Rating: 
Summary: A marvelous read...
Review: Shut out the kids, the husband, the cat, and read this marvelous, engrossing book from start to finish. This is *the* best Amazon novel I have yet to read: believable, complex, and rich in detail. Pressfield's Amazonian "history" reads more like a roman a clef. Highly recommended. Empowering.
Rating:
Summary: Different, compelling and deeply spiritual
Review: Some of Pressfield's fans may be disappointed with the "Last of the Amazons" expecting another "Gates of Fire" proving, once again, that expectations are the hooks we hang our resentments on. "Last of the Amazons" is a departure from the author's previous ancient histories in that it is, of necessity, a work of fantasy. Source information on ancient Greece, Athens, Sparta and the hoplite way of war abound but not so the Amazons, the "Daughters of the Horse." There are few historical references or archeological facts about this strange and wonderful culture of women. Mr. Pressfield does not let that stand in his way or dampen his passion for the subject and we are better off that he hasn't. The debate between the king of Athens and the queen of the Amazons is worth the price of the book alone. This is not so much a book of romance, love, battles or high adventure though you get plenty of that. Mr. Pressfiled has used the story of the Amazons to argue old perplexing questions. When do principles of the spirit demand the ultimate sacrifice, what is the essence of freedom, how do we get it, how do we keep it, how do we defend it, and, is it worth keeping, if in the defending, we loose all? While reading this marvelous story a question came to mind, "What is there in my life worth risking everything to keep?" When any author can get his reader to ask questions of himself like that, he has written a winner.
Rating:
Summary: Theseus and the Amazon Siege of Athens
Review: Steven Pressfield has written another magnificent book, the equal of Homer's Illiad in scope and more realistic in its depiction of character, culture, and combat. It tells the mythic story of the abduction of Antiope, the Amazon war queen, by Theseus, King of Athens, and the resulting Amazon siege of Athens, in language that is both modern it its vocabulary and satisfyingly antique in its cadences. Theseus and the Amazons are myths, yet Pressfield's tale is utterly convincing. If there is any factual basis for these myths, this is how it must have been! The story of the birth of democracy is particularly compelling. If not Theseus, then some other King of Athens must have introduced public debate of policy to counter the private connivings of his barons. This is a book you must read if you're a Pressfield fan, and a book you dare not read if you don't want to become a Pressfield fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Melancholy Tale of the Fall of the Amazons
Review: Steven Pressfield is no stranger to storylines filled with regret, sorrow, and loss. "Gates of Fire" is narrated by the mortally wounded sole "survivor" from the Spartans' stand at Thermopylae. "Tides of War" is narrated by a man condemned to death for killing his best friend, Alcibiades. In "Last of the Amazons," Pressfield uses another wise-yet-sorrow-filled narrator, Bones, to tell his tale.
In "Amazons," Pressfield leaves behind "classical" (i.e., 5th-century B.C.) Greece and visits the land of Greek myth. Theseus, King of Athens, is known to many as the guy who slew the minotaur, but not much else is commonly known about him. Pressfield uses the freedom created by the mists of time to flesh out a Theseus that suits his purposes -- not only is Theseus a mighty military man, he is a leader ahead of his time. In fact, Theseus even believes in a primitive version of democracy, which may be a bit historically inaccurate, but makes Theseus a worthy monarch to the reader's modern eyes.
Theseus and the Athenians are not the focus of the story, of course. Rather, the Amazons, those fabled warrior princesses, captive the reader. Pressfield has filled in many of the gaps left by the mythology of the Amazons, and the Amazons emerge as a vibrant, fully realized culture. Harsh in judgment, merciless in battle, and fully committed to the strict code of their society, the Amazons are a wonder, and Pressfield provides a compelling, vivid description of their culture.
Of course, much of the Amazons' culture revolves around might in battle. No man can stand against the Amazons in fair combat . . . well, except Hercules, whom we learn visited the Amazons prior to Theseus and single-handedly butchered their mightiest warriors. We see the terror of the Amazonian cavalry charge, and the savagery with which the Amazons pursued their battle lust. Pressfield also shows the tender side of the Amazons, such as when an Amazon, without really trying or thinking twice about it, does a one-arm chin-up to return a fallen hatchling to its nest.
The Amazonian queen, Antiope, confused by the "civilization" personified by Theseus -- and her love for him -- and the undeniable barbarism of her fellow Amazons (Pressfield pulls few punches when depicting the Amazons at slaughter), eventually leaves the Amazons and returns with Theseus to Athens. This leads to the seige of Athens by the Amazons. While Theseus could hold his own against the Amazons (although he's no Hercules), the other Athenians are truly outmatched by the Amazons. Reduced to crafty block-by-city-block warfare to neutralize the Amazons' mastery of open-field battle, the Athenians engage in a tooth-and-nail battle for survival.
