Having read two previous books by Pressfield, I wanted to give this story a try. As opposed to his previous novels about Alexander The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great and Thermopylae Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, this book is about the age of heroes and entirely fictional. It deals with King Theseus defeating the Amazons in ancient Greece, including an aging Hercules.

The premise sounded moderately interesting, but the story is told from at least four different narrators perspective, each one telling their story, interweaving between each other in a series of nested flashbacks. As an author I can attest that this is very difficult to do, let alone do well and Pressfield is sadly not up to the task. Making matters worse is that the voice of each narrator is basically identical, despite being radically different people which makes it even more difficult to tell who is telling what story or even really care what they have to say.

Pressfield's books are more about an idea or principle he's fleshing out in the form of a story, which can work well, and I highly recommend the previous books I mentioned above, but this one didn't work out.

I read this book after devouring Pressfield's Gates of Fire. This book doesn't even come close. None of the characters are fully developed, and the story just wasn't very good. The seige of Athens is the best part, but it doesn't make up for an otherwise long slog. Skip this one.

[...]Ο τρόπος ζωής του ελεύθερου λαού παραμένει αναλλοίωτος από τότε που δημιουργήθηκε ο κόσμός. Πιστεύουν πως κάθε νεωτερισμός που έρχεται απέξω είναι οπωσδήποτε κακός κι έχει τη δύναμη ν' ανατρέψει την κοινωνία. Αυτό που οι Έλληνες αποκαλούν νόμο ή έθιμο ο ελεύθερος λαός το λέει ρύτεν άνναι, «ο τρόπος που κάνουμε τα πράγματα» ή «όπως γίνεται πάντα». Καθετί το καινούριο βάζει σε κίνδυνο το ρύτεν άνναι, γιατί απειλεί την ίδια μας την ύπαρξη και όλα όσα ξέρουμε, ποιες είμαστε και πώς επιθυμούμε να ζήσουμε.[...]

The Steven Pressfield Novel Tides of War is my all time favourite work of fiction. His two other books I have read (Gates of Fire and Virtues of War) do not fall far short of this mark. Needless to say I had high hopes for Last of the Amazons. It did not disappoint.
Greek tradition held that during the Bronze Age, in the time where heroes traversed the Mediterranean, a tribe of warrior-women lived north of the Black Sea. One of the several myths they make appearances in says that the Queen of the Amazons went with Theseus to Athens, prompting a war to try to retrieve her. Pressfield brings this story to life. The meeting of Athens, the cultural hub of Greece, and the Amazons, a people proudly 'free' from the trappings of civilization sets the stage for a brilliant tale of a way of life dying out with the changing of the world. By interweaving the story of the war itself with events set a bit over a decade after the reader gets to see the Amazon nation at the height of it's glory marching on Athens and then the remnants of it after their defeat and collapse. The classic themes of the 'death of the wild west' are played out in full and to perfection.
Even if the plot had been less interesting the book would still have kept me hooked simply because Steven Pressfield's prose is unmatched. More than any other author he is able to speak with the voice of Homer and bring the reader into the world of the ancient Greeks.
The main complaints I have seen say that the perspective shifts are confusing. They aren't very bad. There are only 3 characters that narrate and it is easy to follow along with the overall plot.

A little hard to read with all the Greek and Amazonian names. But an entertaining read none the less. Makes you wish and hope that the Amazons were real.

The story-telling ability of Mr. Pressfield has triumphed once again. It was a bit slow at the start with pockets of intensity throughout. The most frustrating aspect of the book was the realization that you are separated by centuries from the extraordinary characters portrayed within the pages of this book.

To address the comments about the difficulty some have had with this book: if you can endure the first half, you will be rewarded b the second. Don't forget that he has to introduce you to an entire civilization and the customs it entails. The second half of this book is absolutely amazing.

Pressfield uses the full breadth of his vocabulary to create a dense work that made reading each chapter feel like a workout or a feast, requiring a bit of rest. But this is a a book that will stay with me long after I've forgotten lighter fare. The description of battles and of various cultures and the interpersonal play of the characters were of a level to make my own writing drivel by comparison.

2/10 I like that the Amazons in the book are the complete opposite of the love and peace babbling we are fed by other versions. They behave more like the tribes from Bone Tomahawk, complete subhuman savagery beyond the unthinkable, so... double thumbs up. Also when the story gains traction, it pulls you 10/10 but those moments are way too scarce and few in between.

In general the writing feels sluggish and cumbersome. The viewpoint of the narrative is constantly changing, for the worse. There are entire pages dedicated to enumeration of garments and decorations. There are entire paragraphs dedicated to enumeration of mounts or gods or peoples of the steppes. This happens time and time again, repeating the same groups ! and it adds no value while damaging the pace rather horribly.

The author constantly repeats himself, and he uses a ton of completely unnecessary archaic poetic words that add no value. This makes it feel like a thousand pages long. The book can probably shed half its pages without compromising the continuity.

