For military focused historical fiction Cameron is in a league of his own. ( )

De niño, Alejandro soñaba con emular las gestas de Aquiles. A los dieciocho años condujo a la victoria a la caballería macedonia contra los griegos en el Quersoneso. A los veinticinco había aplastado a los persas en tres batallas legendarias y era el amo del mayor imperio que el mundo haya conocido jamás. Cuando falleció, invicto, a los treinta y dos años de edad, no quedaban más mundos por conquistar y había superado con creces las proezas de su héroe de infancia. Ahora bien, detrás de la leyenda hubo otra historia más compleja. La historia de un hombre que, impulsado por una insaciable sed de gloria, condujo a un ejército en un extraordinario viaje de diez años desde el Nilo hasta el Indo, persiguiendo un sueño: demostrar que era invencible. Narrada por su amigo de infancia Tolomeo, esta es la historia de Alejandro en una versión inédita hasta ahora: cruda, íntima, emocionante… La historia de un coraje extraordinario y una fuerza de voluntad inimaginable. De destrucción gratuita e intrigas criminales. La tragedia épica de un hombre que aspiraba a ser más que humano.

A long story, presenting the life and the wars of Alexander through the eyes of his associate since childhood, Ptolemy. ( )

A powerful, humane retelling of Alexander the Great's life.

Cameron uses the Ptolemy as the viewpoint character. Using Ptolemy has the double effect of connecting it with Cameron's Tyrant series and also of not having to whitewash Alexander the Great's war crimes quite so much. (Ptolemy later went on to found the Greek dynasty in Egypt that ended with Cleopatra.)

Unlike Alexander, Ptolemy gets whitewashed a bit. He lives in a profoundly misogynist society, but he believes in the equality of the sexes. He fights in wars rife with prisoner slaughter, mass rape, and mass enslavement, but he believes in mercy, respecting the womenfolk, and freeing slaves.

Because the conceit of the book is that it's Ptolemy telling the story to someone else, the whitewashing is very much in character. It's clear the narrator is not just fallible, but intentionally glorifying certain parts and eliding others. Unreliability is a necessity, because historical records of the period are limited and Cameron has to patch over many cracks.

Cameron's managed to put together something that's both a great story, a great travelogue, and a great historical account. He makes societies of Greece and Egypt, Babylon and Persia come alive.

In many ways, it feels like this is the book Cameron's been preparing to write as he wrote the Tyrant books. It tackles an enormous subject matter in an engaging, approachable, humane way. ( )