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Nemesis: A Novel of the Spartan Gylippos and the Battle of Syracuse
One half century after the Greek victory over the Persian empire, one time allies, Athens and Sparta fell into conflict. Athens, in an attempt to expand her empire westward into Sicily, attacked the city of Syracuse. On the eve of surrender, a solitary Spartan arrived and after several years of brutal combat, led Syracuse to ultimate victory.
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 2, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 17, 2017
Really more a 3.5. Although I recommend the novel, I wish I could have rated it higher but certain things I mentioned below prevented that. I was thrilled to read such an enthralling novel on a little-known [or written about] period in ancient Greek history: the Athenian besieging of Syracuse on Sicily in 415-413 B.C. Through the unorthodox tactics and strategy of the Spartan, Gylippos, the siege was broken and the Syracusans emerged victorious. The author seemed to adhere very closely to his Thucydides for the meat of the story, with imagination filling in the gaps. When I researched a bit, I was surprised at how many of the characters really lived.
Several separate stories converge in Syracuse: Gylippos's own assignment to lead the Syracusans to victory; Endymion the Argive--from Argos, a common soldier fighting for the Athenians; Nicias, the ailing diplomatic and cautious Athenian general; and Syracusans, especially the cavalry commander Hermokrates and his family.
I enjoyed reading the unorthodox tactics and strategies of Gylippos. I found the night battle with "friendly fire" [or whatever it would have been called in those days] exciting, as well as the blockade of the harbor and sea battle. There was an unobtrusive and modest love interest which relieved the military scenes and did not become annoying. I liked how the author handled the episode with the embezzled silver; this fit in more with the heroic personality of Gylippos presented here.
However, the layout was disconcerting: double spacing with some sentences not continued through to the end of the line but dropped down to next. The broken sentences occurred only in the first few chapters. I feel double spacing is a good idea for a draft but not for the final copy. The story seemed rushed towards the end. I did not like the way it ended, but that probably was one expression of Gylippos's personality. I do wish the author had given more description of the physical and facial appearance of the characters. Sometimes I felt as though the author had left out some connecting detail on paper although he may have thought it in his mind, e.g., the death of Endymion's superior officer, Stump. I had to read between the lines to figure that out. The glossary was poor, and the novel lacked other supplementary material, such as Author's Note. There is a map at the head of Chapter 14, p. 224 in my copy, which has most of the place names mentioned in the novel.
Reread September 2015. The story is so good, I wish the author would put out another edition--with better layout AND with much better copy editing this time, for homophones and grammar errors. This particular mistake should have been caught by the editor: for awhile the second soothsayer is called by one name, Menon, then by another, Medon, only off by one letter. The poor editing did not preclude my rereading the novel, but certainly detracted from my complete enjoyment.
Several separate stories converge in Syracuse: Gylippos's own assignment to lead the Syracusans to victory; Endymion the Argive--from Argos, a common soldier fighting for the Athenians; Nicias, the ailing diplomatic and cautious Athenian general; and Syracusans, especially the cavalry commander Hermokrates and his family.
I enjoyed reading the unorthodox tactics and strategies of Gylippos. I found the night battle with "friendly fire" [or whatever it would have been called in those days] exciting, as well as the blockade of the harbor and sea battle. There was an unobtrusive and modest love interest which relieved the military scenes and did not become annoying. I liked how the author handled the episode with the embezzled silver; this fit in more with the heroic personality of Gylippos presented here.
However, the layout was disconcerting: double spacing with some sentences not continued through to the end of the line but dropped down to next. The broken sentences occurred only in the first few chapters. I feel double spacing is a good idea for a draft but not for the final copy. The story seemed rushed towards the end. I did not like the way it ended, but that probably was one expression of Gylippos's personality. I do wish the author had given more description of the physical and facial appearance of the characters. Sometimes I felt as though the author had left out some connecting detail on paper although he may have thought it in his mind, e.g., the death of Endymion's superior officer, Stump. I had to read between the lines to figure that out. The glossary was poor, and the novel lacked other supplementary material, such as Author's Note. There is a map at the head of Chapter 14, p. 224 in my copy, which has most of the place names mentioned in the novel.
Reread September 2015. The story is so good, I wish the author would put out another edition--with better layout AND with much better copy editing this time, for homophones and grammar errors. This particular mistake should have been caught by the editor: for awhile the second soothsayer is called by one name, Menon, then by another, Medon, only off by one letter. The poor editing did not preclude my rereading the novel, but certainly detracted from my complete enjoyment.
January 20, 2019
Excellent book of Ancient Greece
The story was told from the viewpoint of Sparta and was a nice twist to the typical portrayal of the both Spartan and Athenians.
The story was told from the viewpoint of Sparta and was a nice twist to the typical portrayal of the both Spartan and Athenians.
February 12, 2015
very good book about glyippos of sparta as with mr martins book shades of artemis about brasidas the 1st book in this series of the war between athens and sparta u dont have the extravagant battles scenes that u see in some books,this one has little more than the first one does but the story is excellent in my opinion and cant understand why mr martins books have so few reveiws on them they are excellent book and are worth the read. i rated this one little higher than the first one because of the battle scenes and also u just dont see books about glyippos out there, going to his othere books that he has out about ancient greece cant wait to get them
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews