La valutazione su questo libro è funzione del modo in cui lo si vuole guardare.

Se lo si guarda come un' opera di narrativa, non credo sia un capolavoro. Non ho trovato che la trama fosse una di quelle per cui non puoi posare il libro. Non ho trovato che l'autore sia riuscito a creare dei personaggi verso cui il lettore possa provare empatia. Il ritmo non accelera mai. Mi è dispiaciuto dato che considero tuttora “Le porte di fuoco” dello stesso autore, il più bel romanzo storico che abbia mai letto. Tuttavia qui non ho trovato altrettanto pathos, eventi epici, cambiamenti di ritmo. Qualuno ha detto che non ci sia da stupirsi se a un veterano della guerra del Vietnam come Pressfield possa venire bene intutivamente un libro come “Le Porte di Fuoco” incentrato sugli spartani e possa fallirne un altro come “I venti dell’Egeo” basato sulla democrazia ateniese. In “Le porte di fuoco”, vi era un gran finale verso cui tutti gli eventi erano risucchiati, qui invece il ritmo resta costante nella narrazione di una guerra che si trascina per l’intera vita dei protagonisti.


Se però si guarda a “I venti dell’Egeo” come un saggio sul mondo greco, ove le vicende dei protagonisti sono solo degli intervalli tra un argomento e l'altro, allora il libro può essere molto piacevole. Pressfield tratta alcuni argomenti molto interessanti come la peste, la vita dei mercenari, la politica, la giurisprudenza greca, la filosofia e lo fa con cognizione di causa.

I am not too big a fan of battle scenes in historical novels. So if they are among the best parts, it means either that they are awesome or that the book is just not that good. Sadly, it is the latter here.

Let's start with the things that are not so good: The main character Polemides is an utterly stereotypical tough-soldier-dude as they litter Bernard Cornwell's books and those of his epigones. The only thing more stereotypical is the portrayal of women in the book. Greek culture is reduced to very manly and surprisingly straight men trying to bash each other's head in, oh, and something with democracy or so. (The author subscribes to the view of the ancient (elitist) authors that the Athenian democracy was dysfunctional and essentially the rule of the rabble.) Why the author chose to employ a double narrative frame around the actual story will remain his secret. Also, the book is way too long. Cut out some of the countless inconsequential land battles and fleet actions, and some of the tough dude talk, and you come to a manageable 400 pages instead of the 600 it is.

What is good besides the battles: The drama of the Sicilian expedition (because it is great in Thucydides), and the speeches and political assembly scenes (because they are ripped from Thucydides, and, I think, Plutarch). So what the book did for me was to put both Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and Plutarch's Life of Alcibiades on my re-read list. I recommend you do the same.

Tides of War is a good historical novel. However, it's for readers that can tolerate a complex narrative that describes events over the 27 year span of the Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 BCE). The story is told through three narrators; a man interviewing his grandfather Jason who in turn was a lawyer who many years earlier represented Polymides who was a close confidant of Alcibiades. In other words, it's a description of an interview in which an older person is describing earlier conversations with still another person who told him about many still earlier conversations and events. These three narrators are fictional characters, however Alcaibiades was an actual historical soldier extraordinaire. Who was Alcibiades? Well, if you make it through this book you will never forget the name. The question I'm asking after this book is why is Alcibiades so relatively unknown?

I find that the book's format allows the various narrators as they pass along the story to ponder the meaning of life and history during a time of war. In doing this the book gives a look into the thinking of the era. But to understand the book the reader needs to keep reminding him/herself who's doing the talking and when the current conversation being described took place. But the reader who becomes immersed in the story will be rewarded with a description of a time and place (the end of the classical period of ancient Greek history) that has the ring of authenticity. Socrates makes a number of appearances in the book. As a matter of fact, the climax of the story occurs on the same day that Socrates takes the hemlock.

One can find many scary parallels with current international relations and domestic politics. In case you're not up on the details of the Peloponnesian War, the historic cradle of democracy, Athens, lost the war.

Fascinating look at Pelloponesian war... with bland and forgetable characters. Alcibiades was a fascinating figure only in concept, unfortunately, Pressfield failed to make me have any feelings for him. Same goes for Pommo. I had real trouble finishing this book.

For my history-loving self, it was a great look at this part of ancient Greece history. My good-book-loving self liked it the least from all the Pressfield's books. Shame.

Not enough of best boy Theramenes but still good

This was a slog. I’m actually not sure why I continued. But finish I did. Apart from a few passages recounting Alcibiades’ leadership at war that stirred some emotion, this was 400 pages of work.

Alright. I think it's time to finally confront what I've been avoiding for 2 years at this point. Over those 2 years, I have tried to stay on the path of optimism - or the least be able to say "I will return someday, just not right now". In essence...the book was on pause for a very long time. Several months ago I finally came to the conclusion that I mostly likely wouldn't end up returning. Now I finally put the nail in the coffin and say that I will not return to this book. I have no active desire to, and since that drive has not arisen in all but 2 years, I will no longer waste mental energy on this.

"Tides of War" is my first official DNF, and so far (as of July 2024) my only DNF.


The primary problem with "Tides of War" is that it has an overly convoluted framing device that effectively serves no purpose. If it does serve a purpose, it isn't clear within the first 1/3 of the book, and certainly not clear enough to say whether it'd be worth finishing. This book follows a character recounting his grandfather's recounting of *yet another character's* recounting of the tale of Alcibiades. If that sounds bad, that's because it is. As I said, so far as I can see, there is no point in having this many frames wrapped around each other - it simply wastes space that could and should belong to the portrait contained in the innermost frame. If you imagine Alcibiades telling his story as a portrait frames; another character telling that story instead as the portrait with a mat around it and then the frame surrounding...well, let's just say this novel is as if you took that complete product and decided to frame THAT. Oh and do that 2 times. You see the problem here?

As such, getting into "Tides of War" is a massive difficulty. You have several chapters that introduce you to a couple characters - one telling the other a story - just to jump to yet another introduction of the same...and yet again the same thing another couple chapters later. This framing is simply too complex and needlessly obtuse, especially when it could be as simple as ONE (1) character telling Alcibiades's tale, or simply Alcibiades himself telling it, which would certainly have been far more immediately engaging. 3 degrees of narrators was simply too much for the story being told here.

Now, I only read about 9 chapters of the book - 2 of the 9 "Books" (or parts) the novel is split into. Only 1 of those chapters did anything for me. I can still remember that it was Chapter 5 because it was actually quite good...but everything else missed the mark in every regard. After setting the book down after part 2 for a few days, I decided to give it another chance and start part 3. I didn't even finish that first chapter. Nothing changed, and I just decided in the end that I would rather read something else instead and maybe come back to it later. (Of course, as we know, I would in fact NOT come back to it later, but this proves the point). I still remember what was in the portion of the book that I read, but I continue to have no desire to return. As such, I have to give up the copium and admit this is an actual DNF.


Clearly, "Tides of War" was not the best starting place for Stephen Pressfield. This is unfortunate because the concept itself (without the convoluted framing device) should absolutely be my jam. Ancient mythologies and cultures are one of my favorite things to read/learn about - whether in non-fiction OR fiction contexts - and Greek history/mythology continues to top the list of the ones I'm most interested in. For the ultimate value of this novel to miss so widely for me is a massive disappointment.

Rest assured I am not giving up entirely on Pressfield - I at least still intend to try "Gates of Fire" since I haven't heard ANYbody say that one's bad (and I've also had reassurances that it's not so poorly framed on top of that) - but the fact I did try to start here as a result of a buddy-read that never went anywhere did a piss poor number on my urgency to circle back around to something different by this author.

