The book reviewed by our editorial staff.

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Product Description

For many, Pressfield's retelling of the epic story of the Battle of Thermopylae is one of the all time great historical novels.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2495 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 525 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 defence--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 humour: "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 valour of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armour, 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, Amazon.com

From the Back Cover
GO TELL THE SPARTANS, STRANGER PASSING BY, THAT HERE, OBEDIENT TO THEIR LAWS, WE LIE.

Nearly 2,500 years ago, in 480 BC, at a bleak pass in a far-flung corner of eastern Greece, three hundred Spartan warriors faced the army of King Xerxes of Persia, a massive force rumoured to be over a million strong. Their orders were simple: to delay the enemy for as long as possible while the main Greek armies mobilized.

For six days the Spartans held the invaders at bay. In the final hours, their shields broken, swords and spears shattered, they fought with their bare hands and teeth before being overwhelmed. It was a battle that would become synonymous with extrodinary courage, heroism and self-sacrifice. Its name was Thermopylae.

Gates of Fire tells the epic story of those legendry Spartans: the men and women who helped shape our history and have themselves become as immortal as their gods.

About the Author

Steven Pressfield was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother. He graduated from Duke University in 1965. His struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in his 2002 book, The War of Art. Mr. P has worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. He has picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown.

With the publication of The Legend of Bagger Vance in 1995, Mr. Pressfield became a writer of books once and for all. His writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code--internal rather than external--in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that Pressfield has labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in The War of Art) and the technique for combating these foes can be described as "turning pro."

There's a recurring character in Mr. Pressfield's books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like Mr. Pressfield's conception of art and the artist:

"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."

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Customer Reviews

The best novel of its kind
Any fan of historical novels will love this book. The story is both simple and epic and the author's ability to capture the action of battle is second to none. Even those who rubbish the idea of 'swords & sandals' should give this book a read. Regardless of genre it is quite simply a great story well told.

There aren't enough adjectives for this incredible book
What a magnificent book this is. I have read a lot of books but none of them - in every genre - comes close to this one. I don't remember ever being this emotionally involved in a story as it unfolded through the novel, and you certainly go through every emotion as you turn the pages. Not only is the story itself, of the heroism of a tiny Greek army in the face of absolutely impossible odds, a remarkable premise in itself, Mr Pressfield has managed to make it even the more remarkable by his totally involving telling. As other reviewers have said, you really do feel as if you know all of the characters, and suffer along with them. Even though they are doomed to die, you can't help hoping that by some miracle, they will be triumphant. It is also descriptively unsurpassed, actually transporting you back into the world of the Spartans and taking you into the formidably painted battle whether you like it or not, leaving you breathless and terrified but unable to put it down. It's a fairly thick book, but I read it in 2 days, staying up into the wee hours because its impossible to put it down. This is the only book I've ever read that made me cry, and when I cried, I didn't stop for about an hour. It has everything - heroism, honour, comradeship, history, the love of family (especially the heartbreaking scene, without dialogue, when we see the great warrior Dienekes inform his wife of his inclusion in the 300 who must go to Thermopylae) - you name it, it will be in there somewhere. By degrees horrifying, hilarious, heartbreaking, shocking, terrifying and ultimately one of the most uplifting reads you will ever come across, "Gates of Fire" will never, ever be forgotten.

Here come the Rooster - he ain't gonna die.
This is a human story, populated by believable characters in a historical backdrop, an epic backdrop. All of them are fleshed out and tug at your loyalties, in a fictionalised romantic way, but that ends up giving you a real involvement and stake in the final battle - no matter how preordained its outcome.

It's portrayal of the harsh disciplines of the era, the morality, the training, the cameraderie, the ethics and the expected behaviour are brought to life - how accurately I wouldn't like to say (I'm not a historian) but quite credibly. Truly a ripping yarn.