NUMBER: 7TITLE: The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great
AUTHOR: Steven Pressfield
STARTED: January 24, 2005
FINISHED: January 30, 2005
PAGES: 348
GENRE: Fiction
FIRST SENTENCE: I have always been a solider.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) ascended to the throne of Macedon at the age of twenty. He fought his greatest battles--including the conquest of the mighty Persian Empire--before he was twenty-five and died at the age of thirty-three, still undefeated by any enemy. His reputation as a supreme warrior and leader of men is unsurpassed in the annals of history.
In the brilliantly imagined first-person voice of Alexander the Great, acclaimed novelist Steven Pressfield brings to life his epic battles, his unerring command of his forces, and the passions and ambitions that drove him. A full-blooded, multidimensional portrait, THE VIRTUES OF WAR captures Alexander's complex character. Alexander was a fearless commander who moved with such daring and speed that no army could withstand him; a driven leader whose ambitions knew no limits; and a man with boundless compassion for his troops, deep friendships with his generals, and profound respect for his enemies. Yet in the end, his noble qualities were subsumed by his insatiable lust for glory.
No one writes about battles as brilliantly as Pressfield, and in THE VIRTUES OF WAR he vividly describes the seminal conflicts of Alexander's career, revealing the tactics behind them and capturing the blood, heat, and terror of the battlefield. He follows Alexander's forces as they faced and defeated armies that far outnumbered them; delivers a thrilling frontline report from Gaugamela, the scene of Alexander's greatest victory; and, in a memorable vignette, shows the great conqueror finally halted, not by an enemy but by the refusal of his worn-out troops to march any farther.
REASON FOR READING: Ancient Historical Fiction... I heart it.
THOUGHTS: Not bad. Not great. But, not bad. The book was unevenly paced and that drove me nuts. There were pages upon pages of description of military battles. The author listed names and ranks and litanies of units and it just rattled on like an ancient Homeric epic. While it was interesting to know, these lists read so slowly that I found my eyes glazing over. The battle scenes themselves were very descriptive and authentic. The feelings and scenes the author created were addictive. However, I felt as if I was watching a documentary on military strategy. I could see the colored blocks moving across the field in my head. While Pressfield uses detailed prose I was thinking in terms of huge blocks instead of individual combatants.
While the battle litanies read slowly, there were other areas of the book read quite quickly. Pressfield uses such elegant prose and vivid imagery that some pages just flew by in an instant. The one scene that stands out in my mind was when Pressfield has Alexander describe why horses go to battle. It was amazing! I will re-read the book again just for that vignette.
The most annoying feature of the book is how it is structured. The plot itself is fine is how the plot is told that drove me nuts. Pressfield makes Alexander the narrator. That wouldn't be a problem, but Alexander is talking to the reader as if they are Itanes (his page boy). It was just so silly. Every time he talked to Itanes, I felt as if Pressfield was breaking the invisible wall that usually exists between the reader and the book. It was almost disturbing.
MISCELLANEOUS: The dust jacket of the book is quite beautiful
KEEP/SHARE/CRINGE(?): Keep. My addiction to hardcovers strikes again
RATING: 6/10 [Good]
CR: No Man's Mistress by Mary Balogh
RN: No clue.
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