In the end, I absolutely do not recommend this book in any capacity; especially don't make it your first foray into Pressfield. That is a decision I regret making. I also should point out that one of the other top reviews for this book DNF'd at damn near the exact same place as me, and I believe had similar issues. So this is clearly not just a me issue - so if you do plan to try out "Tides of War", at least go in knowing what you're getting into.

Stunningly immersive.

I was there in ill fated Syracuse.
I helped finish the story in Asia Minor.
I marched with the Athenians and met the Spartans.

Pressfield is one of a kind.

Pressfield is a phenomenal writer. I'm re-reading this, and it holds up well 20 years after my first encounter. The story is eerily relevant - rich, charismatic Svengali talks Athens into some very poorly thought out adventures, and the little people pay the price. Remind you of anyone?

3.5
Αυτό είναι το τρίτο βιβλίο του Στίβεν Πρεσφιλντ που διαβάζω στο οποίο πετυχαίνει όπως και στα άλλα να εντυπωσιάσει με τον περιγραφικό και αναλυτικό τρόπο που ξεδιπλώνει την καθημερινότητα και τα γεγονότα της αρχαιότητας.

Μου φάνηκε ενδιαφέρον γιατί δεν στόχευε απλώς στην εξιστόρηση ενός πολέμου ή ακόμη και της υπόθεσης του Αλκιβιάδη, αλλά στην σταδιακή μεταμόρφωση ενός συνηθισμένου Αθηναίου πολίτη με σπαρτιατικη εκπαίδευση σε έναν μισητο φονιά έτοιμο να καταδικαστει. Η ιστορία έχει να κάνει με τον πόλεμο και την καταστροφική επιρροή του πάνω στους ανθρώπους και στην ψυχή της πόλης. Χρησιμοποιεί έναν καθημερινό στρατιώτη και μισθοφόρο ως καθρέφτη για να καταδείξει τα σφάλματα και τις αδυναμίες της Αθήνας. Όλα αυτά ενώ ταυτόχρονα αφηγείται με λεπτομέρειες τα σημαντικότερα από τα γεγονότα της εποχής.

Μου άρεσε ιδιαίτερα ο τρόπος με τον οποίο επέλεξε να εξιστορησει τα γεγονότα με τη μορφή μιας τριπλής αφήγησης και την αλλαγή διαφόρων οπτικών γωνιών καθώς του έδωσε τη δυνατότητα να δώσει ενδιαφέρον και προσωπικότητα σε κάθε κεφάλαιο μαζί με ποικιλία.

Σε ορισμένα σημεία μου φάνηκε πως υπήρχαν λεπτομέρειες που μπορούσαν να παραλειφθουν. Κάποιες φορές η ανάγκη για λεπτομέρεια και ακρίβεια επισκιαζε κατά πολύ την ανάγκη για ροή της πλοκής. Με λίγα λόγια μόλις τελειώσεις το βιβλίο θα τα έχεις καταλάβει όλα με μεγάλη σαφήνεια και ακρίβεια αλλά πιθανότατα με κόστος κάποια κεφάλαια να φαίνονται μακριά και κουραστικά. Προς το τέλος νομίζω πως άρχισε να αφήνει πίσω την ιστορία του χαρακτήρα και να αφηγείται γεγονότα σχεδόν διαδικαστικά λόγω του όγκου τους. Το όλο εγχείρημα μου φάνηκε υπερβολικά φιλόδοξο για να πετύχει και προς το τέλος άρχισε η πλοκή να καταρρέει από το βάρος των γεγονότων 27 χρόνων που έπρεπε να αφηγηθεί.

A bizarre narrative structure and a surprisingly distant portrayal of the infamous Alcibiades really held this book back for me, though the language used was stirring and lyrical as always when dealing with Pressfield.

I won't say I was totally disappointed as the author had always set himself an extremely difficult task, but this is certainly not in the same league as "Gates of Fire."

History, philosophy, entertainment, drama, action... whew! I continue to be floored by Pressfield's writing.

The messages and lessons from Ancient Greece, humanity at its most pathetic, its greatest, and its most tragic ring true even now.