Customer Reviews

In Kithairon's Shadow: A Novel of Ancient Greece and the Persian War

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fast-paced, peopled with well-fleshed out characters (some fictional, some historical) and historically accurate, this novel is a godsend for those who wish a familiarity with the subject matter, but hate to read history. Here is a blow-by-blow depiction of all the major events of the second Greco-Persian war in the order that they unfolded as observed by the various participants, yet the novel never seems stilted or contrived, but flows naturally.

Jon.E.Martin's first book "In Kithairon's Shadow" brings a refreshingly original but also historically accurate view of the events leading up-to and finally the battle of Platea in 479 B.C.

The book supplies the reader with a well balanced overview of the Spartan, Athenian and Persian views of the events at Platea.

New-comers to Ancient Greek history will experience an entertaining read and will be able to see the subject "brought to life". They will without a doubt have an abundance of material to "feed on".

Established students and fans of this period will easily recognise the references to the ancient sources but will be pleasantly surprised in not seeing the source being constantly quoted.

The battle itself is quite simply a pleasure to read.. fast moving, full of energy and detail.
Mr.Martin has written what has to be seen as one of the best fictional books on the battle of Platea.

A thoroughly entertaing read which I can easily recommend to anyone interested in Ancient Greek history.

I really enjoyed this read. This book packed in tremendous amounts of history, yet remained fun to read. As one reviewer says it took a bit to get started, but the build up was necessary to fully engage the characters. Some one unfamiliar with the battle of Platea would need those initial chapters. The characters are alive and fresh whether made up or historical. I would highly recommend this book and looking forward to reading Jon Martin's second novel (which I have ordered). This is a must read for fans of historical fiction, especially those that enjoy ancient Greece. Some may ask, why didn't you give it 5 stars if you liked it so much? Well I found several editing errors in the book, which once you re-read the paragraph you could figure out what was going on, but the fact that I had to stop and ask, "What just happened? Did the Character talking switch?" makes me unhappy. I expect the editors to do their job.

In Kithairon's Shadow, follows in the same mold as Stephen Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire and Tides of War. The novel starts off slowly but eventually captures the reader's interest through its characters. At times the vocabulary is a bit heavy, and the author assumes that the reader has a some knowledge of the historical environment. Nonetheless, as someone who studied the time period, I enjoyed the book immensely and was enthralled as the battle of platea came to life for me. I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone with an interest in classical history. It is an extremely satisfying read for someone with a knowledge of the time period, as Mr. Martin did an excellent job of researching the subject.

As a lifelong fan of ancient history, I found Mr.Martin's novel to be a breath of fresh air. If unfamiliar with this era in history, the vernacular could pose a minor problem, though the novel would still be well worth the read. Mr. Martin uses his extensive knowledge to engulf the reader into a world unkown to many, then surrounds you with well-developed and interesting characters. I anxiously await a second novel.

Inspired by author Jon Edward Martin's lifelong study of ancient Greece, In Kithairon's Shadow: A Novel Of Ancient Greece And The Persian War is a gripping and deftly written narrative of Xerxes I's aggressive war of imperial domination against Europe which was fiercely waged in 480 B.C. Only a few of the Greek city-states opposed Xerxes seemingly limitless army, and the fate of Western civilization lay in the balance. Enthusiastically recommended for fans of historical fiction, In Kithairon's Shadow is an exciting saga of blood, cunning tactics, and the few who dared to resist the might of an empire.

Keep your dictionary handy, but if you are a fan of ancient Sparta, military history, and this time period, you are in for a satisfying read. Martin's descriptions of the characters, terrain, and battles puts the reader into the mix. The author has done his homework and I sense his love for this subject matter.

One customer said this was better than "Gates of Fire". Since I thought "Gates of Fire" was brilliant I bought this book. What a disappointment! I have to wonder if that reviewer read the same book I did or is just shilling for the author.

This book is badly written, full of misspellings, grammatical errors and words whose meaning the author apparently doesn't know.

The author's knowledge of the subject is sketchy at best. I plowed through to the end hoping at least that the climactic battle would salvage the book. Alas, the author managed even to make the battle of Plataea boring.

I give this 1 star only because the author is not a professional writer.
In my opinion he would do well to keep his day job.

I wish I could get my money back. This book is so bad I wouldn't even donate it to my local library book sale.

This is a quick paced, not too lengthy, robustly described story of Persian invasion of Greece in V century B.C. If you like books about real historical events with less fiction and more history, this is a story for you. There are few protagonists (not very well developed but in this case this is not a problem at all) who are 'eyes and ears' of several nations contending the war. We have heroes of Sparta, farmers of Teague and Megara, nobles of Athens, warriors of Thebes and Asiatic invaders of Persia well represented in their views on the conflict and future of the civilization. There is some gore of war, description of battles and enough human elements to keep the story intriguing and interesting. And you don't find here too much picturesque descriptions of countryside, romances and swashbuckling like in some other historical books, but real 'lance and sword' war. And that's why this book is much more real and appreciative.

I had to read this book for a history class I am taking on Ancient Greece. Yes, it is interesting to see a novel that is somewhat historically accurate, but honestly. There is a complete lack of character development or any sort of action to move the story along.

Perhaps this is Martin emulating the suspense that the Greeks and Persians experienced in their 10 day stalemate, but it seems more to me an excuse to get something written and published.

This book is really a joke. Little attention is payed to politics of the time, the internal thoughts of what may have happened during the wait time, or how any of the people responded. Reading Herodotus is more fun than this novel. Perhaps some insight to the characters in the novel and why they are the way they are (or even, making them do something other than sip wine and talk of manners) may have been an effective novel of the battle.

The summary of the book makes it to be an epic story of an epic battle. Not that I expect anything as grandiose as say 300, I expected something more creative. Perhaps a few paragraphs should be removed here and there and this published as a condensed, boring-ified version of Herodotus' account of the battle.

This book just makes me furious. And I'm not even getting started to talk about the typos on every other page (such as varied spellings, and worst of all random quotation marks).

Martin should stick to reading and writing about History, and stop trying to be creative.