Gates of Fire

Rating:
Summary: Men, men, men , men....
Review: Best thing about this book is how all the characters are always staring at each other's physiques. You know how those Greeks were, nudge nudge, wink wink. I guess the parts where they're all stabbing each other are good, too.

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Summary: One of the most gut-wrenching novels I've ever read...
Review: Pressfield set out to create an awe-inspiring Greek epic revolving around the Battle of Thermopaylae, and he did just that. Xeones' story is one of fierce determination, iron-will, love, and war. A novel that should be read by all students of history, past and present.

The novel is focused on a Spartan squire named Xeones, who is the only survivor of a kamikaze like mission to stave off the oncoming Persian hordes in order for the Greek mainland forces to assemble their men together and fight back, thus preserving democracy.

The story begins during Xeones' childhood as a young boy living with his parents when they are attacked by their "allies," the Argives. In the ensuing attack Xeones' parents are killed forcing him, his cousin (Diomache) and his father's servant (Bruxius) to flee into the hills. What ensues is Xeones' childhood, his calling to be a Spartan archer, his eventual entrance into the Spartan academy at Lakedaemon, and the final battle at Thermopaylae.

The novel is strikingly captivating and never ceases to entertain. It is, of course, all historical-fiction, but it combines war and love together so well, that by the end of the novel I had an almost completely different perspective on life. It manages to do what so little novels do today, entertain and educate, both historically and emotionally. The novel is a must-read, and I highly recommended it. The book can be summed up with this short Greek poem: "Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie."

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Summary: Reservations about the historical accuracy of the book.
Review: I thought it was a pretty good story, and it was interesting to see things from a pro-Spartan perspective. But I have serious doubts that the book is historically reliable. For example:

The author takes it for granted that Xerxes really had an army of two million; I gather modern historians believe it was much smaller than that.

One of the characters makes a casual reference to a tomato. Tomatoes are from the New World, so were not known in classical antiquity or for a thousand years or so thereafter. This isn't important, but it is evidence that the author isn't careful about historical details.

One of the characters makes a reference to future archaeologists digging up Sparta (not quite in those words). I would have thought that the idea of excavating a ruin to learn about the people who lived there was a modern rather than a classical one.

The warriors seem to be mainly using 8 foot spears. The Greek phalanx as I thought I understood it, and the Macedonian phalanx a couple of generations after this, used much longer spears. It is possible that the Spartans were using 8 foot spears at Thermopylae, but that wouldn't have been my guess.

The combat involves a good deal of a shoving match, with many lines of people each pushing the one ahead. I associate that approach with the "push of pike" in renaissance warfare. Is there evidence that phalanx combat worked that way too?

I also find it a little hard to take seriously Spartans talking about the superiority of a kingdom of free men to one of slaves, given that they were slaveholders on a massive scale--but I wouldn't be surprised if that part were right.

Not a bad book, but to me it doesn't carry the conviction of work by first rate historical novelists such as Renault or O'Brian.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I was assigned to read this book for an Ancient Civilization class I am taking. I didnt honestly expect much, as most of the books that are required reading at my school are terrible. I was very supprised however. This book is an excellent story about the bravery of the ancient spartans. After reading this, I have also read Tides of War, also by Steven Pressfield, and I would recommend that also.

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Summary: Quench your thirst for the salty sting of the battlefield
Review: What an outstanding read! Do not be put off by the subject matter. The writing is clean, organized and every page is filled with the smell of adventure. This is a great primer for anyone interested in the Spartans or war or mans quest for unequivacol accomplishment. Stand silent in the pass at Thermopylae next to 300 of the bravest men to ever live and stare down 1 million Persians who marched unknowingly into hells den and ultimatley, to their deaths. Steven Pressfield brought high adventure to a collosal effort in professional academia. A fine mixture of what was and what might have been.

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Summary: Stunned
Review: I have just this second finished this wonderful book and now need to share some of my thoughts and feelings that it has evoked.I came to the book by accident - browsing a friends bookshelf- and I remember seeing the a review on the back cover saying "....... for six days the Spartans held the invaders at bay ..... shields broke, swords and spears shattered, they fought with their bare hands and teeth before being overcome...."

I started to read the book thinking that action, blood and gore was to be the order of the day - it turned out to be a small part in the scheme of the story. I was there, seeing feeling and trying to comprehend what the real meaning of friendship, valour, heroism, stuborness and the whole gambit of human characteristics that makes us what we are or aren't.

Although we now, on the whole, live in a completely different world, the values so evocotively portrayed are something we can all learn from and be inspired by.

