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Fire From Heaven (2002)

Fire from Heaven (2002)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.45 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0375726829 (ISBN13: 9780375726828)
Language
English
Publisher
vintage

About book Fire From Heaven (2002)

Don't read the Author's Note at the end. Spoiler Alerts had not been invented yetAs someone with only a passing knowledge of the life and times of Alexander the Great, he lived in Greece a few hundred years before Christ and conquered lands from Egypt to Afghanistan, I was happy to discover this trilogy of novels covering the subject. The author Mary Renault is not the best writer I've ever had the pleasure to read and I found myself having to read several passages multiple times, not because I didn't understand the words but rather because she had used a syntax that felt disjointed or unnatural. I was initially intimidated by the length of the trilogy and the scope of it's narrative but about halfway through this first book I was intrigued by the characters and didn't find the writing style so frustrating that I needed to stop.Two things about this book really caught and maintained my attention: the portrayal of war when you were mostly carrying out the killing with handheld weapons and the open-minded views on human sexuality held by all the characters. There is a scene where Alexander and his lover/partner/constant companion Hephaestion are surveying a battlefield and they find a teenager who has literally had his face sliced off exposing the skull. Alexander reflects that he was the one who had delivered this blow. She describes the streams of blood that trail off from the piles of dead bodies and how the winning side picks over the corpses for trophies while women and children of the fallen wail over their loved ones remains. In regards to their views on sexuality, it cuts both ways. On one hand it's pretty spectacular looking at it from a modern point of view after hundreds of years of Western culture demonizing and outright making illegal public displays or admissions of homosexual love or orientation to see a couple like Alexander and Hephaestion being able to share a bed every night without having to hide it from anyone or have to endure anything but a light rebuke from Alexander's mother at one point in the story. At the same time Alexander is seen as a bit weird, and this was apparently noted by his contemporaries, for his foregoing of the normal rape of women after a battle or partaking in the sexual abuse of slave-boys, both of which were universally acceptable at the time as well as bisexuality.I prefaced my review but saying to just skip the Author's Note unless you are already a well-versed in that part of Greek/Asian history and Alexander's life. I for one had a couple of plot points from the following two books spoiled for me because I read too far into them.Alexander the Great was one of those figures of history that was obviously so full of energy, intelligence and drive that not only could it not be denied by those around him but it reverberates throughout history to this day. The man still has scholars by the thousands pouring over details of his life on a daily basis and I'm sure not a day goes by when at least hundreds of babies all over the world are named Alexander or Alexandra at least partially or in a roundabout way in his honor. Given the extraordinary feats he was able to accomplish in his short life, even an encyclopedia entry on his life would be fascinating. As it is, this novelization of those historical facts is more than adequate. Renault's writing really does sharpen as she wades into the actual battles and she did manage to fully convince me of the love Alexander and Hephaestion have for one another without becoming maudlin or melodramatic or seeming unrealistic or wooden in any way. I look forward to reading the next couple of books and would recommend this series to anyone who wishes to be transported back to ancient times and to deepen their knowledge of what can only be described as one of the most important historical figures of all time.

The novel is absolutely AMAZINGLY written, and I’m not even half way done withthe first volume and already I’m dreading the end of the entire trilogy. I can see what my friend Jesi was talking about when she said that this is the book that makes you fall in love with Alexander. And not in that ‘we love him because he was part of history’ way but love as in an overwhelming attachment to what happens to him. And even though Renault makes it fairly clear from the get-go that she’s part of the whole ‘Alexander liked boys’ philosophy, he is still possibly one of the most attractive literary creations of the actual man that I’ve ever read.I think part of my love for this book stems from a childhood fascination with everything Greek, and in that light it doesn’t disappoint. The book speaks of Alexander’s witch-mother Olympias, who is described as being absolutely beautiful, but complete terrifying in that beauty. She is constant defiance of her husband, King Phillip II of Macedon, who is also described as an almost tyrranical leader, and the two seem to be waging almost silent but constant war over how to raise Alexander. Even with this tension in the background, the book outlies the many ways in which Alexander becomes known as the King of Asia, and one of the greatest Greek kings. He kills his first man in hand-on-hand combat at age 12, years before even his father had, and he is placed under the tutelage of Aristotle in his early teens, which is when he also forms a solid friendship with Hephaistion, the young son of an underlord, who participates in Alexander’s education with him.This is as far as I’ve gotten in the book, and it’s heartbreaking – the passages where Hephaistion describes his budding (non-friendly) love for Alexander, with the knowledge that taking a bed-boy may be common practice, but love between men seldom was, are enough to bring you to tears. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the book, however, is that it immediately takes you to ancient Greece, envelops you in the world that existed there. It doesn’t necessarily matter that my Greek political/military history is pretty much non-existent, or that the names are pretty much totally confusing (a problem I also, funnily enough, had with Tolstoy), it speaks to the power of the book that I am able to open its pages and forget that I’m riding a smelly old bus to campus to take a test I haven’t studied for – I become a member of Philip’s court, watching this beautiful, strong, headstrong and talented boy grow up in to what will be (with the beauty of hindsight) an absolutely legendary military leader! I can’t say enough for the book – literally, I’m out of time at the work computer – but please, please, PLEASE read it

