fulfils its promise

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Robert Fabbri's latest book fulfils its promise and certainly lives up to my expectations. It is meticulously researched and supported by as much additional information as possible without overburdening the reader. It is beautifully written with different tones as the perspective slides from one protagonist to another. It has the author's characteristic focus on politics with all too frequent breathtaking descents into viciousness, crime, violence, bloodshed and sudden death. Robert Fabbri doesn't write for the faint of heart.

Treachery is the norm, cunning plans fall apart, naivety leads to death. We could hardly expect peoples from pre-Christian times to share our world view but the power-hungry world at the time of Alexander's death seems to have no morality or conscience. These are rulers, military leaders or fortunate opportunists. In those times they had less need to dissemble or hide their motives.

This is a great start to a new series. So it's worth putting the effort in to understand the people, the armies and the nations. There's a map at the beginning which also includes logos for each of the 11 characters from whose viewpoint we see the story unfold. These logos and names helpfully identify each chapter as we dart around the Alexandrian Empire as it adjusts to the death of its king. I would have liked a glossary of terms too as I'm not familar with the names of weapons and armour but these technical words were few; food, clothing and furniture are described using familiar language.