Rating: 
Summary: A must read
Review: Might not be the best novel I ever read, but there are some real gems within these covers. (...)
Rating: 
Summary: A historical masterpiece.
Review: An incredible reading experience and a book you will never forget. It is so richly detailed that I am half-convinced that Steven Pressfield was actually present at the battle of Thermopylae.
Rating: 
Summary: No (n) sense
Review: As a novel this book might be interesting, however, anyone who writes a book about the battle of Thermopylae and allows a picture of a Roman soldier on it's cover does not know what he is writing about.
Rating:
Summary: A Sad Day For World Literature
Review: dear friends:
we Stand Here Today, Viewing The Corpse.........................
Of Literature. All the Writers, Great, and Not So,..............
Grieve Here Today...............................................
Steven Pressfield, a hack, has sought, to defame, ..............
not only History, but the Fine writerly Art.....................
Mr. Pressfield is a Stupid Oaf..................................
His Work, Gates Of Fire, Exceeds all previously.................
established parameters of Stupid, Mindnumbing, Juvenile,........
Hackneyed, Soul-destroying art..................................
Homer's Ilyiad and Ullyses are violent, and yet speak to........
to the kind soul of this, my sorrowful human race...............
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: This was a "don't put me down!" type of book. Buy it and relive a Spartan's life!
Rating:
Summary: PRESSFIELD FOR PRESIDENT !!!
Review: A wonderful achiecement of historical fiction that will perpetually appeal to anyone who reads. Six stars is not enough. Escapism, heroism, it's all there. You must read this book!
Rating:
Summary: "Gates of Fire" Well Worth Your Time
Review: Steven Pressfield has done a masterful job of transporting the reader (or listener, in my case - I listened to the audio version) back to another age, and has done it in such a way that one feels as if he is living in the moment. His descriptions of "the Spartan way" and the workings of their society bring to life vivid mental pictures of how it might have been. And the humanity Pressfield breathes into the characters - this is excellent work! Beginning with the central figure and narrator, Xeo, through all the ensuing ones the reader encounters...by the end of the story, I couldn't help but feel that I knew them.
Pressfield devotes much of the book to the Battle of Thermopylae itself, but a good deal is also spent laying groundwork for the battle. There is also something of a love story woven throughout, but it is an unrequited love at best and doesn't detract too much from the main storytelling. The focus is squarely on the Spartans - why they thought the way they did, why they lived the way they did, and most of all, why they chose to die the way they did. It would seem to be a herculean task to place the reader into an ancient (and foreign) world and do it in such a way that the reader barely realizes it, but Pressfield has done just that. I didn't feel like I was reading about some long-forgotten warriors or about some event from a history book - I felt like I was reading about people, REAL people. It is a testament to Pressfield's ability as a writer to take such an event as an ancient battle and wrap around it a riveting narrative. If you are at all interested in ancient history and/or military history, you will not be disappointed. Not in the least.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid stuff -- enthralling
Review: The battle of Thermopylae was one of the most noteworthy events in all human history, so at least we can deduce that Steven Pressfield chose his subject brilliantly. He also writes about it brilliantly. The characters are great, the details are right (and gory when necessary), and he actually explains how a mere "handful" of brave Greek soldiers kept an enormous Persian army at bay. I found that I couldn't put it down, and I also found (to my great joy) that we finally have an author who can be classed in the same league as Mary Renault! (That's strong praise indeed, and well-deserved.) Highest recommendation!
Rating:
Summary: A true masterpiece...
Review: We Greeks know all the details of Thermopyles battle by heart.
But I never thouhgt that I would be enjoyed so much
about this book, since it describes a very familiar
moment of Ancient Greek history.
It is indeed the most epic battle of all times...
I believe this book provides the opportunity for alot of
people to learn something more instead of Gladiator,Rob Roy
and other rubbish
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent,stirring and gripping
Review: How many people among the 6 billion or so alive today will be known to averagely informed people 2,500 years from now? One would assume not many, just as so few names from the world 2,500 years ago are known to us now. The extraordinary nature of the battle at Thermopylae means that it was a brave subject for Steven Pressfield to take on in his novel - how do you do justice to a heroism so remarkable that it still resonates 2,500 years after the last witness left the battlefield? Given this challenge, I have all the more admiration for the author's achievement. His writing style is economic, yet he is gifted with considerable descriptive powers. This short passage from the book describes the battle field after a particularly bloody days fighting "The wounded, in numbers uncountable, groaned and cried out, writhing amid piles of limbs and severed body parts so intertangled one could not distinguish individual men, but the whole seemd a Gorgon-like beast of ten thousand limbs, some ghastly monster spawned by the cloven earth and now draining itself, fluid by fluid, back into that chthonic cleft which had given it birth." (by the way, chthonic means of, or pertaining to, the underworld, I had to look it up and I think it is the only obscure word in the entire book) The book is a truly enjoyable read - one of those yopu will read in its entirety in a couple of days - I'm now looking forward to reading more of his novels. If you enjoyed the immediacy and vividness of the descriptions of the Ancient Greek world in this book, then look out for Tom Holt's novels about the same period - similar clarity of vision but written with a marvelously wry sense of humour.
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