Poseidon's Spear

The Long War, Book 3

By: Christian Cameron

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

An epic novel from the master of historical fiction, author of Alexander: God of War.

Arimnestos of Plataea is a man who has seen and done things that most men only dream about. Sold into slavery as a boy, he fought his way to freedom - and then to everlasting fame: standing alongside the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon where the Greeks crushed the invading Persians. 

Sometimes, however, a man's greatest triumph is followed by his greatest sorrow. Returning to his farm, Arimnestos finds that his wife, Euphoria, has died in childbirth, and in an instant his laurels turn to dust. But the gods are not finished with Arimnestos yet. With nothing left to live for, he throws himself from a cliff into the sea, only to be pulled by strong arms from death's embrace. When he awakes, he finds himself chained to an oar in a Phoenician trireme.  

And so begins an epic journey that will take Arimnestos and a motley crew of fellow galley slaves to the limits of their courage, and beyond the edge of the known world, in a quest for freedom, revenge - and a cargo so precious it's worth dying for.

©2019 Christian Cameron (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group

Critic Reviews

"Brilliantly evoked." (Sunday Times)   

VERY GOOD!

I have to preface this by saying that the first in the series, Killer of Men, almost dissuaded me from continuing with this author since it seemed overly preoccupied with graphic but repetitive and eventually tedious descriptions of gory battle incidents. I mean how many times really do you have to read that 'the sword point pierced his throat and blood pumped in a torrent onto the sand' to satisfy some craving for the pretense of verisimilitude? Once every few hours might be enough, but once every thirty minutes was stretching the friendship.

So I was very hesitant to start this third in the series, my finger poised on the 'exchange this title' button (I skipped the second book, Marathon, because being about a famous battle I was sure it had to raise the blood and gore stakes even higher than the first). And I have been pleasantly surprised because it seems the author is actually capable of telling an inventive and not hackneyed tale set in the distant historical past of pre-Republican Rome and Greece. I am impressed and now feel encouraged to rank Cameron in the same general upper range of historical novelists with Cornwell, Colleen McCullough, GMF, Graves and the all-time champion Patrick O'Brian.

Although at times Cameron drops into heavy padding and goofy repetition to labor a point, such as 'we rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed and rowed and...(OK I get it!) and some plot devices still have their 2 for 1 sales tags in place, mostly what he gives us is a very fast moving tale that satisfies and doesn't disappoint while staying interesting and somewhat unpredictable enough to keep the listener reaching forward to the next chapter.

I have already purchased the next in the series, so I definitely recommend the author. The first novel can be more easily enjoyed if you preset the skip forward option to 90 secs.

Best in series (The Long War)

This book was more of a swash buckling adventure tale. It followed the many ups and downs of the main character, his loves his losses, and triumphant victories over the many obstacles in his path. I think it's the best in the series so far.

best ancient fiction I've read yet!

riveting, interesting and so cleverly done! hats off to Christian Cameron and this series is a masterpiece

Excelente

Una serie de libros atrapante y muy bien narrada. Disfruté todo el libro sin perder interes.

One of the best historical fiction novels I’ve read.

Excellent, everything was excellent. Amazing series.
I highly recommend.
Great story and narration.
If you are remotely interested in historical fiction jump on the first book,Killer or Men

ONLY IN THE GREATEST SERIES DOES EACH NOVEL..

FEEL LIKE THE BEST OF THE SERIES WHILE ONE IS READING IT. AND THIS SERIES HAS TO BE LISTED AMONG THE GREATS.
i read a lot and rately do novels live up to expectations., but this is on par with the best on the market.

Details

A Series to Savour!

My third time spending time with old Arimnestos by the light of his fire and once again it's been a real pleasure. Peter Noble really brings this all to life with his raspy delivery being both an old man with his musings and a crackling story teller. Christian Cameron seems to be putting together one of the truly spic legends of ancient fiction.

This one promises an epic journey and after a decent amount of time getting things into gear and setting the scene it delivers one and more. Epic sea chases and fights and lots of political and even economic intrigue as Arimnestos looks to daring trade to further his ambitions but it's difficult to see how that will happen while he's changed to the oar of a Phoenician trireme!

This is an absolute belter of a series so far with no let up in the intensity and certainly no faltering with the extremely high quality delivery and storylines.