«Ξένε ανήγγειλε στους Λακαιδομόνιους πως κειτόμεθα εδώ, πιστοί στους νόμους τους». Έτσι λιτά και… λακωνικά τίμησαν οι αρχαίοι τους πεσόντες στις Θερμοπύλες.

Η άποψη μου για το βιβλίο θα είναι εξίσου λακωνική, όπως του αρμόζει.
Μακάρι η «αναγνωστική» χρονιά να συνεχιστεί με τέτοιου επιπέδου βιβλία!! Μόνο αυτό…

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.

Gates of Fire is a work of historical fiction that tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae. The history itself is well known. In the fall of 480 B.C., King Xerxes led an army of 2 million soldiers in their second attempt to invade Greece. King Leonidas of Sparta led 300 Spartans and a total force of around 4,000 Greek soldiers to engage the Persians at Thermopylae (the “Hot Gates,” in Greek), a natural choke point between a mountain wall and a seaside cliff that would reduce the Persians’ numerical advantage. After four days of holding the Gates while the Persians massed, and repelling the invaders for another two days in pitched battle, the Greeks were betrayed by a man who showed the Persian Immortals a mountain trail to sneak around the Greek lines and attack them from behind. Despite knowledge that they could hold the Gates no longer, Leonidas—who had received an oracle that either he would die or Greece would fall—sent the other Greek forces home while the remaining Spartans and Thespians fought to the death to protect their escape, delay the Persians as long as possible, and inspire a nation to defend themselves from Persian rule. And their sacrifice worked. A few weeks later, the Greek Navy routed the Persian fleet at Salamis and, the following year, a unified Greek army ended the Persian invasion at the Battle of Plataea.

The set up of Gates of Fire is that Xeones, a Spartan squire who survived the battle, has been asked by King Xerxes to speak about the Spartans who had proved so formidable. Xeones tells a winding tale about the fighting between Greek city-states, how he came to Sparta at 12 after his own city fell, the agoge school that trained Spartan boys to become Spartan soldiers, and the women who form the true backbone of the city. Xeones provides detailed backstories for the characters who ultimately played a role at Thermopylae, both the historical ones (King Leonidas and the Spartan officer Dienekes) and the fictional ones (most notably the Olympic champion Polynikes, young warrior Alexandros, the bastard Dekton, and the Lady Arete).

There are a number of things that make Gates of Fire work so well. First and foremost is the rich detail in the novel, covering everything from day-to-day life in Greece to the presentation of the battle itself. There’s discussion of not just the military tactics used by the Spartans, but their ethos, philosophies, and world views that led them to the Gates. The fighting here is brutal and bloody, completely realistic. It’s war, but thought of and presented as work. Even though you know going in that the Spartans are doomed to provide their noble sacrifice, the novel makes it both grittier and somehow more human and noble.

So, as the Spartans would apparently say, close your cheesepipe and “wake up to this.” Gates of Fire is an extraordinary work of historical fiction about a battle and defensive stand that Hollywood would reject as unrealistic if it weren’t true. Highly recommended.

Most historical fiction books, which I do enjoy reading, seldom grab my attention as intently as this book by Steven Pressfield. There are many reasons why I recommend this book. Here are a few of them:

1.tThe writing carries with it the essence of past days. The writing style of writers like Homer, Plato, and Plutarch have clearly influenced the voicing the author chose to characterize this book.

2.t“Gates of Fire” is incredibly researched. Not only is a great story being retold in an imaginative way, but the entire warrior culture is on display.

3.tThe story is humanized through the narrator Xeones, a mixture between a book on history and an interesting novel. It is easy to get wrapped up in the story, and it was hard for me to put it down.

4.tThe characters stay true to who they are, and the main ones are fleshed out, showing their weaknesses as well as their strengths. The author gently reminds us who a minor character is if her or she only has a tiny bit to add to the story at different times.

5.tEven though almost everyone knows this story and how it ends, the tension builds from early on and the last quarter of the book is a page-turner.

Anyone who loves to read history, historical fiction, or a well-written book of any genre will find “Gates of Fire” will fit all those descriptions. Five stars.