Do You like book Fire From Heaven (2002)?

tl;dr version: Muddled in places and not as good as Persian Boy, but still wonderful work by wonderful lady historian. Also, Hephaestion. Looooooooved this book. Minus the first eighth (which was historically interesting but narratively not so much), I ate this thing up in one six-hour sitting. Mary Renault not only is ready to throw down the historical knowledge upside down and backwards, she is an engaging, evocative, author. The only reason this took me so long to read even cheating and skipping a hundred pages is that Ms Renault is ALSO simultaneously a freaking encyclopedia and the most suble author I have ever read. Ever. She so minutely and intensely recreates her settings/situations/people that my basic knowledge of them was not nearly enough to know what on earth was going on half the time. Re: Historical Genius - Google is your friend, unless you're all up on your Ekbatana layout and your Sarissa techniques and your Life of Kyros the Great. Re: Subtle Subtlety is Subtle - She likes to dance around topics about which she doesn't want to write outright, and by dance I mean literally every paragraph will be about completely random, disparate, seemingly non-related topics. I kept reading this one series of pages over and over, combing but feeling like I was missing something VITAL VITAL that wasn't being said outright...it took me my fourth read to totally understand that six pages about baby foxes, boring teachers, Aristotle, forest running, the Iliad, gambling, and science projects was actually A SEX SCENE. The most delicate, subtle, completely adorable sex scene I've ever read, but, like, wow try burying it a little deeper next time. Also, it was really interesting reading this AFTER Persian Boy (the sort-of sequel), because you spend three-quarters of Persian Boy going JFC GTFO HEPHAESTION UGH and in this one he's clearly a badass sweetheart.
—effie

Alright...I had this at 4 stars last night when I finished it, but the more I think about it, I have no reason not to give it 5, so I changed it. I don't want to be stingy for no good reason.Basically, I loved everything about this book except how long it took me to read it, which is not the book's fault, it's my own. I read The Persian Boy first (even though it's the second in the series) so I had already grown fond of many of the characters. In this book, my fondness changed to love, adoration, admiration, all of the above. I LOVE Alexander. He's just such a stand-up guy, in basically all aspects of his life. Not that he doesn't make mistakes and stuff, but he owns them, admits to them, works through them. I also really like that he's a lover AND a fighter, not just one or the other. That's a characteristic that not too many people can accomplish with success, but I think he does. I felt strong emotions for him while reading this book. I felt very sad for him in regards to his relationships with his parents, which are no fault of his own. As I said to Christin while reading this, it's no wonder he preferred the company of men because his father teaches him to hate women, and his mother is the first helicopter mom in history. Give the kid a break, already! He has done nothing but try to please you both, and you both just crap on him for your own benefit, and use him against each other. He's perpetually stuck in the middle of them. Somehow, he still manages to turn into a good person, which is lucky for us.Next, I just have to talk about Hephaistion because I'm basically obsessed with him. I can't help it. I love him so much, I can't even describe it. He is so faithfully devoted to Alexander, loves him with all his heart, and it's just SO SWEET. But better yet, even though he so clearly feels that way, he somehow manages not to let it blind him in a way that could become damaging to Alexander. For instance, he would never tell Alexander something he wanted to hear, simply to please him. It's not in him. He will give his true opinion, and let Alexander decide whether or not he agrees. The only way I can describe their relationship is that they are two pieces of a whole. They belong together, side by side, and they compliment each other. Their bond is something most people will never experience in their lifetime. It's just beautiful. The timeline of events is just as much a part of this book as the detailing of the relationships of the characters. It was nice to get a broad overview of the significant things that happened in Alexander's life, and just as in The Persian Boy, it is done without feeling like a textbook history lesson, which is wonderful. The history is certainly important, but what sucks me in is the characters and their relationships. I can't get enough of it. Who knew I was secretly harboring a love for historical fiction? Not me.
—Rachel

Now I understand why Dorothy Dunnett is so often compared to Mary Renault...I originally read this novel many years ago and I admit much of its history and subtleties were lost on me (hence my original 3-star rating). Upon rereading, I absolutely loved this book (although I read it rather slowly, partly to savor its nuances). I love how Ms. Renault doesn't tell the reader everything, she expects her readers to be intelligent and either understand the history and backstory, or to look up information for better understanding. I loved how she didn't spell everything out and left the reader to make up its own mind. Really well done! She wove a fascinating story, one that I know I will reread again. Now on to "The Persion Boy."
—Sara Giacalone

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