Most helpful customer reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
History brought vividly, and accurately, to life., May 17 2002
Mary Renault was one of the most successful historical novelists of the 20th Century and her Alexander novels were her masterpiece. "Fire From Heaven" is the first of the trilogy that includes "The Persian Boy" and "Funeral Games", and tells us the story of Alexander the Great, one of the most fascinating and complex characters in all history, from early childhood to the age of twenty, when he succeeded his father as king of Macedon. Renault brings us into Alexander's world and presents us to him in all his multifaceted personality: his all-consuming ambition, his sensitivity, his insatiable drive for excellence, and his love-hate relationship with his father (hate inexorably, and inevitably, won out) which was so influential in shaping his character and the course of his life. Renault also brings us into the lives of Alexander's family, especially his mother Olympias, one of the most ruthless and devious characters in ancient history; totally wrapped up in her son and willing to stop at nothing to protect his interests. Olympias might have eaten Alexander alive if it hadn't been for the influence of his friend and lover Hephaistion of whom she was wildly jealous; and Renault narrates the growing affection and love between the two boys as a natural development in their lives. Homosexuality and bisexuality were normal in the ancient world (Julius Caesar himself was described by his contemporaries as "every woman's man and every man's woman") and Renault doesn't flinch at it, and neither should anyone who reads this book. Renault's greatest strength as a historical novelist was her insistence on keeping it real, which was especially difficult in writing about Alexander's early life as almost nothing is known about him before his accession; but her research into the time and the place has the feel and sense of painstaking accuracy. There is only one thing that makes me give this book four stars instead of five, and it's that, unlike her earlier novels, Renault wrote this one in the third person. It doesn't work quite as well. What was so magical about her earlier works was that when you read them in the first person, you don't just read them, you dive right into them and live them; you're right there in the middle of the action and it's totally exhilarating from the first page to the last. Reading "Fire From Heaven" is like watching the action through a clear sheet of plate glass instead of being on the other side where the action is really happening. Renault got it right in her second book, "The Persian Boy", which told about Alexander's life from his accession as king to his death at the age of 32; "Fire From Heaven" is an excellent prequel to what was to come.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A King's Destiny, April 29 2002
"If any of you has seen red in battle, or been frightened out of his skin, you may remember putting out strength you had never known was in you. At exercise, even in a contest, you could not find it. There is a lock on it, put there by nature or gods' wisdom. It is the reserve against extremity. ...Few men are born whose own will can undo it. This boy will be one." p.64This work is a reconstructed story/history of Alexander the Great. Renault makes reading Greek history a true pleasure. My only criticism of this work is the considerably large number of names and plots that the reader has to keep straight. The novel begins during Alexander's early childhood and continues to the day of his father's (King Phillip) assassination. The work focuses on Alexander's relationships with the King, his mother the Queen (Olympias), and his loyal friend and lover Hephaistion. The exploits that earned Alexander his "Great" appellation came after his father's death, during his triumph through Asia and conquest of Persia.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Alexander's World Revealed, Mar 31 2002
Fire From Heaven tells the story of Alexander The Great's childhood. Mary Renault does more than merely tell the story, she transports you to ancient Macedonia. From the first few pages, it is clear that you in another world. It is a world that is far more civilized than we would like to believe. A world that is pre-Christian and suffused with the belief that all things - all things - are imbued with their own moira, and part of the living world. His is a great book, the first part of a great trilogy about the Alexander and his world. And part of a lager body of work about the ancient Greek world. Read them all and you will begin to understand why ancient Greece is called the cradle of Western Civilization.
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by Mary Renault
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