Gates of Fire is one of my favorite books...ever. I first read it back when I was in the Marine Corps. It was on the Commandant’s Reading List for a time - required reading for any motivated teufelhund. The author himself is a former Marine, and draws upon his experiences to create a compellingly insightful look at the mental and psychological makeup of a soldier. The concepts of self-sacrifice, service, community, camaraderie, and duty are the thematic core of this historic novel.  Steven Pressfield does more than just tell the story of what happened during the battle of Thermopylae (which in and of itself is a phenomenal story), he uses it as a backdrop for studying the psychological makeup of what a soldier should be. There is more philosophy in this book than one would expect from a war novel, but this is why I consider it both insightful, and at times inspiring…even after the fifth read. This is a great book for anyone who is thinking of, or soon will be joining military service. Anyone wishing to gain insight on how a military is supposed to function should read this book. Anyone wishing insight to the mind of a soldier should read this book. Those who are confused as to why a friend or loved one wants to join the military can very likely gain their answers from this book.

Steven Pressfield's first foray into historical fiction is a masterful account of the battle of Themopylae (thermos = hot, warm, fire; pylos = spring or gate; hence "Gates of Fire").

Told from the perspective of a captured, critically wounded Spartan helot (all the Spartans died, after all) who is being questioned by Xerxes (King of Persia) for information about the Greeks, the story presents a sympathetic, insider view of Spartan society and accurately presents the values of Greek civilization in contrast to that of the Persians. Pressfield is intimately familiar with the major historical accounts of the battle and fills in the many gaps with events and conversations that could have, and possibly should have, happened.

Leonidas, one of two kings of Sparta, leads 300 Spartans to Thermopylae in the attempt to delay the Persian army from reaching Greece before the Greeks have time to prepare the resistance. In ancient times, Thermopylae was the site of a narrow pass between the mountains and the sea, only wide enough for a few men to walk shoulder to shoulder. Joined by allies from other Greek cities (Argos and Thespis, as I recall), the total number of fighting men was approximately 1,200 to face Xerxes mighty army, which ancient accounts number in the millions. The Spartans use superior technology (bronze armor and weapons), superior training, and superior tactics (the deadly phalanx) to hold the Persians for three days. Even Persia's elite fighting force, the dreaded Immortals, are unable to defeat the Spartans.

Treachery, however, proves the undoing of the Spartans. Ephialtes (not the misshapen expatriate Spartan of the moview "300") sells information to the Persians, revealing a hidden path through the mountains. Surrounded, the Spartans refuse to surrender, preferring to fight to the death in order to demonstrate their superiority and to strike fear into the hearts of the Persians, who will soon have to face larger Greek armies. The death toll for the Persians is in the high thousands.

(Although not in the book, the sacrifice of the Spartans ultimately pays off. For, after sacking Athens, Xerxes is defeated in two decisive battles: Salamis, in which the Athenian navy destroys the Persian fleet, deprives Xerxes of much needed supplies; Plataea, in which the combined armies of Sparta and other allies defeats the Persian army. Greece, and along with it, Western Civilization is saved from Persian slavery, and the path is paved for the Golden Age of Athens.)

The book is an incredibly good read. I have recommended the book to many different people of various backgrounds and interests. None have been able to put it down.

What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said here on it's review page...ah, not much. :-)
It is a terrific book. Dense, and detailed and clever and, in many places, exhilarating. Sometimes I felt that the author was being too clever. Sacrificing flow for sometimes not so relevant story background. There is quite a lot of too-ing and fro-ing in this book. Jumping backwards and forwards between different times and sometimes it worked for me and sometimes it didn't. That is why I nearly gave Gates of Fire 4 stars instead of 5...but I didn't.
I didn't have a problem with the backwards and forwards through the meat of the book, but by the last third of the book, once it was time to leave for Thermopylae, and once they were there, the flow was often a bit too constricted by Pressfield jumping out of the tense rushing storyline, into other slower laid back storylines. It took a long while, it seemed, before the real battle of Thermopylae was fought. And when it was. My heart broke.
It is odd. You know the story of those three hundred. Knew their fate, but it didn't make it any easier when the time came for the end. They went to the Hot Gates to die, and die they did.
Pressfield is a man of high talent when it comes to writing and I can't believe it has taken me this long to finally read this book. But boy am I glad I did.

First person narrative Sword and Sandal historical fiction on ancient Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae.


n  300 Spartans and their allies against the Persian horden

My audiobook was fourteen (14) hours long. George Guidall was the narrator. A dead tree copy is about 530 pages. The original US copyright was 1998.

Steven Pressfield is an American historical fiction and non-fiction writer. He has nine (9) historical fiction books published. Most are set in ancient times and have military themes. He also has the same number of non-fiction books published over a wider variety of subjects, but military themes predominate. I’ve read several books by the author. This was my second reading of this book, but the first was very long ago. I only dimly remembered the story. The last book I read by the author was n  Tides of Warn (my review).

