Rating: 
Summary: ok story. absorbing fight scenes.
Review: In the beginning of the book an Amazon woman escapes captivity and a young girl runs away from her Athens home to follow. A posse is assembled and several of its members are men who met and battled with the Amazon tribe in their youth. As the chase progresses, these men recite events in flashback chapters until the entire account takes place 20 years before and traces their voyage to Amazonia in what is now Turkey. This back and forth goes on for about 100 pages and is disruptive to the flow of the story. But, it finally moves entirely into the past and that's when we meet the Amazons and things really improve. In Amazonia, the Athenians encounter a tribe of women warriors. The Greek King and the Amazon war Queen fall in love. In the aftermath of a battle, the Queen makes an unpopular decision and she leaves her people to join her lover when he returns to Athens. The Amazons feel that Athens and city living in general is a threat to their tribal way of life. Rallied by a false claim that their Queen has been kidnapped, the people of the plains unite to march on Athens and lay siege to the fledgling democracy. There are alternating narrators and frequent jumps through time. The flawed narrative structure and the flat characters left me thinking there was a whole story behind the story. There is also an element of the writing style that provides long lists of names that I eventually just skimmed. The descriptive passages of the fighting on the plains, during the siege, the one on one fights for honor and victory, all were vivid and absorbing. I could sense the work that went into crafting every page. By the time it was drawing to a close, I thought, wow this guy can write. I wish that the same work that went into crafting every passage had been put into creating a better overall story with an easier flow. This book contrasted city life and tribal living, highlighted gender roles and asks what's worth fighting and dying for. I thought the book was good. The author is obviously talented, but this book could have been great and it fell short. 3.5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Pressfield's Iliad and Odyssey
Review: Let me make it easy for you. If you are an occasional reader looking for a good book ... if you enjoyed the films Gladiator, Braveheart, 13th Warrior, Spartacus, Last of the Mohicans (get it: Last of the Amazons), and others of that genre .... If you are a fan of Arthurian Legend and stories of valor, heroism, courage and commitment, you will love this book.. It packs a wallop like no other book I've read since Gates of Fire, and it can potentially (if someone steps up to the bar) hit you from the big screen like a two-by-four. If those things are of no interest to you, go look for another book and don't waste your time reading the rest of this. Steven Pressfield has taken himself to new heights with Last of the Amazons. When I learned Mr. Pressfield was following Tides of War with a book about Amazons, I was very skeptical. That skepticism disappeared after my first day of reading. From my perspective, I know of few stories that can capture the soul of courage like the stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Mr. Pressfield told that story like it's never been told in Gates of Fire. It remains my favorite book as much for Pressfield's telling as for the story itself. Nonetheless, he has taken historical references from Plutarch and other archeological suggestions, combined them with legend that has survived millenniums and created a tale that rivals Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. After turning the last page, I pulled out a 1951 translation of Homer's epics, and sensed a similar style and prose. As Diana Gabaldon (Fiery Cross) wrote on the back cover, "Homer would be proud of this guy [Pressfield]." Truer words have been rarely spoken about an author. This is a story about freedom, the freedom of individuals and the freedom of a nation. As Mr. Pressfield demonstrates through 396 tightly wrapped pages, freedom is a fragile thing. It can be corrupted through internal and external events. Freedom can be maintained or sacrificed by individual choices within any group. This concept is reinforced from start to finish. Mr. Pressfield introduces us to a number of characters that we are unlikely to forget. All Pressfield novels are narrated. Pressfield alternates between three of several key characters: Selene, an Amazon champion, Damon, an Athenian champion, and Mother Bones (you'll be astonished when you find out who she is). I was amazed at Mr. Pressfield's ability to tell much of the tale through the mind of two women, a risky task, but one that Pressfield accomplishes magnificently. I have read few books in which I identify so strongly with each character whom it was so easy to imagine such a clear picture of. This is a visual achievement: not only could I 'see' each character and unquestionably know the mind of each, but also, I could see, feel and hear each thrust of the sword, each crunch of frozen ground as the Amazons trekked to Athens .... I could feel the ground rumble with the advance of Amazon cavalry .... I could see the 'Wildlands' extend before me .... Correct: I was mesmerized by this book. I'll not spoil your read to summarize the tale. It is filled, however, with love, hate, compassion, respect, brother and sisterhood, and harmony among living creatures. Like Homer's Iliad, there is enough action to fill several books, and it ranges from individual combat among champions to plains warfare to siege warfare. You will not be disappointed. As a child I remember reading the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur; that event occurs years before this story and is mentioned only in passing. Here is the rest of the tale!
