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This book was rather strange. I do not know if it was just a bad book or a good story badly written. It is a historical fiction and I am unfamiliar with the author though from a GR check he does seem to be an accomplished professional. As an accomplished author I am at a loss to explain the apparent sloppiness of this book. For a historical fiction to meet my approval the story must mesh with the historical event(s) depicted. In this book the history concerns the invasion of Afghanistan by Alexa...
Thrilling and wonderfully told, The Afghan Campaign recounts Alexander the Great's campaign in the Afghan kingdoms which began in the summer of 330 BC. This bloody and ruthless conflict is written from the perspective of a Macedonian recruit. The youngest of three brothers and eager to prove himself, Mathias has volunteered to join the leader he worships on his ambitious expedition into the unknown, unconquered country we now call Afghanistan.I enjoy the way the writer puts forth his ideas and h...
Read this book in 2007, and its a standalone book about Alexander the Great's campaign in Afghanistan.This tale is set in the years 330 until 327 BC, and in this tale the highlight will be Matthias, a young man who has volunteered for this campaign in Afghanistan.Matthias and the rest of the Macedonian army will meet in this Afghan Campaign an enemy who's fighting is so unorthodox that at first it will confuse the Macedonians.An enemy who will die for their held beliefs and thus a fervent willin...
I started this book on a recommendation. Actually on numerous recommendations as I've been hearing about Steven Pressfield and his historic novels for a while. In other words, I started this without knowing anything more than the title and an assumption it would take place in Afghanistan. Well, I was right that it took place in Afghanistan. My guesses about Russian or current occupation were way off, but strangely pertinent. This was Alexander's push to the East in expanding his empire. Alexande...
rating: 3.5/5I have mixed feelings about this novel, it doesn't compare to Pressfield's Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae but has some great moments, descriptions, and characters despite a major flaw that annoyed me to no end. I'll start with what I loved, mainly Shinar. It is so rare that historical fiction with battles and warriors has such a realistic portrayal of women in history that are strong but still within their prescribed culture. Many times portrayals of women...
This is about a soldier in the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon, around 330 BC. Alexander the Great has conquered everywhere using standard tactics of drawing out his enemy and defeating it on the battlefield. And he has conquered the Persian empire, the greatest in the world. And, on the way to the riches of India, lay the Hindu Kush, present day Afghanistan.The Afghan Campaign is written from the point of view of a new soldier. During the war against the Persians Matthias joins the Maced...
This historical novel is about Alexander the Great's invasion of Afghanistan in 330 B.C. It's the one place where Alexander's army met with less than total success. More than once they invaded an area only to learn that their enemy had mysteriously appeared in their rear. This was frustrating to an army that knew they were the best in the world and were used to conquering any force that confronted them. This book is an amplification of one of the chapters of the book, The Virtues of War: A Novel...
Great book! Steven Pressfield has a unique gift for writing historical/military fiction. He seamlessly blended one soldier's tale with that of the entire campaign without having one overshadow the other. Probably my favorite aspect of this book is that the only difference between the way Alexander the Great and the Afghans fight compared to our modern day war in Afghanistan is the weapons used. I thought that was pretty fascinating considering the amount of time that has lapsed since the Macedon...
A solid piece of social historical fiction (the Alltagsgeschichte of Afghanistan?). Pressfield's fiction manages well to express ideas and concepts that would be more difficult to tell in straigth-forward nonfiction, history or even memoir formats. Pressfield straddles the (often fine) line between warrior and poet, East and West, old and new Afghanistan, and the best and worst of human nature. Like Killing Rommel, _The Afghan Campaign_ uses minor/line/non-heroic characters to retell a historica...
