Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Completed: 17 December 2017
Summary & Review:
Matthias, a young Macedonian youth from Apollonia, grew up worshipping his two older brothers who went off to war with their young, charismatic leader Alexander the Great to fight for the glory of their country and family. When his chance finally comes to join them, he will enter a war far removed from the tales or heroism and courage he has heard about from the poets and singers. Rather than grand, honorable battles, the Afghan campaign into which Matthias is thrown, is one of guerilla warfare, ambushes, village raids and massacres, and executions. Worse still, it seems like the war will never end and victory will never be achieved.
Steven Pressfield does a great job with military historical fiction. I’ve read or listened to three other of his books and have enjoyed all of them (I rated Gates of Fire 9/10). This was another great one. It was fascinating to read about the Macedonian army, about Alexander as a leader, about the everyday life of a grunt, about the Afghan culture, and to find parallels in all of this to modern wars in the same region.
Rating: 8.0
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