Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Nothing! Alas alas! But admittedly I have been rather busy with the move this week.

What I’m Reading Now

After a LONG pause, I’ve picked up Mary Renault’s Fire from Heaven again!... only to get bogged down again when Alexander again goes off to war. I realize that Alexander the Great’s reputation rests on conquering the known world, so of COURSE any book about him is going to be a book about conquest, but every time he goes a-conquering I’m thinking about the people who are about to get slaughtered/raped/sold into slavery/etc and then I get stuck again.

This will probably be less of a problem when I get to The Persian Boy, as Bagoas presumably is not in a position to personally decide whether or not he happens to feel like sacking this particular city. (I think it is the personal responsibility for the sacking that is a sticking point for me: I didn’t have this problem in The Last of the Wine, or any of Rosemary Sutcliff’s books about soldiers.)

What I Plan to Read Next

Linda Sue Park’s Prairie Lotus!

Comments

[tei]

As far as I recall (though I have a terrible memory even having read it relatively recently) most of the significant military action of Alexander’s early career takes place offscreen in The Persian Boy, since FFH ends with Phillip’s death but Bagoas doesn’t meet Alexander until significantly later. So it’s mostly court eunuchs being like “woah did you hear what happened in [x location]?”

[osprey_archer]

My preferred form of military action, tbh! Offstage and at a distance.

[kore]

Yeah, and IIRC you see stuff like the sacking of Alexandria and colonialism from Bagoas' perspective, too.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, when you're dealing with someone like Alexander, you've got the actual decision maker. The buck stops here, and all that.

[osprey_archer]

He can't even pretend he was "just following orders." He IS orders!