Stunning. If you have any interest in ancient history, the ancient Greeks, history in general, warfare, or just plain good writing, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

I don't want to be long winded here, because I think most of the other reviews for this book do it justice already. But what Pressfield does here is nothing short of masterful. This is truly his magnum opus. The way that he builds up the suspense to the final, horrifying, and shocking calamity that is Thermopylae, is incredible.

This is a book that doesn't gloss over the horror of warfare.

Reading this is like reading All Quiet on the Western Front but in ancient times.

This is not a tale of braggadocious hollywood heroes.

I was dumbstruck when the battle finally began.

I won't spoil anything (though anyone who knows even the very basics of this story knows how this will all go down), but this is a description of ancient warfare at its finest.

Ancient warfare was not, as many movies and even books would like us to think, a glorious and colorful event. And in his book, Pressfield makes this abundantly clear.

Men piss themselves.

Their legs quake with fear in the silent dread that comes right before battle.

Men cry.

Hoplites walk around in a daze, half-crushed helmets hanging off their heads limply.

Some are blinded.

Some go mad with fear.

The horrors of battle even drive the greatest veterans to the breaking point.

I don't know if a movie could ever do this book justice.

This might be, in my humble opinion, the definitive fictional work about Thermopylae.

Όσοι αγαπούν τη λογοτεχνία και την ανάγνωση θα διαβάσουν πολλά βιβλία κατά τη διάρκεια της ζωής τους. Λίγα, όμως, είναι εκείνα τα βιβλία για τα οποία θα ισχυριστούν ότι τους «άγγιξαν» τόσο έντονα ώστε να τα θυμούνται για πάντα!

Ένα από τα καλύτερα, θεωρώ, βιβλία που διάβασα ποτέ είναι το «Οι πύλες της φωτιάς» (μετάφραση του «Gates of fire») του αμερικανού συγγραφέα Steven Pressfield.

Ο Pressfield (γεν. 1943), έχει γράψει μια σειρά από ιστορικά μυθιστορήματα που αφορούν κυρίως την αρχαία Ελλάδα. Στο βιβλίο «Οι πύλες της φωτιάς» περιγράφει, με ακρίβεια ιστορικού, απίστευτες λεπτομέρειες τη μάχη των Θερμοπυλών. Το προτότυπο έργο στα αγγλικά γράφτηκε το 1998 ενώ στα ελληνικά μεταφράστηκε το 2001 από της εκδόσεις Πατάκη.

Read this book in 2011, and its the absolute best standalone book that I've read about the battle of Thermopylae.

Written with passion and verve it takes us readers to the pass of Thermopylae, and by using the narration of the sole survivor of this momentous Battle it will alive with all the usual horrors and deaths.

Thus set in the year 480 BC, Persia invading the Greek lands, and King Leonidas and his three hundred making ready to march to Thermopylae to fight for freedom and democracy.

Six days of heroic Spartan culminating defiance against the millions of Persians is brought to us in a most wonderful and superb fashion by the author, and in which the Spartans will reach their end after having given all, and that heroism of all the Spartans will inspire later on the rest of the Greek City-states to a new resilience against these invaders from Persia.

Highly recommended, for this is a top-class retelling about the Battle of Thermopylae, and that's why I like to call this epic tale: "A Glorious Gates Of Fire"!

Considering going into this book I knew what was going to happen historically, I'm not fussed in ancient history, and the format in which the book was using to tell the story didn't appeal to me; that should tell you a lot about how well written this book is that I gave it five stars. A brilliant story about love, grief and sacrifice. How a small force of men in a brotherhood willing to sacrifice their lives for the love of each other, for country and for freedom against an empire. The only thing missing is the fact that it happens half a millennia before Easter becomes a thing lol

The characters are so well realised, the prose is so well written and I was half in tears by the end, even though I knew the ending from the start. Strongly recommend this book.

Monumental, inspiring and epic.

