Tides of War

The setting is distant, the language elegant, and Derek Jacobi has the voice of the BBC. This is Merchant Ivory for the ear. The novel is built around Alcibiades, "the handsomest and most brilliant man of his era, as well as the most lawless. As a general, he was never beaten." So how did Athens lose the war to Sparta? Alcibiades worked for the people, the world's first batch of fickle voters. When he lost popular support, Athens lost him and then the war. In this great age of televised town meetings and bestselling novels, it's useful to be reminded--if reminded we need be--how often a majority can be wrong. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

April 3, 2000
Perhaps the Peloponnesian War, which lasted 27 years and featured an epic list of people and places, just doesn't lend itself to the six-hour audio format, for not even renowned Shakespearean actor Jacobi's reading gives this novel the sense of personal drama it requires. Pressfield (Gates of Fire) focuses his story on Alcibiades, the legendary hero whose strength, beauty and courage embodied ancient Greek ideals. An Athenian trained in Sparta, Alcibiades appears divinely well suited to feed his country's hunger for military victories. But democracy in its nascent stage being no less tainted than in its current manifestation, Alcibiades is feared for his popularity and ultimately exiled on a trumped-up charge. Once in the camp of Athens's enemies, he proves as unmatchable a foe as he could have been a champion. Unfortunately, the pace of this recording, as necessitated by the breadth of events covered in its relatively short length, lends it all the emotional depth of a textbook. And unless listeners have studied their ancient Greek geography, they will find themselves rewinding often to try to keep up with the movements of all the ships and forces. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 13).