Stephen Pressfield has garnered laurels for his ability to describe the utter brutality of ancient warfare and his descriptions of battles fought during the campaign of Alexander the Great in Afghanistan in his novel "The Afghan Campaign" are as wrenching as those depicted in Pressfield's "Gates of Fire".

Told from the perspective of a common soldier rather than from Alexander's viewpoint or the viewpoint of one of Alexander's commanders, "The Afghan Campaign" provides the reader the opportunity to experience the grinding existence of a man struggling to maintain some shred of integrity in a hostile and intractable world.

Alexander is most often glimpsed from a distance and we are not privy to his strategic debates or daily dispatches to help us understand the "big picture" he sees in his efforts to add the tribes of the Hindu Kush to his role of conquered nations. We must, through Matteius' eyes, simply endure the relentless wind, quagmires of mud, and bitterly cold snow and sleet, as we climb and descend the deadly precipices that score the Afghan countryside in search of a foe that materializes suddenly to engage in deadly tribal rituals, counting coup and scalping or mutilating their victims, then escapes back into the mountains where, unlike the Macedonians, they appear to thrive. We feel Mattteius' frustration rise to an excruciating level as his comrades are butchered in ambushes or slain by duplicitous camp followers.

As the war wears on, he participates in retaliatory strikes where entire villages are put to the sword and torched as efforts intensify to "win" an ultimately unwinnable war. Matteius' acceptance of these measures poignantly demonstrates the ultimate result of living amidst so much brutality - the loss of one's own humanity as both sides must cultivate ruthlessness to simply survive.

The story of Alexander the Great's army's afghan campaign told from a solider's point of view. The tactics and strategies of the battles and the story of the clashing cultures that held Alexander's army there so long are well worth reading. But, the true life of the story is in the solider's experience of the land, privations, and challenges of army life on campaign. Parts read just like cherry-garrard's worst journey in the world's account of the antarctic marches the endured under Scott's expeditions. The solider's voice has a ring of honesty and realism to it that is sometimes missing from military historical fiction. Alexander is present in the story, but his character doesn't dominate or overwhelm. I could not put this down and looked forward to turning the next page during the entire read.

I have been a fan of Pressfield's since I read Gates of Fire around ten years ago. The Afghan Campaign had the same feel and pace and I enjoyed reading it. Pressfield does a good job mixing tactics and historical information with the personal story of Matthias - a somewhat naive young infantry troop who is unprepared for the type of war Alexander the Great has has to fight in Afghanistan. The parallels to today's challenges in the same theater are interesting. The plot reads a little like Farewell to Arms in the sense that there is a girl and a baby and in the end just a soldier. That part struck a little too hard and I think that just has to do with the baby at my own home. I don't know if I'll ever be able to read those types of plots again.

Pressfield is certainly brilliant, and I must admit to liking the way he has worked hard to overcome his own demons. He gives me hope that I can do the same.

I also like that Pressfield is a bit of an underdog. His work is brilliant - I enjoy his work more than Wilbur Smith's (who has also written the odd historical novel or two). But there is something more philosophical about Pressfield that grabs my attention. On his website, he has this to say:

We can’t control the level of talent we’ve been given. We have no control over the nature of our gift. What we can control is our self-motivation, our self-discipline, our self-validation, and our self-reinforcement.

In 2012, Pressfield started his own publishing house, Black Irish Books, with his agent, Shawn Coyne. I have been critical of literary entrepreneurs in the past, but Pressfield is no "spring chicken", and claims to have written for 27 years before anything he wrote was published. This counters Einstein's view that:

A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.

Anything that goes against Einstein's view  is a winner for me. Although some suggest Einstein didn't quite mean it this way, I have heard so many others use Einstein's words (without acknowledging him) and even judgements about people based on their age, that Pressfield's example gives me some comfort. (Some studies suggest that the age peak is now much older because one couldn't even catch up with the existing literature by age 30, let alone discover new knowledge.)

