Force of Kings

Tyrant #6

by Christian Cameron

Twin monarchs Satyrus and Melitta have worked hard, seen much blood shed and many good friends die to secure their fertile kingdom on the Black Sea. But as the colossal conflict between Alexander the Great's former generals to inherit his empire rages from one end of the known world to the other, sitting on the sidelines is not an option. If their kingdom is to have a future, Satyrus and Melitta must join forces with one of the contenders, knowing that making the wrong choice could mean disaster.

And with Ptolemy, Antigonus-One-Eye and his son Demetrius 'the Besieger', Lysimachus and Seleucus all massing their forces for one last battle, the stakes could not be higher. But with the wily Athenian schemer Stratokles, the courtesan-spy Phiale and Satyrus's lover, the power-hungry Briseis, daughter of the Tyrant of Syracuse, also determined to secure the spoils of victory for themselves, the twins find themselves caught in a deadly web of intrigue that could cost them everything.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Greece, Fantasy, War

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2014

About the author

Aka Miles Cameron. Also publishes as Gordon Kent with his father Kenneth M. Cameron.

Christian Cameron was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1962. He grew up in Rockport, Massachusetts, Iowa City, Iowa,Christian Cameron and Rochester, New York, where he attended McQuaid Jesuit High School and later graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in history.

After the longest undergraduate degree on record (1980-87), he joined the United States Navy, where he served as an intelligence officer and as a backseater in S-3 Vikings in the First Gulf War, in Somalia, and elsewhere. After a dozen years of service, he became a full time writer in 2000. He lives in Toronto (that’s Ontario, in Canada) with his wife Sarah and their daughter Beatrice, currently age four. And a half.

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Read in Spanish] -- [Reseña en español más abajo]

After a very, but very long time, I could finish this 6-book-saga which I really liked. It's not that I took too long because it was boring to read, but just because I didn't have much time to read and I have been busy with my duties.
I liked the end, so I liked the majority of the characters' end. I also liked the analysis that this saga made me think of regarding everything related to a war (or wars): Politics, business, families, status, religion, personal interests. I also want to add that I learned a lot of more technical words. For example, regarding Greek vocabulary related to the military context; What a hoplite is, parts of an armor, meaning of ships, amongmany other things.
Congratulations to Cameron for these nice characters he created which get stuck in my head and at the end of the book I end up loving but I also get sad when the book ends. I completely recommend this saga if you are interested in military novels.

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Luego de un tiempo muy, pero muy largo, he podido terminar esta saga de 6 libros que me gustó bastante. No es que me haya demorado tanto porque me aburría al leerlo, era simplemente porque no tenía tanto tiempo para leer y he estado ocupado con mis deberes.
Me gustó el final, así como también el final de la mayoría de los personajes. Me gustó también el análisis que esta saga me hizo hacer acerca de todo lo detrás que hay de una guerra (o guerras); política negocios, familias, estatus, religión, intereses personales. También quiero agregar que he aprendido mucho sobre palabras más técnicas como por ejemplo lo que se refiere al vocabulario griego relacionado a lo militar; lo que es un hoplita, partes de las armaduras, significado de los barcos, entre muchas otras cosas.
Felicidades a Cameron por estos lindos personajes que ha creado y que se meten en la cabeza y al final del libro les tomas cariño y te da pena cuando el libro termina y sabes que los personajes ya no van más. Totalmente recomendado si están insertos en la novela histórica militar.

[Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully gripping book (and series) set during a fascinating time period. Christian Cameron brings the Hellenistic Greek world to life with his assiduous attention to detail about warfare and daily life. Cameron achieves a great balance of action, adventure, description and lighthearted humour, making these books a joy to read.

