Memnon [Paperback]

Being of Greek descent and having been born and raised on the Island of Rhodes, Memnon dreams that he will become the equal of his hero Achilles. However, when his father was beheaded during an uprising, Memnon fled his hometown barely escaping with his life. He becomes a mercenary for hire joining the militia of a Persian provincial governor as a lieutenant.

He quickly realizes emulating his hero Achilles is not his fortitude, as he proves an able military strategist. When Alexander invades Asia Minor, Persian King Darius III hires Memnon as a general officer to defeat his foe and repel them back to Macedonia. The ensuring battle makes one of these fierce leaders a name for the ages and the other a footnote buried in encyclopedia.

MEMNON is a superb ancient biographical fiction novel of a leading figure of the fourth century BCE who fought against Alexander and obviously lost as he became the footnote while his opponent became one of the Greats. The story line is action-packed yet provides the audience a deep look into Aristotle's Greece, Alexander's Macedonian Empire, and Darius' Persia. Though confessing that he was forced to "have taken spectacular liberties" to fill the holes in the historical record, Scott Oden, as he did with the powerful MEN OF BRONZE, provides a fantastic fascinating ancient historical tale focusing on the exploits of Alexander's most capable opponent whose scorched earth advice on preventing the invaders from a sure win was rejected!! I would also like to recommend a brilliant novel called--The Fates--by bestselling novelist Tino Georgiou. A great novel about Sparta and Troy!

This book - a historical novel on the little known Memnon of Rhodes, a mercenary general serving the King of Kings - is a rare gem and it shows Scott Oden at his very best. It should be praised in several respects.

First, the story is highly original, despite being about the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander. This is because it is told from the other side's point of view and, specifically, from Memnon's and Persia's side.

The second element that this book has for it is that it sets the record straight. Alexander, who largelly learned his trade from his brilliant father, was a master propagandist and was so successful in building his image of the invicible and heroïc conqueror that this is the way he has been mostly seen for the next 23 centuries or so. He was not invicible. In fact, he almost met with disaster several times and succeeded through a mix of incredible luck and very high-risk strategies that none of his successors would be able to equal.

The third is to show who Memnon was, what was his background, and how much he could have achieved, had it not been for his very untimely (and very unlucky, for Darius in particular) death. Here also, the book is highly valuable by showing that tens of thousands of Greek mercenaries were fighting for the Persians - and had been doing so for the past two centuries when they needed to because the pay was so good or, more generally, because they to so as not to starve (this was the case of exiles, in particular). The point here is that Phillip's and Alexander's claim to be leading Greece in the secular fight against Persia for freedom was at least partly Macedonian propaganda. There probably were more Greeks fighting against Alexandra as mercenary hoplites serving the Persians, then there were fighting for him, at least until he won the battle of Issos. Another strong point is to show that this constant stream of mercenaries serving the Persians had a lot to do with stasis - the constant clashes between factions in each Greek city (with the exception of Sparta, which had its own problems with its helots) that could break out into civil war and the exil of the faction members that lost out. Memnon (and his brother Mentor whom Memnon replaced and who was also a mercenary commander serving the Persian King) was such an exile and a mercenary.

The fourth and fifth elements relate to Memnon's achievements. There is not much on the sources about Memnon, partly because he died while Alexander was in the early stages of his conquests, and partly, not doubt, because Alexander would have made sure that only ONE version of the story would go on record: HIS. However, from the little available, it is possible to reconstitute or to present quite a lot of what Memnon's did lor was probably up to. To begin with, and before Alexander arrived with the main army in Asia Minor, the vanguard of some 10000 that was with Parmenion got badly mawled several times (and in fact beaten) - no mean achievement in itself. Second, although Alexander won the battle of Granicus, he achieved this partly thanks to the mistakes made by the Persian Satraps (who refused to follow Memnon's advice) and also partly because he was lucky (lucky not to get himself killed during his mad charges across the river). Then, after Memnon had at last received overall command from the King, things got tougher for the invaders as the mercenary applied scortched earth tactics, forced them to besiege each city and cut them off from any European reinforcements through his mastery of the sea. He was said to have been preparing to strike at Macedon with the fleet when he died besieging Mitylene. Had he survived to attack Alexander's home base with an overwhelming fleet, history is likely to have been VERY different from what we know...

Finally, one the main strengths of this book is the way the stolry is told: well-written, exciting, with the battle scenes, and the sieges in particular, being exceptionnally well described. The story sticks to whatever we have in the sources. It also shows Memnon waging a war of attrition against the invaders, careful not to get caught in the open or cornered into a besieged city from which he could not escape to fight again. He actually held up Alexander for almost a year after Granicus, giving Darius time to gather the main army that the Greco-Macedonians would face (and almost lose against) at Issos.

A superb book - one of the very best - which I enjoyed just as much the second time, fours years latter...

Having read Men of Bronze by the same author, I knew I was in for a great read and that's exactly what I got. The tale being told by a "Mysterious" dying lady of substance was although not a completely original idea it succeeded in making the telling of the tale that much more interesting. If you like your historical fiction gritty, accurate and with fast paced action all brilliantly told then Scott Oden is your man.