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After chronicling the Spartan stand at Thermopylae in his audacious Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield once again proves that it's all Greek to him. In Tides of War, he tells the tale of Athenian soldier extraordinaire Alcibiades. Despite the vaunted claims for Periclean democracy, he is undoubtedly first among equals--a great warrior and an impressive physical specimen to boot: "The beauty of his person easily won over those previously disposed, and disarmed even those who abhorred his character and conduct." He is also a formidable orator, whose stump speeches are paradoxically heightened by what some might consider an impediment: Even his lisp worked in Alcibiades' favor. It was a flaw; it made him human. It took the curse off his otherwise godlike self-presentation and made one, despite all misgivings, like the fellow. This tale of arms and the man requires two narrators. One, Jason, is an aging noble who serves as a sort of recording angel of the Athenian golden age. The other, Polymides, was long Alcibiades' right-hand man, yet is now imprisoned for his murder.
As they were in his previous novel, Pressfield's battle scenes are extraordinarily vivid and visceral. This time, however, many of these elemental clashes take place on water. "As far as sight could carry, the sea stood curtained with smoke and paved with warcraft. Immediately left, a battleship had rammed one of the vessels in the wall; all three of her banks were backing water furiously, to extract and ram again, while across the breach screamed storms of stones, darts, and brands of such density that the air appeared solid with steel and flame."
In addition to his gift for rendering patriotic gore, the author excels at quieter but no less deadly forms of combat. As Alcibiades' star rises and falls and rises again, we are escorted directly into the snakepit of Athenian realpolitik. Bathing us in the details of a distant era, Pressfield is largely convincing. But it must be said that his diction exhibits a sometimes comical variegation, sliding from Homeric rhetoric to tough-guy speak to the sort of casual Anglicisms we might expect from Evelyn Waugh's far-from-bright young things. No matter. Tides of War conquers by sheer storytelling prowess, reminding us that war was--and is--a highly addictive version of hell. --Darya Silver
From Publishers Weekly
Perhaps the Peloponnesian War, which lasted 27 years and featured an epic list of people and places, just doesn't lend itself to the six-hour audio format, for not even renowned Shakespearean actor Jacobi's reading gives this novel the sense of personal drama it requires. Pressfield (Gates of Fire) focuses his story on Alcibiades, the legendary hero whose strength, beauty and courage embodied ancient Greek ideals. An Athenian trained in Sparta, Alcibiades appears divinely well suited to feed his country's hunger for military victories. But democracy in its nascent stage being no less tainted than in its current manifestation, Alcibiades is feared for his popularity and ultimately exiled on a trumped-up charge. Once in the camp of Athens's enemies, he proves as unmatchable a foe as he could have been a champion. Unfortunately, the pace of this recording, as necessitated by the breadth of events covered in its relatively short length, lends it all the emotional depth of a textbook. And unless listeners have studied their ancient Greek geography, they will find themselves rewinding often to try to keep up with the movements of all the ships and forces. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 13). (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The battle of Thermopylae doesn't sound like best seller material, but Pressfield made it work in Gates of Fire. Here he moves on to Greek military leader Alcibiades (c.450-404 BCE). Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
The setting is distant, the language elegant, and Derek Jacobi has the voice of the BBC. This is Merchant Ivory for the ear. The novel is built around Alcibiades, "the handsomest and most brilliant man of his era, as well as the most lawless. As a general, he was never beaten." So how did Athens lose the war to Sparta? Alcibiades worked for the people, the world's first batch of fickle voters. When he lost popular support, Athens lost him and then the war. In this great age of televised town meetings and bestselling novels, it's useful to be reminded-if reminded we need be-how often a majority can be wrong. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
Taking place 50 years after the Spartan stand at Thermopylae, which was covered in Pressfield's first book (Gates of Fire, 1998), this work extends his saga of the Greeks in perhaps their most dramatic period. It is the time of Pericles, Sophocles, and Socrates. The city-state of Athens rose in power until it became a threat to Spartan dominance. Beyond the rest of the personalities that illuminated that period was a single outstanding leader whose ambition for power almost destroyed Athens: Alcibiades. He was a general who captured the Grecian esthetic: renowned for his strength and good looks as well as his brilliance on the battlefield. When he couldn't incite Athens to fight Sparta, he went to the Spartans to wage war on the Athenians. Eventually he became such a threat to the city-state that it had him assassinated. The story is told in two voices: by Polemides, the assassin who served with Alcibiades, and by Jason, a noble who considered Polemides a villain yet eventually helped him to escape from prison. Pressfield's historic fiction has the ability to captivate readers, letting them feel as if they have intimate knowledge of the times and people. This work is sure to expand his popularity and whet appetites for his next installment. Eric Robbins
