Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Gates of Fire was absolutely the best historical fiction I have ever read.... and I am a history major with 30 years of teaching behind me. I keep picking up the book and rereading parts of it. The characters are alive and the story is riveting. If you love history, read Pressfield.
Rating:
Summary: Living the 'Gates of Fire'
Review: As an avid reader of historical military fiction and a student of ancient Greece, I opened this book with high expectations. It did not disappoint. This was a soul-searing work that kept me up at night. If you enjoy experiencing what it might have been like to be a soldier in the ranks, both in the line of battle and in the lull times, this book offers an excellent vehicle. I've been to many of the battlefields of ancient Greece but not to Thermopylae. It will be part of my next visit without fail. Bravo to Pressfield- let's hope his next work is a worthy successor!
Rating: 
Summary: Gates of fire
Review: Incredibly unreadable, the "translation" of the language into digusting modern adjectives leaves me bewildered who could possibly want to read it. It reminds me of those terrible American Marine films. After many tries I never got past the first 89 pages.
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Summary: Think you're tough?
Review: The Spartans had two kings so that one could lead the army into battle, die with them if need be, and not leave Sparta ungoverned. King Leonidas himself, then in his *60's!,* expected his and exhorted his allies' troops to strike their tents and sleep outside unprotected, no matter the weather, so that they could use the tent material as bandages, this BEFORE the battle is even joined. That this book is based on fact sure changed the way I look at the world, at least as I relate to it. I find that little things bother me a lot less lately. I may be tough, but not that tough.
Rating: 
Summary: War may be work, but Pressfield also makes it entertaining!
Review: According to the Spartans, war is work, not mystery, but Pressfield makes it very entertaining too!THe book replays the famous battle at THermopalye and the epic stand by the Spartan s. And along the way we may even learn something about Ancient Sparta, the GReeks, the ways of the ancient world and the ancient warrior mindset. If you want to read about war and aren't afraid to admit you crave a little violence as entertainment, then this book is a refreshing alternative to the high tech impersonal violence so prevalent in the spy genre. Nothing is more personal than a sword or spear in your guts! However, the author manages to bestow honor upon those who fight, no matter which side. The author has carefully reconstructed the ancient world (read the acknowledgements for source material) but also given us a cast of unforgettable characters. THe heroes, like Dienekes, Polynikes, Alexandros and other fought nobly, died honorably and revealed their lives and culture to us in the process. And surprise, surprise, the last and most enduring testament of the book is to the women who support and grieve for them. I enjoyed the history and like any testosterne driven male, I loved the graphic battle scenes. If they make a movie of this it will make Gladiator seem like a Sunday picnic!
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Summary: Spartans on the ¿Dance Floor.¿
Review: Pressfield's narrative ruthlessly reveals the Spartan efficiency in battle. His power of description makes you feel as if you are watching a documentary filmed on location. Every reader will have a page or special paragraph where they are compelled to give homage to these original Hard-Core Soldiers. Mine was when Pressfield described how the front line of Spartan soldiers bought their eight footers from the vertical to the horizontal in one movement, as if the line was one creature, with one mind. Men in the second and even third ranks, thrust their weapons over the shoulders of their own men, turning the Spartan line into a piercing wall of death. That warriors who knew this to be their last battle could accomplish such unity and precision makes you bow your head in awe. A battlefield is strewn with tens of thousands of bodies. The horrible mass appears to move because the wounded and dying in their writhing cause this flesh mountain to look like the movements of one gigantic creature. Fear and Death have turned the earth into a shin-deep broth of urine and blood. What kind of steel spirit would it take to behold this battlefield and refer to it as "The Dance Floor?" Only a warrior of Sparta! The criteria that King Leonidas used in choosing the Three Hundred who would stand and die at the Hot Gates is the supreme example of harsh Spartan wisdom. The Three Hundred never knew the real reason King Leonidas selected them over their brethren, but you will know by the end of the book. This revelation alone is enough to challenge any ideas you had about Spartans. I had believed the Spartans were a warrior cult without reverence for life, something like ancient Clingons, but without honor. I now know that the Spartans shared bonds of brotherhood as rigorous and sacred as any religious order and that their brutality contained the raw compassion needed for survival.
Rating:
Summary: Stark and memorable
Review: Writing in a spare, violent prose that reminds me of what I (almost) remember of the Attic Greek I once knew, Mr. Pressfield brings ancient Greece and, in particular, the Spartans and those tributary to them with shocking clarity. He has pulled off a technical tour de force, in making a period of history far removed from us seem once again fresh and in making us care as passionately as Xeo -- who wasn't even a Spartan born. This is a story of heroism. But it is also a story of discipline, of loyalty between fighting men and to a state. For a book as violent as this, it is also a story of profound caring, both among the characters of the story and the readers it draws.
Rating:
Summary: This book humanizes Sparta
Review: Ever wonder why the Athenians get all the press and the Spartans usually get only 2 or 3 sentences?...well this book fills the void with compassion, understanding and style. Pressfield has done a wonderful job of not only describing the immediacy of (almost) hand-to-hand combat but also of illustrating the motivation and reason for Spartan courage in their men, women, and children. One reader complained of the sometimes archaic sentence structure..I thought it contributed greatly to the whole sense of the story. I'm ready to read his new one!
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional ...........
Review: Being a history teacher,world history and western civ, I have to constantly find new ways to get students intrested in the subject matter at hand. Enter Mr. Pressfield. His historical novel brings to life the fears, the courage and the candor of every warrior of every age. His historical accuracy and his prose style enhance the epic tale bringing to life the struggle within each of the characters to perform with Spartan courage under impossible odds. I have used this book in my classes, and the students seem to take away a better understanding of what life was truly like in ancient Greece. I have used the book to exhibit to them the chaos and confusion that is common place in the battlefields of history from Thermopylae to the Gulf War, from the Pelopenesian wars to the epic struggle of the U.S. Army Rangers in Somalia. I understand that some people would be hard pressed to fully understand the writing style of Mr. Pressfield. In an effort to better understand the style in which he chooses to write the novel, one should read; "The Campagins of Alexander" by Greek historian Arrian or "The Age of Alexander" by Plutarch, another Greek historian. Both of these classics are the foundation of the oratory style of Mr. Pressfield's main character, Xeo. Once again, Kudo's to Mr. Steven Pressfield.
Rating: 
Summary: A bore
Review: While the various battle set pieces ring authentic and one really feels they are witnessing first hand the carnage of war, I found this book rather boring. There seems to be very little in terms of character development. Mr. Pressfield's characters seem to be mere stick figures pasted against the backdrop of historical events. The writing is also rather ponderous at times. There were several occasions where I needed to re-read a sentence to understand it's meaning - strange choices in word order, etc. The dialogue strikes me also as anachronistic. Overall, I just didn't care. My attention wandered. It's a shame because I've read such good things about this book. I found it neither compelling nor particularly exciting. But perhaps that's just me... For truly exciting and colorfully written historical fiction set in the ancient world (albeit centuries later than the events chronicled in this book), Colleen McCullogh's "First Man in Rome" series is about as good as it gets.
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