For any of you who have seen the movie 300 with Gerard Butler…yeah…it probably didn’t really happen that way. It wasn’t a group of only three hundred men, with carbon copied abs, who held back the thousands of Persians poised to invade Greece over three days of constant battle. Steven Pressfield’s story is most likely a little closer to the truth; the Spartans had thousands of allies, squires, and retainers, each capable of thrusting a spear at an enemy in an enclosed area; and much to my wife’s protests, they definitely would have worn armor to protect their chests and abdomens.

Gates of Fire isn’t a new release, but it really isn’t that old either; the original release was 1998. I enjoyed the point of view in this story. Pressfield told the story of a young helot, a man born outside of Sparta, who gave himself over as a serf to the Spartans. I always find this “common man” perspective interesting; it allows the reader to get a chance to see both sides of the story (the inflated story told by the winner with some of what really happened from someone without an agenda).

I enjoyed the time that Pressfield gave me with Xeones. The story fit in nicely with some others that I have read and listened to over the years. Filling in gaps that others may have skimmed over. He really focused on the Battle of Thermopylae, and the people who were there. Pressfield created some great characters, filled with humanity. I felt like I was in the phalanx with these brave men.

I went with the Audible version of Gates of Fire and enjoyed the narration, mostly. I just don’t think that George Guidall was the best choice for the roles. His voice was commanding and would be great for many books; it’s just that this tale is told by a young man; not even twenty years old, and to be honest, George Guidall sounds like a man who has seen and done it all. I just think that it would have been better to get a younger voice for Gates of Fire.

skończyłam ( ale jakim kosztem)

Moving and brilliant, and I don’t use those terms lightly.

The book, about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, is told by two narrators. The first is Xerxes’ Persian historian. The other is Xeones, a squire for one of the Spartan knights, who is pulled from the wreckage of battle and interviewed to satisfy Xerxes’ curiosity about the Spartan warriors who cost his army so dearly. The Persians won the battle, of course, but what should have been an easy victory instead gave them pause. As Leonidas (the Spartan king) prophesied, the Spartans and their allies at Thermopylae taught “the Persian once and for all what valor free men can bring to bear against slaves, no matter how vast their numbers or how fiercely they are driven by their child-king’s whip.”

Turns out Xeones, the protagonist, died with all the rest of the men at Thermopylae. They were all together in Hell, waiting to cross the River Styx. They weren’t sad because they were dead—they had known that was coming. Sacrifice in battle was deeply embedded in their society. “Nothing good in life comes but at a price. Sweetest of all is liberty. This we have chosen and this we pay for . . . Guided by these laws, our fathers for twenty generations have breathed the blessed air of freedom and have paid the bill in full when it was presented. We, their sons, can do no less.”

No, the fallen warriors of Thermopylae didn’t regret their valiant stand. But they were sad that no one would be able to tell their tale. Apollo, feeling sorry for them, sent Xeones back to life long enough to narrate the story.

The events aren’t told strictly chronologically, but jump back and forth a bit in time. Some authors don’t pull that type of story off very well. Pressfield does. Ancient Sparta is brought to life through the characters of this book. We see their motivations, their training, their society, and what, in essence, makes them Spartans. Xeones isn’t a native Spartan, but his admiration for their society and his devotion to the soldiers he has grown up with makes him perhaps the ideal choice to tell their story.

This book had so many things I like in a good novel: history, life-like characters with great arcs, action, quotable lines. When one of the Spartan knights is told that the enemy will fire so many arrows that they will block out the sun, he replies, “Then we’ll have our battle in the shade.” When an emissary from Xerxes says the Persian emperor doesn’t want their lives, just their arms, King Leonidas says, “Tell him to come and get them.” Leonidas was a favorite character—an eloquent warrior king who led his men by example.

Thermopylae is a sober story. Even knowing how it will end, you might want a tissue handy. But the Spartan sacrifice was worthwhile—their stand bought valuable time that allowed the Greek allies to eventually beat back the Persian army, and save Greece so it could play the vital role it has in the development of Western Civilization.

