Amazon Review
In historical fiction, the stakes are becoming ever higher. More and more first-rate novels in the genre appear monthly and aficionados can afford to pick and choose. Steven Pressfield has established some copper-bottomed credentials with the vigorously written epics Gates of Fire and Tides of War, and his new novel, Last of the Amazons continues this winning streak. Pressfield's colourful, operatic style may not have the nuance of such progenitors of the genre as Robert Graves, but his populist approach really pays dividends--and without any sacrifice of quality writing. Popular does not have to mean crass, and Pressfield’s prose is lively and intelligent, always conjuring for the reader a brilliantly realised picture of the ancient world with maximum vividness.

Theseus is Pressfield's protagonist, and the year is 1250 BC; setting out on his dangerous odysseys, the celebrated Athenian monarch (best known for his combat with the monstrous Minotaur) has many close calls with death before taking a fateful decision: he marries the fierce Amazon queen Antiope. His action has disastrous consequences: the fearsome tribe of warrior women who spurn contact with men form a massive army and march to Athens to exact a bloody revenge. Their defeat, of course, was written in the stars, but for a remarkable period, their actions transfixed the Attic world before catastrophe overtook them.

Last of the Amazons has a whole slew of virtues, and it’s hard to know where to begin in detailing them. The characterisation, for instance: Theseus is realised with imagination and authority, and his mindset is a clever synthesis of modern and ancient consciousness. The politics, too, are cannily realised, as is the minutiae of everyday life in a much-mythologised era. But it’s the bloody action that, perhaps, most compels--this is not a book for the squeamish. Stick with the slightly artificial opening chapters, and you will find yourself swept up in a tale of truly epic proportions.--Barry Forshaw

In or around 1250 BC, so Plutarch tells us, Theseus, king of Athens and slayer of the Minotaur, set sail on a journey that brought him to the land of tal Kyrte, the 'Free People', a nation of fiercely proud and passionate warrior women whom the Greeks called 'Amazons'. Owing allegiance to no man, the Amazons distrusted these newcomers with their boastful talk of cities and civilisation. And when their illustrious war queen Antiope fell in love with Theseus and fled to Athens with him, they were outraged. Raising a vast army, the Amazon tribes marched on Athens. History tells us they could not win, but for a brief and glorious moment the Amazons held the Attic world in thrall before vanishing into the immortal realms of myth and legend.

Echoing to the sound of brutal battles fought hand-to-hand and peopled with wonderfully realized flesh and blood characters, this moving tale of love and war, honour and revenge brings the ancient world to brilliant life as it recounts the extraordinary, near-forgotten story of the last of the Amazons...
---

I mooched this book because I saw that the main character was named "Selene". Reading the book, she is not exactly the main character, just one of the important characters (Selene's doings influences other characters and events, though). Others are Damon (Athenian), and historical/mythological people like Theseus (Athenian) and Eleuthera and Antiope (Amazonian). Though the Amazons do not call themselves that - they call their own people "tal Kyrte", "the Free". There are some interesting passages about what 'free' is; what is 'savage' and what is 'civilised'.

It took the first few chapters for me to get used to the writing style and the English. It reminded me of a prozaic translation from the Iliad or another Greek story text, and I have never read English translations (just the original Greek and Dutch translations). After that the story really started and it was easier to read. Most of the book is 'flashback', telling of the Amazons and their country and their war on Athens, and the story in the chapters at the beginning is continued at the end of the book. Every few chapters the narrator changes, but because there are only a few narrators and they each tell mostly about their own experiences, this is not confusing (and it is written at the beginning of a chapter if the narrator changes).
The descriptions of the battles are rather detailed, describing the weapons used, how people and horses are killed, reactions of the people and horses, etc. Reading those descriptions, it's very easy to imagine being on the battlefield itself.

Immediately after finishing this book, I looked up 'Amazons' in my translation of Herodotos' "Histories". Not much - in book IV 110 and a mention in book IX 27. Interesting, though, when you've just read "Last of the Amazons".
I would recommend this book to people who are interested in other cultures, Greek or others. I found it to be an interesting book that makes you think.



Leece (United Kingdom) (2009/03/25):
Good book, all written as dialogue !