Pressfield’s ancient-period historical fiction stories are a deep-dive into the period. In this case, it’s the imaginary narrative of the lone, captured Spartan survivor of the Thermopylae land battle (Xeones) recorded by the royal historian of the Persian king Xerxes. This was a good clash of ancient armies and the lifestyle of the ancient Spartans story. However, it was somewhat weaker in the parts without 'sword in hand'. It was also a long book to listen to, and contained many characters to keep track of. Being unfamiliar with ancient Greek names and locations made this more difficult. Mercifully, there were very few POVs.

There was a high-degree of historical detail in the story. It centered on the ancient Spartans during the beginning of the n  Greek Classical Agen around 480 B.C. The adjective Spartan was amply illustrated. The author adopted a mainly, first-person narrative technique. The protagonist, the orphaned, youth Xeones, joins the Spartans and over the years becomes one, but due to birth can never really be one. The other POVs included the Persian historian who records Xerones death bed recounting of Spartan life and the battle, and the wife of a main character who gives the Spartan woman’s perspective. Their stories were all told in a verbose, elegiac, archaic-style with many Greek words defined and used. In places, the manly banter was profanely, very funny. The overall effect was immersive in its detail. However, I noted it was a rather idealized version of ancient Greek life. Reading this, you should already know that ancient Greek life was really: nasty, brutish, and short.

Note that there was a lot of edged-weapon and physical violence in the story. The clash-of-arms was well done. In addition, the description of wounding and general carnage was quite detailed. However, I thought the author missed the effects of pain in his descriptions. I likewise thought the romantic aspects of the story lacked emotion.

I have a keen interest in ancient history, particularly ancient military history info-dumps. I liked the book for that. This was a soldier’s story with: conflict against great odds, honor, duty, country and comradeship. It was good at that. However, it verged on a Hollywood depiction, where having a hand lopped off was just a flesh wound, and Spartan women were better men than their husbands. That is, it was weak once it strayed from the mano-e-mano action plotlines. However, I was not bored. In addition, I appreciated the audiobook for providing the proper pronunciations for ancient Greek militaria I have been butchering for years now.

The first thing* anyone visiting Thermopylae will notice is that it looks nothing like it should. The shore has expanded outwards dramatically and a highway has been plowed through the middle. Visitors to the site spend upwards of five minutes wandering the short distance from the little parking lot to the hill of the last stand before passing by on their way to more inspiring destinations (2.5 millennia later Thermopylae is still the gateway to the north). They could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about. Why was this unimpressive site, of all places, chosen for the Greek stand against the vast armies of Persia? And how could a few thousand men possibly imagine they could block any decently-sized force from coming through? You can see what I mean by watching 300 Spartans, filmed on location at the Hot Gates just before the highway went up. You can’t get closer to real life than that, yet it doesn’t look right. Not anymore. And so we have to turn to literature to bring the place to life. And no account of the battle is more famous than Gates of Fire.

I’ve got to be honest: until about the halfway point I was underwhelmed, suspecting that this book has been massively overrated. It wasn’t bad precisely, but it wasn’t great either. I have issues. To be specific:

The central frame seems a little forced. Xerxes demanding a novel-length account from a Greek survivor? That’s not what this book reads like at all.

There were too many timeline shifts given to us in an unnecessarily complex way. We need to keep three timelines in our head: immediately after the battle of Thermopylae, Xeones’ early childhood after his city was sacked, and his rise to status among the Spartans and eventual journey to Thermopylae. And there are even timejumps within these timejumps, further impeding our ability to understand.

At least partly as a result of this the characterization suffers and it takes us longer than it should to get to know these characters.

To some degree I also think the characters’ backstory is not as engaging as it could be. Greece was a pretty brutal place to grow up, but it still had its pleasures and at no point did there seem much worth living for (as opposed to dying for). I suppose it would be fair to say that I enjoyed the characters but didn’t care much for any of their journeys before the last.

These are significant issues and, although not really ruinous to the book as a whole, they don’t exactly bode well.

But then the buildup to the battle starts and everything develops a purpose. By this point you know, at least, who Xeones is and why he’s found himself there, and you’re familiar with all the other characters as well. Even if the dishing out of their backstory could have been improved all that matters now is where they’re going. And the account of Thermopylae is spectacular. The battle feels real and intimate and bloody. The first day’s fighting alone occupies two chapters and feels like the battlefield memoirs of a survivor.