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating and gripping book is the 6th and probably the final volume of the wonderful Tyrant series.
Sadly I miss the historical details from the Historical and Author's notes within this book, but still I'm happy that this book contains, just like its predecessors, a well documented glossary and great maps of the most important parts, the likes of great places and countries which are important to this part of the Ancient world, and not to forget there's a map of the Battle of Ipsus of 301 BC.
The historical details has been worked out in a most fantastic fashion within this story, and thus making this book such a very compelling tale to read, with in their midst our main characters, the twins Satyrus and Melitta.
Superb storytelling makes this book such a sensational read, simply because the author has the ability to keep you spellbound throughout with this thrilling Ancient Greek historical adventure story.
What I sadly miss is a time/year direction in which to place this terrific tale, but at the same time I would like to say that it does not degrade the story itself in any way, and so in my humble opinion the main part of this book has moved on towards the year 301 BC, with at it's ultimate height the final conclusion, which is the famous Battle of Ipsus in that same year of 301 BC.
The story itself is about the control of the Empire, Alexander the Great's legacy of course, and over that control will be fought between two factions, on the one hand the Macedonians under the leadership of Lysimachos, Seleucus and Cassander, and on the other hand the Antigonids under the leadership of Antigonus One-Eye and his son Demetrius.
What will follow is a most wonderful description and thus telling about the conflicts, scheming and treachery between these two factions, which will eventually lead to the ultimate Battle of Ipsus where all will be decided in a hard fought bloody way.
Highly recommended, for this has been a superb series, and thus in my opinion therefore this book is "A Tremendous Fitting End"!

[NekroRider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between 4.25-4.5/5 stars

And so the series ends. It has been quite a fun ride, and it seems so long ago since I first stepped into the northern Euxine with Kineas back in book 1. I do feel like the end was a bit rushed though. It felt a little like Cameron was scrambling to get all the pieces to come together and I didn't quite get the closure I'd hoped for on some characters. But the battles were epic, the politics interesting and complex, and loved the way Cameron goes into detail on strategy and movements of scouts and armies. The set up for the final battle was especially exciting and found myself looking at maps to imagine where each of the 6 forces were located, how they were moving, how far scouts were travelling, how they were trying to track where each other were etc. I just wish that in the end we could have gotten something about Melitta. It felt like the final battle ended, we got the end of Satyrus's love story but Melitta we don't hear anything about her and Anaxagoras or her son after the battle. I also wish there had been a final historical note to tell us or perhaps recommend some reading on the subject.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

a page turner and good ending to the series covering precisely what the blurb tells us; mostly Satyrus in this book, with little from Melita

the last years of the main successors war (between the siege of Rhodes and the battle of Ipsos) and the double quest of Satyrus to insure the safety (insofar as possible) of his kingdom in these tumultuous years and to get back Miriam (hostage of Demetrios as the book starts) and convince her to eventually marry/stay with him in Tanais despite the religious and status differences (she is Jewish and her brother, now the head of their rich merchant family, is firmly opposed to her marrying a non-believer despite his friendship with Satyrus, while Satyrus is definitely Greek in his beliefs and even like his father Kineas, is beloved by some of the gods with all the attendant benefits and risks...)

so unlikely alliances, new friends and enemies, the return of characters from earlier books and a definite conclusion, while the usual battles, fights, ambushes, desperate escapes, politics, intrigues and assassinations abound, all culminating obviously in the decisive Ipsos at the end

overall, Tyrant Force of Kings is a very good book which delivers an appropriate ending to the saga, though it has a bit the feeling of "seen that already" and lacks the more emotional and dramatic moments of the 2nd and 3rd books about Satyrus and Melita which remain my favorites from the tetralogy

[Francisco Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it!... Great way to describe those unique and transcendental times.

[Chris Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fine end to a series that I have enjoyed. The centrepiece of the book is the battle of Ipsus, which is vividly recreated. The confusion, tension, terror and sheer scale of a successor battlefield are depicted very memorably. It is also appropriate that this battle, which conclusively confirmed that Alexander's empire would not be reunited under a single ruler, concludes the series and secures the future of Satryus and Melitta's little Euxine kingdom. I have enjoyed the plotting, intrigue and politics that surrounded the interactions of the Diadochi, and how Kineas and then Satyrus have navigated it successfully. I appreciated the dual description of them given in this book, that Kineas was a mercenary with the heart of a king, and Satyrus was a king with the heart of a mercenary. They were two very well-developed and memorable characters. The ending was also quite poignant, and hit exactly the right note: "It might have lasted forever, this paradise. In fact, they had less than thirty years. But they used them well."


