Sparta: The Warrior Experiment: Kingdoms, Gods and Scholars, Book 1

by Carrick Ferguson, Bobby Garrison (Narrator), Fearghas Ferguson

In The Warrior Experiment, Earth has been reshaped into a single arena of empires. Caesar commands Rome’s iron legions. Alexander dreams of uniting the world. Charlemagne rallies his knights, whilst Saladin works on unifying the Arabian Peninsula. Greece lies shattered—its proud city-states reduced to Roman provinces beneath Governor Flamininus’ rule. The once-mighty Spartans now fight as Rome’s enslaved warriors against the northern Germanic tribes and the rising Ottoman power. Pausanias, son of the legendary King Leonidas, cannot understand his father’s silence or the humiliation of Sparta. Dreaming of Greek unity, he seeks the truth behind his people’s bondage—only to find the Olympic Games reborn as a theatre of death that could ignite civil war. Athens gathers an army greater than the one that once sailed for Troy, preparing to drive out the Roman invaders and their Greek allies. Alexander himself faces impossible choices between peace, conquest, and rebellion against the empire that rules this world. Amid intrigue and betrayal, Pausanias meets the Germanic shieldmaiden Vivica and Alexander’s strategist Eumenes—unaware that prophecy and divine experiment already bind their fates.

The “Fall of Eight Kings” decrees a chain of deaths that will tear open the world itself. As machines of Archimedes and secrets of the Scholars’ Guild emerge, truth and madness blur. The young prince must decide whether to obey his father, defy Rome, or challenge the will of the fates. For if Leonidas finally raises the Bident of Hades and the Shield of Apollo, the earth itself will remember the power of the divine. When legendary rulers clash, the fate of worlds ignites. KNOW THYSELF. NOTHING IN EXCESS. VOWS BRING RUIN.

Audible Audio

Published February 25, 2026

About the author

Carrick Ferguson was born in Scotland, raised in France, and now lives in England with his wife and two daughters. He has had an unusual career journey, having worked as a tree surgeon, cameraman and film-editor, blacksmith, social worker, teacher, translator, freelance editor, and—most recently—for more than a decade in finance.
A lifelong reader of science fiction and fantasy, he grew up devouring stories that blended myth, philosophy, and adventure. His greatest influences range from Terry Pratchett’s wit to George R. R. Martin’s moral complexity and Eiichiro Oda’s boundless imagination.
Carrick studied astrobiology and children’s literature at university, where he became fascinated by the ways myth and science mirror each other in exploring what it means to be human. The King of the Peloponnese is his debut novel and the opening volume in a sweeping series that reimagines the meeting of history’s greatest heroes under the gaze of distant gods.