Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae - Softcover

9780553383683: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
NATIONAL BESTSELLER · “An incredibly gripping, moving, and literate work of art, rarely does an author manage to re-create a moment in history with such mastery, authority, and psychological insight.”—Nelson DeMille

At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.

Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history—one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. . . .

“A novel that is intricate and arresting and, once begun, almost impossible to put down.”—Daily News 

“A timeless epic of man and war . . . Pressfield has created a new classic deserving a place beside the very best of the old.”—Stephen Coonts

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.

Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful.

In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and rigorously schooled in the art of war--an education brutal enough to destroy half the students, but (oddly enough) not without humor: "The more miserable the conditions, the more convulsing the jokes became, or at least that's how it seems," Xeo recalls. His companions in arms are Alexandros, a gentle boy who turns out to be the most courageous of all, and Rooster, an angry, half-Messenian youth.

Pressfield's descriptions of war are breathtaking in their immediacy. They are also meticulously assembled out of physical detail and crisp, uncluttered metaphor:

The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram.... The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.
Alas, even this human barrier was bound to collapse, as we knew all along it would. "War is work, not mystery," Xeo laments. But Pressfield's epic seems to make the opposite argument: courage on this scale is not merely inspiring but ultimately mysterious. --Marianne Painter
From the Publisher:
"In Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield brings the battle of Thermopylae to brilliant life, and he does for that war what Charles Frazier did for the Civil War in Cold Mountain. When you finish Pressfield's work, you will feel you have fought side by side with the Spartans. This novel is Homeric."
--Pat Conroy

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherBantam
  • Publication date2005
  • ISBN 10 055338368X
  • ISBN 13 9780553383683
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages400
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780553580532: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780553580532
Publisher: Bantam, 1999
Softcover

  • 9780385492515: Gates of Fire

    Doubleday, 1998
    Hardcover

  • 9780553812169: Gates of Fire : An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

    Bantam..., 2000
    Softcover

  • 9780857504623: Gates Of Fire

    Bantam, 2020
    Softcover

  • 9780385600149: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

    Double..., 1999
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Lakeside Books
(Benton Harbor, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780553383683

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.65
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Soft Cover Quantity: 10
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780553383683

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.67
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam Books 9/27/2005 (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae 0.7. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780553383683

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.23
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 3408547-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.72
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 055338368X-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.83
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-055338368X-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.84
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Save With Sam
(North Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 055338368X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.85
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Steven Pressfield
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. NATIONAL BESTSELLER Steven Pressfield brings the battle of Thermopylae to brilliant life.Pat ConroyAt Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in historyone that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. . . . At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army. Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history — one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780553383683

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.70
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GridFreed
(North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 20-06904

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.45
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Pressfield, Steven
Published by Bantam (2005)
ISBN 10: 055338368X ISBN 13: 9780553383683
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
California Books
(Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9780553383683

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 21.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book