Rating: 
Summary: Good except when they weren't fighting
Review: Remarkable combat scenes. However, in between the fighting is some of the most awful dialogue and awkward artificial characters I've ever encountered in print. Ham-fisted attempts to show the development of bonds between characters, e.g., soldier-camp hilarity surrounding a massively well-endowed man. Lots of goo-goo-eyed admiration of male physique and heroism.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting portrait of Spartan Life
Review: I was pleased with this book and the story it told of the battle of Thermopylae. What I found particularly interesting was how it brought the culture of Sparta to life. Pressfield affirms everything I had been told about the Spartans (namely, that the lived for nothing but war), but I came away respecting their way of life and seeing the humanity of their choice.
Rating:
Summary: a la Schindlers List Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan
Review: A book that was reccomended to me in a bookstore by a fellow shopper. I had actually picked up the sequel due to a mild interest I had gained from Avalon Hill/Victory Games' "The Peloponessian War" This guy suggested that this book was better, so I sprung the six bucks and headed home. I am suprised that no one (that I have yet seen) has commented on the large amount of language and such in the book, and for that reason alone I cant give it five stars. But the telling of the story supersedes in this case I believe as in those noted films in my review title. Well-written, and a better subject matter could hardly be chosen. An interesting point of view for the narration, and a powerful read.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Gates of Fire was absolutely the best historical fiction I have ever read.... and I am a history major with 30 years of teaching behind me. I keep picking up the book and rereading parts of it. The characters are alive and the story is riveting. If you love history, read Pressfield.
Rating:
Summary: Living the 'Gates of Fire'
Review: As an avid reader of historical military fiction and a student of ancient Greece, I opened this book with high expectations. It did not disappoint. This was a soul-searing work that kept me up at night. If you enjoy experiencing what it might have been like to be a soldier in the ranks, both in the line of battle and in the lull times, this book offers an excellent vehicle. I've been to many of the battlefields of ancient Greece but not to Thermopylae. It will be part of my next visit without fail. Bravo to Pressfield- let's hope his next work is a worthy successor!
Rating: 
Summary: Gates of fire
Review: Incredibly unreadable, the "translation" of the language into digusting modern adjectives leaves me bewildered who could possibly want to read it. It reminds me of those terrible American Marine films. After many tries I never got past the first 89 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Think you're tough?
Review: The Spartans had two kings so that one could lead the army into battle, die with them if need be, and not leave Sparta ungoverned. King Leonidas himself, then in his *60's!,* expected his and exhorted his allies' troops to strike their tents and sleep outside unprotected, no matter the weather, so that they could use the tent material as bandages, this BEFORE the battle is even joined. That this book is based on fact sure changed the way I look at the world, at least as I relate to it. I find that little things bother me a lot less lately. I may be tough, but not that tough.
Rating:
Summary: War may be work, but Pressfield also makes it entertaining!
Review: According to the Spartans, war is work, not mystery, but Pressfield makes it very entertaining too!THe book replays the famous battle at THermopalye and the epic stand by the Spartan s. And along the way we may even learn something about Ancient Sparta, the GReeks, the ways of the ancient world and the ancient warrior mindset. If you want to read about war and aren't afraid to admit you crave a little violence as entertainment, then this book is a refreshing alternative to the high tech impersonal violence so prevalent in the spy genre. Nothing is more personal than a sword or spear in your guts! However, the author manages to bestow honor upon those who fight, no matter which side. The author has carefully reconstructed the ancient world (read the acknowledgements for source material) but also given us a cast of unforgettable characters. THe heroes, like Dienekes, Polynikes, Alexandros and other fought nobly, died honorably and revealed their lives and culture to us in the process. And surprise, surprise, the last and most enduring testament of the book is to the women who support and grieve for them. I enjoyed the history and like any testosterne driven male, I loved the graphic battle scenes. If they make a movie of this it will make Gladiator seem like a Sunday picnic!
Rating:
Summary: Spartans on the ¿Dance Floor.¿
Review: Pressfield's narrative ruthlessly reveals the Spartan efficiency in battle. His power of description makes you feel as if you are watching a documentary filmed on location. Every reader will have a page or special paragraph where they are compelled to give homage to these original Hard-Core Soldiers. Mine was when Pressfield described how the front line of Spartan soldiers bought their eight footers from the vertical to the horizontal in one movement, as if the line was one creature, with one mind. Men in the second and even third ranks, thrust their weapons over the shoulders of their own men, turning the Spartan line into a piercing wall of death. That warriors who knew this to be their last battle could accomplish such unity and precision makes you bow your head in awe. A battlefield is strewn with tens of thousands of bodies. The horrible mass appears to move because the wounded and dying in their writhing cause this flesh mountain to look like the movements of one gigantic creature. Fear and Death have turned the earth into a shin-deep broth of urine and blood. What kind of steel spirit would it take to behold this battlefield and refer to it as "The Dance Floor?" Only a warrior of Sparta! The criteria that King Leonidas used in choosing the Three Hundred who would stand and die at the Hot Gates is the supreme example of harsh Spartan wisdom. The Three Hundred never knew the real reason King Leonidas selected them over their brethren, but you will know by the end of the book. This revelation alone is enough to challenge any ideas you had about Spartans. I had believed the Spartans were a warrior cult without reverence for life, something like ancient Clingons, but without honor. I now know that the Spartans shared bonds of brotherhood as rigorous and sacred as any religious order and that their brutality contained the raw compassion needed for survival.
Rating:
Summary: Stark and memorable
Review: Writing in a spare, violent prose that reminds me of what I (almost) remember of the Attic Greek I once knew, Mr. Pressfield brings ancient Greece and, in particular, the Spartans and those tributary to them with shocking clarity. He has pulled off a technical tour de force, in making a period of history far removed from us seem once again fresh and in making us care as passionately as Xeo -- who wasn't even a Spartan born. This is a story of heroism. But it is also a story of discipline, of loyalty between fighting men and to a state. For a book as violent as this, it is also a story of profound caring, both among the characters of the story and the readers it draws.
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