Alexander

God of War

By: Christian Cameron

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Length: 41 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

The ultimate historical adventure novel: the life of Alexander the Great in a single, epic volume.

To many he was a god. To others he was a monster. The truth is even more extraordinary.

As a boy, Alexander dreamed of matching the heroic feats of Achilles. At 18 he led the Macedonian cavalry to a stunning victory against the Greeks. By 25 he had crushed the Persians in three monumental battles and was the master of the greatest empire the world had ever seen. Men began to call him a god. But behind the legend was another, more complex story.

Narrated by his boyhood friend Ptolemy, this is the story of Alexander as you have never heard it before: raw, intimate, thrilling - a story of extraordinary daring and unimaginable endurance; of wanton destruction and murderous intrigue - the epic tragedy of a man who aimed to be more than human.

©2020 Christian Cameron (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group

A Story of Conquest and Tragedy

A nice long and thorough story of Alexander, told by Ptolemy. I enjoyed a lot of it, the beginning is kinda slow because you're listening to Ptolemy and Alexander's upbringing in the court of his father Phillip. But after Phillip dies, and Alexander becomes king, the story really picks up. My favorite part of the book is the all the battles in Greece, and in western Anatolia, because this was when you get to see Alexander's prowess as a commander for the first time, and how the army starts to see him as a god. This is also when you meet a lot of great characters, specifically Kineas, and all the people you hear about in Tyrant. I loved the battles against the Persians, Cameron does a fantastic job of telling the battles how they actually went down from the perspective of a soldier, while not being dragged out too long, which is good for a audiobook 40 hours long.
I think what kinda set me off from the story was after Kineas' part of Tyrant ends (if you've listened to it, you know what I mean). I point this out because it's where Alexander turns from benevolent king to insane tyrant. You start to think "when is he gonna die or get killed," but it drags on for the last 5-15 hours of the book, so by the 35 hour mark when the India campaign starts to die down, you're just waiting for it to happen.
One big thing I don't like with Cameron's first person writing is that he has to remind you from time to time that you're listening to someone retell his story to someone else. So, you'll hear Ptolemy point out something in the "present" to make a point about something that happened in the story. To me, its unnecessary, and a bit annoying, but can be comical sometimes. That's why I like when he writes stories in third person perspective, like in Tyrant and Tom Swan.
Overall, it's a great story, and the 40 hour long listening was definitely the credit, it can get drag on out by the end, but the story throughout was consistently great to listen to. And as always, Peter Noble does a fantastic job telling the story.

The Voice of Ptolemy

An exciting tale, superbly told. Peter Noble speaking as Ptolemy feels authentic and deeply felt, and the Cameron’s story brings the the Ancient Greek world to light with passion, but not too much.

He was a God

It was MAGNIFICENT! He was a God. The whole story of Ptolemy not Alexander.

Unsurprisingly biased

The heroic last stand of a few hundred brave Persian defenders (modern estimated under a 1000) in the Persian gate (a pass near Persepolis) who using Arrows and stones inflicted heavy casualties on Alexander forces keeping them at bay for a month, similar to the Spartans in Thermopylae, was unsurprisingly omitted! ( https://alexander-the-great.org/alexanders-campaign/battle-of-the-persian-gate ) We have heard about Thermopylae a thousand times although it stopped the march of the Persian king for only 3 days, while nothing is mentioned about similarly heroic act of a few holding the invaders for a whole month. Only defeated after a traitor showed Alexander an alternative back route again similar to what happened in Thermopylae. The story is generally biased I suppose history is written by the victors. The narrator as usual is excellent. Overall an engaging book.

Amazing retelling of Alexander’s life and conquests

This was my first experience with Christian Cameron’s work, and I was blown away by both his storytelling and the audio narration. As a historian and author of historical fiction myself, I was deeply impressed with both his knowledge of ancient history and culture and his way with words. His use of Ptolemy as the narrator was both creative and well done. In fact, Ptolemy emerges more fully as a character than Alexander himself! The narrator did an outstanding job of bringing him to life. I like long books, and this one was engrossing fit the entire 40 hours. I didn’t want it to end! I was disappointed to learn that there is no sequel. Highly recommended!!!

Best 30 + hours of audible yet!

Great narration !! Amazing storytelling . My wife even listened and learned! Must read book. I will purchase more of the author and the narrator.

Loved it

I honestly wish this was 3 books. After a certain point, things start to get very abridged and you get nothing of Ptolemys rise to power. I wasn't expecting it, but I'm invested now.

That aside, this book is fascinating. He's the most powerful and luckiest sociopath who ever lived and this painted such a sympathetic picture of Alexander's campaign, not sympathetic towards Alexander, he was a big ol piece of sh*t, but sympathetic toward his men. He's a cult leader with the best army in the world at his behest. I could write all day analyzing this book, and it could be historically inaccurate as all get out(although I doubt that), but it was a hell of a ride and surely didn't feel like 41 hours of book. I'll also add that I'm a massive fan on his Tyrant series, and since this has innumerable tie ins to that and is technically a story within a story, I'm sure I'm admittedly biased, although I'm also sure it's excellent without having read Tyrant.

very good narrator

great story from a good perspective. some of the action gets a little repetitive and the end was disappointing but I would still recommend it.

The emotion, and the feeling of being there.

I absolutely did not like how the book ended.... there is no space between the end of the book dialogue and the credits and THAT ruined the ending.... there needs to be an 8 second space between the last work of the book and those damn credits...

Too much blood and gore

Could the author be biased? If not, those who followed Alexander were simpletons.
The names of men, women military terms and locations sometimes made it difficult to follow.