Note, for those who like clean reads: hoplite battles are on the violent end of the war spectrum. Also, a lot of language in this book, but for the most part is felt accurate to the characters and not gratuitous.

I wish I knew with more certainty which parts of this were established facts, which were speculation and which were completely made up; with this knowledge my enjoyment would have been greatly enhanced. I do enjoy historical fiction, provided it's more history than fiction. Not knowing is distractingly aggravating.

I'm going to have to read some non-fiction on this subject else this is really going to bug me.

Xeon es un superviviente que narra la batalla de las Termópilas (en griego 'puertas de fuego'), en que un grupo de Espartanos opusieron una resistencia legendaria al avance de las tropas persas de Jerjes contra Grecia. Películas o cómics como ‘300’ han popularizado este episodio de la antigüedad y el resultado es bastante conocido.

Lo que más me ha interesado son las descripciones detalladas sobre la vida en Esparta, una sociedad totalmente enfocada a la guerra. Toda la primera parte del libro, sobre las costumbres y las leyes de estos guerreros, es lo que explica la batalla final.

En general me ha resultado un poco largo, unas 500 páginas, y las descripciones de batallas y violencia se me hacen un poco excesivas, aunque entiendo que son el tema principal del libro.
3,5*

About ten years ago I watched a movie titled House of Flying Daggers that my friend said was "a feast of the senses." I thought that was kind of a melodramatic and corny way to describe a movie but after watching it I understand exactly what he meant and it remains one of my favorite films to this day. The sets, scenery, costumes, and colors were beautiful, the script and pacing were a perfect blend of action, intrigue, drama, and romance, and the fighting scenes were well choreographed and edited perfectly for sound and sight. A truly remarkable movie. That brings me to this book. I cornily pronounce this book to be a feast of the senses. I could feel the blood-soaked dirt between my toes, I could hear the clash of bodies and armor, I could smell the blood, piss, and shit on the battle fields, and I could see the carnage of it all. But in between the battles the author does such a spectacular job bringing these historical figures to life I could feel their emotions and I experienced their pain, courage, love, loss, and fear. This was an amazing reading experience and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

This was an interesting book. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it and had thought it would be a book of history, but was actually a work of historical fiction. It was well told and, from what I know, an accurate enough telling of the story of the 300. Herodotus also tells this story in his histories and it is hardly surprising that a tale of so few holding off an army of so many should be remembered as one of the great military stories of all time. This one is told through the eyes of a captured assistant to the Spartans who is asked by the Persian king to tell his story and who does so in quite some depth and detail.

The odd thing was that this story is told really by an historian of the Persians, and normally this would, within the context of the novel, raise concerns over the accuracy of the story as told and translated from the Greek and into Persian for the king. I guess I’m too aware of concerns for such distortions as this wasn’t something that was really played with at all by the author. The convoluted process involved in the telling of the story was not really to get the reader to question the accuracy of what was being told, but rather to find a way to get many of the threads in the story to all line up.

This book is apparently taught at West Point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_of... and I found that very interesting. This is a story about bravery and what it takes to be brave, and I guess that is exactly the sort of thing people in the army would expect to learn. I couldn’t help reflect while reading this book how often when America is involved in military adventures overseas they are much more likely to see themselves as the 300, and therefore acting to defend their homeland, rather than as the Persian invaders. This is interesting, as it does involve some fascinating mental gymnastics.

This is a remarkable story and well told here in a way a modern audience would be much more likely to enjoy. Many of the famous lines are all here, from fighting in the shade (due to the number of arrows the Persians would be able to fire) to telling the emissary of the Persians 'to come and get them' referring to the Greek weapons after being asked to hand them over. Boy’s own stuff this. I kept thinking that it was odd that it was mostly told in first person, as generally these stories are told in omniscient narration, and this made me think that perhaps modern tellings of stories like this are much more likely to be told through the eyes of an individual.

Anyway, I enjoyed this more than I thought I might.