So this book has it all: a gripping story from an author with a back story that defies the odds. And it is based on historical research that provides an increase in historical knowledge as a side effect. What more could one want in a novel?

Afghanistan, 330 B.C. Alexander the Great, having toppled the Persian Empire and won eternal glory for himself and his men, now looks with hungry eyes to India. The way to those riches, however, must be forged through the unpredictable expanse of Afghanistan, and even veterans of Alexander’s campaigns will pause at the grim bloodshed waiting for them there. The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield is easily the most visceral account of ancient warfare I’ve ever read, as we witness a young fool who joined the ranks purely to avoid shaming himself in front of his brothers, but who is baptized by blood again and again and becomes a man in full, whose soul is hardened by the violence yet full of love and devotion for his brothers in arms…and his horse. Written only a few years into the interminable American war in Afghanistan, its portayal of that land and the futility of trying to impose outside order on it, brims over with relevance fifteen years later — such is the stupidity (or cupidity) of the DC elite.

I first encountered Steven Pressfield via his excellent Gates of Fire, a story of Thermopylae, and found The Afghan Campaign to be of similar quality. Given its setting in antiquity, I’m not sure how kosher some of the historical facts are — I couldn’t tell you what history books say about the Afghan campaign — but Pressfield provides such a level of fine detail about the little things, like food and clothing, that I was wholly “in” the world he’d created. It’s a harrowing story, with such bloodshed and loss that by its end I felt tempted to read a Vietnam memoir for comparison. Two of the characters can feel themselves being changed by the war; they begin as naifs, hesitant to even strike other men, but once thrown into the the constant hell of Alexander’s campaigns, they change. Not all of their prewar selves is lost, but they become different — bonded to one another instead of dreams of their lost homes and sweethearts, accustomed to nothing but marching and killing, hardened by a hostile landscape filled with implacable enemies whose lust for liberty they cannot help but admire, even is it kills them.

This is stirring, sober reading. The cover speaks volumes. This is twice I’ve tried Pressfield and twice I’ve found his characters and story absolutely enveloping, so I will be continuing to explore his work.

This is not a book I would normally have picked for myself to read but that’s part of the fun of joining in book group reads, to find the unexpected and expand your horizons.
The first person point of view of an average soldier’s life in Alexander the Greats army was interesting enough but, not at all unexpectedly, not particularly thrilling for me. I never quite got invested in the characters, despite the first person view; I wasn’t quite drawn into the story either.
There is no doubt that the author knows the military, its attitudes and workings, but this book didn’t manage to capture the humanism that makes a story like this great.

Τίποτα λιγότερο από ένα ακόμη εξαιρετικό βιβλίο για τον αγαπημένο Steven Pressfield!!!!
Η εκστρατεία του Μεγαλύτερου Στρατηλάτη στον κόσμο από άλλη ματιά...
Διαβάστε το

Expected more after Gates Of Fire. Found the ending a bit rushed. Otherwise pretty good.

A solid piece of social historical fiction (the Alltagsgeschichte of Afghanistan?). Pressfield's fiction manages well to express ideas and concepts that would be more difficult to tell in straigth-forward nonfiction, history or even memoir formats. Pressfield straddles the (often fine) line between warrior and poet, East and West, old and new Afghanistan, and the best and worst of human nature. Like Killing Rommel, _The Afghan Campaign_ uses minor/line/non-heroic characters to retell a historical period in a new way.

Pressfield's approach to historical fiction mirrors the recent push by historians like Ulrich who seek to capture "the silent work of ordinary people". Pressfield seems hellbent to capture the silent, difficult, and the often morally inconsistent work of the ordinary soldier.

Smooth as honey to read. I finished it in a day.

This is The Chain of Dogs section of Deadhouse Gates. Just for the whole book.

This is about a soldier in the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon, around 330 BC. Alexander the Great has conquered everywhere using standard tactics of drawing out his enemy and defeating it on the battlefield. And he has conquered the Persian empire, the greatest in the world. And, on the way to the riches of India, lay the Hindu Kush, present day Afghanistan.

