just stupid question - has anyone read these?

[nick]

Hi Companions -I have been quite inactive lately - sorry. Too much occupied with work, I guess. Well, the discussion on the Forum seems to have improved anyway! ;-)I was shopping around this weekend, hesitant to buy these new books:Alexander the Great: Historical Texts in Translation by Waldemar Heckel (Editor) The Death of Alexander the Great by Paul DohertyAlexander the Great: Son of the Gods
by Alan Fildes, Joann Fletcherand also the Ulrich Wilcken book...Has anyone read one of these? Recommendations? What should I buy, what not? (Generally I would trust Heckel blindfolded.) (And I don't like the 'feel' of the Fildes book... )Today I started reading Holt's "elephant's mystery". Quite enjoyable up to now - I do not know how 'good' I will find it in the end - but at the moment it is a pleasure to read it.Best regards -NickP.S. I am thinking about setting all the votes in the "Best Book" page back to zero. Just in order to give all those new books a fair chance. Is that a good idea?

[marcus]

Hi Nick,Nice to have you back after a long time away!I have the Fildes book, although I confess I haven't "read" it - it's got lots of nice pictures, and I got it for them. I don't think there's anything in the text that is really ground-breaking.I will probably get the Doherty book, although judging by his fiction about Alexander I am nervous. In his fiction he hasn't shown, in my view, that he has the slightest grasp of what was going on... but a non-fiction book might be better.I loved the Holt Medallions book - actually, I'm pretty sure I sent you a review of it... did you get it?All the bestMarcus

[marcus]

Oh yes... with regard to the votes - I agree. Let's start from scratch.All the bestMarcus

[Kit]

Hi Nick,I've got the Fildes/Fletcher book and quite liked it for the format and ease of reference, although as Marcus says it does not really add anything original. Nice pictures though! They used primarily Arrian & Plutarch for sources so it does not always give a balanced view. I did send in a review of it a while ago but it has not been posted yet.regards,Kit.

[Kit]

Yep,I agree too- reset them!Kit

[S]

Greetings Chris,I apologize for the lateness in posting your review- we have received quite a few and will be posting soon. Problems with time and computer access but we will see to it that they are posted within the next week or two. SOme may be later, as they are rather long and some editing has to be done without losing the gist of the writer's sense of the book.Regards,
Sikander

[amyntoros]

I have the Fildes book and always felt it would be a perfect book to introduce Alexander to my 13-year-old, though right now he thinks that one Alexanderphile in the house is enough! I did enjoy the illustrations, and I do realize it isn't meant to be a children's book, but it doesn't feel like a book meant for serious adult readers.A historical book by Paul Doherty on the death of Alexander disturbs me - I didn't know about this book before your post. What annoys me most about his Alexander-related fiction are the plots. Every single one feels like an ancient version of Clue. He gives a list of suspects and throws in a couple of red herrings, kills off one or two of them, then rounds them all up at the end and has his protagonist solve the case. Was it Hecaetus in the garden with a sword? Or did Pausanias do it in the kitchen with poison? No, it was Hermanocrates in the tower with a bow and arrow! Now throw the dice and start a new game (book) with a new victim and a new list of suspects. I am seriously afraid that Doherty may treat the death of Alexander in a similar fashion and would definitely like to see an objective review of this particular book before attempting to read it. All the best,
Linda Ann

[Kit]

No problem Sikander,I suspected that may have been the case so I didn't chase it up.thanks for the update.regards,Kit.

[Tre]

As for Paul Doherty's non fiction work, all I need remind anyone is that the first two books in the series were written under yet another pseudonym, Anna Apostolou where he/she (pick one - writes under both sexes, I suspect female) had a historical afterword at the end where he/she claimed Alexander had panic attacks. Need I say more?Wilcken's book isnGÇÖt bad. Typical for its time period. Good preface by Borza if thatGÇÖs the edition youGÇÖre looking at.

[Linda]

Hi NickI bought Heckel, attracted by having all the "odd" resources people talk about - the Epitome etc - in one book. The book itself is not a beautiful object. Functional. Excerpts are arranged by theme - Alexander and the Barbarian, Alexander and the Greeks, Army and War etc, and within these chapters selections relating to almost every angle you can imagine: Bucephalus, Sisygambis, drink, "his alleged shortness". There are short summaries at the beginning of some of the sections. The sections on the Persian Empire pre-Alexander and early Macedonia are a good idea. However, and I suppose this is the nature of the beast, differing accounts are placed side by side without any interpretation. eg Aelian - what did he know? I don't know if he is good or bad. Help. There are concise descriptions of all the major sources plus a glossary and a list of all the cities called Alexander. A long bibliography. I have dipped into it, and I don't think it can possibly be fully comprehensive, but I think aims to be representitive.It's pretty good.

[marcus]

Hi Tre,You've been away for a while, haven't you?Anyway, chit chat over... Paul Doherty is a man (the headmaster of a school somewhere in the UK, no less - perhaps if he spent a bit more time running his school and a bit less time writing rubbish detective fiction, the UK education system might not be in such a deplorable state...).He has written, if I recall correctly, a non-fiction book about the death of Tutankhamun, too. I haven't read it, so I don't know how "non"-fiction it is... but I believe it sold (and is selling) quite well. No doubt he'll make a few pounds out of his Alexander book, irrespective of the contents.All the bestMarcus

[jan]

Hi Nick,I recommend the Wilcken book, and I like the Filde, Fletcher book for the illustration of the stairwell of Persepolis alone. It is one of the best that I have seen, and I have searched a lot of info about Pesepolis.A great book on Alexander is by M'Crindle, written and published originally in 1892. I commented upon it on the Alexander-Macedon discussion group site.It contains the best summation of the life of Alexander in a single short chapter that I have read to date. It is fair, concise, and very illuminating in its appraisal. Following his intro is the verbatim accounts of Alexander's journeys into India. He uses Justin, Didodorus, Arrian, Plutarch, and Curtius's exact records for the remainder of the book.

[Tre]

Hi Marcus!Going through an operating system change where I work - humongous headaches (Fortune 50 company), so I've been a bit busy of late.I find that 'bio' highly suspect. How do we know that isn't made up just like the aliases? That used to be very common with mystery writers.Regards,Tre