A new book on Alexander by Steven Pressfield

[yiannis]

It's going to be published in fall.
If he does the same good work as he did in the "Gates of Fire" it will be a success. That because his other books were not of the same quality.http://www.stevenpressfield.com/books/virtues_war.asp

[kate]

I loved "Gates of Fire", but agree that "Tides of War" and the Amazon book were poor. I found them confusingly written with no clear plot or decent characterisation so I hope this new one about Alexander goes back to his earlier form. Can't say I'm hopeful though after reading the extract on his website. Only a first taster I know, but to me the dialogue sounded wooden and that list of letters made it seem more like a text-book rather a novel about one of the most excitng men who ever lived.Cheers,Kate

[marcus]

I agree about "Tides of War" but I was pleasantly surprised with "Last of the Amazons" - I thought he was (almost) back to form.To be honest, the thing that concerned me most about the extract from his Alexander book was the use of the term "Afghanistan". Maybe it's just me, but I believe in giving places the correct contemporary names (unless there's a *really* good reason not to).All the bestMarcus

[Tre]

Truly dreadful in every sense of the word. But after Tides of War I'm not surprised. I feel asleep before getting to the end.Not a wise move to do things from Alexander's perspective

[amyntoros]

And then there's this quote: "Throughout the book Alexander has been employing Itanes as a sort of sounding board, someone he can unburden himself to."As if Alexander would have needed to "unburden himself" to Roxane's younger brother! I suppose his generals and his friends for many years weren't to be trusted. And why do so many fiction writers assume that Alexander's achievements weighed heavily upon him? I agree, I thought it was boring as well as an unlikely scenario.Linda Ann

[Jeanne]

(sigh)I have a feeling we'll be seeing several Alexander books in the next couple years, mostly from people previously published. Publishing is conservative; they want a "sure thing," and are more concerned with selling it than with either quality of accuracy, I fear. 8}I wish a new Renault would emerge, someone able to spin a good yarn AND who really knew ancient Greece and Macedonia.(Why can't we get Peter Green to write an ATG novel? Probably wouldn't be very flattering to Alex, but at least it'd be accurate and readable. He's written the only novel on Alcibiades I could get through. TIDES OF WAR stunk, imnsho. And when an author bores an ancient history professor with a book about *Alcibiades*, of all people, there's definitely something wrong!)Cheers!Dr. Jeanne Reames-Zimmerman;
287-K ASH, Dept. of History;
University of Nebraska at Omaha;
Omaha, NE 68182;
402/554-2489

[marcus]

Now, if I were already a published author, I'd say "wait until you read mine". As I'm not, however, all I can say is "if only they'd publish mine, then your wish would be granted...":-)All the bestMarcus

[S]

Greetings Jeanne,First, I am pleased to see you are visiting Pothos. I have to agree- for me, fiction can be sadly predictable, and the characters lack a special spark, the culture- and too often, the people- disappears into the authors fantasy..I still maintain that Renault, whatever her faults, brought the past alive and has compelled much interest to go further, in studying ALexander and his times, in many people around the world. For me,what makes a good novel is that the lines read almost poetically- painting a picture of places, people, culture, vistas with words.Unfortunately,as you stated, publishers go with *who* they know rather than with what the authors are actually producing- not a recipe for success, always.Regards,
Sikander

[S]

Greetings,I had read some of the excerpt and all I could think was: "Good golly! Alexander meets Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Balthasar Gracian's The Art of WOrldly Wisdom!" Somehow, in my personal response, this does not work; I do not see the characterization.Regards,
Sikander

[Jeanne]

Hee. I'm around for a while, anyway, until the semester buried me again. I'm teaching Persia and Mesopotamia, so it's required a lot of prep.The whole fiction question is in the forefront of my mine, as one of my current paper projects is "Alexander as Icon: some socio-political contexts of Alexander the Great in Twentieth-Century fiction." (I'll even be presenting the paper tomorrow at the Missouri Valley History Conference -- it's a regional conference) Anyway, the paper deals more with historical ALLEGORY than historical fiction, but it's giving me a chance to talk about three Alexander books I find either 'interesting' or quite good. The two "fascism" books, one by Klaus Mann (son of the nobel-winner, Thomas Mann) and one by Konrad Bercovici. The third is by Aubrey Menen. Mann's book is competent, Bercovici's is rather bad, I'm afraid (although historically interesting), but Menen's is really quite good. Not so much for historical accurancy -- but that's not his point. It's a very clever little novel (and very funny, too).But anyway, I'm enjoying the (sorta) side-line. :-)Dr. Jeanne Reames-Zimmerman;
287-K ASH, Dept. of History;
University of Nebraska at Omaha;
Omaha, NE 68182, 402/554-2489

[S]

Greetings Jeanne,Is that the one with the women? Glad to see you are keeping busy (laughing)! This sounds fascinating.I hope the other project goes well- if not now, in future. Regards,
Sikander

[Linda]

It's dreadful. It must be a draft - although I haven't read any of his other work, so maybe this is is style, but I hate these books where the author seems to be explaining the story rather than telling it, if you know what I mean.I wish Georgette Heyer had done Alexander - that wouldl have been a laugh.Linda

[S]

Greetings Linda,(Laughing) A friend of mine just said Georgette Hyer *has* written Alexander- in a book called "The Quiet Gentleman".... I don't like fiction generally, so am not the one to write reviews of same, but some I can get through- others are a chore- while The Art of War and The Art of Worldly Wisdom were interesting, seeing that same style come from Alexander's mouth does not work. Regards,
Sikander

[Tre]

Never would I have acribed the term "Quiet" to Alexander

[S]

Greetings Tre,(Laughing) It was a bit of a joke, I think, because this fellow apparently goes through life with a lot of near-misses, etc.. Anyone here read this book?Regards,
Sikander