Last of the Amazons
by Steven Pressfield
List Price:
Our Price: $6.99
You Save: $8.01 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.79 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Steven PressfieldEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-07-01
ISBN: 0553382047
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Last of the Amazons
Book Review: The Most Imaginative Story Ever?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the story of the critical meeting of Theseus, King of Athens, and Antiope, War Queen of the Amazons, who is the heart ahd soul of her nation. They fall in love at first sight, and from that moment they are doomed, as are all the nations of the Amazons. It's a pure tragedy, based upon that most classic and poweful of tragic plot devices, pure, boundless, and hopeless love. Love so unimaginable that the two lovers are willing to destroy their nations for it. That is the story, and the emotional power of this novel is just overwhelming. We have multiple tragedies in this novel, and they are unforgettably portrayed.
I experienced love at first sight once, 27 years ago, but she lived several hundred miles away, and had a boyfriend who lived with her, and I had a serious girlfriend. We met on a rafting trip, and again the next year on another such trip. He was always with her. We were never alone. However, I loved her and I somehow knew without a doubt that she loved me. She was like a proximity bomb of pheremones, and I could sense she felt the same thing I was feeling. We always were near each other, and people watched us oddly. I still love her. I only mention that since some might scoff at the concept. It does exist. It makes absolutely no sense, but it truly exists, so when Theseus and Antiope fall in love the first time they see each other, I accepted it totally. It's not only love, it's overpowering love. Mine has never gone away, and on the very rare occasions I think of her, I still feel it. It's astonishing.
The story starts out with the incredibly imaginative style of writing in the multiple first person. I can't recall offhand ever reading a novel which did that, though it's possible. So we get the inner feelings of several characters, each thinking and acting in the first person. It permits the intimate, personal, unique way of displaying how each character thinks, and yet the multiple plot/snenario capability of third person writing. Pressfield doesn't tell us that Selene did or thought something. Selene tells us, as only Selene can, since she's unique. Damon tells us what he's thinking, as only Damon can. The other major narrator is Mother Bones, who was a young girl when some of this takes place. I forget her name. He only mentions it a couple of times.
These three are the main first person narrators. Selene is an Amazon, and Damon was a young man who journied with Theseus when he first made contact with the Amazons, perhaps a generation before this story is narrated. Any other narration is first person by other characters, verbally making first person dialogue. This is a very imaginative writing technique, perfect for the story Pressfield wants to tell; and the way he wants to tell it.
The story has three episodes. One of them is when Theseus and his men first journey to and encounter the Amazons. The second is a couple of years later, when the Amazons attack Athens. The third is the bookend for these two. It begins the story, and ends the story, and takes place over a period of time, from when Mother Bones is a young Athenian girl, to when she is old. This style works seamlessly to create a wonderful novel.
We are dealing with mythology here, but there is some historical evidence that the Amazons did exist, in some form. This creates an opportunity and also a problem for Pressfield. He has pretty free reign to create what he wants, but he also has the problem that these Amazons must be acceptable as human beings, with the limitations of female human beings. We know that throughout human history, female warriors have never been able to compete with male warriors. Boudica was perhaps the most famous female warrior, but she commanded men. A fantasy writer can create women with whatever powers he wishes. Pressfield cannot. This is where he displays his imaginative genius.
He creates a society so admirable and unique that we want passionately to believe in it, and in his Amazons. He utilizes a few techniques that Edgar Rice Burroughs utilized when he created Tarzan. These women are not raised like other women. They are raised as warrioresses from earliest childhood. Theis is a fighting, savage existence, so we can accept that they would learn to really fight. Boys are not taught to fight as little boys, so we can accept that these Amazons will have an advantage of fighting against males, in terms of ability, balance, instantaneous reaction ability, horsemanship, and weaponry. This is essential for us to accept them, and Pressfield handles this superbly.
They are cavalry, so any physical advantage males might have is wiped out, and their horses are superior to any other horses, and have life-long bonds with these Amazons, which bonds form in early childhood.
They form bonds of three women, each willing to give her life for her lovers/"sisters"; and other bonds of three with older and younger Amazons. They are hive-oriented, with any Amazon willing to give her life for her nation. Individualism is not a part of their lives, since that is essential to how great they are.
They are incredibly savage, ruthless, cruel, and arrogant. They will slaugher men, women, and children, and revel in that slaughter. In other words, they are everything they need to be for us to totally believe they could dominate their environment. I had never believed that a writer could convince me that women could beat men in battle with relatively primitive weapons. I'm a Vietnam veteran, and that experience has caused me to be fascinated with war and historical adventure ever since. Pressfield not only convinces me, he makes me adore these women, as warriors. The detail and prose is truly magnificent, as he creates and displays these women. He accomplished something truly unique.
His main characters are utterly spectacular. Pressfield is the most eloquent writer I've ever encountered, and his dialogue is utterly superb throughout the book. Antiope is irresistible and without peer. Theseus is beyond admirable in every respect.Eleuthera, Antiope's Amazon lover and one of her bond of three women (Trikona), is magnificent, and is the truest Amazon. We don't see into these charcters' minds, but we watch them through othere's eyes, and listen to them, and the prose is just wholly captivating.
I'm not going to discuss the story itself. Others probably have done that, and mythology speaks of it. I don't want to spoil anything, for those who don't know these legends.
Siffice it to say that the novel is filled with love, confrontation, battle, honor, savagery, pride, and terrible but inevitable tragedy. I've read this novel three times, and have read some of the passages at least ten times. The scenes which feature Antiope, Theseus, and Eleuthera are so well written that they are incredibly moving.
