Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War by Steven Pressfield

Accurate, textured historical fiction that just failed to do it for me

Published in 2001 by Random House Publishing Group.

Before I get started let me say that I liked The Legend of Bagger Vance absolutely loved Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae. Pressfield is a master of Greek battle scenes, especially from the point of view of the grunt footsoldier in the middle of their deadly scrums.

Pressfield's mastery of battlefield scenes happily continues in Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War. His descriptions of the Athenian campaign against Syracuse was as good as anything in "Gates of Fire".

But, in between there was so much speech-making, reminiscing and quotes from Greek literature that I felt like I was having to slog through it all. On top of it all, the map of "Greece and the Aegean" in the front was insufficient, only listing some of the places mentioned in the book so that one had to guess where they were off to (or look them up in a separate source).

Steven Pressfield

The cover says it is "a novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War." That is not entirely accurate - I'd say it was just a novel of Alcibiades. If you know nothing of the Peloponnesian War before reading this book, you'll know precious little afterwards, except that there was a plague, a campaign against Syracuse in Sicily, Sparta won, Alcibiades switched sides and the Athenian legal system was fickle (to say the least).

A great companion book to go with this one would be A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson. It explains the ships, armament and the Athenian plague in great detail. It lacks detail about Alcibiades so they dovetail together nicely.

In short:

While not without merit, this one was not as good as Gates of Fire.

I rate this novel 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War by Steven Pressfield.

Reviewed on July 30, 2008.

V: The Second Generation by Kenneth Johnson

From a casual fan of the original V mini-series

Published in 2008.

So, I'm reading V: The Second Generation based on hazy twenty-five year old memories. I thought the book held up pretty well and it was a fun, last blast of summer read for me. Nothing fancy, nothing I'd brag about and say, "Yes! I read that!" but also a good bit of sci-fi action.

That being said, it's not like this book is not without it's problems. There are continuity issues, too much happens with too few people. The secret "weapon" of the resistance is created so quickly that it boggles the mind as to why they didn't try this earlier. Clunky sentences abound. Strange phrases like, "people of both genders and sexes" are peppered throughout.

So, fun, but not perfect by any means. Much like my memories of the original series.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: V: The Second Generation.

Reviewed on July 31, 2008.

Double Image by David Morrell

Originally published in 1998.

No one, and I mean no one in modern fiction does a better job of creating the "man on the run" story line than David Morrell. He creates tension and paranoia in his stories that make the reader turn the page. This story is no different in that respect. But, it does have a horrible flaw.

Double Image features photographer Mitch Coltrane. He mostly does news photography but is also quite the talented artistic photographer. When the story starts, Coltrane is in Bosnia photographing Dragan Ilkovic, a war criminal whose men are digging up mass graves in order to more properly dispose of them. Coltrane gets his pictures, barely escapes with his life and decides that it is time to get out of the news business because the sights are starting to give him nightmares.

In the meantime, his pictures cause Ilkovic to become an international criminal. Ilkovic comes to Los Angeles to hunt down Coltrane and Morrell's strengths as an author come to the fore - Coltrane is on the run and death and destruction rain down upon the Los Angeles area as they play a cat and mouse game.  Vintage Morrell and it is only the first half of the book.

The second half is about a famous photographer that is dying from old age that Coltrane meets at a showing. Coltrane and this photographer decide to re-do a famous set of pictures that this man took in the 1930 featuring Los Angeles area homes (one of those "then and now" type of features). In an increasingly convoluted plot line, Coltrane ends up buying one of the homes (which was owned by the aged photographer who has since died), discovers a collection of hundreds and hundreds of photographs of a stunning 1930s actress, meets her granddaughter who looks exactly like her and ends up in another whirlwind of stalking, mayhem and death.

Like I said, lots of good action, but this story just went beyond all hope of credulity.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Double Image

Reviewed on July 19, 2011.

