Geraint Jones Books In Order

Publication Order of Blood Forest Books

Publication Order of Raven and the Eagle Books

Publication Order of Sugarman Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones is a Welsh author of historical books best known for his books Blood Forest series. He served in the military and has been in action in Afghanistan and Iraq. For his exemplary service in Iraq, Geraint was awarded General Officer Commanding’s Award and was later selected for the Reconnaissance Platoon. Upon completion of his service in the military, Geraint worked as a guard to protect commercial shipping against Nigerian and Somali based piracy.

Blood Forest

Felix, the only lucky man, doesn’t feel especially lucky when he crawls out into the grove only to find the bodies of his twelve comrades mutilated in the worst ways possible. He felt less lucky from the moment the Roman Calvary arrived. He might have fled, but he knew he would never make it. He bravely stood up to face whatever came his way.

What had come before, he informs them (and the readers) he cannot remember. Felix isn’t his real name; it’s the name the assign him when they find him and clean him up, wiping every last drop from his body in a way that they will never wipe it from his memories. His rescuer is a German soldier with a Roman name: Arminius- who whose side is he on? And how much does that matter to the man now known as Felix, sent to serve with Governor Varus’s army? He is enlisted in the army and put in as a newcomer, a replacement, and it soon becomes clear to his colleagues that he’s served before. Whatever skeletons he is hiding, he can’t hide the sword craft, drill-memory, and articulate workmanship that keep the soldiers alive against an adversary that fight the Romans on open ground but will attack them to the death in the darks of the forest.

The forest is the best ally that nemesis has. This is not the type of terrain that the Roman warriors have been trained for. This is the ground where the glory for war turns out to fight for personal survival. But it’s also the ground where you get to know who your friends are and also where you find that you have made some regardless of how hard you tried not to.

From the blurb, one can guess that Blood Forest is a blend of Gladiator and Full Metal Jacket. The book closely resonates with Bernard Cornwell Sharpe and Last Kingdom series. It’s like a true retelling of the true bloody European history. Although most of the action in the book is set on the Roman side, it’s stuck with the reasons why Rome is not the humane, glorious, justified, and democratic empire it proclaims to be. This four hundred pages novel tells the tales of war, comradeship, and how it is built and destroyed. It’s a vicious tale. The story tells of the dark side of Roman history that schools never taught you about. It tells of the roman marching camps, drills and tactics and how much sweat, blood, and tears went into them. In fact, your schooling in Roman history also omitted the fact that the Roman army wasn’t largely Roman at all. In his book, Geraint Jones informs us what a legionnaire got after retiring from the service and how and why it wouldn’t be enough. He also tells about the enemies the Romans legionnaires were fighting and how they were oppressed trying to protect their farms, families and beliefs.

While the history we read at school was one-sided, Geraint forces us to consider the two sides of the story because we can never be sure which side of the narrator is on. We already know that he masquerades in front of his section men and officers, mostly but not always. He opens up at times. But can we trust him more than they can? Is he revealing to us his secrets to the readers as he slowly remembers them or is trying to gain our trust as we listen to his tale? Could he be a deserter or a spy? If so for which side, and where is he headed? He tells us that he’s headed to Britain, far beyond the rule of Rome, but that is a long way from where he started and a long way from the forests of Germany where he is now trying to survive as Vargus’s army crumbles, as he tries to save a few that have become some dysfunctional family to him.

If you grew up reading Rosemary Sutcliffe’s books, then Geraint Jones books are what you would graduate to: they are about Roman wars for the grown-ups. Novels about vivacious men leading hard lives and from the military point of view, the books highlight the Roman way of doing things and their guerrilla tactics.

Brothers in Arms

Geraint Jones wrote a non-fiction book, Brothers in Arms to detail his experiences in the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan. Brothers in Arms is a shockingly darkly funny, honest and an unforgettable account of the reality of war- every dull, frightening, exciting moment and the strong friendship bonds that can never be destroyed.

Geraint (Gez) served was deployed in Afghanistan in Camp Bastion with the rest of his closest friends, Jay, Danny, Jake and Toby, all combat-hardened infantrymen. Thanks to the crushed remains of a vehicle left outside their tents, IEDs were never far from their mind. Within days, they would be sent on the ground in Musa Qala with his good friends- men of honor he would die for.

As they fight fiercely, stretched to their limits, surrounded by IEDs and obstructed by a chain of command, Gez starts to ponder what the point of it all is. The IEDs they would uncover on their patrols would be replaced the next day. Firefights are a temporary victory in a war they already knew was unwinnable. Gez is a warrior and needs more than this. But then death and injuries take a toll on his team, leaving him with PTSD and a new battle to fight.

3 Responses to “Geraint Jones”

1. Geraint: 2 years ago

   Hi Stephen. Thanks for following the series. Traitor and Rebel are now out, and I will be definitely bringing out another. Cheers! Geraint.

   Reply
2. Lucy: 2 years ago

   A great Rosemary Sutcliffe book is The Sword at Sunset of story of Arthur though not as a king as such but as a tribal leader who became the leader of many tribes to stop the disintegration of Britain after the Romans left. Their is no Camelot and knights in shinning armour and it incorporates some archaeological findings that are fascinating. It is out of print but is available on Kindle. I love it and it is my favourite Arthur book..Arthur as he might really have been if he did exist.

   Reply
3. Stephen Patrick: 3 years ago

   Having read “Blood forest” and “Seige” I have just purchased “Legion” but don’t want to start reading it until “Traitor” comes out in print (don’t really do Kindle as I like the feel of a book when reading it). Also keen to find out if you intend expanding the tales of Corvus/Felix

   Reply