Ultimately, as in all of Pressfield's Greek novels, the fate of the Amazons is a foregone conclusion. What drives Pressfield's works is the sad majesty of characters who know their fate and yet drive on, whether its the Spartans at Thermopylae, the Athenians in Sicily, or the Amazons. A bit darker than the other novels, "Amazons" tells an epic tale of a lost civilization, and tells it well.
Rating:
Summary: For love, and for love of freedom
Review: Steven Pressfield's "Last of the Amazons" tells the story of Theseus and his love for the Amazon queen Antiope, but it also is the story of the (possibly not so) mythical nation of the Amazons themselves. Presented through the narration of Selene, a survivor of the Amazon nation, Damon of Athens and his 11-year-old niece Bones (who has been Selene's charge), the story has some awkward moments and transitions. It is not so much a love story as it is a farewell to a culture that has haunted Western myth for millennia. Pressfield re-creates the Amazon tradition and culture quite well, but there are moments when Selene's narrations feel like an exposition dump and less like storytelling. While much of Selene's past is laid down as a foundation for the tale to come, there's not enough of it to establish her as a person. Selene is a cipher, the token Amazon who must act in certain ways to bring the plot to fruition; she never rises above it after her escape from Bones' father's farm. While Bones must help her father and other men of Athens chase after Selene, her uncle Damon must give an account of what they will face when they finally catch her--and of the history of the last war with the Amazons. The meeting of Theseus and Antiope is portrayed as a moment fraught with fate, but the one scene in which this love is best demonstrated--a debate on the merits of the free life versus civilization--is electrifying. It's a shame for the book that the encounters to come are much less satisfying than the battles. The overall tone of the book is elegiac, which does suit the subject. But Pressfield renders his subject so remote that it's hard to inhabit the characters. There's no chance to submerge oneself in the story; everyone, from Bones to Selene to the lovers Theseus and Antiope, are too remote. In the end, so are the events. No one does battles better than Pressfield, and he is a fine storyteller, but "Last of the Amazons" ends up feeling just like another retold myth. But he does a good job of making the Amazon culture feel as though it might have once existed, without patronizing the idea. Good for him.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting
Review: The myths and legends surrounding the Amazon Nation have always been of interest to me, so it is with great pleasure that I recommend Steven Pressfield's "Last of the Amazons." As mentioned previously, the switching of narrators is, initially, confusing. But that confusion is quickly overcome and forgotten as the reader delves into the story, one which mixes legends with history and weaves a powerful war story on a grand scale with a up close and personal stories of the people involved in the epic story. The story had a powerful impact on me, particularly because I fancy myself attracted somewhat to the ways of the Amazon Nation. It showed the grandeur of the Amazons and Greeks while also shining a bright light on the shadows inhabiting each nation's closet, so to speak. Perhaps, ultimately, Pressfield's "Last of the Amazons" comes down to the never-ending struggle between the sexes, and what it means to be a man or a woman. It highlights the best and worst of each world while using the legend of the Amazon Nation's attack on early Athens as a grand background to the satisfyingly up-close-and-personal stories of the people involved. In closing, let me say this: The final scene in the book is hauntingly sad and left me wondering what might have been, and what may still be to come. Steven Pressfield has done an outstanding job and I look forward to seeing how the grandeur of the novel translates onto the silver screen under the direction of James Cameron.
Rating:
Summary: historical fiction that is interesting for fantasy readers
Review: The point of this novel is not exactly to paint a historically accurate description of the period in which the story is set. This novel narrates the clash of two very different cultures, of two drastically opposed views of life and the world. On the one hand, the Amazons are described as a matriarchal nation, highly conservative and very respectful of the ways of nature, so much so that they see horses as their soul brothers and they hate to live in cities, and they have kept this way of life for centuries. On the other hand, the Greek come from a patriarchal society which is consciously bent on change: in Athens, king Theseus is changing the way kingdoms and states are ruled, making the citizens take part in, and assume responsibility for, the state affairs.
The Greek arrive as strangers and travellers in the land of the Amazons, where they preach about the moral superiority of their new and dynamic urban society to a wary audience who does not want to change their ancestral ways. But in fact, the role of the Greek in history was to bring change, and this is what Theseus and his companions do, even though unwillingly, with their mere presence which sparks an unstoppable chain reaction of disaster and change.
Which of these two civilizations is better? The conservative, respectful of nature Amazons (who, we are shown, can be quite brutal and cruel, in the unconcerned, detached way also of nature)? or the daring, all-for-change, urban Greek(who don't consider their womenfolk as proper citizens and don't allow them the same advantages as men)? The Amazon live among their horses, following the rythms of nature. The Greek live in cities and try to control nature with their agriculture and commerce. We know the result of this culture clash, but we are certainly given food for thought by the author.
