Greece - 1250 BC. At the edge of history, Theseus King of Athens leads an expedition into the fabled land of the ‘Free People’. Known to some as the Amazons they are regarded as amongst the most deadly of foes. Initially welcomed as fellow warriors the mood of women changes when their Queen elopes with the Greek King. As anger grows amongst the Amazonian tribes a leader emerges who promises them the end of the Athenian upstart nation and its experimental democratic system. Acquiring allies eager for booty and slaves, a massive army the like of which the known world has never seen before moves against the Greeks destroying everything in its path. Can Theseus and his citizen army stand against such a horde or will Athens fall and with it all hope of free men?
After reading several of the authors books – notably Gates of Fire – I was looking forward to a gripping historical read. I wasn’t exactly disappointed but found this particular book to be my least favourite of his so far. The narrative was interesting enough and the characters varied but I did find this a bit of a slog at times. It might be the fact that it was 500 pages long. Losing 100 pages out of this would not have affected the story but might have tightened things up a bit. The siege of Athens lasted for 7 months but I don’t think it should have felt like that. The fighting was intense but failed to grip me in the way his previous novels did. I couldn’t help thinking that his depiction of the Amazons themselves relied far too much on him channelling ideas of the Native Americans of the Plains. I suppose that this was understandable as the Amazons themselves are, as far as I know, myths rather than a real people so the author would have had very little to go on. Whilst hardly a great page turner this was, on the whole, still entertaining enough without being particularly memorable. I have several more of his books in ‘the Pile’ and this hasn’t put me off reading them. Maybe he was just having a bad few months. I do hope so.
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