Pressfield was a Marine and it shows vividly in his writing. There are times when reading ex-soldiers attempting historical fiction where I find myself thinking that these are just transposed Americans/British/whatever soldiers in funny costumes but with their values and fighting styles intact. This was not one of those times. Generally at least. The description of hoplite warfare felt real, particularly the way the scrum oozes through the cracks of the enemy line. Spartan values are not modern values, and even if the training sounds like a more intense version of boot camp it’s very clear that this violence is being directed at literal children. The various elements of the Spartan state (the assembly, the dual monarchy, the krypteia, the agoge...) are present, although it doesn’t really take us in-depth enough for my taste (see The Fox for a better example of that). About the only thing that’s been edited out for the benefit of “modern” sensibilities is the homosexuality. Odd too, since the mentorship between Alexandros and Dienekes seems very much the sort of structured homosexual relationships the Spartans (and Greeks more generally) encouraged. Yet the only reference to gay sex is when the Greeks are mocking the Persians(!) for it.

One element I appreciated was that the book doesn’t read like creepy fascist propaganda the way 300 and so many modern pro-Spartan takes would have it. Xeones is an outsider to Sparta, little more than a slave, and is often abused by those he idolizes. The Spartans are the heroes but they’re also slave-owning aristocrats and are capable of acts of murder and immense cruelty, even leaving aside the child abuse. Outside the bonds of battlefield brotherhood they don’t feel very likable at all. Best of all to my mind was that the book didn’t sugarcoat the ideal of Greek unity in the face of the barbarian horde. The first conflict we see is one of the many minor Greek-on-Greek conflicts as one city-state sought to dominate another. And that is what the Greeks will return to as soon as the Persian War is over.

I was a little surprised that the oncoming Persian invasion was dealt with in such isolation. We get references to Spartan efforts to shore up alliances, but we get little specific and never really find out what obstacles they faced (aside from fear). We also get little to no detail about Marathon, the Ionian Revolt (not even mentioned), the causes of the invasion more generally, or the grand Hellenic council. We don’t even hear about the famous scene of Spartans throwing the Persian ambassadors down a well. I think this was a bit of a missed opportunity to show the tenuous nature of the Greek alliance and what held them together, but I can tell that Pressfield is a bit singleminded in his focus on the experience of war.

One thing that did disappoint me though was the acceptance of Herodotus’ statement that there were two million men in the Persian army. Only an absolute idiot would believe this claim (which didn’t stop several older Classicists from making it) and I never thought Pressfield an idiot. Let me put it another way: despite the populations of modern Greece and Germany being triple those of ancient Greece and Persia, when the Nazis invaded in 1941 their amy was only a bit over a quarter the size. Even adding in the Italians only gives us half that size. And the two armies came in from a different direction, which was a luxury the Persians didn’t have. The Nazis, using one of the most effective conscription campaigns in history, managed to mobilize about 16% of their population. Can anyone honestly claim that Persia was able to militarize a similar portion of their population despite the absence of detailed censuses, mass-produced paper, or even modest levels of literacy? And that they could keep them supplied in enemy teritories without access to trains, trucks, motorized ships, or any of the various types of farm equipment and fertilizer available to modern man? Yeah right. A British army officer stationed in the region once did the math and determined that for such an army even draining the rivers dry would not stop it dying of thirst if it tried to invade Greece. If Pressfield’d just limited the claim of such an immense army to the Greeks (who were used to small armies and couldn’t contextualize the army’s true scale) it would have been fine, but he has Persians claim it too. Gah!

This is probably the best account of Thermopylae out there. The battle comes to life in a way only the best novels can achieve. The brotherhood formed by combat is really pushed here and characters who seem unlikable at first become more so over time. The book’s small-scale focus on a minor player means that we don’t get any real considerations of the broader organization or issues (really, Persia’s decision to invade is never explained), so if you want to see that I’d recommend a book like Farewell, Great King. This tells the story of Themistocles and his leadership of Athens during and after the war and can provide a useful counterpoint to the more gung-ho account in this book. Alas, I haven’t seen any naval officers try to do for Salamis what Pressfield does for Thermopylae here. Naval warfare is truly underdeveloped in historical fiction for this period.


* The second thing you notice is the horrible modern memorial with “heroic” nudes reclining daintily on couches. We do not speak of the modern memorial.

"Lo opuesto al miedo es el amor" Dienekes.

"Las Puertas de Fuego", valiéndose de la poética y evocadora prosa de Pressfield, que en ocasiones está impregnada del carácter vívido de las epopeyas homéricas, ofrece un relato descarnado y orgánico sobre los rigores bélicos, el implacable destino y el honor y el deber con el que los humanos deben enfrentarlos. Temática manoseada, lo sé, pero la novela provee una perspectiva única, ¿cuál es? La del soldado, la del subalterno.