I'm going for a lie down!!!

Rating:
Summary: If you liked Gladiator, read about the real thing
Review: Few books are as gripping as those which depict the true story of pre-meditated self-sacrifice. In these jaded times, the virtues which characterize the Spartans are seen as too simplistic or naive. Who can imagine George W Bush or Al Gore abdicating their position to lead troops on a suicide mission? Maybe Jack Ryan would, but we would still be in the realm of fiction.

After almost 2,500 years, King Leonidas and his men continue to provide lessons in courage, honor, and duty. These words are rarely used today but Pressfield conveys their meaning well through Gates of Fire. This book is more inspiring than a library of self-help books. Five stars are not enough!

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Summary: Cracking good yarn about the Spartans who held the pass
Review: A Special Forces veteran I'd met in Vietnam sent me this book because we both had something to do with the Burt Lancaster film "Go Tell the Spartans". (I wrote the novel it was based on, and he was one of the guys who took me to the garrison that inspired the story.) I started reading it just to be a good sport. I finished it in two days, and I'm completely wrung out. It's a masterpiece of historical fiction and a thoughtful study of the meaning of courage.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably impressive
Review: Once in a while you get along a book that really stuns you. That has not happened to me often in the last 10 years (with George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones the notable exception), but this one really did.

I cannot believe how much care and work has gone into researching the book and besides delivering the facts it succeeds in writing style and the action never lets go. An ideal book for anyone interested in history.

Rating:
Summary: go tell the Spartans
Review: In 480 BC, King Xerxes lead a Persian army of between one and two million into Greece. The Spartan King Leonidas lead 300 Knights ans some 700 Thespaian allies to the narrow pass at Thermopylae, in order to hold the Persians back as long as possible. They proceeded to hold the pass for 7 days. These 300 Spartans died to a man defending the pass against a force of over a million and the epitaph provided to them by the poet Simonides, "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie", is perhaps the most famous in history. Their example rallied and inspired all of Greece and eventually the Persians were defeated in the naval battle at Salamis and on land at Plataea.

Pressfield (whose only previous novel was the, by all accounts wretched, golf story The Legend of Bagger Vance) has taken this story and created a novel that is not only a brilliant recreation of Ancient Greece, but can also stand beside The Killer Angels (1974)(Michael Shaara 1929-1988) (Grade: A+) as one of the great war novels of all time.

The story is told from the point of view of Xeones of Astakos, supposedly the sole survivor among the Spartans, who Xerxes has tell his story to the court historian Gobartes. Xeones starts with the tale of how he came to Sparta. As a youth, his village of Astakos is destroyed and his family slaughtered, but he and the cousin he loves, Diomache, escape. As they wander the countryside, Diomache is raped by soldiers and Xeones is crucified after stealing a chicken, although Diomache saves him from death. Thrown into despair, because his hands are so damaged that he can never wield a sword, Xeones heads off by himself to die. But he experiences a visitation from the Archer god Apollo Far Striker and realizes he can still wield a bow. When Diomache, who is also distraught after being violated by the soldiers, takes off, Xeones heads to Sparta where he hopes to join the army.

The middle section of the book, which I found interesting but slow, deals with his life in Sparta and the training techniques used by the Spartans to create what was one of the most formidable fighting forces the world has ever seen. Eventually he becomes the squire of one of the 300 knights who are chosen for Thermopylae.

The final section, on the battle itself, depicts wholesale slaughter accompanied by acts of ineffable courage. It also relates two of the great lines of all time. When Xerxes offers to spare the Spartans lives if they will surrender their arms, Leonidas is reputed to have snarled, "come and get them." And upon being told that the Persians have so many bowmen that the cloud of arrows would blot out the sun, one of the Spartans says, "good, then we'll have our battle in the shade."

Having just read The Thin Red Line , where James Jones presents war as a fundamentally nonsensical and tedious exercise, it was a real joy to read this book. Pressfield captures the romantic side of war (recall Robert E. Lee's comment, "It is good War is so horrible else we would come to love it too much") by relating the true history of the Spartans awesome sacrifice. In two of my favorite passages, he explains: (1) why this sacrifice is so beautiful to us, "In one way only have the gods permitted mortals to surpass them. Man may give that which the gods cannot, all he possesses, his life"; and (2) why men fight, "Forget country. Forget king. Forget wife and children and freedom. Forget every concept, however noble, that you imagine you fight for here today. Act for this alone: for the man who stands at your shoulder."

I can not recommend this one highly enough. Read it.

GRADE: A+