A new novel

[system1988]

There is a new historical fiction on Alexander and Hephaestion by the author CHRISTOPHER COSMOS .Title : " Young Conquerors" Amazon 2024, Kindle 5.29 # Also author of the bestseller 'Once We Were Here'

[Alexias]

Oh, thanks for this. It looks to have some fairly positive reviews on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210 ... conquerors, and the author is actually a professional (screen)writer. I might give it a go, thanks.

[Sweetmemory41]

A fairly well-written novel about the development of the close connection between Alexander and his emotional as well as spiritual rock, Hephaestion. Their relationship is portrayed as one of the mixing of souls that is beyond any earthly desire. The author’s central premise is that they were bound together with the highest and purest of love and the desire to change the world. A number of liberties were taken with many historical facts, especially about Alexander’s other contemporaries.

[Alexias]

Thanks for this. Did you enjoy it?

[sikander]

A fairly well-written novel about the development of the close connection between Alexander and his emotional as well as spiritual rock, Hephaestion. Their relationship is portrayed as one of the mixing of souls that is beyond any earthly desire. The author’s central premise is that they were bound together with the highest and purest of love and the desire to change the world. A number of liberties were taken with many historical facts, especially about Alexander’s other contemporaries.

Greetings Memory,
Thanks for this. Have you finished reading it? What did you enjoy most about it?
Regards,
Sikander

[system1988]

.... Something strange happened , when i posted about the ''new novel'' etc it made 5 dollars , (AMAZON) within 3,4 days it costs 10 dollars !

[Alexias]

Well done!

I have made a start on reading this. It is not a mature or a well- researched novel. It is written in the first person and Hephaestion repeatedly tells us that he is a prince born without a kingdom, yet in the same paragraph tells us that his father did not die until he was six, so how does that work? We are not told why his mother suddenly decides he has to leave Illyria, or what will become of her and Hephaestion's younger brother after he leaves, or even why he has been left alive so long. And he has a broadsword. This is too heavy a weapon for a stirrup-less cavalyman, and a hoplite's spear would finish you off before you got withing infantry range. And he thinks he can ride 400 kilometres over mountains in a day.

I know I am nit-picking and being too harsh and you can get away with these kind of things in a film, but not in a novel which is designed to provoke thought. This is one of the dangers of self-publishing: you don't have somebody experienced to tell you that if you want to achieve depth and resonance, you need to think around the subject and do some research.

So, my expectations aren't great and I suspect it will be instantly forgettable, but we'll see if the storyline is worthwhile.

[Sweetmemory41]

Alexias, yes, I did enjoy it as any work about Alexander and Hephaestion’s childhood and adolescence is of interest to me. I can suspend critical thinking and go with the flow if thematically a novel is appealing.

Sikander, I liked the development of the soul relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion in the novel.

[Alexias]

Alexias, yes, I did enjoy it as any work about Alexander and Hephaestion’s childhood and adolescence is of interest to me. I can suspend critical thinking and go with the flow if thematically a novel is appealing.

I'm still only about two-fifths of the way through it. The Alexander has a certain charm but the Hephaestion doesn't seem to have much character (I had the same issue with Madeline Miller's Patroclus, but that is a much better book), except if anything a bit bone-headed. That aside, there's just so much that is improbable and off in this book.