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Summary: a gripping, literary tale of war and peace in ancient greece
Review: I loved this book and fully support the chorus of compliments that proceeded me. I would add couple of things: 1. it was interesting to learn about Spartan notions of Democracy and individual freedom; 2. readers who assume that the book, however literary, is basically a war story, or somesuch, are casting it too narrowly. Between its subtle characterizations (of both men and women), and meaty themes: love, freedom, redemption, family and society bonds, etc., it's a very rich reading experience. 3. that said, all the millions of people devoring Stephen Ambrose's books would love this one. Happy reading.
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Summary: Sparta outnobles Athens
Review: Fine research, a great story, and very able writing make this the best novels of ancient Greece since Mary Renault---and to my taste better. It is also one of the best tales of the warrior life. The blurb by Col. David Hackworth on the cover is earned.
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Summary: Moving
Review: Most of us learn about Classical Greece with a decided Athenian slant. The Athenians are brilliant, creative, and democratic, while the Spartans are dull, backward, and belligerent. Pressfield shows us the other side of Sparta, a society that prizes bravery, honor, and self-sacrifice, a city where the men know that their lives are not their own, but belong to their community, their families, and their descendants. I was intensely moved by the sacrifice of the men at Thermopylae; indeed, I was moved to tears, which no book has ever done. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Hellenic culture or who appreciates something beyond today's vapid preoccupation with self.
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Summary: Wonderful. Best novel of the ancient world that I have read
Review: A very fast paced and exciting novel. The world of Sparta comes alive. The characters, both Greek and Persian, are fully developed and you care deeply as their worlds collide. If you like history or military books, you'll love this novel.
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Summary: A great achievement!!!. A book to read the family together!!
Review: Since I was a child I have been captured by the story of the "300 Spartans". I have read lots of very well writen historical works about the battles between Greece and Persia. However, Mr. Pressfield has writen a book to be read by father and son, mother and daughter, all the family together. This is a great achievement in our days!!!!!. The way each character has been outlined in the novel and balanced each other is a great accomplishment. Congratulations!!!
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Summary: Outstanding
Review: An outstanding book. If you're interested in military history or just enjoy a good read, this is it.
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Summary: instant classic in the Homeric tradition
Review: Pressfield has done it! Beginning with an invocation to the Muses and ending with a story spent return of the battle's sole survivor to Hades, the reader is transported to the battlefield at Thermopylae. The reader will become so involved in the book that one's hair stands on the neck, muscles tense and the heart palpitates. When it was over, I was saddened. It's a definite re-read. My only dilemma.... I'm trying to figure out how I can use this in a graduate studies class for organizational behavior or leadership and have it be understood by those without a classical education!
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Summary: A great read
Review: This book starts slow. But once you get into it, it's tough to put down. Very well done.
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Summary: Fascinating, Enchanting . . . and a little dangerous
Review: This is a very, very powerful book. Written with seemingly impeccable research and fevered conviction, Pressfield successfully brings the heat and heartbreak of battle breathing to our very faces. A fromidable feat of imagination. And yet . . . the use of several melodramatic set-pieces and maudlin exchanges mars an otherwise superbly written novel. For this reader's tastes, there was rather too much noble opining by Spartan leaders and too much ham-fisted romance (although, strangely, never explicitly amongst the men of the Spartan army, many of whom most surely had male lovers). I was also disturbed by Pressfield's palpable worship of the Spartan men. Not only that, but his novelist's skill is such that I challenge anyone not to find themselves similarly inclined. Unfortunately, in this book, the result is fairly a glorification of war. Without a doubt, the Three Hundred were/are worthy of glorification. However, a novel which leaves us thrilled and excited by battle is, ultimately, just a little dangerous.
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Summary: Richard Bernstein's New York Times review sums it up for me.
Review: Richard Bernstein's November 9, 1998 New York Time's review of Steven Pressfield's "Gates of Fire" reflects my thoughts of this epic adventure perfectly. So I quote Mr. Bernstein: "Men Behind the Scenes of Antiquity's Carnage:Herodotus, in his great history of the Persian Wars, says that the bravest combatant of them all was the Spartan Dienekes who, when told that the Persian arrows blocked out the sun, jauntily replied: "Good. Then we'll have our battle in the shade." That anecdote serves as an epigram for Steven Pressfield, whose new novel, "Gates of Fire," is a gripping and swashbuckling re-imagining of the battle of Thermopylae, perhaps the most famous military engagement of antiquity. Not surprisingly, one of Mr. Pressfield's main characters is the very Dienekes who, naturally, utters the words that Herodotus attributed to him. Dienekes's display of defiant humor is one small example of the way in which Mr. Pressfield has woven history into a novel that, in addition to plenty of sweep and sting, has a feel of authenticity about it from beginning to end. These pages are written as a kind of heroic saga, drenched in the gore of battle and the dust of Spartan discipline. Mr. Pressfield sprinkles his text with the vocabulary of the Greeks--with helots (slaves) and hoplites (foot soldiers), the eight-foot spears and the short daggers of the Spartans, the medications used to treat wounds and the especially pungent vocabulary of a martial society. But along with a stirring history lesson, Mr. Pressfield has created a stirring story. His Spartan heroes are Homeric in dimension, but they are fully formed figures struggling with the terror of battle, pondering the meanings of freedom and obedience as well as the sacrifice of oneself for the state.... By the time he brings his story to a finish, we have learned a great deal of history, and we have sensed as well the protean grandeur of antiquity. It's not unlikely that Herodotus, who made Mr. Pressfield's story possible, would have enjoyed this book."
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