The battles are confusing, vague and lacking in detail. The random gore alone is not nearly enough to make them interesting. There's nearly nothing of military tactics explained or applied in any valuable way. The characters are not likable, everyone’s a lunatic. There’s also no epic fantasy hero battles, and no realistic battles, just vague fuzzy description of the same type of scattering encounter, on the same terrain, over and over and over again.

The story and ideas behind the book might have granted a four star review if properly delivered. As it stands it can barely sustain one star. It’s terrible, exhausting and dreary. I’ll steer clear of the author, possibly forever.

An interesting book, but also very flawed. I expected more of a historical book, even if the events themselves may be completely ahistorical. Something that is believable. But the way the events are told is very much like those ancient heroic myths. With things being greatly exaggerated and heroes on both sides cutting down dozens of enemies through their superhuman strength.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the narration doesn't really work that well. Much of the book is told as a recollection of past events. Sometimes second hand. This makes it all very impersonal and you're never in anyone's head. The prose itself is overwrought in many places, which fits with the events being retold, but it can get a bit too much at times.

But even considering that there is a decent enough book in there. Despite their silliness sometimes the battles and fights are riveting. And the author shows great imagination in imagining Amazon culture. Though I wished less time had been spent with the retelling of the siege of Athens and more with the other storyline, where the conclusion is less forgone. It's good in parts, but disappointing at the end.

I feel cheated

The way this book is written makes it hard work to read and extremely frustrating. I wish I'd have had a sample before I spent my money!

This is the only Pressfield book I have read that I simply did not enjoy. He seemed to be trying to write in the style of the Iliad and the Odyssey or other Greek classics, and it simply dragged. As usual, his historical representations are brilliant. It’s just pretty boring.

Stars? Have the Milky Way.

This is about the city and the steppe. It’s a subject I read non-fiction on, avidly, and fiction when I can. So I was engaged; I was joining in the argument; I wanted to stand up and say ‘you left this out’ when we have a great debate (for eight pages) between Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen on the worth of civilization and of savagery - or the wild life, the free life, as self-defined by the savages. A few of the Greeks who travel with Theseus fall half in love with the wild and free and argue its case with half their hearts; Theseus does himself; and the Amazon queen too finds herself torn. Whether you think she’s a traitor when she abandons her people, is up to you. It’s not an easy question, in the terms stated here; Pressfield states it as almost an impossible question. There is real loss when we face the ‘last of the Amazons’, and the city’s most stalwart defenders feel a grief. This isn’t a one-sided book, and the great debate wasn’t one-sided.

I think I liked the first half most, where the battle-lines are drawn; the second half consists of the Great War of the steppe nations on Athens. I love to have half a book devoted to one seige – it works as a pressure-cooker - but give me the novel of ideas. Nb. that he explores savage/civil questions within a rivetting story, is what I most admire. (If these matters interest you, I kept wanting to quote at Theseus from Jack Weatherford’s Savages and Civilization.)

Women. His ‘free women’... I’d better describe them as first seen by a Greek. As a domestic dog looks a certain way and acts a certain way and yields in a certain way to a man, so does the race of domesticated women look and act and yield. These females, the ones before us now, were as wolves to such dogs. They were wild. That was the difference. As of another species, people think frequently. Set against this for contrast, the state of Greek women is slavery, as Pressfield makes no bones about. And is the city to blame, or agriculture? They are chief suspects. It’s hard to imagine a free woman. I think he manages bloody well. She’s as strong as a Native American found himself next to an import from Europe (habits of life).

In his creation of Amazon culture, I thought he draws on known cultures, widely, to put together a savage lifestyle that comes across as real and cogent. When he talks of the closeness, the identification of the Amazons with their horses, I was reminded of what I’ve read about reindeer herders. The torture practices he attributes to Scyths – the significance and psychology of these, I equated with a book I’ve just read, William T. Vollmann’s Fathers and Crows, about other ‘savages’ in Canada. And I’m fairly sure he’s consulted Mongol history, for analogy. I sense a lot of groundwork, beneath his imagined culture.

But Scyths were hard done by. It’s as if he needed a villain, and Scyths drew the short straw; of the steppe peoples, Amazons hog the glory.

On the love bits. That Amazon friends are lovers is mentioned but not seen. The loves focused on are between Greeks and Amazons, with the conflict that entails. – This is fine, I’m just saying.

I like his writing. It’s more individual than I’d have expected in a bestseller (I have a prejudice against bestsellers; I expect the conventional, the safe). I’d swear he has words that aren’t words, and his grammar is his own; alliteration can lead him astray. He’ll make up a phrase never used before for a moment never seen before. But warrioresses? I can’t say that comfortably in my head. Maybe when we’re in a Greek’s head, because the concept is awkward to Greeks; but in an Amazon’s head, why would she? One stretch of battle-scene was a straight steal from Homer. True, the whole march on Athens was the Trojan War in reverse, as he brings out. But that’s a key scene, and for my emotions’ sake, I might have liked a more distinctive telling - not Homer, even if Homer lends grandeur.

I need a gag; I could easily go on about this book.