Customer Reviews

Dawn of the Greatest Persian: The Childhood of Cyrus the Great

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The "Dawn of the Greatest Persian" is an outstanding historical novel that carries the reader from the court of the King of Kings, the ruler of Media, through arranged marriages, deception, intrigue and murder to the coming of age of young Cyrus who ultimately conquered the known world. A requirement of any historical novel worth it's salt is that it enjoyable at multiple levels of interest. "Dawn" accomplishes that.

Exceeding the primary requirement for any good novel, "Dawn" is a dynamite story that contains absolutely everything. The characters are well developed and interesting. The King of Kings is a paranoid, unpredictable and often cruel grandfather to young Cyrus. Zav is the scheming, ambitious, traitorous Minister of Taxes who conspires with Ispitamu, is a promiscuous, jealous, court princesses and cousin to Cyrus, to destroy the court of Cambyses and murder his wife. Cambyses is the courageous Minor King of Pars (ancient Persia) and father to Cyrus, and Mandane is the daughter of the great King, wife of Cambyses, and mother of Cyrus. These, along with other intriguing personalities, form a fascinating character set. The plot is well developed as the characters weave an intricate fabric of love, hate, friendship, betrayal, sex, and vicious behavior. For the story line alone, "Dawn" is an exceptionally good book.

The second requirement for a historical novel is that it must mirror history and not significantly alter known facts and outcomes. The author succeeds brilliantly in this regard. He intertwines the factual history for the period with uncertainties and myths concerning the parentage and boyhood of Cyrus the Great to create a fascinating story without compromising historical accuracy. The book sent me to reference works to check surprises that turned out to be facts. The book is not only well written it is well researched and presented in an interesting fashion that flows like an exciting novel and not a History Channel documentary.

The final criterion for a viable novel of this genre is that it must reflect the culture, setting, science, and economic development of the period. "Dawn" excels at this with descriptions of the camel trade routes, architecture, military strategy, weaponry, political balances between provinces and countries, and social customs of the people. The reader gains numerous insights into the mores of the culture and picks up interesting commentary of such practices as using roots of certain bushes to both dispatch enemies by poison and prevent unwanted pregnancies.

C. J. Kirwin captures an important chapter in human history while telling a fascinating and stunning story. I recommend it to anyone who wishes to become more familiar with ancient Persia (about 600 BCE) and who enjoys a great, well-written story. I am looking forward to reading next two volumes of the planned trilogy.

Right off, the author is my cousin and I read the book as a courtesy to a cousin whom I've known all my life. After the first several pages I completely forgot he was my cousin and the story absorbed my attention. The characters were well developed, as was the storyline. The subplots were stories within themselves and were suspenseful. It kept me supporting the good people and hoping the bad people would not succeed in their evil plots. The character description at the front of the book was very helpful and I referred to it often, as well as the map at the back of the book. Some fiction and some historical fact were woven together cleverly. A terrific story!

This book is written about Cyrus the Great's turmoil childhood. It explains that there was a powerful Median King who had a dream that a child is robbing his throne, as the Median King order to murder children in his kingdom in order to secure his kingdom. There is a question did the Median King successed in his burtality to prevent Cyrus the Great to become a king?

Also, would like to bring to readers attention that author cliams that his/her research is fictional, then how Cyrus the Great became King of Iran or Persia?

I hope you will enjoy reading this book.

"Dawn of the Greatest Persian," is an outstanding story about Cyrus the Great. The book was researched extensively by the author resulting in knowledge of the great King Cyrus, life in ancient times, and of historical events of the sixth century BC.

This book leads us to want to read the sequel or later years of Cyrus, which has just been published. I will recommend this book to the "Denver Post," for their readers and purchase the new book about Cyrus's later years.

F. J. Wulff - Denver, Colorado

I specially ordered this book and was very disappointed. The writing is very dry, the characters not at all fleshed out, the details missing. It doesn't come alive like other historical novels I've read.