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Summary: Yeah, it rocks. Buy it, borrow it, whatever, just READ it!
Review: Gates of Fire is a novelized version of the actual events that happened in the epic battle of the Persians invasion of the hellenes at the gates of Thermopylae around 480 BC. Pressfield tells the story from the perspective of a Spartan slave who volunteered himself to serve as a helot in the Spartan heavy infantry.If you enjoy reading a good 'ol war book, this is a great one to pick up. Pressfield does a magnificent job of putting you right in the middle of the action, to where you can visualize in vivid detail every sword smashing shields, and spear killing man right down to the blood-soaked earth. Most of the story, leading up to the climatic battle in the end, are stories of every day Spartan life; a militant society that believed brute force was the answer to civilization and therefore root of their culture. On a personal level, and with many different characters, you will learn about the Spartan belief system, values, training, upbringing and much more. Romanticized by ancient Greek writings, and perpetuated by football team names across the nation, the Spartans are such an interesting group to read about. Even in 480 BC, at the height of democracy in it's youth, an equally stable, yet violent and militant society existed, with it's own codes and values. I've read a great deal of fiction and non-fiction WWII and Vietnam, in addition to countless military sci-fi novels, and I must say that Gates of Fire was a welcome relief to the "war" genre for me. Reading about hand-to-hand combat, about an event that actually took place, kept me turning pages frantically every night. I would reccommend this to anyone looking for a good novel on Spartan life and history. But be careful not to accept this as historical fact as it is still a novel based on real events.
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Summary: A legend brought to life
Review: As a young girl growing up in Greece, one of the most often told stories I heard was that of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans. I saw the grave marker and his enormous statue at Thermopylae for the first time when I was 5 years old. Since that day I have long for the impossible, to know the courageous men who layed down their lives against impossilbe odds for their country. Steven Pressfield's book brought them to life across millenia to once again fire my imagination and my great respect for their sense of honor and sacrifice to homeland.
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Summary: A truly "epic" novel
Review: In "Gates of Fire" Steven Pressfield does for the Battle of Thermopylae what "Saving Private Ryan" did for the D-Day invasion. In a novel of breathtaking power he tells the tale of a battle that literally altered the course of civilization, and the stories of the men who fought it. The most striking thing about this book is how well researched it was. There is a level of complexity in every character and setting that could not have been achieved without the most rigorous study. In particular, he goes a long way towards dispelling the myth of the Spartan automaton. While their society is not one that we would necessarily want to live it, it is remarkably rich and multi-layered, and Pressfield does a superb job of presenting it. Furthermore, in addition to an eye for historical detail, Pressfield has captured something of the style of the ancient epics. While by no means on par with the Odyssey or the Iliad, Pressfield's choice of language and pacing echoes these masterworks of western literature Where this novel truly shines, though, is in the battle scenes. The reader can almost smell the blood and sweat, feel the choking dust and crash of bodies and hear the awful screams of the wounded. I have read a lot of military fiction, but I have never been as captivated by anything in the genre, as I was by this novel. The author is able to accomplish this because he writes characters possessed of great humanity and pathos. One can feel and fear for them because they are so fully realized. Pressfield's attention to characterization makes the scenes of carnage and inevitable defeat all the more poignant. Ultimately you can read "Gates of Fire" on two different levels. First, you can approach it as a straight adventure story, and you will come away satisfied. The battles are as fast-paced and as well described as any you will find in writing. The second level is to consider this novel as a work of literature and history. I learned a tremendous amount in the reading of this book, and I was already fairly well versed in Greek history. Also, as I mentioned before, Pressfield's writing and choice of language perfectly captures the period. In the end, either way you choose to approach this novel, whether you take it at face value, or dig a little, you will certainly not be disappointed. Enjoy!
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Summary: Compelling historical fiction
Review: This is a fine historical novel that dramatizes a turning point in the history of western civilization. It provides a compelling portrait of ancient Greek life, which in many ways is distant to us, despite our debt to that civilization. The author does a brilliant job of presenting the brutal nature of hoplite warfare, an essential element of Greek society. In the process, he also paints a vivid picture of the cult of masculinity that this mode of war demanded. Yet at the same time, he does not neglect the women of Sparta. Indeed, he implies that ultimately, they run the polis. The historical information is kept compelling by a brilliant plot. A wonderful read. I use it in a college Political Theory course and it works great.
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Summary: Inspires interest in history
Review: As a fan of military history I found this book to be an enjoyable work of historical fiction. From cover to cover it is highly readable. It also is the type of book that might inspire the next generation to take more interest in their world and especially country's history. The lack of even a basic knowledge of history among recent high school graduates is appaling.This book and others like it, e.g The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, go a long way to making ancient times and events interesting to our attention impaired society. I really enjoyed this book and also Steven Pressfield's latest work,Tides of War.
