Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21847 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The ill-fated campaign of Xenophon's army in the political chaos following the Peloponnesian War is the subject of Ford's debut, a long and labyrinthine affair that begins with the army's successful journey to Babylon and an initial battle in which the Persian forces are routed. But the tide quickly turns when the Persians sneak behind enemy lines and pillage the Greek camp, leaving Xenophon's army stranded hundreds of miles from home with few supplies. Rather than starve by taking the desert route back, Xenophon decides to attempt a perilous journey through hostile enemy terrain populated by several dangerous tribes, and as they progress the Greeks are forced to endure a horrific series of hardship just to survive. The more intriguing scenes: the Greeks use a tribe of deadly slingshot artists to defeat a formidable enemy; they get waylaid by a cache of poisonous honey; a winter march results in the death of dozens of soldiers . The major subplot in the book narrated by Xenophon's alter ego, Themostigenes (nicknamed Theo) concerns the protagonist's adventurous but tortured affair with a royal Persian woman named Asteria who is traveling with the Greek army, and whom he saves from death during battle. Ford has some compelling material, and his account includes authentic details about ancient peoples, customs and battle strategies. But his melodramatic, turgid prose produces a rather monotonous story delivered in heroic overtones, with little feel for pace, no true climax and a dearth of fully realized characters. The result is a novel that fails to live up to its subject's potential. (June)Forecast: The publisher hopefully compares this novel to Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire, but this is no match and won't match Gates's sales, either.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
When Darius II, King of Persia, died and was succeeded by his brother Artaxerxes, Darius's son, Cyrus the Younger, collected a force of 100,000 Persians and 13,000 Greek mercenaries, mainly Spartans, and marched on Artaxerxes's stronghold in an attempt to win the throne for himself. In 401 B.C.E., the armies of Cyrus met those of Artaxerxes in battle at Cunaxa, near the Euphrates River. After Cyrus was gruesomely killed in battle, the Greeks wanted nothing more than to return to their beloved homeland. Without the provisions needed to return by way of the desert over which they had come, they struggled 1000 miles through Kurdistan and over the Armenian mountains in the dead of winter until finally reaching the Black Sea. Along the way, the "Ten Thousand" were decimated by hostile forces, starvation, frostbite, and disease. Based primarily on the writings of Xenophon, a junior officer who assumed command of the Spartan forces after most of the senior officers were treacherously slaughtered, this novel retains much of the flavor of the soldier's memoirs. Ford, a Romance linguistics scholar, combines historical accuracy with eloquent storytelling to create an epic story that will capture the imagination of anyone interested in the history of ancient Greece. A worthy successor to Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire (LJ 9/1/98), this is highly recommended for all public libraries.
-. Jane Baird, Anchorage Municipal Libs., AK
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
" Thrilling, eloquent."--James Brady

"An epic story that will capture the imagination of anyone interested in the history of Greece. A worthy successor to Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire."--Library Journal (starred review)

"While Ten Thousand has swift pace, a solid story, and realistic characters, it is the fact that the book drops you into the reality of the times, dirt, grit, blood, passion an all, that gives it its strength...It is a book that makes the reader feel the story has been lived, not merely read."--The Stateman Journal (Salem, OR)
-- Review

Customer Reviews

Old Story, New Spin, Similar Problems
In THE TEN THOUSAND, Michael Ford uses Xenophon's ANABASIS (or, as sometimes published, THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION) as his outline. The potential is tangible; ANABASIS is an account of outnumbered, outpowered, and out-of-their-element mercenaries who overcome a near endless series of hardships and dramatic reversal of fortunes to get back to their homeland. Moreover, the original story reads as a bit of a travelogue, and although it has it's shining moments (indeed, I gave it 4 stars for it's depiction of Greek Virtues), suffers from some pacing issues and remains somewhat flat when compared to conventional narrative prose.

Potential is the key word here. Although Ford has a terrific flare for description, and a thorough knowledge of Ancient Greek Culture, he largely fails to improve upon the pacing issues of Xenophon's original (which for Xeno is largely forgiveable, as he was not writing a mainstream Novel). The story still remains primarily a series of skirmishes, travel, and rest periods (and to be fair, changing it too much would be straying from the real story). Ford attempts to balance out this aspect with a secondary story arc, involving a love affair between the narrator Theo, and a member of Prince Cyrus' entourage who is not who she seems to be. This story arc, in the end, supercedes the main plot to become the final character climax of the story, with very unsatisfying results, as this arc is introduced too far into the plot to be of any signifigance to the reader save to break up the mundane aspects of travel. The 'revelation' of the girl's identity is clear to anyone paying attention hundreds of pages earlier. It won't do to have the reader realize something so major, and leave the protagonist willfully ignorant of it until it is, literally, shouted in his face. This still would not be so bad if not for the other major flaw the author fails to overcome; characterization. Xenophon himself is cited historically as a devoutly superstitious (read: religious) man, who always consulted the Gods on all decisions. The Xeno we see in this book is flippant, and saves his major libations for the end. If it were a conpletely fictitious character I would be ok with this, but as an historical account it is totally untrue of the real person. These are the kinds of details an author disregards at his own peril.

ANABASIS was certainly not a story of 3-dimensional characters. Many come and go, with little resolution to their inclusion. Ford does add more personality to the characters, but this is merely pushing them to 2-dimensions, tops. To have the added character interactions hook the reader at all, they have to be likeable, and most of the main characters are not that exciting to listen to. The most grating to me was Theo's frequent waxing into philisophical musing, the apex (or antapex, if you will) of this is his thoughts on how the night smells during a full moon, and the life affirming sound of an earthworm. This is hamfisted and nonsensical. The moon doesn't smell like anything. It's an abstract of an abstract.

I could go on, but I will stop. Suffice to say I had some problems with the story, although some of them are probably due to my previous knowledge of the events in the book. But that is only accounting for some of it, the rest are chalked up to just plain bad storytelling. If I were to re-read one of these 2 stories, it would be Xenophon's original book. Despite it's flaws, it rang truer, and contains additional exciting events after the Greeks get to the Black Sea, which Ford uses as his cut-off point.

I don't want to end on a completely negative note, however. I did, after all, give this book 3 stars. That is because it does do a great job of transporting you into the ancient world, and Ford does show obvious enthusiasm and fondness for his material. He's certainly a good author, and I would probably give him another shot. This was his first published novel. If i was too agressive in my attack on this book, it is due to it's comparisons to Steven Pressfield's GATES OF FIRE. GoF looms over all other Greek Military stories in the way Everest looms over foothills. For every 5-star story, well, Something has to suffer in comparison.

good read
As a fan of history I enjoyed this book. It was interesting to know what life was like for a Greek Hoplite on campaign.The battle scenes are done well as are the characterizations. I never realized how much rivalry there was in the Greek city states. The Spartans were incredibly different from the other peoples of Greece and it shows in this book. The things these men had to undergo in the deserts of Persia fighting is amazing that any of them returned home. A great read for people interested in historical fiction.

Great story
Well written account of the ten thousand, for his first book it is quite good. I thought that the book did not need the love story angle,but other than that I loved it. Very graphic and detailed battle scenes, and good characters.A must read for historical fiction fans of greece