This novel reads almost as a Robin Hobb or George R.R.Martin fantasy novel, because of the battle action and the way the clash of cultures and the end of a world are portrayed. And even though the narrative structure (with one narrator who explains the story as it has been told to her by other narrators) makes the reading a bit jumpy, it is very worthwhile and rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: Informative but Empathetically Dry
Review: There is a blurb on one of the Flashman novels--I forget which and I can't find it now--which makes a comment about the author, George MacDonald Fraser. It says something like, not only is he a great writer, he is also a great storyteller. I thought of this after finishing Pressfield's excellent novel and feeling strangely unfulfilled. He is unquestionably a great writer: his knowledge of that which he writes is impeccable, he has a great and intelligent imagination, and he has a sound and thorough understanding of human nature. But it is as a storyteller, alas, that the novel falls somewhat short. This novel has to do with the clash of cultures between the burgeoning Greek civilization and the mythical Amazon society and takes place about 1250 B. C. The plot is a little convoluted. It starts as the story of a group of Greeks tracking down an escaped Amazon slave. On the journey, an account is told by a couple of the older fellows of a previous trip to the land of the Amazons, and the subsequent Amazon invasion of Athens. This makes up the meat of the book. But also in there is the story of the very first Greek visit to Amazonia, made by the mythical Heracles. So we have a story within a story within a story, all of which relate essentially the same journey. But this is not what bothers me. What bothers me is that the story of these journeys and the events which occurred on them is really all there is. Despite the fact that the book is comprised of several first-person narratives, we don't get the inner, personal stories of these people. To go back to Flashman: yes, he was present at the Charge of the Light Brigade, and yes, he was present at Custer's Last Stand. But the difference is, these are not the story. The story is Flashman's life; what he was doing, where he was, how he got into these situations, what he thinks of them, and how he got out of them. This is what makes good historical fiction. We as readers are far more able to come to a new understanding of events when we are able to view of them through the eyes of a fully fleshed-out human being, one whom we've come to know and empathize with, and one who has an opinion we yearn to hear. This is a lot different from having a cardboard character read a history to us, no matter how interesting the subject matter. But I am being perhaps a little too harsh, because, no question about it, the subject matter here is very interesting, and, as mentioned earlier, is brought to us by an author who is truly, remarkably knowledgeable about this stuff. We get descriptions of the peoples who inhabited the areas around the Black Sea, we get descriptions of the Amazon way of life, and we get descriptions of the beginnings of Greek civilization. The Amazon way of life is particularly imaginative and detailed, with their groups of three, their mating rituals, their preoccupation with horses, and their splendid prowess with arms. Also excellent is the description of the siege of Athens, and the various other battles which take place throughout this novel. Again, Mr. Pressfield is extremely knowledgeable about ancient warfare, and there is so much here which was new to me: battle formations, cavalry and siege tactics, the importance of strong leadership, etc. In general, one gets an idea of what the average soldier feels ands experiences as he participates in an ancient, horrific battle. Also here are the trademark, grand Pressfield speeches. The debates between Theseus and the Amazon queen, Eleuthera, are particularly wonderful. Theseus argues for the benefits of civilization and the ways in which it frees men to pursue their goals beyond simple subsistence. Eleuthera scorns this: "Our Athenian guest claims that cities produce leisure. What rubbish! Who has more free time than the hunter or warrior, whose very work is sport?" There is much more in this vein, all of which is very thought-provoking, and brings to one a vague sense of longing for the wild, untamed, ancient (or maybe not-so-ancient), past. Pressfield is a great writer, no doubt about it, and this is a great book. But it sure would be nice to find a friend in here somewhere.
Rating:
Summary: An Epic.
Review: There is no doubt that one thinks of "Femme Fatale" when hearing the word "Amazon". And I can't deny that it is such notion that drew me to this book in the first place. But the book wasn't as simple as the impulse that made me pick it up and start reading in the first place. Because by the time I looked up at the clock to check the time at a local book store, several hours had passed and I was caught up in ways of politics, love, honor, and life itself. The story is constructed in romantic and dramatic fashion, no doubt. But I really enjoyed losing myself in the world of myth and ideals. It is seldom that I find a book that can take me away from the drudgeries of daily life and find solace in ideals that people strive for, yet hesitate to embrace. A wonderful book that I recommend for anyone who wants to get away from it all.
Rating:
Summary: Good reach, author's voice over powers narrative
Review: This book is like Pressfield other book Gates of Fire. He has done his research on Greek history. Some people in his book are comic book-like and are not believable as real people. Others are better. The thing I dislike is his author's voice. Like with Gates of Fire, you can hear the author's view over the narrative of the story. You can tell the author's opinion on Greek society. In a great novel, you you just are shown a picture. In lesser novel, you get what the author thinks of the picture.
With Pressfield, you get very loudly his disdain for Sparta and his love for that other city.
For me, always knowing the author's world view takes me out of the picture.
Wyatt Kaldenberg
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