Couldn't Put it Down | Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

What is the opposite of fear? | Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae | Steven Pressfield

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	• Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae Steven Pressfield Bantam, 2005 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 646 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Brilliant historical fiction-

Any fan of ancient history will soak this exciting novel up.
Pressfield draws you in with intriguing well developed characters and a great blend of fiction woven into historical facts and events.
Heartily recommended!

Couldn't Put it Down

At first i thought it was going to be an average book but as i kept reading i found myself mesmerized. One of the best books i have ever read. I was captivated by the different characters and the relationships between them, not to mention the amazing war scenes!!! Grab a sandwich, a drink and a comfortable seat because you won't want to put this book down.

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What is the opposite of fear?

In 480 B.C., the Battle of Thermopylae changed world history forever, though in some perverse way, today we revisit some of the roots of this singular conflict among powers.

Don't mind those few critics. Gates of Fire is a beautiful work, lavish and elaborate. Indulge it, lose yourself in it, and be ever mindful of your own terribly easy life. Xeo is an unlikely hero, fully believable. Forgiveness is a rather subtle theme. Life was harsh then.

The structure of this story is fantastically clever; the narration is masterful; the history is brought shockingly and accurately to life (and death). There is enough blood, guts, and slaughter to last a reader a month, enough love and devotion to simply last. There's almost no stereotyping, virtually no sex, and no backing off ugliness and horror. How anyone survived even daily life, let along the exigencies of injury, famine and disease is nothing short of miraculous. The rigors and excessive humiliation of boys-becoming-soldiers stuns one's sensibilities.

Dienekes' poser (page 231), "What is the opposite of fear?" enlightens. It is the central theme of this epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae. The answer, 100 pages later, does not surprise as much as it verifies - not only the idiocy of war but the central fact of relations among men (and women).

While ostensibly this story regales and sanctifies the cunning and valor of the astonishingly courageous men (on both sides) who fought and (mostly) died at Thermopylae, the historically unsung role and place of the women of Sparta shines through the gore and misery of battle. Females are the real backbone of this warrior culture. Why is that not surprising?

Description of armies fighting as units, not individuals, inspires. Leadership is known by both acts and words. Failure is unacceptable, although death is. Camaraderie abounds amid desolation and despair. We have no idea today of the misery of war back then.

Imparting a philosophy of life and war is a duty held by leaders, and they succeed. They teach that to die for one's principles, for the future of others, and for one's "nation" is never a sacrifice, but rather an honor.

Pressfield's battlefield descriptions awe and appall. Page 275, "Across this farmer's field of death lay sown such a crop of corpses and shields, hacked-up armor and shattered weapons, that the mind could not assimilate its scale nor the sense give it compass. The wounded, in limbs and severed body parts so intertangled one could not distinguish individual men, but the whole seemed a Gorgon-like beast of ten thousand limbs, some ghastly monster spawned by the cloven earth and now draining itself, fluid by fluid, back into that chthonic cleft which had given it birth."

Who could ask for anything more?

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Interview with a Spartan

This book is simply beautiful. Numerous times I had to remind myself that this book was fiction. The attention to detail Mr. Pressfield put into this story is simply amazing. The prose was as rich and wonderful as any author out there, living or dead. This book is why we readers read! A great, great retelling of a classic story.

Best book ever

I love this book, I've read it a dozen times or so and I enjoy it more every time I read it.

The national bestseller!

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....

From the Paperback edition.

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