The Afghan Campaign is written from the point of view of a new soldier. During the war against the Persians Matthias joins the Macedonian army, following in the footsteps of his brothers. However, he is too late to join in the glorious wars against the Persians. But, he arrives in the Hindu Kush, after the main battle. But the war is not over. Over the course of the campaign, Matthias sees victory, loss. Friends are killed in barbaric ways and he takes part in atrocities that make him sick. His family gives his support, and his fiance leaves him. And at the end, he is frustrated with the war, has the spoils of war that his brother tells him to take home, and decides to continue with Alexander.

So, what is the point? Why this pseudo-history of the ancient world? The question for this is not to present a history, but to present an experience. So, do I think it is accurate, all things considered. And, well, it is. When you are in the middle of things, you don't have too much time to think about the big picture, unless you have that kind of position. Your general thoughts as far as war is concerned are about the day in question. But there are times to think about other things. You are very concerned about your comrade around you, their fortunes, successes, failures. Their hurts and their victories are shared and felt by you. And you think of loved ones behind. Of people back home who support and love you. Of those who have forgotten you. And those who have let you go and gone their own way.

Someone asked me if I missed anything about serving in Afghanistan, it was that. The sense that we shared in the struggles, successes and frustrations of each other. The guy who we all said had the worst job in the office, as he was having his direction of effort changed almost hourly, and never could get what he was doing done well enough to be satisfying. The senior officer who did not have a well defined job, who spent his time making snide remarks and complaining about little mickey mouse issues. The guys who got regular packages and letters from home (I was one of them), especially the newlywed whose wife sent him a package including baked cookies weekly (the winner). We worried about the guy who was a bit of a loner and never got packages (and were real relieved when his mother sent something). I loved it when all the guys on the staff were pulling for me when I gave a big presentation that needed very senior officer support, giving me feedback, suggestions, and general "ask for whatever help you need" support. We talked to our families and shared in the fustrations, joys, stories (funny, sad, frustrating and proud). The ideas, dreams and hopes we had for the future. All the things that make us real human beings. And Pressfield presents that well, both the good and the bad.

Obviously, the book is for a certain type of person. The gore exists, as it is also a part of war. But it is not there for its own sake. It is there because it is part of the environment that shapes the people. And to that extent, it, like some of his other works (e.g. GatesofFire?), does the job wonderfully.

An anachronistic allegory.

It's a little hard to to ignore the parallels in Pressfield's story of Alexander's invasion and conquering of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasion of the same. But Pressfield's 2006 novel sounds positively quaint in recounting that it took Alexander THREE WHOLE YEARS to conquer Afghanistan. Even at the time of of writing, the US was 5 years in and is still there nearly 20 years later.

So a culturally diverse and technologically advanced Macedonian army invades the tribalistic and remote region of Afghanistan in an attempt to spread the farmer's values... hijinks and guerilla warfare and attrition ensue.

The problems are in the frequent use of anachronistic language Pressfield employs. Too many modern terms and concepts (including the Macedonians using modern house clearing tactics and cordoning off neighborhoods, among others).

Anyway, this particular tale focuses on the end of the war where Alexander was able to buy peace by marrying the daughter of a major warlord. Kinda wish Bush or Obama had tried that (at least for the comedy). But this is more a tale of Matthias, a common soldier who has to find his way in the Macedonian army while also navigating the foreign cultural norms of the Afghans.

These norms (pre-Islamic but still very tribalistic) form the central conflict as Matthias meets an Afghan girl, falls in love, and "marries" her. But we've still got honor codes to deal with... and Alexander remains on the march.

The story hits most of the beats of a period historical fiction novel: soldiers griping, cameos by major historical figures, and some reasonably accurate battles. But the somewhat strained attempts at allegory (or maybe analogue), leaves this 2006 effort somewhat wanting.