If the third and fourth books had been stronger, then this would have been a great series, but it's still worth your time if you are into historical fiction. I look forward to reading more from Christian Cameron.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled into this six-book series by way of one of my favorite recent fantasy series, the Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. I noticed that, for some unknown reason, Cameron also wrote under the name of Christian Cameron, and had a series set in the time of Alexander the Great.

As one who knows way too much about that Hellenistic time period, and one who loved Cameron’s previous work, I was all in from the moment I started volume one, Tyrant. And as this is a connected series that really needs to be read in order to be appreciated, this review is of all six books considered as a whole, rather than a review of each book (though parenthetical notes will be appended for each).

The story covers about 30 years of ancient history, ending in 301 BCE at the Battle of Ipsos. Now if you already know who won the Battle of Ipsos, you will be a little too far ahead of the game, for much of the suspense of the series (which includes other historical events) will be lost – and you will also be surprised by some revisions Cameron makes in order to tell the story the way he wants to.

But the basic premise is this: Cameron inserts fictional, high-ranking characters into the complicated weave of Hellenistic history, and has them participate in events both major and minor. For the most part, this works extremely well, as Cameron’s grasp of the minutiae of Hellenistic life and his gritty sense of the bloody, painful and horrific cost of ancient warfare is superb. He is also an excellent writer, so the story moves along at a brisk pace, flagging only momentarily in the later volumes.

There are issues, of course. Like Star Trek, Kineas and Satyrus, the two main protagonists, are in the front lines way too often to be believed, especially in the later books, and their interactions with the major historical figures seem unnecessary, as if the editors insisted that somehow Kineas and Alexander are in contact, and so are Satyrus and various Hellenistic leaders.

Cameron, though, is perfectly willing to kill off major characters, and in sudden and unexpected ways, which adds a tremendous amount of tension to battle scenes and assassination attempts (unlike Star Trek). There’s also some magical realism thrown in, but any attempt to explain the plot would require much more patience than any reader of this review is likely to have.

But in short, Kineas, Satyrus and his woefully underutilized twin sister Melitta (why wasn’t she more prominent in the narrative?), all represent what we now consider Southern Russia, at the north of what we call the Black Sea. In those times, it was the place where the steppe nomads and expanding population of farmers and colonizers crossed paths, and it became a crucial part of the Hellenistic game of thrones given its ability to produce grain that the Mediterranean cities desperately needed to feed their people.

So Cameron tosses these characters, their soldiers and their grain into the Hellenistic mix, and in the end, comes up with a wonderful series that I enjoyed from start to finish. Then again, I love excellent historical fiction, and this is my favorite period, so I’m hardly unbiased. But I will say this: If you have even a passing interest in the world of Alexander the Great after his death, the Tyrant series is for you. I just wish there were more than six volumes.

* * * * *

Though just above those five asterisks I wrote that I wish there were more than six volumes, at the same time, I have to admit the formula was wearing a bit thin -- especially as Melitta, the twin sister, was relegated to a very minor supporting role. There were too many battle scenes that seemed similar, too many grievous wounds and painful days, and too much artificial tension between Satyrus and his lady love. That said, there could have been more stories here, though tweaks would have had to have been made.

My other comment on this series, and too many others to mention, is that after thousands of pages of blood and struggle, little time is spent savoring the triumph of survival. At the end of a long, brutal set piece in "Tyrant: Destroyer of Kings," for example, there were only a few words spent on enjoying the good times, and at the end of this six-book series, with plenty of betrayal and battle, there were six pages set aside for celebration. It would have been nice to spend some time with these characters when they were under imminent threat of death and disaster, especially after getting to know them so well.

But that said, it was still a great ride.

