Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
by Steven Pressfield

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $3.88
You Save: $4.11 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.02 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Steven Pressfield
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Published: 1999-08-31
ISBN: 0553580531
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Bantam

Book Reviews of Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Book Review: Brilliant historical fiction-
Summary: 5 Stars

Any fan of ancient history will soak this exciting novel up.
Pressfield draws you in with intriguing well developed characters and a great blend of fiction woven into historical facts and events.
Heartily recommended!

Summary of Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.

Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful.

In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and rigorously schooled in the art of war--an education brutal enough to destroy half the students, but (oddly enough) not without humor: "The more miserable the conditions, the more convulsing the jokes became, or at least that's how it seems," Xeo recalls. His companions in arms are Alexandros, a gentle boy who turns out to be the most courageous of all, and Rooster, an angry, half-Messenian youth.

Pressfield's descriptions of war are breathtaking in their immediacy. They are also meticulously assembled out of physical detail and crisp, uncluttered metaphor:

The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram.... The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.
Alas, even this human barrier was bound to collapse, as we knew all along it would. "War is work, not mystery," Xeo laments. But Pressfield's epic seems to make the opposite argument: courage on this scale is not merely inspiring but ultimately mysterious. --Marianne Painter
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....

Horror Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Enjoy Some Historical Fiction
The Corps: Book 1 Semper Fi (Corps) ImageThe Corps: Book 1 Semper Fi (Corps)
by W. E. B. Griffin
Jove; Published: 1986-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.59
Price in other shops: $7.99
Stones from the River ImageStones from the River
by Ursula Hegi
Simon&Schuster; Published: 1995-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.80
Price in other shops: $15.00
A Man Called Trent (Leisure Historical Fiction) ImageA Man Called Trent (Leisure Historical Fiction)
by Louis L'Amour
Leisure Books; Published: 2006-08; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.54
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Duke And I (Bridgerton Series, Bk. 1) ImageThe Duke And I (Bridgerton Series, Bk. 1)
by Julia Quinn
Avon; Published: 2000-01-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.89
Price in other shops: $7.99
Emma And The Outlaw ImageEmma And The Outlaw
by Linda Lael Miller
Pocket; Published: 1991-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.15
Price in other shops: $7.99
The Last Heroes: A Men at War Novel (Men at War) ImageThe Last Heroes: A Men at War Novel (Men at War)
by W. E. B. Griffin
Jove; Published: 1998-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.59
Price in other shops: $7.99
Milkweed (Readers Circle) ImageMilkweed (Readers Circle)
by Jerry Spinelli
Laurel Leaf; Published: 2005-09-13; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.26
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Dragon Throne ImageThe Dragon Throne
by Michael Cadnum
Viking Juvenile; Published: 2005-05-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.29
Price in other shops: $16.99
Summer of My German Soldier (Puffin Modern Classics) ImageSummer of My German Soldier (Puffin Modern Classics)
by Bette Greene
Puffin; Published: 2006-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.60
Price in other shops: $6.99
The Wicked and the Wondrous (The Twilight Before Christmas / After the Music) ImageThe Wicked and the Wondrous (The Twilight Before Christmas / After the Music)
by Christine Feehan
Pocket; Published: 2004-09-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.55
Price in other shops: $7.99
Similar Books and other products
The Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greece ImageThe Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greece
by Michael Curtis Ford
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 2002-10-13; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops: $6.99
Killing Rommel: A Novel ImageKilling Rommel: A Novel
by Steven Pressfield
Doubleday; Published: 2008-05-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.69
Price in other shops: $24.95
Last of the Amazons ImageLast of the Amazons
by Steven Pressfield
Bantam; Published: 2003-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.69
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Isle of Stone: A Novel of Ancient Sparta ImageThe Isle of Stone: A Novel of Ancient Sparta
by Nicholas Nicastro
Signet; Published: 2005-12-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $7.99
The Afghan Campaign: A Novel ImageThe Afghan Campaign: A Novel
by Steven Pressfield
Broadway; Published: 2007-06-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.61
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece ImageThe Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece
by Paul Cartledge
Vintage; Published: 2004-08-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops: $15.95
Thermopylae: The Battle For The West ImageThermopylae: The Battle For The West
by Ernle Bradford
Da Capo Press; Published: 2004-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $17.95
The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great ImageThe Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great
by Steven Pressfield
Bantam; Published: 2005-09-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops: $14.00
Tides of War ImageTides of War
by Steven Pressfield
Bantam; Published: 2001-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops: $15.00
300 Image300
by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley
Dark Horse; Published: 1999-12-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.44
Price in other shops: $30.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories