Rating: 
Summary: The best so far
Review: This book is the 7th book I read on Alexander, and I find it the most thorough one. He looks at events and episodes from all sorts of different angles, both pro and con point of views, and write as many variations of stories as he could get on the same events. For example, on Alexander's death, he writes 3 or 4 different versions told or written by different people back then. Some say the King was poisoned, collapsed during the drinking party, some say he died of unknown fever, some say this and some say that. Fox lists out all the possible versions on the same events, carefully examines them, and writes his comments with good common sense, keeping himself on the neutral ground. He rarely says this is what happened. It is for you to decide.
He also added other information such as the way of life back then, the way different peoples thought, lived, believed, treated each other, religions, how they understood divinity and the way they fought in war, in addition to the geography, culture, medicine, plants, food, clothings in various areas of the empire back then. It is interesting to find how all these things affected and related Alexander and what he did.As he says in the beginning of the book, this is not a biography but a search of Alexander the Great. So, there's no straight telling of what had happened.
Fox's insight is deep and thorough, makes you think. It's not just a study of one man, but a study of human kind. But if you don't have a logical mind, it may bore you, because sometimes he hangs onto one event, spending 3-4 pages sometimes even more on just one thing, to investigate. Very informational and powerful work. My only complaint is that this edition has such fine print, the font size is so small (probably size 6 or 7), and to read more than 500 pages with the kind of small print wears your eyes out. It made me realize that it's about time for me to get bifocals. I strongly recommend this book, but keep a magnifier at hand, rest your eyes once in a while.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Writing
Review: This is an extraordinary history. Anyone expecting a conventional biography will be disappointed, since the biased and fragmentary nature of the primary sources makes modern biographical treatment for Alexander impossible, even more so than for other ancient heroes. However, one thing about the peripatetic conqueror that seems to be known with some certainty is the itinerary that defined his brief life. Starting from this, Mr. Lane Fox applies his own intimate knowledge of the middle and near-eastern landscape to create a book which, at its most basic, reads like a highly literate travelogue. This is all backdrop, though, for a kind of detective story as the author picks apart the tantalizing fragments of information and disinformation that, once boiled down, reveal for us Alexander's character. The bold military prodigy is clearly apparent here, but that's the standard textbook part of the story. Rounding out the picture, we see him as the cosmopolitan diplomat, beloved egalitarian leader-of-men, bisexual libertine, respectful supplicant to his gods, forgiving victor, gallant defender of women, ostentatious potentate, superstitious fool, charismatic orator, fearless in-the-trenches combat commander, wily tactician, boyish adventurer, child-like animal lover, sophisticated Greek intellectual, reckless gambler, visionary strategist, loyal and generous friend, bloody mass killer, and drunken lout. And the truly remarkable thing about the history is that all these persona somehow hang together, creating a believable portrait that makes it clear why Alexander has fascinated politicians, soldiers and scholars for twenty-three centuries. Stylistically, this book is dense and will deter casual readers. However, some patience through the early pages gives enough time to get into the exotic poetry of place names and the flow of the story. The turgid logic of the character study takes over from there, and the case unfolds majestically. This is a brilliant historian at work and I highly recommend the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a trip through the Makran
Review: Try as I might, I cannot bring myself to give Fox's treatment of Alexander the lavish four and five stars that others have given. It's not that there aren't some qualities here worthy of praise, it's that there is far too much that detracts from the enjoyment. This is the first biography of Alexander I have read, so I'm in no position to compare it to others out there. I can say, however, that Fox succeeds marvelously in bringing geography to life. Despite reading countless books about events in the Middle East, I never truly appreciated how formidable the climate there is until reading Fox. Fox presents a picture that is literally Alexander against the world - against deserts, mountains, heat, cold, snakes, and disease. For this alone, Fox's biography of Alexander is worth reading. I can think of no other historian who so skilfully matches events to geography. Alas, there are some daunting downsides. While Fox's descriptions of geographic features are amazing, his maps are terrible. This is not entirely his fault; much of the blame lies with the black-and-white reprint. But even putting that aside, the maps given do not completely follow the text and are too few and too far spaced through the book to be much use. Far better to put several maps in one place at the beginning or end of the book for ease of reference. Too, Fox has a depressing tendency to talk in circles for pages on end, retelling the same event over and over and over with slight variations, then giving his own conclusions that sound an awful lot like the original version of the story presented pages before. The effect is to make the reader all the more sympathetic with Alexander's soldiers as they marched through the Makran desert; like them, the reader becomes opressed by the thought that the journey will never end, no matter how worthwhile the result will be.
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