Rating: 
Summary: Simply brilliant !
Review: I read Michael Shaara's " Killer Angels " last year and i thought i would never find a novel that could ever equal it. Well, this book has surpassed even Shaara's Putlizer prize effort in my humble opinion. To try to even summarise this book will be an injustice; just read it ! AND does anyone know if a movie is in the pipeline? Sean Connery as Leonadis, Brad Pitt as Polynikes, Leo D as Alexandros, Michelle Pfieffer as Arete etc..... hmmmmmmm.... perhaps and epic to outscale BraveHeart ?
Rating:
Summary: Brings to life the world-view of ancient Greece
Review: While providing a riveting account of the battle itself, Gates of Fire also provides a detailed picture of the nature of citizenship in ancient Greece. The lives of the characters reveal the philosophical roots of our modern notions of the relationship between citizen and state, the role of war, and even gender relations. Students of war, of democracy, and of philosophy should enjoy this book immensely. Gates of Fire combines the insights of John Keegan with the narrative grace of Stephen Ambrose. I couldn't put this book down -- actually having to ration myself to 20-30 pages at a time lest I succumb to gluttonously polishing the whole thing off. This is the kind of book that makes you wish that there were another 300 pages when you reach the end. If you enjoy this book, I'd also suggest "Achilles in Vietnam," and Keegan's works on the history of war.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: I bought this book on a whim and can only wish that my other impulse buys were this good! An absolutely incredible and riveting story! If you enjoy fiction and/or history this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: The book brings to life a historical period.
Review: I was shocked and enlightened to read about the conditions in Greece shortly before its great flowering. The disruptive and duplicitous wars between the city-states make the Spartans' harsh militarism into a virtue. Few of us would want such severe tests and punishments in our settled times. Yet they may have been necessary in a less unified era. Like some other readers, I think of Dave Grossman's nonfiction study "On Killing." The dread and strain of slaying other men by hand at close range, especially under the horrific conditions Pressfield depicts, surely required a great deal of brutality, desperation and sheer hate in the training of the warrior. Nowadays we kill at long range by pushbutton and it's tormenting enough. They had to be practically inhuman. Even so, this "spartan" drill produced heroes who could live in our words and thoughts millennia later, and who were able to turn a foregone defeat into one of history's most brilliant victories by the courage of their sacrifice. How much more immortal they proved than their adversaries, the Persian "Immortals" who are recalled only in their shadow! Pressfield has done a brilliant job of depicting these harsh historical necessities.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating recreation of Thermopylae
Review: A compelling depiction of ancient warfare, the action at the 'Hot Gates' rivals even the best battle scenes in recent great war novels like Gods and Generals and The Triumph and Glory. HISTORICAL FICTION AT ITS BEST! Pressfield is to be commended for the research he has done and techniques he has so masterfully developed to make ancient Sparta and her people come to such vivid life. A very fine novel!
Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: It is a good read, if you can get past the American colloquialisms. At one point the narrator descibes enemies "playing possum", another has a soldier yelling out "put the steel to 'em boys!" Neat trick in the Bronze Age. Countless references to God instead of Zeus. Constantly uses God in a singluar form. Nick naming an Egyptian "Tommie" because his real name is difficult to pronounce. This from a bunch of guys named Polynikes, Doreion, Terkleius and Dienekes from Lakedaemon. Nit picky I know, because the book is a good read outside of that. These things tend to pull you out of the story. Just when you can practically smell the sweat and leather, he yanks you back to your couch.
Rating:
Summary: A sobering book of uncommon valor, sacrifice and virtue.
Review: This book is one that from cover to cover draws you ever more into it. The subject matter is more than just an armies defense of a strategic pass. Its constant theme is courage, valor, sacrifice and the return of the true warriors heart that has been somewhat absent in our modern times. Gates of Fire is a well researched, creative and believable account of men willing to pay the supreme price, that of laying down their own lives, for the higher callings of family, village, country and honor. This books calls back from sleep the concepts of virtue and love. It went to the primitive heart of man verses man. I highly recommend it to everyone and to this generation.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling tale of classical warfare
Review: Gates of Fire is a superbly written book that retells a well worn story of near mythic status (the Spartan stand at Thermopylae) in such clear, elegant prose that the reader is transported into the ranks of the Spartan army. The exposition of Spartan "simplicity" (oxymoronic these days of course)is well done, as is the camaraderie of the soldiers as they mature under the harsh barracks system. Given much less impressive treatment are the roles of women and slaves in Sparta, which may have been the most socially repressive society ever known. Nevertheless, this is a book about fighting men, and fight they do: Pressfield's ability to provide gripping battle scenes is unsurpassed, and the climactic battle is simultaneously blood-soaked yet profoundly moving. HISTORICAL NOTE: for very good reasons, the Spartan army did not follow a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding sexual relations in the barracks, in particular between the knights and their pages. Not that there'a anything wrong with that. Just something to keep in mind when reading about Xeo anointing his master with oils and all that.
Rating:
Summary: Great historical fiction - an epic with humanity
Review: If you've ever been to a battlefield memorial and wondered what it must have been like to have witnessed the battle itself, then this is the book for you. Great entertainment, and a fascinating history lesson to boot. The final battle is truly moving -- as we witness characters that we have come to care about sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. Exciting, informative, and a testimony of the courage it takes to truly be a man -- what more can you ask for. A great "guy" book!
Rating:
Summary: A terrific fictionalization of history
Review: A terrific book even though the reader (one hopes) knows all along how the story turns out. Less a novel, really, than an extended meditation on fear and courage using the Spartans as exemplars, and expositors, of an older view of courage than typically appears in movies of the "Rambo" variety. The Spartans, as Pressfield repeatedly demonstrates, look down on bluster or fury as inappropriate to true men. Bluster is dismissed as "pseudandreia" or false courage; berserker-like fury is dismissed as "catalepsis" or possession. An excellent book to read along with nonfiction works like Stephen Ambrose's "Citizen Soldiers" or Dave Grossman's "On Killing." Nonetheless, the book kept me almost "possessed" until I finished it. Despite the known ending, and the slightly archaic flavor of the prose (a deliberate choice of the author, of course) it is a genuine page turner.
|
