The New Achilles

By: Christian Cameron

Narrated by: John Telfer

Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Alexanor is a man who has seen too much blood. He has left the sword behind him to become a healer in the greatest sanctuary in Greece, turning his back on war.

But war has followed him to his refuge at Epidauros and now a battle to end the freedom of Greece is all around him. The Mediterranean superpowers of Rome, Egypt and Macedon are waging their proxy wars on Hellenic soil, turning Greek farmers into slaves and mercenaries.

When wounded soldier Philopoemen is carried into his temple, Alexanor believes the man's wounds are mortal but that he is not destined to die. Because he knows Philopoemen will become Greece's champion. Its last hero. The new Achilles.

©2019 Christian Cameron (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group

Worth the listen

“The New Achilles” is really good and definitely worth a listen in the historical fiction genre. Mr. Cameron has written so many great books, however, that I cannot say it ranks among his best. It drags at times, and I don’t feel like you really get to know enough about the main characters to understand their thought process - something that in other books (like The Long War series) I never would have even considered.

That said, and average book by this author is still better than 90% of the historical fiction I’ve read. I highly recommend everything he’s written.

Adventure, Medicine and Philosophy in Greece

I have loved every book by Christian Cameron. This is one of his best yet. Besides top notch historical detail he also works in discussions of what is courage, position of women in the ancient world, philosophy etc. Overall and amazing book!

worse than Tyrant and Killer of Men but still good

the book was uneven. first third (no spoilers - until main character departs from Macedonian court) was very good. raw and deep description of life, war and mentality of the era. then when the book dives into characters personal lives it gets terrible: one dimensional baddies, bad melodrama plots and so on. honestly I wanted to drop the book and get a refund. however this ends closer to final third and the author shows great skills in depicting psychology and warfare once again.
in the end, it would be a great book without its 20-25% of horrible and poorly written content somewhere in the half (after Macedonia and just before Crete, to speak in geographical description of the plot).
still it is one if the top examples of historical action fiction, very close to Steven Pressfield works and Cameron's own best works.

Terrific Historical Fiction

One of my favorite authors of Historical Fiction, I want to do some visual research. wish Netflix or HBO would do a series. Way better than GOT, which I liked--up to a point.

The narrator was great too. There were parts where he sounded like he was caught up in the narrative and was enjoying the moment as much as I was.

The New Iliad

this book is incredible in giving super human life to it's characters appearing entirely human and as heros of old. A modern masterpiece for today's audience told in gripping manner.

Did not live up to its potential

I had to up the playback speed to 1.7 halfway through to get through it. This book had potential to be a very good read, but it failed to realize that potential, sadly. The battle scenes seemed to be regurgitations of the one before. The romance plotlines seemed stilted. Character development was not bad, but not great. I could not finish the last 2 books by this author and this third time was not really enough of a charm to entice me to try again with Cameron, at least not for a good long while. I like to get seriously involved in good historical fiction and this novel just didn't engage me. Too bad because I like the time period. Also I get weary of these historical "superhero" narratives, especially when the superhero is...... well......too much homo superior and too little homo sapien.
The narrator was quite good -- but for the reader I would not have been able to trudge all the way to the end.

Confusing battles

During the fighting it was difficult to remember who was on which side. There are so many different peoples/factions/states on each side that it became a chaotic melee. Other than that is was a good book. Looking forward to 'The Last Greek'