[Miguel Angel Pedrajas · Rating 5 out of 5]

La última entrega de la saga Tirano culmina una obra sobresaliente para los amantes de la novela histórica, enmarcada en uno de los conflictos bélicos más famosos de la antigüedad. Con este título llega la conclusión a la epopeya que han vivido los personajes y donde se cierran de manera satisfactoria todas las tramas que nos han acompañado en su más de tres mil páginas.

El autor ha sabido desarrollar unos personajes carismáticos a los que, muchas veces, no tenemos que cogerles demasiado cariño. La guerra, las conjuras, las enfermedades y los cambios de bando los castigará continuamente. A veces demasiado. Pero nos permiten recoger un escenario complejo bastante simplificado para la trama de esta novela, que no deja de ser entretenido y emocionante.

Como pasó con Tirano. Destructor de ciudades, el personaje de Sátiro roba todo el protagonismo a su hermana Melita, que sigue teniendo su papel importante pero ya en segundo plano. Hay personajes recurrentes que sufrirán alguna transformación interesante, algún personaje forzado que surge para dar solución a parte de la trama. Pero lo más interesante de este libro es que participan muchos de los Diádocos en conflicto y Sátiro estará en medio de todos los bandos. Por supuesto no puede faltar una gran batalla final, captura de ciudades, batallas navales… La acción pocas veces se detiene. En general, este libro y, toda la saga en sí, han sido muy animadas y me ha ayudado a conocer una época bastante desconocida para mí.

Christian Cameron ha sabido mantener el ritmo en toda la saga, incluso superándose a sí mismo en algunas de las entregas. Para mí, el primer y cuarto libro (Tirano y Tirano. El rey del bósforo respectivamente) son los que quizá se pueden hacer más pesados. En uno porque hay demasiados elementos de chamanismo y premoniciones que entorpecen la acción. En otro, porque estamos en un interludio complejo con demasiadas opciones. El resto, han sido una gozada por sus escenas, personajes y estilo de narración. Y ya se me hace complejo recordar quién es quién con nombres tan repetidos y parecidos entre ellos (Diodoro, Apolodoro, Estratocles, Euménides…). Es solo un ejemplo, hay cientos de ellos.

Justo en este libro he echado en falta los textos finales del autor sobre notas históricas y curiosidades. En los cinco anteriores están, incluso están repetidos salvo por un par de líneas que difieren de uno a otro. Aquí, donde podría haberse extendido para explicar detalles sobre el resultado final del conflicto, sus notas de porqué tomó partido la narración hacia uno u otro bando… pues no hay nada. Ni siquiera sus dos o tres páginas de agradecimientos. No sé si en la versión original tampoco estaban, pero los he echado de menos.

Lo que sí me ha parecido muy desquiciante en la primera edición de 2015 que tengo de “Debolsillo” (Zeta Ediciones) es la cantidad de errores que contiene el texto por falta de revisión. Ya no solo cambios gramaticales de palabras mal escritas (hay muchísimas) por que se han tecleado mal. Es que además el traductor confunde nombres de personajes en muchas ocasiones, lo que provoca frases sin sentido o que cambia por completo el contexto de la situación. Del estilo: “Melita miró a los ojos de Sátiro”. ¡Pero si Melita está a cientos de kilómetros de distancia en la escena anterior! ¿Ha vuelto por sorpresa? Ah, no, se refiere a Miriam. Y, como digo, ocurren demasiadas veces en el libro. El libro salió con prisas sin haber pasado correctamente por revisión.

Pese a lo comentado en los dos párrafos anteriores, he acabado muy satisfecho con la saga. Si te gustan las novelas históricas ambientadas en la antigüedad, con escenas de acción, batallas navales o terrestres, intrigas y héroes, te la recomiendo.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This final part of the series sees the final decisive battles over the remnants of Alexander's empire. Some of the key players, like Ptolemy, have established themselves in one area and are happy with that. Others still think they can have the whole world as Alexander did, and it's interesting to see the various characters trying to balance grand ambitions with reality. We see the conflict from the point of view of each of those key players, allowing us to try and understand them and learn a bit more about them. And as ever, the battles are reconstructed as vividly and plausibly as we're used to with Cameron's books.

