The Virtues of War : A Novel of Alexander the Great

Rating:
Summary: Pressfield is back
Review: After a bit of a detour into the sub-par with "Tides of War," Pressfield has returned with a winner in "Virtues of War." (Hopefully we can look forward to "Footsteps of war" and "Cooking of War" in the near future - can we get the man some help with titles here?)

So you ask, is this book a sympathetic treatment of Alexander the Great? Heck yeah. Is it a less-than-completely accurate portrayal of the hitory of Alexander? Pressfield admits as much in his foreward. But what Pressfield does well here is give us a character-driven telling of the story of Alexander's development as a leader before and during his campaign through Asia. You have to accept historical fiction for what it is: fiction. If you want unadulturated history, read non-fiction, but it won't move along the way this fictionalized account does.

If you have never read Pressfield, his best book by a wide margin (in my mind) is still "Gates of Fire," so it makes sense to start there, but "Virtues of War" should definitely be on the shopping list for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Rating:
Summary: An Underwhelming Vision of Alexander the Great
Review: Having waited anxiously for this novel for many months, I must express my disappointment with Pressfield's latest venture, Virtues of War. What the book proved to me is the same thing that the movie Alexander did (aside from it being a downright poor film): you cannot capture the essence of Alexander in so brief an account. This book needed to be apart of a series (like the Killer Angels series) or twice the number of pages to work. This man single-handedly shaped the world to the point that the effects can still be seen today; his exploits are preeminent in the history of warfare; Pressfield just doesn't come close to conveying this. It feels like this is an abridged version of a more in-depth and better book.

Honestly, it feels like Pressfield's heart is just not in this novel. With all of his prior books, I could sense a real love and dedication to what he was writing--it just seems lacking here. The book also suffers from a serious lack of an antagonist. Tides of War created a credible anti-hero, and Gates of Fire made you despise the Persians, or if nothing else, root for the Spartans. You don't really grow to despise or admire Alexander in this book at all, which is a sign of poor character development. Also, his prior novels truly built toward something; Gates of Fire towards Thermopylae, Tides of War towards the fall of Athens. This is why Virtues of War could have benefitted from a serial approach--the first book could have covered the Persian Wars, the next could cover the rest, etc. Instead, landmark battles and events have practically been left out altogether. I was apart of the minority that liked Tides of War, but that novel too would have worked better as a series.

The battles, arguably the scene-stealers in all of Pressfield's books, are decidely underwhelming here. He seems more interested in providing us with the exact strategies and movements that were used as opposed to the graphic depiction of the actual carnage wrought by these very strategies. The manner in which this is expounded upon is quite awkward; it's difficult to describe it, but those that have read the book will understand.

All in all, it's not that this is a poor book, but going by the standards Pressfield has left for us to judge him by, it is a disappointment. It doesn't do justice to one of the greatest military commanders and leaders to ever walk the earth. The book is just too brief to convey the scope of what Alexander was and did.

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Summary: An Entertaining Treatise on Alexander's Field Battles
Review: I have devoured Steven Pressfield's three previous novels of Greek antiquity -- "Gates of Fire," "Tides of War," and "Last of the Amazons." Each novel has skillfully balanced romance, battlefield carnage, and an often-times melancholy lament for lost glories and friendships, and I have been compelled to re-read each novel.

While still writing about ancient Greece, Pressfield has taken a markedly different tack with "Virtues of War." No longer is the narrator a witness/unknown participant in great events - now the narrator is Alexander, the unquestioned marquee player in all of the ancient world. In many respects, Alexander is a perfect choice. Even though entire libraries could be devoted to the books written about this man, very little is precisely known about the man from the backwoods of Macedonia who led his invincible army to and past the boundaries of the known (Greek) world. So even though Pressfield is somewhat constrained by historical events, Alexander offers almost complete freedom as far as his actual thoughts and motivations are concerned.

According to Pressfield, Alexander thought almost exclusively about tactics and strategy. Indeed, one chapter is almost entirely given over to the maxims of war Alexander decrees to his commanders. While Pressfield's earlier Greek novels have offered exquisitely detailed, horrifyingly beautiful battle scenes -- which are as well written as any you will read, anywhere, period -- Alexander describes his battles with a relative mechanical quality . . . "Parmenio commanded my left flank, Philotas anchored the right, and Black Cleitus spewed profanities next to me . . ." While this may be appropriate -- Alexander undoubtedly had a gift for both strategy and tactics - the battle passages are not as gripping as those in his earlier works.

The choice of Alexander as protagonist also forces Pressfield to make choices, since he has written a lean, mean novel of 368 pages. One of Alexander's mightiest achievements was the construction of a half-mile mole, a feat that took over seven months, to lead his successful charge against the island fortress of Tyre. And yet, Tyre gets barely a mention in "Virtues." Indeed, "Virtues" spends no time on siege warfare at all, and this absence is difficult to explain, given Alexander's repeated demonstration of genius at the art of siege warfare.

To be fair, Pressfield could have easily doubled the length of his novel if he went into every aspect of Alexander's military conquests, but some of these omissions are alarming.

Pressfield, as always, writes with a moving clarity, and while "Virtues" may not reach the poetic heights of his other Greek novels, Pressfield still exhibits flashes of his poet's soul. You will read and re-read his brief "Sarissa's Song," which may be the best epitaph for Alexander yet written.

This is a four-star review only because the combination of Pressfield and Alexander offers almost too much potential. This is a darn good book, but unfortunately, not my favorite of Pressfield's takes on the world of Greek antiquity.

