila: The Judgment »

William Napier was born in 1965 and educated in Cheltenham, Oxford and London. He lives in Wiltshire and travels widely.

The epic conclusion to the life of a great warrior

Publishers Weekly

Napier wraps up his Attila trilogy on an exciting and gory note, picking up where Attila: The Gathering of the Storm left off, with Attila's invasion of the Roman empire in 449 C.E. as he begins a ruthless campaign of slaughter in revenge for Roman atrocities. As Attila and his warriors burn and kill across central Europe, the two Roman emperors, Valentinian in Rome and Theodosius in Constantinople, dither, bicker, and plot against each other, both relying on a disgraced but able Roman general, Aëtius, to save the empire. Much of the story is taken up with gruesome descriptions of all manner of violence, pushed along by secret alliances, assassination plots, trickery, spy networks, and promises of mercy made and broken. Napier (pseudonym of Christopher Hart) is a talented storyteller who pulls serpentine plots and big action sequences from historical fact, creating a muscular portrayal of fifth-century warfare between the Hun hordes and the crumbling Roman empire. (Nov.)