Dunno... I really liked the book and remember reading it in a day or two without straying to other things in between, which I very often do even if I enjoy something. It's also the only Alexander novel (of sorts) that stuck in my mind as an individual story.
I absolutely agree that it's slow and very... undramatic, considering the subject matter. But then the subject matter (ok, from the history of the early ancient Macedons to the Diadochi wars) was one of my major areas of study at uni, and happened to fascinate me, so I also read most novels I could get my hands on about the Alexander thing. I guess it's just a matter of action getting really old after a while, and the 'Persian Boy' (which I discovered very late, strangely enough) was the perfect antidote to battle weariness :). My reaction was pretty much was, 'oh, we're at this point, thank god I don't have to read the baggle scene (again)'.
Then again, I also occasionally read romances, though before you pointed it out, I didn't even realise that it resembled romance plot, although now it's kinda obvious.
I think what I enjoyed about the book is that as you say, it does the culture clash extremely well, and really writes against audience expectation when they see 'Alexander' on the blurb :).
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Date: 2008-10-11 08:26 pm (UTC)I absolutely agree that it's slow and very... undramatic, considering the subject matter. But then the subject matter (ok, from the history of the early ancient Macedons to the Diadochi wars) was one of my major areas of study at uni, and happened to fascinate me, so I also read most novels I could get my hands on about the Alexander thing. I guess it's just a matter of action getting really old after a while, and the 'Persian Boy' (which I discovered very late, strangely enough) was the perfect antidote to battle weariness :). My reaction was pretty much was, 'oh, we're at this point, thank god I don't have to read the baggle scene (again)'.
Then again, I also occasionally read romances, though before you pointed it out, I didn't even realise that it resembled romance plot, although now it's kinda obvious.
I think what I enjoyed about the book is that as you say, it does the culture clash extremely well, and really writes against audience expectation when they see 'Alexander' on the blurb :).