The Falcon of Sparta

[alaterdate]

The Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden takes two things I love and melds them together flawlessly. A real historical account and a story about trust. It blends a part of Xenophon's own recounting ( Anabasis ) of the Persian civil war of 401BCE with a fantasy telling of the lives of the Greek mercenaries hired to fight in it.

The dust jacket blurb of The Falcon of Sparta says it's about Xenophon and the mercenaries' harrowing journey through hostile lands back to Greece, but that's only maybe 20% of the book and not even the best part. The book really starts way before then with the death of King Darius and Crown Prince Artaxerxes' attempted execution of his younger brother Cyrus. The first 20 pages had me hooked. It's a little story in itself when Cyrus returns to the palace with his guard of Spartans and they face the cruel trap his brother laid for him. Oh, Anaxis, we hardly knew you 😢

From then on we are taken through the journey of Cyrus building up his army to face off with Artaxerxes for the throne of Persia. Of course he recruits a lot more Spartans. Clearchus becomes Prince Cyrus' new favored Spartan general. The _subtext is there. Cyrus loves Spartans and the 3rd person omniscient narrator loves Spartans. There are fantastic battle scenes and descriptions of the Spartans that made me and Cyrus swoon throughout the book.

The journey east into Persia takes up most of the book with Cyrus dealing with the multitude of problems that crop up for a young prince looking to dethrone his asshole brother. From gathering funds to getting his soldiers to trust him and follow him into war with the Persian crown. And, oh yeah, Xenophon is there... somewhere. He does get his own chapter early in the book (chapter 5), but doesn't return as a main character until a little ways into Part II of the book (chapter 23).

Eventually we get to Xenophon's events of the Anabasis where he leads the remaining Greeks through villages and mountains on their way back to Greece with Persian forces nipping at their heels. While I didn't enjoy this part as much as Cyrus' journey it kept the perilous tension going the whole time and generated excitement with the great tactics employed by Xenophon.

The writing is straightforward and focused with just the right amount of details to paint the world without straying from the story. The pacing could be considered slow as there are points where not much seems to be happening, but that's marching to war for you. Those timespans are filled with characterization moments that center on trust. The dialogue flows well with the narrative and is seamless (I wonder if the British style of one ' vs the the American " has anything to do with that 🤔)

My favorite thing about the whole book is the descriptions of the Spartans. They proved their mettle time and time again. Their personalities too. They're arrogant, but deservedly so. I smiled every time one of them acted smug. In short, they were hot; I'm not gonna skirt around that fact any longer!
Xenophon is also a badass and has some great lines. Also, he was friends with Socrates who makes a cameo, wow!

Overall, this book had me hootin' and hollerin' in joy and cursing the antagonist the whole time. The tension never lessens even though it's a historical event retold as a fiction novel and the outcomes are set according to real events. So, no need to worry about how historical facts "spoil" the story. How people deal with the situation is more important than what happens. I absolutely loved The Falcon of Sparta .