In the midst of all of that, the sub-plot with Satyrus and his dithering over Miriam felt a bit... frustrating? A bit soap-opera-ish. You can probably guess they'll end up together, but there's a lot of scenes of them putting obstacles in their own way, even though they both know they like each other. While I can understand that, particularly in Miriam's time, there was probably much more of a stigma about a Jewish person marrying someone who isn't, there are times when you want to point out to her that Satyrus would surely be happy for her to continue to keep practising her own faith. Marrying him won't erase her own identity. It seems at times that she's more afraid of marriage itself and the fact it might mean living somewhere new, among another people. Equally, you never really get a sense that Satyrus spends much time investigating and learning what her beliefs actually involve. He mentions having talked about Judaism with one or two people, but it comes off as "Oh, I've had a bit of a chat..., learnt a couple of key points..." rather than Satyrus having actually sat down with a rabbi or someone like that and *really* learned about it and considered whether he can fit it into his worldview. You are left to assume that they sorted out their differences eventually, but it would have been nice to see how Miriam in particular came to that realisation.

The ending also feels a bit rushed - a page-long scene, then some summarising by the author that breaks the sense of the story being told in the moment. I would have liked more room given to that final scene instead - and the summary could easily have been part of a Historical Notes section which is curiously missing from this book. There are lots of maps, which are helpful, but I found it quite jarring not to have the Notes that are given with all of the previous installments - especially given the appearance of Herakles in this book. We are left not knowing the fates of some characters and Notes might have helped to clear that up.(Although I appreciate that, in some cases, it may not be possible to know what happened to some of them, given the patchy nature of the surviving information).

There are also some typos in this hardback edition, which I assume are fixed in the later paperbacks.

Overall, it's a decent end to the series. It's difficult to tell a story like this, which covers so many key characters and geographical areas, with sometimes patchy or potentially biased historical sources to go on, but the overall - and over the course of the series, the author has done a good job bringing it to life.

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last book of the Tyrant series, a heroic and epic conclusion of the adventure of Satyrus as King of the Bosporan Kingdom and his twin sister, Melitta as the Queen of the Assagatje (Massagetae), although Cameron obviously prefer to tell the story of Satyrus more. The evolution of this series was not something I’d expect. Initially, I picked this book because I’m interested to read about the Scythians (since it’s quite rare for an author to write a historical fiction involving this mythic nomadic tribes) and while the latter was the main topic in the first and two books, it was actually just a prologue for what Cameron intended for his Tyrant series, namely, telling the stories of the Wars of the Diadochi.

Force of Kings is about the last war of the Diadochi where Antigonus the One-Eyed will be defeated and ultimately killed in the battle of Ipsus. The Antigonids (Antigonus and his son, Demetrios the Besieger) faced against a coalition of anti-Antigonids alliance, all former generals of Alexander the Great. In this book, though, Satyrus and Melitta was part of the anti-Antigonids alliance in order to secure their Bosporan Kingdom territory against the unchecked ambition of both Antigonus and Demetrios.

The story is told in quite a dramatic and mythic way. Sometimes, the preparation of each battle was told in such a slow-going way, perhaps because Cameron wanted everything to be quite detailed. I found a particular phrase that I liked because of the way it was told, in regard to describing Banugul, who was one of Alexander the Great’s former mistresses who allegedly bore him a son called Herakles (historically, she was called Barsine). Stratokles describes :

‘She is remarkable. Like a great lady in my country – very like them. You are not jealous?’
‘Who could be jealous of sharing the sun?’ Stratokles said.
‘The heat warms us both, and cares as much for our desires.’

Still, just like the previous books, I don’t get why Melitta’s side of the story and involvement kept dwindling by each chapter. I think Cameron is unable to keep up with the vast scope of the Diadochi wars (since there were lots of actual historical characters involved) and decided to reduce Melitta’s importance in his series. Nonetheless, still an interesting series to read about the ancient world after Alexander the Great’s death.

