I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would! I read historical fiction about Rome mainly, but liked the sound of this. I'm so glad I took a chance as this has been one of my favourite reads of the year, it's easy to follow, well written, great character depth and has enough action to keep me hooked. Brilliant!!

The first word that comes to my mind after reading this book is epic.
An enthralling page turner that I couldn't put down is well researched and gripping.
I read it as fast as could and loved the vivid historical background, the interesting and fleshed out characters and the plot that keeps you hooked.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
An excellent and enjoyable read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

While I enjoyed the story, I think not having read the first book in the series ("The New Achilles") meant I didn't enjoy it as much as I might have done (I must learn to check and double check if a book is part of a series!). The characters are good, probably brilliant if you haven't been an idiot (like me!) and skipped book 1. Ignoring that though, "The Last Greek" was a very interesting and entertaining read which I would highly recommend to lovers of historical fiction (having pointed out that this is book 2 of a series).

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Thank you to Alainna at Orion for giving me an ARC of this copy. The cover design is awesome and its so rich I love the way of the ancient world it describes.

This is a tale of a hopeless pursuit amidst dogged determination. A tale of heroism, love, war, and sacrifice. For there is so much to fit here, that Christian Cameron is at his best. There are epic descriptions of battles, of phalanxes fighting each other left-right and center. You will find characters you love. And characters you hate. The women of this novel, Aspasia and Philla are the towering blocks of this entire story. Watch out for them and keep a certain eye. There is a silver lining to them.

The amazing historical detail, the awesome writing, the technical details are all awesome. I did feel in some parts, that the pacing became a bit slow. That was due to the fact Christian spent a lot of time researching the minor political differences that Phillopoemen had to deal with there. There are so many details that I didn’t even know about, the fact that the Greeks were cheering on Hannibal and that Phillip of Macedon struggled to keep a full army, all the time while the Romans had plenty of man-power. This novel to me foreshadows the fall of Greece. It doesn’t show a future, an alternate history where the Greeks defeat the Romans. The Romans will defeat their rivals because of two things: Money and Manpower. Even if Hannibal could defeat so many Roman armies, he could not replenish his men so easily.

I also like the fact that it shows that in this novel: A Greek is a Greek’s worst enemy. Consider the Spartan tyrant, Machanidas who with Nabis of Sparta tried to rebuild their once lost glory so they could take their power once more…and then you begin to realise Rome’s immense power and influence was behind all of this. Roman money was more than enough to split the Greeks. The Achean League that Phillopoemen had under his control was difficult to manage, and not easy to train troops.

The Romans had immense man-power, as compared to the fact that when the Hellenistic World descended into its Game of Thrones Style conflict, it wiped out many veterans of Alexander’s wars against Persia. The Hellenistic World I think struggled to adopt the Roman formation sucessfully, and the leaders they needed to fight the Romans like Phillopoemen were always hampered by one thing: Ambitious Greeks wanting to suppress Phillopoemen. I mean even under Ptolemy, the Egyptians too became their worst enemies. They too had suffered from Greek oppression, and they had led a revolt against Ptolemy V, which made him lose parts of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt as well. The Ptolemaics wiped out this part of history and it isn’t well known.

This book brings a lot of history, but to put in this perspective: The Greeks of this new era are fighting in the Macedonian fashion. The old Greek short spear has been abandoned. So expect to see phalanxes on the scale of Alexander’s phalanxes when you see combat. It’s a big story full of exciting characters and great dialogue. Honestly, Alexanor is a great character, and while there is hope, I can’t help but feel sadness because when you look at the history that is written, the Romans just win and conquer Greece and destroy the Hellenistic World. I wouldn’t have doubted if some wise Greek statesmen had the ability to see this.

Overall, a 10/10 from me. Great visual descriptions, great battle scenes, and a rugged determination to fight the Eagle of Rome that will one day, spread its wings over the entire world. But there are stories like this, stories of untold heroism, stories of those warriors like Alexanor and Philopoemen and Mithrades and Surena and Hannibal that fought against the might of Rome. It is these stories that you should give attention too.

