The Falcon of Sparta: The gripping and battle-scarred adventure from The Sunday Times bestselling author of Empire

It is so refreshing to read a book with bite. When I put it down, I felt that I had not wasted a moment of my time.

Igguldens new book "the falcon of sparta" is a fascinating novel, based on the "Anabasis" , a classic in ancient greek literature that will have caused considerable hardships for high-school students, at least that was the case for me. After having written three series of historic novels this new book stands alone, but is as compelling as the books about the mongol leader Dzenghis Khan, about Julius Cesar or about the war of the roses. Iggulden is able to let you understand his protagonists, to get into their feelings and motives, so that they become real people of flesh and blood. Add to that his lively descriptions of landscapes, of battles and of mostly interesting dialogues . For me, he is the most readable writer of history novels I know and it saddens me always to come near the end of his books, as it will be a long wait again before his next novel will be on the market.

I absolutely loved Conn Iggulden’s 5-book Conqueror series and couldn’t wait to read another book by him. This was a huge let-down. Yes, Mr Iggulden does write well and yes, this book (like most of his books) is based on historical events. But the story is disjointed and broke the trust with me, the reader. Spoiler alert: in the first half of the book, one gets to know and care about the main character — who is suddenly killed off half way through the book. Then the focus shifts to the second most known and loved character — who is then also killed off some chapters later. Then the rest of the story is about how the survivors survived after that. But I didn’t care anymore. The characters I was invested in were dead. I felt no attachment or interest in the book anymore. Might as well just read a history book if you just want an endless dry account of battle after battle. Even the riveting and detailed battle descriptions from the Conqueror books were missing here. Instead most of the battles here are described very briefly: some group howls, another group runs, the first group run away. YAWN!! The author also includes a ridiculous / senseless love storyline which goes nowhere. Everything great about his Conqueror books was missing here. Big disappointment and waste of time.