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Loading... Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae (1998)by Steven Pressfield
 JGolomb | Feb 24, 2013 |  A tale of fighting and honor of the spartan 300 and their fight at the "Hot Gates" of Thermopylae. The only thing I could have wished for was not to have seen the movie 300, for everytime the book tells of Leonidas I see the actor, not the grey haired 60 year old king as the book depicts. A great book with plenty of description of the fighting that took place and more on the fall of Xerxes. (  ) imholte | Oct 5, 2012 | My favorite book and favorite audiobook I have every done! ( ) mattbuis | Jun 9, 2012 | First line: ~ Although extraordinary valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespaians, yet bravest of all was declared the Spartan Dienekes ~ My 29 year old son is a great fan of historical fiction involving battles and war strategy etc. He says that Gates of Fire is the best that he has ever read. I tried it once before and couldn't get into it but I know from past experience that sometimes a second go around makes the difference. This time I made it to the end. This is definitely not my favourite book but it is obviously well researched, well written and very detailed. Pressfield did some pretty heavy research about the Spartans and their warfare tactics. I understand it is pretty accurate. There are long passages (pages and pages) of details of the training experiences and the actual battle strategies etc. If you want bloody detail about hand to hand combat this is the book for you. I did find it fascinating to see what a well oiled machine these legions presented to their enemies and their sheer determination is to be admired on a certain level. However, reading this just confirms for me the tragedy of war. I can't imagine the life that these men and their squires lead. I am taken by their discipline and commitment. However, I am saddened as I am any time that I read about war and, what I believe to be, the senseless loss of lives. And so many lives were lost at this battle. There is also a lot of information about Spartan women and the role they play in the unfolding war. I don't think I would read this again but I did enjoy it. (  ) ccookie | May 8, 2012 | Just read this book for the 3rd time and enjoyed it just as much as the first time of reading jacksnan | Jan 29, 2012 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 055338368X, Paperback)Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful. In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and rigorously schooled in the art of war--an education brutal enough to destroy half the students, but (oddly enough) not without humor: "The more miserable the conditions, the more convulsing the jokes became, or at least that's how it seems," Xeo recalls. His companions in arms are Alexandros, a gentle boy who turns out to be the most courageous of all, and Rooster, an angry, half-Messenian youth. Pressfield's descriptions of war are breathtaking in their immediacy. They are also meticulously assembled out of physical detail and crisp, uncluttered metaphor: The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram.... The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.Alas, even this human barrier was bound to collapse, as we knew all along it would. "War is work, not mystery," Xeo laments. But Pressfield's epic seems to make the opposite argument: courage on this scale is not merely inspiring but ultimately mysterious. --Marianne Painter (retrieved from Amazon Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:53:20 -0500) At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army. Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history -- one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. In Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield portrays the boldest & bloodiest battle fought by the legendary Spartan Army against the Persian Empire. The national bestseller!… (more) |
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Honor is a most valued trait. Long Homeric speeches bolster mens' bravery. And within this glory-driven, very testosterone-heavy vibe, we see only glimpses of the humanness of somewhat two-dimensional characters who represent the greater collective of the Spartan spirit.
The Spartan women seem to best represent the humanness of this group of people who've taken on a supernatural historic status. They are noble, strong in both emotions and physicality, but through them we glimpse the human soul that resides at the heart of Pressfield's story.
This story did not touch me. The characters and themes did not connect with me as a reader. Maybe because I'm not a warrior? Maybe because I'm not as familiar with this time period? I don't think so. This beautifully written novel is well crafted, but there's a flatness in the characterizations, and in the cases where a third dimension is almost complete, Pressfield shifts time and focus and delves into another aspect of Sparta's war-heavy ways.
The battle scenes are tremendous and Pressfield does a terrific job of varying the action and description. I recommend "Gates of Fire" for the action and the story. Just don't go looking for more. (