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Summary: A recommended read
Review: Gates of Fire was recommended to me, and I'm glad it was lest I miss an engaging and truly epic read. It is the story of the battle of Thermoplyae where a vanguard of 4000 Greeks held off an invading army of 300,000 Persians for over a week while the rest of Greece readied itself. The battle was a phyrric one for the Persians, whose later defeat ushered in the "Golden Age" of Greece with Pericles, Socrates, Plato and the rest. At the heart of the story is the tale of the Spartans and their helots. Pressfield masterfully describes their training and daily life, presenting them as real people, not superhuman warriors - people who fear death, maiming and the violence of combat, yet overcome it. He could not be more right when he writes: "They will come, scholars perhaps, or travelers from beyond the sea, prompted by curiosity regarding the past or appetite for knowledge of the ancients. They will peer across the plains and probe among the stone and rubble of our nation. What will they learn of us? Their shovels will unearth neither brilliant palaces nor temples; their picks will prise forth no everlasting architecture or art. What will remain of the Spartans? Not monuments of marble or bronze, but this, what we do here today." The battle scenes will get your blood moving, the romance will tug at your heart strings. You will stand in awe at the strength of the Spartan women. Its historical accuracy is questionable, but the story is excellent. I strongly recommend this book.
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Summary: Greatest piece of historical fiction ever written
Review: Gates of Fire is captivating from its first page. Pressfield captures perfectly the sentiment of the time and weaves it seamlessly into the fabric of the story, so that his words are all the more powerful. Add this to one of the greatest battles in history and the greatest piece of historical fiction ever written is born.
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Summary: The Best Book Ever
Review: My teacher told me to read the Iliad over the winter vacation. I thought it was kind of neat, and it was sure better than Paradise Lost. But Gates of Fire is the greatest book ever written by a human being.
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Summary: A problematic mix
Review: Zero stars for the first half, four for the second half. An average of two stars in total. Short advice: Skip the first half if you want to get right to the battle. Longer review: I purchased this book eagerly, hoping for an epic account of the Thermopylae battle. Unfortunately it wasn't quite what I was looking for. To begin with, it's inexplicable that Pressfield devoted fully half his book to a completely irrelevant backstory about his narrator, an outsider who exists primarily on the periphery of events. Not only that, this narrator has little human insight to offer about those around him. It gets worse when most of his heroic characters, or should I say caricatures, lapse into long-winded philosophical musings which simply fall flat. At other times they just make loud proclamations rather than talk the way real people do. Leonidas and Dienekes, for example, feel more like stone monuments than human beings. I couldn't care less whether they lived or died. In short, the characterisation was passionless. The style of writing is jarring, with modern slang interspersed with more "classical" lines of dialogue. In addition, Pressfield throw names and locations about without providing much identity. The multi-layered narration failed to a large extent due to the above problems. The premise of a survivor recounting the 'inside story' to an enemy scribe feels contrived at best. The last 20 pages descend into sheer absurdity, just for the sake of tying up loose ends. A straightforward third-person account with more consistent dialogue, focusing primarily on the battle and the people involved would have been infinitely better. As a reader, wouldn't you have loved to get inside the minds of Leonidas and Dienekes? Instead we get the lowly Xeo, a second-stringer at best. On the plus side, Pressfield clearly excels in the description of combat. Yet even here I felt shortchanged. Only the very first individual confrontation is detailed in full; the rest are truncated, frequently with results telegraphed well in advance, not to mention irritating asides into insignificant past events or plain boring musings. This blunts any subsequent impact to a large degree. A good example would be the clandestine attack on Xerxes. Surely it wasn't necessary to give away so much so far in advance? This book could have been better. Much better. As a reader spoiled by the likes of Sharon K Penman's Welsh trilogy and similarly-styled works, with rewarding characters and history weaved as rich tapestries, Gates Of Fire comes as a grave disappointment indeed.
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Summary: This is an epic novel
Review: When I bought this book, I was worriedly expecting to be reading endless amounts of battles and military strategy that I would hardly grasp. So many reviewers concentrate on the depiction of the climactic Battle of Thermopylae that the other merits of the book (far more significant in my mind!) have been obscured. First, I was vividly and realistically immersed into Spartan life and culture around 480 BCE. I got to know individual Spartan warriors and women in ways that I figured would not be possible. Pressfield brings Spartan history into your bedroom. I found the Spartan's life of war and training to be surprisingly fascinating, especially because of the dozens of anecdotes that are scattered through Pressfield's book; it gives the rough and ready Spartans a more gentle, human face. And the philosophical insights about phobologia, or the Spartan discipline of studying how to master fear, are really worth thinking over. I can't wait to read Pressfield's newest book, The Tides of War (concentrating on the Pelopponnesian War). This book is not to be underrated--and don't let the fact that Pressfield also wrote "The Legend of Baggar Vance" deter you (how did he manage to write that book in between two powerful epic novels about Greek warfare and everyday life?). Get this book. Read it and you will, in some small way, learn to respect the Spartans more than any study of history alone could give you.
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