I like to write fiction, for fun, and have a novel and some short stories i wrote on my web site. When I reead this novel, I decided to create and write about my own race/nation of female warriors, as part of a story. When we borrow from writers, we change things, to suit our own tastes, and to avoid plagarism. My novel is about a barbarian who hs some Tarzan in him, and come Conan, and some of my own ideas.
I started writing, and sat and thought about how the ways I would "change" his warriors, to adapt them to my novel, and to improve them. I thought about it a great deal, since I so enjoyed them, and wanted to create my own version.
I couldn't think of a single thing to change, without lessening them.
I can't recommend this novel enough. It's perhaps the most iamaginative novel I've ever read, stylistically, creatively, and emotionally.
Summary of Last of the Amazons
The author of the international bestsellers Gates of Fire and Tides of War delivers his most gripping and imaginative novel of the ancient world?a stunning epic of love and war that breathes life into the grand myth of the ferocious female warrior culture of the Amazons.Steven Pressfield has gained a passionate worldwide following for his magnificent novels of ancient Greece, Gates of Fire and Tides of War. In Last of the Amazons, Pressfield has surpassed himself, re-creating a vanished world in a brilliant novel that will delight his loyal readers and bring legions more to his singular and powerful restoration of the past.
In the time before Homer, the legendary Theseus, King of Athens (an actual historical figure), set sail on a journey that brought him into the land of tal Kyrte, the ?free people,? a nation of proud female warriors whom the Greeks called ?Amazons.? The Amazons, bound to each other as lovers as well as fighters, distrusted the Greeks, with their boastful talk of ?civilization.? So when the great war queen Antiope fell in love with Theseus and fled with the Greeks, the mighty Amazon nation rose up in rage.
Last of the Amazons is not merely a masterful tale of war and revenge. Pressfield has created a cast of extraordinarily vivid characters, from the unforgettable Selene, whose surrender to the Greeks does nothing to tame her; to her lover, Damon, an Athenian warrior who grows to cherish the wild Amazon ways; to the narrator, Bones, a young girl from a noble family who was nursed by Selene from birth and secretly taught the Amazon way; to the great Theseus, the tragic king; and to Antiope, the noble queen who betrayed tal Kyrte for the love of Theseus.
With astounding immediacy and extraordinary attention to military detail, Pressfield transports readers into the heat and terror of war. Equally impressive is his creation of the Amazon nation, its people, its rituals and myths, its greatness and savagery. Last of the Amazons is thrilling on every page, an epic tale of the clash between wildness and civilization, patriotism and love, man and woman.
From the Hardcover edition.
With an epic scope and keen sense of detail, Steven Pressfield has created an entertaining and vital reimagining of the Amazon legend with his historical novel, Last of the Amazons. Combining myth with history, Pressfield offers a conjectural account of the legendary female warrior tribe as it may have existed in the years leading up to its extinction. Following the Athenian-Amazon war in the fifth century B.C., Amazon warrior Selene is taken captive and placed as an unlikely governess to the two daughters of a high-ranking Greek. The three form a lasting bond, and when Selene eventually escapes to return to Amazonia, eldest daughter Europa follows her. The Athenians, including King Theseus, assemble a group to find them, eventually traveling to Amazonia. Here, those involved relate the story of the Amazon war to the men, and the book's action really begins. Narrators tell of Theseus's earlier voyage to Amazonia, where his weakened crew was given shelter by the Amazons; the love affair between Theseus and Amazon queen Antiope; and the terrible consequences of the queen's defection and the Amazonian invasion of Athens that it inspired.
Throughout, Pressfield instills Amazons with a grandiose sensibility, firmly modeling it after the Homeric epics of its time. Pressfield relishes in describing these events and their heroes with a divinely consequential spirit:
Antiope advanced?Clearly no few of the foe took her for a goddess, with such splendor did her armor gleam and by such brilliance did her aspect exceed the common measure of humanity. The hour was still early, the west-facing slope deep in shadow, so that the Amazon, seen from the besiegers? lines, advanced from gloom into flares of blinding dazzle.
Some clumsy dialogue and clichéd interactions hamper the book?s emotional resonance, but the level of intricacy and constant action on display here keep the pages moving along. Amazon is ultimately an impressive, fun read that renders history spectacular in its speculation. --Ross Doll
Historical Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novelby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novelby Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops:
The Last Witchfinder: A Novelby James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Zorroby Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.12
Price in other shops:
The Hot Kid: A Novelby Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops:
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
Marchby Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Emperor (Emperor 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-06-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earringby Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar Books and other products
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battlesby Steven Pressfield
Warner Books; Published: 2003-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $27.89
Killing Rommel: A Novelby Steven Pressfield
Broadway; Published: 2008-05-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.84
Price in other shops:
The Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greeceby Michael Curtis Ford
St. Martin's Paperbacks; Published: 2002-10-13; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
The Profession: A Thrillerby Steven Pressfield
Crown; Published: 2011-06-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops:
Killing Rommel: A Novelby Steven Pressfield
Broadway; Published: 2009-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.71
Price in other shops:
The Afghan Campaign: A Novelby Steven Pressfield
Broadway; Published: 2007-06-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.90
Price in other shops:
Tides of Warby Steven Pressfield
Bantam; Published: 2001-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.15
Price in other shops:
The Warrior Ethosby Steven Pressfield
Black Irish Entertainment LLC; Published: 2011-03-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.36
Price in other shops:
The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Greatby Steven Pressfield
Bantam; Published: 2005-09-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylaeby Steven Pressfield
Bantam; Published: 2005-09-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: