Gemmell's style is short and punchy and his great skill is building wonderful cameo characters around the main protagonists: in this case, Parmenion. The action of the book moves rapidly from Sparta to Thebes to Macedonia charting the path to the birth of Alexander the Great. We follow Parmenion's unhappy childhood, his development into one of the greatest Generals of all time and his move to Macedonia to help engineer Philip's dream of a great nation. Along the way we meet characters such as Xenophon, Leonidas and more mystically Aristotle and others, al of whom are drawn with careful nuance. The book is a real page turner and a good introduction to Gemmell and his over-arching philosophy around good and evil which permeates all his work. Overall, this is a fun, easy read, introducing Ancient Greece and bringing the characters to life superbly. A great step for older Percy Jackson fans.

All time favorite book.