Gates of Fire

Gates of Fire

The national bestseller!


At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.
Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history--one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale....



Customer Review: A Brilliant Book

Absolutely one of the best books, not just as an historical fiction, I have ever read. I could not have expected a military culture with its seeming brutality be described with such finesse and beauty.

Written beautifully as a narrative.

The narrator is the lone survivor of the battle at Thermopylae who recounts in detail the battle as one who fought with the Spartans by request from the conquering Xerxes. He begins by telling his life story, the loss of his family and how he came to know the soldiers of Sparta and King Leonidas. He describes their culture in detail, the individual men and women that he knew peripherally and personally and the build up to and the battle of Thermopylae; why he loved these people and why the Spartans were his heroes. The author wraps it up beautifully. Historical events accurate as far as I could tell.

Excellent read, I couldn't put it down.



Customer Review: Dynamite!

I want to be a Spartan! It was exciting and inspiring and though the author took a few small liberties with historical facts, it was a most excellent read. I highly recommend getting lost in Sparta! Worth the time, the money, outstanding!