hanuman 's review for:

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

2.0

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I have a similar issue with this book as I did with "The Last Kingdom" by Cornwell. The main character here is merely a witness to historical events. The history itself serves mainly as a fig leaf, masking a simple story in which the hero is dragged through historical events and encounters significant figures. The book itself then remains in no man's land. As a novel, it's entirely average, and if one wants to educate themselves, they can learn much more on the topic, and in my opinion, more entertainingly, from the Hardcore History podcast episode "King of Kings". I overlook the fact that our main sources of information about these events are the "Father of Lies" Plutarch and Greek playwrights. But perhaps when people in the year 4000 study the Soviet-Afghan war, they will draw from "Rambo 3".