The Gates of Athens: Book One in the Athenian series

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One issue I had with all this, however, is the fact there’s just so much prose. I like reading dialogue (unless we’re talking about an HP Lovecraft story) and I felt Protector could have used more. I missed a sense of camaraderie between the characters and it’s a very long book to have so much unbroken text. I mean, I’ve just opened the book at random to look and chapter 28 has no dialogue at all. Like I say, I believe this must have been a decision the author took on purpose and I think it certainly works in terms of imparting a sense of the enormous scale of this conflict – this novel is about PEOPLES rather than PEOPLE – but I think it took me longer to finish the book as a result. Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army --- swollen by 10,000 warriors known as The Immortals --- have come to subjugate the Greeks. In their path, vastly outnumbered, stands an army of freeborn Athenians. Among them is a clever, fearsome and cunning soldier-statesman, Xanthippus. Against all odds, the Athenians emerge victorious. Ten years later, Athens has betrayed its favourite son. When the Persians return, when they cross the Hellespont to take revenge on the Greeks, will Xanthippus come home to save his people? This absolutely fascinating book is the 1st volume of a new series called "Athenian", from the acclaimed author, Conn Iggulden, and it describes in a very spectacular fashion the atmosphere and people of the ancient world of Athens, and Greece as a whole.

Cynosarges, east of the city, across the Ilissos, reached from the Diomea gate, a gymnasium sacred to Heracles, where the Cynic Antisthenes taught. On the East side: the Gate of Diochares, leading to the Lyceum. The Diomean Gate, leading to Cynosarges and the deme Diomea. A magnificent historical sequence of events told through the mind of one of the greatest historical writers out there, and this numbers amongst his best works.The silver mines of Laurion contributed significantly to the development of Athens in the 5th century BC, when the Athenians learned to prospect, treat, and refine the ore and used the proceeds to build a massive fleet, at the instigation of Themistocles. [8] A Persian king stands at last on Greek soil. His Immortals have come to raze the cities of the west. The Athenians are hopelessly outnumbered. The gods are silent. All they have is the shield line. Xanthippus takes a breath. If they cannot stand, all Greece will fall.

Speaking of slaves, their perspective is missing entirely from this book. So is the perspective of women, metics, and generally everyone else who isn't part of the Athenian or Spartan elite. You could make the argument that that is not what the book is about so it's okay, but I'd disagree. The author made the conscious decision to focus on 'great men,' leaving out any criticism of rampant Greek misogyny, the intense slavery, the superiority complex Greeks had regarding non-Greeks, etc. etc. Instead he blatantly and uncritically copies the self-serving Greek narrative about the wars, which in my opinion makes him no better than those he copied, with all their misogyny and classism. Athens, and in fact ancient Greece as a whole, had serious issues and this book whitewashes them, and that is simply not okay.The tale told here is massive in scope – you’re looking at armies numbering in hundreds of thousands! That’s quite a difference to many historical novels, especially my own which usually have warbands of a few hundred or even just a dozen. I think the author has made a choice in writing this book to make the whole thing feel BIG – there’s very little dialogue and we flit between characters without ever really seeing them as normal people. We’re TOLD about them, but there’s not many scenes of basic human interaction like men sitting drinking together, sharing jokes and songs, couples being intimate or the like. I can’t be sure, obviously, but I think Iggulden must have decided to avoid scenes like that – avoided making the people too minutely detailed – because he wanted to focus on the greater overall picture. These events were momentous and we do get a vivid sense of how incredibly powerful these nations were. Sparta’s incredible fighting prowess, Persia’s sheer numbers and ambition, and Greek cunning and resilience.