From Kirkus Reviews
Pressfield produces an even greater spectacleand, in its honest, incremental way, an even greater heart-tuggerthan in his acclaimed tale of the battle of Thermopylae, Gates of Fire (1999). Jason, son of Alexicles, lived almost to 92, in the prime of that long life having fought for Athens and been close friend to Socrates. When a grandson asks him whether, of all those he'd known in his life, there had been ``one whom memory has driven deepest,'' Jason responds immediately: yes, Polemides, the man who assassinated Alcibiades. Thus unfolds the most remarkable of tales, told partly in Jason's own words and partly in the words of the imprisoned and treason-charged soldier Polemides asover the same few days that Socrates waits to drink the hemlockhe tells Jason the story of the many intertwinings of his own military life, during the ``thrice nine years'' of the Peloponnesian War, with the life of that bold, brilliant, gifted, immeasurably ambitious leader, Alcibiades. The political complexities between Sparta and Athens, not to mention the cultural competition between them, are handled with a clarity that enlightens and captivates the reader at onceas Polemides becomes a mercy killer in the ghastly Great Plague in Athens early in the war; as Alcibiades all but single-handedly launches the Athenian fleet in its attack on Sicilyonly then, when he's recalled on charges of treason, to abandon the fleet (and Polemides) to one of history's most ungodly, cruel, costly defeats; and as the same Alcibiades afterward piles up one glorious naval victory after another in Asia and the Hellespont, returning to Athens in glory only later to be declared, through his enemies' skilled manipulations of the demos, the greatest danger to her. On every page are color, splendor, sorrow, the unforgiving details of battle, daily life, and of the fighter's lot. Unabashedly brilliant, epic, intelligent, and moving.-- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
“Pressfield’s battlefield scenes rank with the most convincing ever written.”
— USA Today
“Pressfield serves up not just hair-raising battle scenes ... But many moments of valor and cowardice, lust and bawdy humor.... Even more impressively, he delivers a nuanced portrait of ancient athens.”
— Esquire
“Unabashedly brilliant, epic, intelligent, and moving.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Pressfield’s attention to historic detail is exquisite.... This novel will remain with the reader long after the final chapter is finished.”
— Library Journal
“Astounding, historically accurate tale ... Pressfield is a master storyteller, especially adept in his graphic and embracing descriptions of the land and naval battles, political intrigues and colorful personalities, which come together in an intense and credible portrait of war-torn Greece.”
— Publishers Weekly
Review
?Pressfield?s battlefield scenes rank with the most convincing ever written.?
? USA Today
?Pressfield serves up not just hair-raising battle scenes ... But many moments of valor and cowardice, lust and bawdy humor.... Even more impressively, he delivers a nuanced portrait of ancient athens.?
? Esquire
?Unabashedly brilliant, epic, intelligent, and moving.?
? Kirkus Reviews
?Pressfield?s attention to historic detail is exquisite.... This novel will remain with the reader long after the final chapter is finished.?
? Library Journal
?Astounding, historically accurate tale ... Pressfield is a master storyteller, especially adept in his graphic and embracing descriptions of the land and naval battles, political intrigues and colorful personalities, which come together in an intense and credible portrait of war-torn Greece.?
? Publishers Weekly
Book Description
Brilliant at war, a master of politics, and a charismatic lover, Alcibiades was Athens’ favorite son and the city’s greatest general.
A prodigal follower of Socrates, he embodied both the best and the worst of the Golden Age of Greece. A commander on both land and sea, he led his armies to victory after victory.
But like the heroes in a great Greek tragedy, he was a victim of his own pride, arrogance, excess, and ambition. Accused of crimes against the state, he was banished from his beloved Athens, only to take up arms in the service of his former enemies.
For nearly three decades, Greece burned with war and Alcibiades helped bring victories to both sides — and ended up trusted by neither.
Narrated from death row by Alcibiades’ bodyguard and assassin, a man whose own love and loathing for his former commander mirrors the mixed emotions felt by all Athens, Tides of War tells an epic saga of an extraordinary century, a war that changed history, and a complex leader who seduced a nation.
From the Inside Flap
Brilliant at war, a master of politics, and a charismatic lover, Alcibiades was Athens’ favorite son and the city’s greatest general.
A prodigal follower of Socrates, he embodied both the best and the worst of the Golden Age of Greece. A commander on both land and sea, he led his armies to victory after victory.
But like the heroes in a great Greek tragedy, he was a victim of his own pride, arrogance, excess, and ambition. Accused of crimes against the state, he was banished from his beloved Athens, only to take up arms in the service of his former enemies.
For nearly three decades, Greece burned with war and Alcibiades helped bring victories to both sides — and ended up trusted by neither.
Narrated from death row by Alcibiades’ bodyguard and assassin, a man whose own love and loathing for his former commander mirrors the mixed emotions felt by all Athens, Tides of War tells an epic saga of an extraordinary century, a war that changed history, and a complex leader who seduced a nation.
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