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The Falcon of Sparta
- Narrated by: Michael Fox
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
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Summary
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden.
In the Ancient World, one army was feared above all others. This is their story.
When Cyrus, brother to the Great King of Persia, attempts to overthrow his reckless sibling, he employs a Greek mercenary army of 10,000 soldiers. When this army becomes stranded as a result of the unexpected death of Cyrus and then witnesses the treacherous murder of its entire officer corps, despair overtakes them.
One man, Xenophon, rallies the Greeks. As he attempts to lead them to freedom across 1,500 miles of hostile territory seething with adversaries, 10,000 men set off on the long way home.
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- Simon
- 10-05-18
Conn's Falcon Has Him Flying High Again!
I was starting to think that I wasn't quite so in thrall to Mr Iggulden after my two previous attempts at his books. Dunstan was a strong but slightly less spectacular historical novel while Darien from the Empire of Salt trilogy wasn't something I thought would set the fantasy genre alight no matter how brave he'd been to try something so new.
The Falcon of Sparta though sees Iggulden doing what I think he does best. Taking an historical tale of already epic proportions and bringing it to life for us. Giving us heroes, epic battles and a grand, impossible journey engineered by a quite unlikely champion of Greece! The sheer scale of what they attempted given the terrain and distance they needed to cross is one of the truly great stories of the Ancient Greeks.
The structure of the book is a little different with the narrative being carried by almost a relay team of lead characters. Michael Fox is the man charged with putting the breath into Persians and Greeks alike. He does a very sound job and is engaging throughout though I wouldn't say his performance is quite of the very top standard. He's certainly much better than some of the choices Conn or his publisher have made in the past - check out the Emperor series for the proof.
If you've enjoyed some of Iggulden's earlier historical fiction and want some more then this is a very worthwhile purchase.
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28 people found this helpful
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- nev kidd
- 07-05-18
This is a magnificent telling of this story.
This is a fantastic story of human spirit and courage and one of Greece's greatest citizens. Xenophon is an enigmatic figure from Ancient Greece; and this story tells of his greatest avhiehement.
Ten thousand Greek soldiers must attempt to fight their way across Persia to their homes. Along with ten thousand civilians... their lives look lost.
Conn Iggulden is one of the greatest historical fiction writers to ever pick up a pen (or laptop) and his books continue to both educate and entertain.
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12 people found this helpful
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- julien
- 10-05-18
historical trash novel
Conn Igulden applies the same receipe over and over, its mildly entertaining, quick and standardised. The literary equivalent to junk food.
read the actual Anabasis, its much better
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-06-18
Conn Iggulden, master story teller.
A marvellous tale, extremely well told and narrated. Conn Iggiulden never disappoints. wonderful battle scenes.
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2 people found this helpful
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- steven nolan
- 09-02-23
Gripping storyline
Loved it, although you need peace and quiet to get through it.
Storyline is excellent
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1 person found this helpful
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- David James Cei Harris-Edmond
- 01-08-18
Convoluted and Deflating; but Romping
Despite telling the story of the 10,000 that walked out of Persia the story, although competently narrated by Michael Fox, suffers from being a book of two halves.
The first part focuses on the Persian Prince Cyrus as he attempts to seize the throne of the Persian Empire. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of this history knows his fate is doomed, as is that of his Greek generals. Despite growing to like the characters and their strengths and flaws they are taken from us as good friends we knew were dying.
The Persian firstborn wins, the characters we have followed for 7 hours come to nothing and are betrayed. The Greeks have to fight their way home.
The second half focuses on Xenophon as he leads his people out of the empire despite the odds of being 10,000 against half a million.
But the ending isn’t just bitter sweet but deflating, to have come so far and lost so many to lose that little bit more and have them all go their separate ways may be historically accurate, but puts a downer on what should be a monumental achievement. The adventure along the way is forgotten without a satisfying payoff.
I am a big fan of Iggulden and his previous historical fiction and new Darien series. But this felt to me a rare misstep.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 15-05-18
A great short story
This book is full of surprises.Like Game of Thrones don’t get too attached to any characters you like. It’s a pity there is not a book two. Would highly recommend - good narration.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 20-01-24
the way things were Back then.
Good story, I think it could take a couple of times to listen to it to fully understand all cartors and some parts of the story but it was good
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- MICHAEL
- 11-12-23
Engrossing
I heard the first few sentences and thought , ‘What on earth is this man doing reading this story ?’ How wrong some early judgements prove to be. I was enthralled throughout. School Greek classes never painted such a brilliant picture of Xenophon. Great story, wonderfully presented.
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- Stoxy
- 18-10-23
Not too bad at all.
I read the physical copy of this a while back and enjoyed it.
The audible version seems even better as I wasn’t struggling with foreign names and places. The reader put the emotion in and played the people very well. I could even picture Sean Bean as one of the characters.
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