The story of Matthias, a Macedonian youth who slips away to join Alexander’s corps as it treks across Afghanistan on its way to India. A raw recruit, he is taken under the wing of Flag, a grizzled sergeant who sees him grow in military experience and in cynicism. He buys a slave girl who later becomes his lover, but he learns that this harsh desert land, where even women and children are enemies, is totally alien, and can never accept him.After the excitement of Pressfield's Gates of Fire, this
When I saw the title The Afghan Campaign, my first thought was which Afghan Campaign - 2001-2014 or 1978-1989 or 1838-1842 or ... To paraphrase Monty Python, I didn't expect the Macedonian invasion.Perhaps that is the main point of this book, that no matter how much things change in the rest of the world, things haven't changed much for fighting in Afghanistan.This book follows the career of a young Macedonian recruit fighting as a dragoon in Alexander's Afghan campaign. It describes in detail t...
Stephen Pressfield has garnered laurels for his ability to describe the utter brutality of ancient warfare and his descriptions of battles fought during the campaign of Alexander the Great in Afghanistan in his novel "The Afghan Campaign" are as wrenching as those depicted in Pressfield's "Gates of Fire". Told from the perspective of a common soldier rather than from Alexander's viewpoint or the viewpoint of one of Alexander's commanders, "The Afghan Campaign" provides the reader the opportunity...
This is the second book of his I have read, and I've come to accept the fact that I just don't like Pressfield. The topics are interesting, which makes me want to like it, but the dialogue seems phony.
I love Steven Pressfield. I've read the majority of his books and have loved them all. Those books had a lot of emotional impact. Sadly, The Afghan Campaign does not.The Afghan Campaign is a lot more technical. Pressfield's previous books dealt with the same material but for whatever reason, this one goes into more details when it comes to weaponry, occupation, fighting, campaigns, and everything else it is to be a soldier. Whenever there's a part in the story that would get emotional, it's told...
4.5*'s. It's somewhat amazing to think that Cyrus the Great, Darius of Persia, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, The Mughal Empire, The Sikh Empire, The British Empire, The Soviets and latest the Americans and Nato have all tried to tame this wild hard land.This book deals with the time of Alexander. It's amazing the parallels between how the Afghan's fought a force both superior in manpower, conventional "advanced" war theory and technology to a standstill by knowing the terrain and using it a...
A modernist approach to depicting ancient warfare. Pressfield's story of a young Macedonian warrior embroiled in Alexander the Great's conquest of what is today called Afghanistan has more in common with a Vietnam war memoir than a poetic epic. Pressfield doesn't flinch from the brutality of war waged primarily with edged weapons but it's the inescapable parallels to contemporary troubles that are most striking: Afghanistan, it seems, has never been an easy place to invade.
A really interesting book by Steven Pressfield. This is the second book of his that I have read and am hooked. He has been called an expert on ancient warfare and I believe it. This also reads like a history book. He does great character study and development while weaving in historical movements and happenings. I sometimes get caught up in wondering if things were as advanced as he makes them seem in that time but then remember that he has done far more research than me on the subject.The obvio...
An anachronistic allegory. It's a little hard to to ignore the parallels in Pressfield's story of Alexander's invasion and conquering of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasion of the same. But Pressfield's 2006 novel sounds positively quaint in recounting that it took Alexander THREE WHOLE YEARS to conquer Afghanistan. Even at the time of of writing, the US was 5 years in and is still there nearly 20 years later.So a culturally diverse and technologically advanced Macedonian army invades the tribalis...
Upon comparing this novel with Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by this author, I liked it as much, or even more. Pressfield exhibited the same brilliant writing on ancient warfare. The novel was very thoughtful and one I will not soon forget. This story is told by a raw recruit, Matthias, from Macedonia. He describes his 'signing up' with his best friend Lucas, and their adventures with Alexander the Great's Army in Afghanistan--a land of desert, mountains and light. Ma...
I have come to know this man whom, before, I regarded more with awe and fear than respect. I see the whole of him now. He is a soldier in the noblest sense of the word. Tough, selfless, long-suffering.Story of a young man who enters the service of Alexander the Great's army. Pressfield does a great job of weaving the narrative between pure historical facts and the story of Matthias, a young idealistic man who signs on to serve with his friend Lucas. From the beginning as raw recruits, through th...