46 Pages by Scott Liell

An important piece of the story of the American Revolution

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Published in 2003 by Running Press

Sad to say, this history teacher had never read Thomas Paine's famed pamphlet Common Sense until three days ago. I came across a stand-alone printing of the book and was prepared to buy it when I found 46 Pages.

The entire text of Common Sense (originally just 46 pages long, thus the title) is added as an appendix at the end of the book. I read the original text first and then proceeded to the first part of the book which consists of a short and pleasant combination of a biography of Paine, a history of Common Sense and little snippets of what several founders thought of the pamphlet at its author.

This is a solid addition to any American history buff's collection.

 I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: 46 Pages.

Reviewed on August 5, 2008.

Indiana: A Tribute The Hoosier State

A decent little documentary about Indiana, its history and its people

Filmed in 1991, this 63 minute production is the first work of two brothers, Jim and John Hilgendorf who were inspired after visiting relatives in Indiana. They learned how to make movies while filming this one and logged more than 10,000 miles covering the state. They have since gone on to make more than a dozen documentaries about such places as Mexico, France, Oregon and St. Petersburg, Russia.

While the production values on Indiana: A Tribute The Hoosier State  are fairly low, the movie more than makes up for that with its thoroughness and its obvious affection for the Hoosier State. This native-born Hoosier cannot think of a thing that was left out, from James Dean to the Covered Bridge Festival to the Indy 500 to Tecumseh to Notre Dame to young Abe Lincoln to the architecture of Columbus to basketball to John Mellencamp...it's all here.

Beautiful shots of the Indiana countryside abound and there's a solid bit of history thrown in as well.

I rate this documentary 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on August 10, 2008

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti

Very rarely does a book live up to the hype...

Published in 2008.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY:

The New York Times Book Review

The Washington Post

San Francisco Chronicle

Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award

You know how it is. You get a book because the blurbs on the cover tell you it is the most wonderful book since Stephen King was in diapers. This one has the audacity to have comparisons to Oliver Twist, Huckleberry Finn and Robert Louis Stevenson.

To be honest, I picked up The Good Thief figuring it would be wrong and I would skewer it in this review.

Well, I am pleased to say that I was wrong. This book DOES live up to that hype. It does belong in that august and lofty crowd. Somehow it pulls off being filled with literary allusions and homages to other works and being a unique work of its own.

There are multiple literary allusions that I noted, including Treasure Island, Sleepy Hollow, Huckleberry Finn, Oliver Twist, A Clockwork Orange, Faust, Milton and Terminator 2.

So, in short, pick it up. This one is a unique winner.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti.

Reviewed on August 18, 2008.

My Glorious Brothers by Howard Fast

A great piece of historical fiction - strongly recommended

Originally published in 1948.

When I teach world history I always give my students a project in which they are to read a piece of historical fiction and do a bit of research. This book is exactly the type of book I recommend for them to read and why I created the project in the first place. My Glorious Brothers is well-written and re-creates a little bit of the historical world for the reader.

Set in 2nd Century B.C. Israel, this is a story of national liberation and freedom of religious expression. Many Protestants will be unfamiliar with the Maccabees since Maccabees 1-4 is not included in the Protestant Bible. This book is an ideal place to start to explore that time between the exile in Babylon and the Roman occupation that is featured in the New Testament.

The main characters are 5 brothers and their father, descendants of the Tribe of Levi. They refuse to be "civilized" by Hellenized (Greek-influenced) Syrians - they want to keep their old traditions and religion. They revolt against too many taxes, too many injustices and being forced to worship Greek gods. ("Thus they 'Hellenized' us, not with beauty and wisdom, but with fear and terror and hate." - p. 33)

Howard Fast (1914-2003)

I strongly recommend this one. Despite being more than 60 years old, this book can stand on its own among newer and more popular works about the ancient world such as Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae in both its battlefield descriptions and its cultural explorations.

Quote from the book I particularly liked this line based on a Bible verse from the Old Testament book of Micah: "What does the Lord require from a man, but that he should walk humbly and love righteousness?" (p. 142)

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: My Glorious Brothers. 

Reviewed on August 19, 2008.