El enfoque del militar está encarnado por Xeones de Astarkos, ciudad helénica sita en la región de Acarnania, cuya aniquilación llevará al protagonista a la xenófoba y marcial Esparta. Aquí, en la principal ciudad de Lacedemonia, se desarrollará el otro elemento innovador del libro: el análisis de la psicología espartana, el examen del miedo (phobos) y el valor (andreia), la camaradería espartíata y su particular cosmovisión del mundo, su relación con las otras ciudades peoloponesas y con el invasor aqueménida, así como su estratificación social y económica fundada en la esclavitud. Su concepción de la educación materializada en la inmisericorde agogé también es objeto de tratamiento; aunque hubiese agradecido mayor profusión al respecto.

Considero, por lo expuesto, que aunque la Batalla de las Termópilas sea una historia relativamente conocida, incluso llevada de forma infame al cine (me gusta la película, pero duele el rigor histórico), el autor la aborda de forma novedosa, aportando datos, términos y reflexiones enriquecedoras, amén de la omnipresente mitología griega que embellece la narración.
La estructura de la novela es otro acierto: la entrevista/memorias que Xeones, inspirado y compelido por Apolo, refiere al historiador persa vertebra la obra, y la presencia e intervenciones de los principales militares orientales y del propio Jerjes I durante la misma son atinadas.

La novela, empero, está bastante lejos de ser redonda: hay momentos de desconexión, la historia no siempre mantiene el interés, los personajes podrían estar más acabados y la filosofía que subyace es reiterativa. El final, en cambio, me ha gustado, crudo y alegórico, sin almíbar. Trágico, pero de una belleza grave y conmovedora.

¿Te gusta la novela histórica clásica y las Guerras Médicas? Léela, es una referencia insoslayable. La historia de Xeones lo merece; su entrega, su pasión y su abnegación. Leal y fiel, honorable hasta el final. No es el más grande, ni el más fuerte ni bello, ni tan siquiera es espartano, pero ejemplifica el valor de la honestidad y el compromiso.

La nota es de 3,75 estrellas. Finalmente decir que me parece superior Javier Negrete como narrador, y siempre recomendaría su libro "El Espartano" antes que el que nos ocupa. Sin embargo y previsiblemente éste nunca alcanzará las cotas de repercusión de "Las Puertas de Fuego": el mundo editorial, como la guerra, es terriblemente injusto.

"Ve a decirles a los espartanos, extranjero que pasas por aquí, que, obedientes a sus leyes, aquí yacemos" Simónides.

Steven Pressfield writes fantastic historical fiction. I have read a few of his books, and i think this is my favorite so far. He finds a way to tell a story in great detail without being laborious from a unique perspective without being obvious or cheesy. He is masterful and the story is powerful.

I originally gave this five stars but looking back the constant switching of time and place got irritating near the end. It was fine at first, but when you're in the middle of the gripping titular battle the last thing you want is to zoom away to some other point in time. This is probably the most I've ever learned about the realities and intricacies of war from a single book. If you want a good way to find out exactly why the Spartans are still revered as amazing soldiers today read this book. That said, if this was primarily focused on just the battle the book took its name from I'd probably get really bored. Instead Pressfield tells a moving story of a man whose life is destroyed early in his childhood by a rival city-state and how he comes to fight in Thermopylae.

You'd think that a book like this would be constant aggro manly chest-thumping and stuff like that, and there is a good deal of that kind of thing, but what surprised me is how touching the book can be. It's really focused more on how intensely the bonds can be between human beings in stressful times and how far they go for each other. I've never been in any kind of military situation but this book helped me see how deep the camaraderie and compassion can go between soldiers. What these dudes did over the course of those days was one of the most selfless acts in history, even if they did believe in an afterlife where they would be rewarded for such acts.

This was a really great book and it just barely missed the five star mark in my humble opinion. I just look back and remember that annoying jerkiness in the narrative but everything else was fantastic. The titular battle is seriously awe-inspiring and just...epic. I don't mean that in the "it was fucking epic, man" hyperbolic sense but in the sense that it seems like something you'd read in The Odyssey. It's just a really unbelievable story and Pressfield makes it that much more vivid by painting human faces on the people involved.

Oh this book. One of, if not the best book I’ve ever read. Gripping my heart so much that it pounded throughout the book with thrill and excitement. So good, that I thought of returning to the pages constantly throughout each day. It’s been a while since I’ve read through a book for my own pure joy and this one was spectacular.