[Shefi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid continuation and conclusion of the series. More scenes of hiding and assassination attempts, harking back to the first book. Satyrus and Melitta have their own separate adventures but join up at the end for the final great battle, the historical Battle of Ipsus (301 B.C.).

I got a bit bored halfway through after yet another scolding of Satyrus by a close friend for risking so many other men’s lives and causing the deaths of many for questionable purposes. All those scenes are the same: Satyrus gets annoyed while recognizing the truth of the accusations, yet never changes his behaviour. Yawn!

The battle scenes also lost their interest for me and blurred into one another. The chase for Miriam went on too long, I thought, and I felt I was approaching the end of the book, but actually it went on for much longer, mainly because Cameron has to get Satyrus and Melitta in on the final great battle.

I enjoyed the scenes with Stratokles and Sophokles the assassin, and where Satyrus is on his own. It was fun to read the teasing of young Satyrus by his older soldiers, those who’d been his father’s associates and who cannot stop calling him “lad” which Satyrus cannot stop himself for being irritated by!

Along the way, Satyrus picks up a “butler” (did the Geeks really have such things?), Phoibos, who is the very epitome of butlerhood and reminds one irresistibly of that most famous butler of all; the give away is in the line, “I strive to give satisfaction, sir!” Cameron has read his Wodehouse!

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is without a doubt the most fascinating historical series I've come across. I would probably have given this a 5+ if I had read the beginning of the series. All the characters who are still alive are brought back in this last volume to have one more go at what is left of Alexander's empire. There is a distinct flavour of WWI in the "this will end war forever" suggestion but someone makes the inevitable remark that no matter what there will always be war. The women make an attempt at changing the results except for the Queen of the Sea of Grass, who just leads her archers into the heart of the fighting where many of the youngest are slaughtered.
The characters are people, good, bad and in between and their decisions make sense to the reader, even when you see essential fields trampled into the ground and the season's crop gone with them. Satyrus is always concerned about the crops, though, and worries about how "the people" will live through the coming year. War was always a separate thing, something in which you weren't involved unless it was part of your career choice. It is too bad that warfare now involves everyone belonging to the bodies at war regardless of who or what you are.

[Juan Carlos Solís · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tirano es parte de una serie del estadounidense Christian Cameron quien es escritor de novelas históricas como es el caso de esta; nos habla sobre el acomodo de un mundo que resiente el vacío generado por la muerte de Alejandro Magno, la competencia entre sus generales por dominar el inmenso imperio heredado; a pesar de que es mi género favorito esta en particular me dio mucha flojera, demasiados términos de unidades militares, de distancia, artículos, unidades de medida y demás en ..... griego antiguo; para mi gusto se pasa de riguroso y hace que comiences a tratar de identificar de que está hablando y eso pierde el hilo de la historia llevándose el sabor hacia el glosario o búsqueda en Google.
También pudiera ser que debe ser leída con mas calma y tiempo del que le dediqué, sin embargo eso hace que le de un muy personal 6/10 esperando de cualquier manera que si la leen pongan sus comentarios en mi pagina de Facebook Leer te Vuelve Sexy

[Paul Convery · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good conclusion to what has been a great series, only slightly let down by a very short epilogue which doesn't give these characters enough time for a proper send-off and a few key characters feel like they have been set to the side a bit for this final book to focus on Satyrus.

The political intrigue, fantastic setting, epic battles and attention to small details all still remain strong in this final book, and the Battle of Ipsus really is the epic climatic battle that the series deserves to end on.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning series of books

An absolutely wonderful journey through the ancient Hellenic world. The author captures the culture, the religion, the battles on land and sea quite magnificently but most importantly I have come love Kineas, Srayanka, Philokles, Leon, Diodorus, Anaxagoras, Theron, Stratokles, Satyrus, Melitta and too many more to mention almost as if they were firm friends or family.

[Erv Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A la par de Destructora de Ciudades cierra con buen ritmo una serie que, por momentos en el libro 3 y 4, te da la impresión de que podría desmoronarse en el tedio que por momentos se apodera de la historia de los hijos de Kineas. Sabes que el primer libro de la serie es el mejor porque la sombra de Kineas se proyectó durante el resto de la saga. Esa fue la intención del autor, pero dudo que el efecto de melancolía tuviera la intensidad deseada.