The Last Greek is yet another thrilling Christian Cameron novel. As i've come to expect after reading so many top quality historical fiction books from Cameron over the years, this is yet another enthralling page turner. Cameron has a unique style this draws the reader into his world, imbuing them with a sense of realism that is quite scary.

The pace in this one is none stop, much quicker than ive gotten used to from the author, but what it allows is a relentless read that matches the events playing out.

This really is historical fiction at its finest.

Review

Im sure many of you who read my reviews will know whats coming…. blah blah… Christian is brilliant etc… yes i will admit to loving his work… but why?

I have had the pleasure of getting to know Christian for over 10 years, and in that time his writing has never wavered, his drive to write has always been there, and the quality and depth has always pushed to be better and better, which i think is a reflection of the man behind the books, check out his Web site

What you will see from his web site his how much experience and effort goes into each book, the level and depth of research, and more than anything the passion to learn and to know and to share it all in a way that we can all enjoy, and not just the fighting and the weapons, but everything down to a simple meal, the discomfort of travel, the quality and skill of everyday artisans, there is no area he doesn’t want to learn and share.

So when i pick up a book like The last Greek i know that i will be entertained , but also i will be lost in the depth of reality that exists in the book, the real sense of passion and excitement, the love and the losses are all there and come across with a totally engaged and unrelenting passion of someone who wants to know more and to share what he has found.

In The Last Greek we once again follow Philopoemen through the eyes of his friend Alexanor, as they try to survive the politics of the Achean League, the friendship that is Philip of Macedon and on top of that build an army that can defend them against a ring of more powerful enemies. Christian Cameron shows us how they may have managed the politics of the time, deals with Slavery, women’s rights, the politics between other nations, the religion of the times, inc the Olympics and more. Among all this we learn about training both cavalry and infantry, outfitting them, the crippling costs, the impacts of soldiers away from their real professions, heroism, revenge, love, loss and so much more. This books follows the many battles and preparation for those battles back and forth across the cities of the league, the almost wins, the almost losses and the rebuilding to do it all again, to survive is often a victory…..i will admit to just becoming utterly swallowed up by every book he writes inc this one, the engagement for the reader is total, and the ending is always bitter sweet, a culmination that also leaves that sense of loss when you leave new friends behind.

As always i cant recommend Christians books highly enough, and given how fast he writes if you have not yet dived in… you have so many great adventures ahead (see below for bibliography), He writes so often about a warrior being a master of what he does, a killer of men, or a tactician being at the peak of his game…. well when it comes to writing Christian Cameron is a true master at his craft at the top of his game.

This is a dense but interesting read as long as one can cope with an awful lot of cavalry battles. If you know your Graeco-Roman/Spartan history so much the better. Spread over a couple of years of campaigns around 211 BC the story follows Philopoemen's exploits at training men and horses, with the help of his friend Alexanor, ex military now priest and medical man, from throughout the Achean League to become a coherent and effective cavalry. The Achean League comprised a federation of about 10 city states at this time, based in the northern and central Peloponnese, and naturally felt autonomous and did not want to take orders from anyone. Happy to squabble and fight their own little corners. There is the threat of Roman invasions from the coast - following their various scrapes in the Punic Wars, not to mention the Spartans flexing their rather powerful muscles. The First Macedonian War was also ongoing at this time by Rome and their ally the Aetolian League (city states in central Greece) against Philip of Macedon. More bloody battles were fought by our hero and his cavalry in this. The tactics of the cavalry are classic and detailed; the time and resources needed to feed/forage thousands of horses immense not to mention the problems of acquiring decent horses in the first place as well as the demands put upon the local populations. Alongside the battles run political and philosophical discussions at home and during short respites after battles, a welcome reprieve. These give a strong flavour to the book especially the long meals and associated talk - even involving women, wives and concubines and showing an evolving society. This ties neatly with the inclusion of Scythian women in the cavalry, many of whom were far more effective riders and fighters than the Achean League chaps. Philopoemen was a real person, an Achean strategos (military general/governor) on eight occasions one of which, in 209BC (I think) at the end of this book, Many of the battle skirmishes are based upon real events too and the author obviously has a passion for this period. If you share that passion you'll like the book, if you don't you might well find it hard to follow at times. Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.