Rating:
Summary: Rather Disappointing
Review: My heavy criticism for this novel comes from its comparison to Pressfield's earlier novel, "Gates of Fire". That novel is an excellent read and I think I had set my expectations too high by the time "Last of the Amazons" was published. I'm going against the grain by saying "Last of the Amazons" isn't the great historical novel you might be expecting. As reviewer BJ Fraser mentions, the narration is a key problem: we switch back and forth in points-of-view, which is fine style when it's done right (see Colleen McCullough's wonderful retelling of the Trojan War, "Song of Troy"), but we rarely witness the story told from it's key characters. This gets quite frustrating and gives the story a chaotic, choppy feel. But what first irritated me was Pressfield's inclusion of practically every Amazonian cliche, or rather, stereotype. Within the first few chapters we have an overboard account of the Amazons' lesbian society--which is fine, but Pressfield treats the subject as a fifteen-year-old boy would, more like a fantasy than a description of how this alternate society functions. And of course, Pressfield offers us the old 'ritual severing of the right breast so that it doesn't interfere with the drawing of a bowstring' business (as a side note, ask any female archer about this practice and she'll tell you it is totally unnecessary--the Amazons must have had massive breasts and not discovered the benefits of a strategically placed leather strap). Fortunately, however, Pressfield's Amazons don't keep men as sex slaves for reproduction, nor do they kill the male infants born to them. But aside from these problems, Pressfield's descriptive quality shines through. The 'adventure' sequences (persuits on horseback, journeys through exremely harsh conditions, brutal battle scenes) are wonderfully written and give us great visuals. Likewise, the characters are intreguing and relatively complex, which adds to the enjoyment of the story. While it is certainly not among the best in novels set in ancient Greece, this is an enjoyable read if you are not too picky. But if you are looking for originality, excitement, and supreme quality in stories of ancient Greece, might I suggest McCullough's "Song of Troy", Pressfield's own "Gates of Fire", and Manfredi's "Alexander the Great" trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: Epic battles and heroic women
Review: Not having read any of Pressfield's previous books, I picked this one for its title and subject matter alone. In that respect, I was not disappointed. Selene, Antiope, and Eleuthera form a "trikona" of fascinating characters: One, an exile who sacrificed her honor to save the hope of her people, one a queen who abandoned her people's way of life out of love for Theseus, and the last the lover of both these women, the greatest war leader of the Amazons, who led an assault on Athens that nearly succeeded in destroying the city.
If the story suffers, it is due to the disjointed nature of the narrative, which skips from future to past to present and between points of view in haphazard fashion. In addition, Pressfield sometimes paints himself into a corner in his depictions of the Amazons, or tal Kyrte, themselves. He tries to create a society entirely from scratch, and doesn't quite make it convincing.
Nevertheless, Pressfield manages to make the reader empathize both with the "savage" Amazons and the "civilized" Atheniens, both of whom realize that only one of these ways of life will survive. The struggle between these ways of life is heartbreaking and epic in scale, and at the end you can't help but mourn what was lost.
Excellent reading for anyone interested in ancient Greece or women warriors.
Rating:
Summary: Epic battles and heroic women
Review: Not having read any of Pressfield's previous books, I picked this one for its title and subject matter alone. In that respect, I was not disappointed. Selene, Antiope, and Eleuthera form a "trikona" of fascinating characters: One, an exile who sacrificed her honor to save the hope of her people, one a queen who abandoned her people's way of life out of love for Theseus, and the last the lover of both these women, the greatest war leader of the Amazons, who led an assault on Athens that nearly succeeded in destroying the city.
If the story suffers, it is due to the disjointed nature of the narrative, which skips from future to past to present and between points of view in haphazard fashion. In addition, Pressfield sometimes paints himself into a corner in his depictions of the Amazons, or tal Kyrte, themselves. He tries to create a society entirely from scratch, and doesn't quite make it convincing.
Nevertheless, Pressfield manages to make the reader empathize both with the "savage" Amazons and the "civilized" Atheniens, both of whom realize that only one of these ways of life will survive. The struggle between these ways of life is heartbreaking and epic in scale, and at the end you can't help but mourn what was lost.
Excellent reading for anyone interested in ancient Greece or women warriors.
Rating:
Summary: I Found It To Be Magnificent
Review: Perhaps my admiration of this novel comes partly from the fact that it is the first Stephen Pressfield book I have read. After reading the other reviews, I am perhaps not hampered by comparison to his earlier novels. But for whatever reason, I found this novel to be quite magnificent. It breathed life into a world and a culture in a way that was, to me, both realistic and utterly addicting. Some reviewer said he had a firm grasp of the savage mind and this I feel to be very, very true. The way ancient cultures thought, especially those removed from the roots of our own, should be alien to us, and yet in explaining their motives as Pressfield does, we should be able to follow and to feel the internal logic of their reasoning. To be build up such a culture from imagination alone is a heady feat and to have it ring so true in the conception of my mind is wonderful.
