The Falcon of Sparta

Oct 19, 2024 7:52 PM

Author:Conn Iggulden

The bestselling author of the Emperor, Conqueror and The Wars of the Roses returns to the Ancient World with a gripping adventure based on an epic true story.

'HIS FINEST NOVEL TO DATE . . . THE BATTLE SCENES ARE THRILLING' SUNDAY EXPRESS

___________

In the Ancient World, one army was feared above all others.

401 BC. The Persian king Artaxerxes rules an empire stretching from the Aegean to northern India.

As many as fifty million people are his subjects.

His rule is absolute.

But the sons of Sparta are eager to play the game of thrones . . .

Battles can be won - or lost - with a single blow.

Princes fall. And when the dust of civil war settles, the Spartans are left stranded in the heart of an enemy's empire, without support, without food and without water.

Far from home, surrounded by foes, it falls to the young soldier Xenophon to lead the survivors against Artaxerxes' legendary Persian warriors.

The Falcon of Sparta masterfully depicts the ferocity and heroism that was the Ancient World. It is a tale of warring ambition, betrayal and bravery and an extraordinary journey out of exile against the odds.

'The pace is nail-biting' THE TIMES

Reviews

His finest novel to date, brings alive the extraordinary world of ancient Persia, as well as the ruthless nobility of the Spartans. The battle scenes are thrilling and the men who fight in them are impeccably portrayed

—— Sunday Express

Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction

—— Daily Mirror

Iggulden tells an absolutely cracking story. The pace is nail-biting and the set-dressing magnificent

—— The Times

One of our finest historical novelists

—— Daily Express

Pacey and juicy, and packed with action

—— Sunday Times

An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist

—— New York Times Book Review

Agonising, funny. His eloquent concern transforms something as pedestrian as a war movie seen back to front into a vision which, in its weird way, is as effecting as any short passage ever written against war

—— Time magazine

Very tough and very funny...sad and delightful...very Vonnegut

—— New York Times

Splendid art... a funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears

—— Life magazine

Brilliant...this war story is expertly entertaining: various modes of popular heroics are parodied, pitiful instances of human folly stripped and displayed tragi-comically... Dense with reverberant cross-references and juxtapositions

—— Financial Times

The oddest and most directly and obliquely heart-searching war book for years...Devastating and supremely human

—— Guardian

A most courageous account of the human condition; at the same time a satire so funny it makes one laugh aloud

—— Evening Standard

Vonnegut uses fantasy to show reality in a new light... enormously funny

—— Observer

Extraordinary...Somehow the elements of comedy, insanity and horror push each other into the right perspective...the scrambling of the time sequences makes the novel delightfully easy reading without ever blurring the ghastliness or absurdity of what happened. The blending of fantasy and documentation is masterly

—— Sunday Telegraph

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