God of War

by Christian Cameron

Reviewed by Coral

Ptolemy I, now Pharaoh of Egypt, recounts the story of Alexander the Great, from boyhood until his death.

There is one point at the beginning of the book where Ptolemy says something to the effect of, this is not Ptolemy’s story, but Alexander’s. I wish the author had remembered that, because this book was definitely Ptolemy’s story more so than Alexander’s. It’s not that I would have minded reading a story about Ptolemy, it’s just I kind of like a book to be what it says it’s going to be. If I pick up a book on Alexander, I would like it to be about Alexander.

In the book Ptolemy said he was telling the story that history wouldn’t tell, which meant showing a lot of Alexander’s actions in a more negative light, which I don’t necessarily mind on its own. There just seemed to be a lot of times where it was 'but this is what really happened'.

At the beginning the author said that Alexander and Hephaistion were lovers, but then seems to go back on it later on. I also didn’t really like the way that Hephaistion was portrayed. This comes mostly from Ptolemy’s narration of him being cowardly, stupid and a ‘drama’ or ‘bitch’ queen as I don’t think this always came across in the characterisation as presented.

I disliked the overuse of the word effeminate for every man in the book who was supposed to be sleeping with another man. It’s weird, I don’t remember the other book from this author that I’ve read being like this.

The pacing of the book was weird. The book was around 750 pages, Darius was finally defeated at 600, Alexander marries Roxanne at almost 700 and then Hephaistion and Alexander die in the next 30 pages

I don’t always like how Roxanne is written in books, but I think she merits more than a one line mention. I don’t even remember his wives' pregnancies getting much of a mention. Also notably absent is his brother Arrhidaeus.

This book just left me feeling disappointed and angry. I don’t have one good thing to say about it.

Grade: F