Pressfield gifts his Amazons with a social structure which I find to be implicitly logical for a female warrior class. The conception of the "triple-triple" bonds between warriors is a work of genius, as is the love and hate dichotomy found within those bonds. Each woman bonds herself to 6 other women in groups of three and each will both love and hate the others.
I find this novel to be ripe with such universal emotional truths, what I like to think of as "emotional logic." Whether, in modern society, we consciously think or admit such dichotomies exist, I believe they do. One can find just such parallel social structures in modern day primitive tribles.
Beyond all that, the action and prose are stunning and compelling. Perhaps the novel's greatest strength and yet most glaring weakness is in the portrayal of Theseus and Antiope, whose relationship is the centerpiece of the action. No author yet has adequately dissected that mythical relationship, though Mary Renault was probably the closeset. Pressfield gave it a very good stab though. He had the sense to not approach directly but to tell it through the eyes of several other witnesses. Thus, though Theseus's and Antiope's ultimate intentions remain unclear, their convictions and logic reflect through the lens of others. It is a deliberate distortion, I think, for no one really can tell what happened in way that would be satisfying. The actual myth itself provides no adequate explanation for how Theseus managed to abduct and keep by his side a warrioress of Amazonia. Enough have tried and I was glad Pressfield focused more on the Amazons themselves. At the end of the book, I found myself wanting an even deeper explanation of their society than he gave. Beyond that, the other great strength, for me anyway, was in Pressfield's blissfully accurate portrayals of the horses of the Amazons, which formed the core of their society. So many authors do this badly if they are not horsemen or women themselves. Whether Mr. Pressfield is or not, his writing says he could be. As one myself, it is a wonder to read an author who can write with accuracy about them.
Rating:
Summary: I Found It To Be Magnificent
Review: Perhaps my admiration of this novel comes partly from the fact that it is the first Stephen Pressfield book I have read. After reading the other reviews, I am perhaps not hampered by comparison to his earlier novels. But for whatever reason, I found this novel to be quite magnificent. It breathed life into a world and a culture in a way that was, to me, both realistic and utterly addicting. Some reviewer said he had a firm grasp of the savage mind and this I feel to be very, very true. The way ancient cultures thought, especially those removed from the roots of our own, should be alien to us, and yet in explaining their motives as Pressfield does, we should be able to follow and to feel the internal logic of their reasoning. To be build up such a culture from imagination alone is a heady feat and to have it ring so true in the conception of my mind is wonderful.
Pressfield gifts his Amazons with a social structure which I find to be implicitly logical for a female warrior class. The conception of the "triple-triple" bonds between warriors is a work of genius, as is the love and hate dichotomy found within those bonds. Each woman bonds herself to 6 other women in groups of three and each will both love and hate the others.
I find this novel to be ripe with such universal emotional truths, what I like to think of as "emotional logic." Whether, in modern society, we consciously think or admit such dichotomies exist, I believe they do. One can find just such parallel social structures in modern day primitive tribles.
Beyond all that, the action and prose are stunning and compelling. Perhaps the novel's greatest strength and yet most glaring weakness is in the portrayal of Theseus and Antiope, whose relationship is the centerpiece of the action. No author yet has adequately dissected that mythical relationship, though Mary Renault was probably the closeset. Pressfield gave it a very good stab though. He had the sense to not approach directly but to tell it through the eyes of several other witnesses. Thus, though Theseus's and Antiope's ultimate intentions remain unclear, their convictions and logic reflect through the lens of others. It is a deliberate distortion, I think, for no one really can tell what happened in way that would be satisfying. The actual myth itself provides no adequate explanation for how Theseus managed to abduct and keep by his side a warrioress of Amazonia. Enough have tried and I was glad Pressfield focused more on the Amazons themselves. At the end of the book, I found myself wanting an even deeper explanation of their society than he gave. Beyond that, the other great strength, for me anyway, was in Pressfield's blissfully accurate portrayals of the horses of the Amazons, which formed the core of their society. So many authors do this badly if they are not horsemen or women themselves. Whether Mr. Pressfield is or not, his writing says he could be. As one myself, it is a wonder to read an author who can write with accuracy about them.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful blend of mythology and history
Review: Pressfield does not appear on the shelves devoted for science fiction and fantasy. In very important ways, he is operating in a different arena. We believe this is due to the fact that Pressfield's earlier books dealt specifically with historical events and only now is he moving to the more speculative realm of mythology. But Pressfield is not doing anything different than the many authors attempting to write about the mythology surrounding King Arthur (which are, of course, legion). What is refreshing is that Pressfield, who already is identified as a good scholar and authority on classical literature, has made an offering to the realm of speculative fiction and that elevates the entire genre. Its 5 is deserved (even if a touch disappointing) and it is a welcome breath of new possibilities to serve as examples for other authors not to mention a solace of respectability for the genre.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS:
It's hard for we men to decide what is good for women, but female readers, we believe-and most especially young women-will identify with Amazons and read it with great relish. Fans of Pressfield's earlier books will also find the shift to mythology engaging and refreshing. High school and perhaps introductory college courses could do much worse than assigning Amazons as part of the regular course syllabus. We're great believers in historical fiction in general and this is a splendid blend of mythology and history.
