Book Review:
Gifts of the Gods: Fire and Ash
Zoe's Arts, Crafts, and Life, Dec 2020
Day 9 of the Coffee Pot Blog Tour
Title: Gifts of the Gods: Fire and Ash
Author: Thomas Berry
Athens versus Sparta...the greatest sailors against the greatest warriors!
I was a little apprehensive when I agreed to read this novel because I had not read the other two books in the series, but I was assured that this would not be a problem because Fire and Ash stands very firmly on its own two feet. Thankfully, that was indeed the case.
Fire and Ash is a story that gripped me from the very first page. The story is set during the final years of the long and bloody Peloponnesian War, so be prepared for battles on land and at sea. The author does not shy away from the horrors of war, but neither does he dwell on it, which I thought was an approach that worked really well, and the battle scenes were tempered with lighter, more domestic moments.
What I thought made this book so great was that the author has chosen to tell both sides of the story. This allows the reader to see things from both the Athenian side and the Spartan one. I thought this added a great deal of depth and a sense of realism to the narrative.
The era that the author portrays is vividly describe. This is the kind of novel that envelops you, it wraps you up in history. At times, it is like I was there, witnessing these events first hand. I confess, I certainly lost myself between the pages, and the hours flew by as I read this book. Although this book is rather long, coming in at 450 pages the non-stop action kept the story moving, and I became so wrapped up in the story that I could probably have read another 400 pages quite happily!
I really enjoyed this novel, and I will certainly be looking out for more books by this author.
Review by Zoe
Zoe's Arts, Crafts, and Life!
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