(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

322 B.C. The Macedonian Empire is on the verge of civil war following the sudden death of Alexander the Great.

As a boy, Andrikos watched as Alexander’s army marched through his homeland of Greek Ionia after defeating the Persians at the Granicus River on their way to the total conquest of the Persian Empire. Soon he will be embroiled in their world, forced to flee his old life due to an unintentional crime.

Thrust into the army, Andrikos struggles to cope with the brutal yet necessary training which his superiors put him through to prepare for the coming wars of succession as Alexander’s surviving generals seek to divide and conquer the spoils of Olympus.

But Andrikos is not destined to be a nameless soldier; by chance he is chosen for a clandestine mission – and is immersed in a world of intrigue, violence and brotherhood.

The path that lies ahead of Andrikos requires him to shed his immaturity and take on the responsibilities and emotions of a man beyond his years as he struggles to save Alexander’s legacy from those who wish to usurp it.

The Spoils of Olympus: By the Sword is a historical epic which follows the advancements of one soldier from boy to man set during a time of global conflict.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]

Much has been written about Alexander the Great but the aftermath of his death isn’t nearly so popular a topic simply because it was a really complex politic situation.  Kings were rising and falling with alarming rate and the diadochi were tearing each other to pieces over the least little thing.  Enter into this world Andrikos, who lives in Illandra with the other Ionian Greeks Alexander liberated.  He’s had a rough time what with his father dying and his uncle seeming to constantly disapprove of him and he falls in with the wrong sort of crowd pretty quickly.  It’s that wrong crowd that really causes him to leave and become a soldier.

Andrikos and the other characters were pretty good.  I particularly enjoyed Vettias, the old spymaster of first Philip, then Alexander and now Eumenes who is under command of Perdiccas.  He’s a clever man and if there’s one thing he knows, it’s people.  Seeing him try to train Andrikos to become the same sort of suave, sophisticated man-of-the-world that he is was funny but touching at times because you really start to see Andrikos grow up.  Throughout the novel Andrikos goes through so much and the brutal training he receives to become a proper soldier in the beginning really is just the beginning.  But because of all the things that he goes through, he finally starts to become a man.  There’s very little left in the mischief-making boy that we met in the beginning of the novel, particularly by the end.  So he at least has a believable character arc and it is very satisfying.

Christian Kachel clearly knows his stuff about the Wars of Alexandrian Succession.  It’s a complicated period filled with secret alliances, backstabbing and war and he conveys the feeling of the time quite well.  This atmosphere of both hope and despair plays out with the characters, particularly with Andrikos.  He leaves Illandra hopeful to join the military, is despairing when he goes through the brutal training and then again becomes hopeful as Eumenes moves against some of the other diadochi for his first battle.  Of course there are more examples of that but I really don’t want to spoil a large part of the plot, particularly some of the interesting twists near the end.  As for his historical accuracy, I’m no expert on the period but after a little bit more research to remind me of names and such it actually is quite accurate.  He doesn’t feel the need to add in battles and people that really didn’t exist other than the main character because the history itself is exciting enough.

My only problem with Spoils of Olympus: By the Sword is that the dialogue lacks both realism and subtlety.  I get that this is historical fiction and of course the language is different from ours in different time periods, but I just found the dialogue unbelievable.  Everyone from soldiers to spies gives great big long speeches about the problem at hand when just a few words would really suffice.  Sometimes the speeches make sense, like when Leandros is recounting his campaigns with Alexander.  Sometimes they don’t, like when the different commanders are giving their soldiers encouragement during the battle.  In a battle as bloody and vicious as a phalanx battle, you’re not going to stop and give your subordinates almost a full paragraph of encouragement.

And that really leads into the other problem: the total lack of subtlety.  Christian Kachel knows his stuff but really assumes that readers don’t, which would be fine if he introduced the history in subtler ways.  But he doesn’t.  No, characters saying things like this: “The Hypaspists are now known as the Silver Shields since the India Campaign under the commands of Generals Nicanor and Seleucus.”  That’s just not realistic because by the time Alexander was dead and Andrikos’ brother Leandros comes back to Illandra, everyone would have known that.  The readers wouldn’t have but the characters most certainly would and it could have been introduced in a much more subtle way through dialogue, i.e. “How many Silver Shields got back from India?”  “I don’t know, but Seleucus and Nicanor sure tried their best to get all of them back after that huge win.”  That’s not the best example but it is better than characters constantly stating the obvious.

So while By the Sword is a good book and I believe that Christian Kachel is a good writer, I did have a hard time coping with the dialogue.  At the same time, I loved both the characters and the moderate pacing of the story that just kept increasing.  If my review has at all intrigued you, I would definitely encourage you to pick this book up and give it a try.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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