WHO SHOULD PASS:
The language is extremely formal and nobody in the book laughs much nor is having a particularly good life. There is a great deal of bloodshed. Moreover, there is a pervasive pall of grief cast over the entire book. If you're looking for something optimistic, fun, or something that will cause you to laugh, then go somewhere else. If your urge to read is centered around narrative perspective then you'll also be rather disappointed with this book. This book is for classical scholars, historians, and lovers of mythology and/or Greek philosophy.
READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW AT INCHOATUS.COM
Rating:
Summary: Over the Top!
Review: Pressfield has here done a very nice job of recreating what might have been the world of the Amazons on the southern steppes of today's Russia, and that clash of cultures which may have occurred when Bronze Age Greek adventurers stumbled across these warrior women, as seems to be echoed in the remnants of old Greek legend. But his story is over the top in the end. He takes too long to spin out the tale and the complex artifice he has adopted for the telling (a narrator recounting what she has seen and heard from other participants in their own "voices") works against the matter. More, his characters never spring fully to life. I could not easily differentiate Damon from Elias, or even the idealized Theseus (with whom I could never entirely empathise) from Prince Atticus, while Eleuthera and Selene and Antiope and Hypolita (spelling?) all seemed to me little more than archetypes. The writing, indeed, was expansively poetic and in places well-wrought enough to move me but there was too much of this, as well. Over and over again, the narrators, Selene or Damon, through the voice of Bones, repeat the same chant-like litany of names and peoples. It grew to be too much and overly distracting. In sum, I am led to conclude that Pressfield, riding the crest of his recent successes, has here let himself go artistically . . . and who is to nay-say such a successful writer? Unwilling or unable to bring his narrative to a natural conclusion, he lets it spin out too long, with apparent ending after apparent ending, until the reader (or this reader at least) grows tired of the effort. And while the first half was brisk and enjoyable to read, the second, with its war against Athens, was much slower, despite the action on the field, and marred by an overemphasis on the military campaign to the detriment of its participants' characters. Indeed even the exploits of the heroes (Theseus with broken arm and leg and other assorted wounds, including a nearly smashed skull, dashing about in heroic battle) seemed a bit of a stretch. Pressfield did, however, do a very fine job of bringing the legendary Amazon nation itself to life, even if his characters were less than real, but the unfurling of events seemed stilted and overly stylized, while it was hard to engage with the characters so that the freshness of the Greek legend seemed somehow to be lost. (I thought Robert Graves did it better in his now nearly forgotten HERCULES, MY SHIPMATE which recounted the adventures of Jason and his Argonauts, in roughly the same region, as they searched for the Golden Fleece.) It's painful to be so critical here since I am a fan of Pressfield since GATES OF FIRE, but I suppose it is hard to sustain the champion's pace all the time. This is a good one, worth reading if you love legend and adventure in the form of historical fiction, but it's not the best Pressfield I've read. SWM
Rating: 
Summary: Goofy book
Review: Pressfield shines when he describes battle and action. His war scenes are wonderful, not overly descriptive but not abstract either. It's a cliche but you do feel like you are there in a sense. The same goes for his adventure scenes. Pressfield also does a great job of research and imagination, as there is little real evidence of an Amazonian civilization. Pressfield handles the daunting task of inventing a new civilization and its structures well. However, I felt the description often became too detailed, as to muddle the impact of the main points. The faults are major. The narrative structure Pressfield uses is distracting to say the least. Resulting from that, the reader never really feels they have a grasp of the characters. The main characters just aren't examined the right way, in my opinion. This results in lost interest for any of the characters. The dialogue is awkward and stilted. It just lacks a personality.
Within the first few chapters we have an overboard account of the Amazons' lesbian society--which is fine, but Pressfield treats the subject as a fifteen-year-old boy would, more like a fantasy than a description of how this alternate society functions. And of course, Pressfield offers us the old 'ritual severing of the right breast so that it doesn't interfere with the drawing of a bowstring' business .
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