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Summary: A Cavalrymans reveiw of a horseman's tale.
Review: I read this book, correction, I inhaleded this book! from the veiwpointof a horse cavalryman. This gets it right. The facts ,the spirit, the thechnical minentia. Either Pressfeild has sat a horse on a "battleline" or listened carefully to someone who has. The part where he tells how the tension of sitting waiting for the moment to take acton is as debillitating as the action itself is true. All the rider's stress goes right thru his seat and into the horse. Thanks for a great read.

Rating:
Summary: A tough challenge for Steven Pressfield
Review: I'm a big fan of Gates of Fire and so read this Epic on Alexander with high expectations. However, as a reader, I felt like the whole experience was a bitter watered down probably because it attempts to cover almost the entirety of Alexander's epic journey conquering East and West. This was very different from Gates of Fire whch focused on that one momentous Battle. The book get's caught up into a lot of the strategic details of the battles and for this reason I recommend some very simple illustrations to help the reader. The author did a great job of personifying the character of Alexander, the soldier.

If anyone else likes history novels, I would strongly recommend WHEN WE WERE GODS: A NOVEL OF CLEOPATRA by COLIN FALCONER. This was really lot's of fun and written in the first person narrative. I find this helps to better feel the character and flow of the story. The use of ITANES the PAGE in VIRTUES OF WAR didn't work as well as the use of a PRISONER in GATES OF FIRE. In any case, I'm still a fan of Steven Pressfield and would welcome any other novel written by him....

Rating:
Summary: Great book if you go in with the right mindset
Review: If you start reading this book with an eye toward historical accuracy and truly understanding who Alexander was, you will be sorely disappointed. If, however, you go into it knowing that this is entirely a work of fiction very loosely imposed on the backdrop of actual history, then you may very well be delighted with it.

I shorted it by one star for three reasons: First, I was at first put off by the first-person account given by Alexander to one of his pages. It struck me as a rather forced and unnatural way of creating an excuse for writing it in first-person. However, I did get used to it and the flowing and poetic nature of the writing more than made up for it. Second, there is the reality that nearly everything in this book is a complete fabrication, with only a very loose connection to the truth. As a work of historical fiction one has to expect that an author would take certain liberties with the facts, but this one makes almost no effort whatsoever to recite ANYTHING as it truly occurred. Pressfield could get away with this in Tides of War and Gates of Fire because his main characters were minor players in history. However, Alexander the Great is an enormous figure on the historical stage, making him less useful as a character in a work of fiction. Finally, it struck me that, in this book, Pressfield was trying too hard to emulate Eagle in the Snow, a book that obviously had a profound influcence on his writing career.

All that being said, I still give this book four stars because I found the style of writing to be poetic and captivating. The prose carried me away and made me feel like I was right there where the action was occurring. And although Pressfield barely scratches the surface of Alexander's long campaign, one has to recognize that it would be impossible to include every important event that occurred during that journey. I thought Pressfield did a good job of choosing those events that are most important to the overall story of the book, thereby making it flow well. Finally, I got to the point where I could not put this book down, which is always a good indication that it's a good one. That more than anything else prompted me to give this book four stars rather than perhaps just three.

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Summary: The Madness of Brilliance
Review: Our species is fortunate that every so often a genius is born. The rest of us make progress one step at a time, but the geniuses allow us to make leaps that keep us from getting too bogged down in dogma. Beethoven was such a genius, as was Fisher and Einstein and Newton and Shakespeare and da Vinci-and Alexander. In each of their own ways, these geniuses were looking for order in chaos. It so happens that Alexander's genius was for war; he could visualize war in his mind the way Beethoven could visualize musical notes, and it is natural that he would use his genius to bring order to what he saw as chaos in the world. One can debate whether Alexander was a good guy or not, but this debate is irrelevant: Alexander lived; Alexander conquered; Alexander died-what is important is to learn from him.

Steven Pressfield comes with another novel of ancient warfare, but this time it's different: he literally steps into the mind of Alexander, and he lets Alexander tell his own story. I found myself in awe of Pressfield's skill; I became immersed and could believe that I was actually reading Alexander's words. I could almost "see" what Alexander saw at Guagamela; I felt that I knew how his mind worked. I could follow his descent into madness; I could trace his rationalizations, the ways in which he justified his actions to himself; I could feel his hurt and despair.

The Virtues of War is not a linear novel; rather, it is a treatise upon warfare told with astounding authenticity. Throughout are the thoughts, feelings, fears and doubts of Alexander wound together with the Virtues to create a story. Those of us interested in history-but not brilliant in that regard-will find this book an excellent way to connect with that period.


Rating:
Summary: Delve into the Past
Review: Pressfield has once again shown why he has been positioned at the pinnacle of historical fiction novelists. Virtues falls directly in line with Pressfield's previous works in that the reader is swept into the past with an almost perfect description of times, places, events and emotions, not easily recreated or described in words. As you go through the pages (they will pass very quickly) you feel as though you are privy to the inner thoughts of Alexander. Fiction though it may be, Pressfield's ability to make those thoughts take on a legitimacy in the scheme of actual historical events is, to say the least, impressive. You will be "literarily" transported into some of the most vivid battle scenes written and finish the chapters with a mouth full of dust and sweat on the brow. Virtues is a must read for historical fiction fans and distinguishes itself as one more feather in Pressfield's cap.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing compared to other Pressfield
Review: There are interesting aspects of Alexander which a fictional book can take a stand on: his godhead, patrocide, homosexuality, fascination with the East, etc. Pressfield ignores these almost completely. E.g., he doesn't even mention the pilgrimage to Sliwa.

So I agree with other reviews that you would do better with a biography such as Michael Grant's.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This was a great fast paced book with lots of action and insight. Very vivid disrciptions, but did not get marred down in too much detail...can't wait to read another Pressfield book!