[Alejandro Garzón · Rating 5 out of 5]

Último libro de una serie que me encantó y me atrapó. Una serie excelente para los amantes de la novela histórica. Éste no es el mejor libro de los 6, pero es bueno. Me parece que si bien desarrolló bien a batalla de Ipsos, el combate Sátiro-Demetrio decepcionó. También siento que le faltó dar un mejor cierre a algunos personajes como Melita, Anaxágoras, Apolodoro y Estratocles

[Mac Whiting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhilarating and Powerfully Entertaining

Characters you love or love to hate, non-stop action, and an amazing time in history all make this entire series impossible to put down. Thank you, Mr. Cameron for taking me to this time and place with these people. I enjoyed the trip.

[Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tras leer toda la saga, debo confesar que el último libro me ha decepcionado un poco. Te lleva al climax durante 6 obras y al llegar al mismo, al menos en mi opinión personal, este no tiene la envergadura épica que merecía.

Flojo final para una gran saga, igualmente recomendable de leer.

[Unbestechlich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wished I could give it more but all this Satyrus and Miriam stuff really irritated me :(

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Diadochi meet in battle to settle the spoils of Alexander's empire. Reluctantly Satyrus and Melitta find it necessary to participate in order to secure their kingdom.

[Ernesto López · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cameron nos debe un par de libros con esta saga.
Te hace sentir que estabas allí, en una “falange”, en primera línea.

[Abu Bakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful series

[Austin Greenwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyrant was a "killer" series!

The entire Tyrant series was absolutely fantastic. Plenty of action, intrigue, plot twists, a few love stories, and a ton of history. A worthy series.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slaps

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good series

[Luis Sagi-Vela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sexto libro de la serie Tirano.

[Andrew Gong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice, good-feels end to the twins' story, wish we could have had more chapters from her point of view

[Robin Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review

I makes no bones about the fact that I’m a Christian Cameron fan, his books top my annual must read list every year, and are often competing for my book of the year award. This latest book Force of Kings is no different, although its a bitter sweet experience, the final book in a series going back to 2008 and the debut book in this series, a series that has helped give me a deeper love of ancient Greek culture, respect for that culture and respect for the author as one of the smartest most driven, nicest guys i know.

None of that tells you about force of Kings, as ever i hate to and wont give away the plot of a book in a review. What i will cover is: the totally immerse history, so well researched and written the reader is sucked back in time to live, breath fight and die hand in hand with Satyrus and his friends and enemies. My favorite underlying part of all Christians books is that there is no real good guy/ bad guy dynamic, he paints the shades of grey, weaving reality into the plot but without losing the wonder of the age.

The history is romantic and idealised, at times poetic, but that comes across as the authors love of the location and the period. None of it corrupts the plot, the woven intricacies of Stratokles, the machinations of “the doctor”, the self assured megalomania of Demetrius ‘the Besieger’ and the quiet self assured nature of Satyrus, always searching to be a better man, and running headlong into any fire going to do the right thing.

I love the way the author plays out his script, and at the same time makes the reader explore their own inner self, own decisions and the reasons behind them. I’m always left with some form of self examination afterwards, both myself and going back over decisions by characters, should they have made that choice, would i have made that choice. For me its the sign of a great book that challenges you to reread, to explore deeper and more thoroughly the plot and the people. A book that educates while it entertains.

This is the second book this year from this prolific author (great king already out and been an outstanding read) The Long Sword the second William Gold book is out in November 2014 and there are 3 more Tom Swan books due out also.

this is in my top 5 for this year, and will be competing for the top spot come the end of the year. A writer who makes you love history the way he loves it, seen through his eyes, and sharing his experiences. (visit his web site and you will see how intimately he will share the privations and wonders of Ancient Greece, and his commitment to learning the martial skills.)

Highly recommended

(Parm)