Review: The Falcon of Sparta (Conn Iggulden)

Do you like to read historical novels? Than I can only give you one piece of advice: the books of author Conn Iggulden.

One of his (stand alone) historical novels is The Falcon of Sparta. And this article will be a The Falcon of Sparta review. And don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers!

The Falcon of Sparta: plot & story

The Falcon of Sparta is a book that might remind you of the movie (and the graphic novel) 300. In that story, 300 Spartans fight a gigantic army of Persian soldiers.

That’s also – partly – the fact in this historical novel written by Conn Iggulden. The Falcon of Sparta also features a clash between Spartans, but also many other Greek troops like the Hoplites of Athens, and a Persian army that was multiple times bigger…but not necessarily stronger!

But the plot of The Falcon of Sparta takes place many years after the fights of the 300 Spartans and king Leonidas. If you compare both episodes, only the war between Greeks and Persians is similar.

The story of this book is not told in a typical way. The perspectives of story and characters changes throughout the book which makes you read a kind of three stories that make one bigger novel.

Like the books (and series) of Game of Thrones, you need to be prepared to say goodbye to main characters. It’s a story about a historical war between Greeks and Persians, it’s not a happy story of course.

The characters of The Falcon of Sparta

I’ll make a short list of the main characters of The Falcon of Sparta, without any spoilers of course.

• Artaxerxes II: Persian prince and commander of the Persian army
• Cyrus: Persian prince and nemesis of Artaxerxes
• Clearchus of Sparta: general of Spartan mercenaries
• Xenophon: Greek soldiers who tells part of the plot
• Tissaphernes: Persian satrap who is commander of a part of the Persian army
• Menon: a Thessalian mercenary general
• Ariaeus: Persian general

This is not a complete list, but the core characters of the plot of The Falcon of Sparta. As you can see, they’re a mix of Persians, Spartans and other Greek soldiers. Just like the armies that will confront each other.

Source of the story: the Ten Thousand (Anabasis) by Xenophon

The Falcon of Sparta is not only a historical novel about battles between Greeks and Persians. Conn Iggulden based his book on source material straight out of the Classical Antiquity. It’s the book Anabasis written by Xenophon in the 4th century BC, and more particular the chapter of the ‘Ten Thousand’.

This author Xenophon was, beside Plato, one of Socrates’ students. Xenophon wrote the story about the suffering of Greek soldiers and merchants that were taunted by constant attacks by the Persian army, while fleeing for this vast army.

Of course, Conn Iggulden wrote a more simpeler, adventurous and to our times adapted version of the original source story. This makes The Falcon of Sparta a very pleasant and relaxing historical version of Xenophon’s ‘Ten Thousand’ to read.

The relationship with Xenophon’s source material is also explained by author Conn Iggulden in a little afterword at the end of the book. So of course, in this The Falcon of Sparta review, I can say that this historical novel is not only a enoyable read, but you can also learn a small piece of ancient Greek history with it!

Review: The Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden

But now time for my real review. Do I like this book? Well…yes, actually! I read it in a rather busy time of my life, and it was a warm welcome to relax. It’s also a book that you can read in shorter stages, although some chapters will make you turn those pages. So as a review, I can say that the Falcon of Sparta is a historical novel to read.

Like all the books of author Conn Iggulden, The Falcon of Sparta is not a difficult but rather pleasant relaxing plot. Like always, characters are interesting with a nice story arc and the story is adventurous.

Author Conn Iggulden does make the same mistake as always, in my opinion. He often repeats a lot of story parts and details. This is ok when you read in short timings and only a couple of pages at one time. But if you are reading for a longer time and several chapters in one sitting, you can get a bit annoyed by reading the same details twice or more times in one or two chapters. Of course, this is a style that is adapted to our new (digital) attention span, which is a lot shorter than some years ago.

Is the Falcon of Sparta by Conn Iggulden a series?

A lot of people are asking the question if The Falcon of Sparta is a serie. The answer is no.

Conn Iggulden does write a lot of book series, like the very good Caesar series, but The Falcon of Sparta is a stand alone book.

Conclusion: my review of The Falcon of Sparta by Iggulden Conn

So as a conclusion, I can say that if you are interested in a more lighter historical book, The Falcon of Sparta by author Conn Iggulden is a recommendation for you.

The Falcon of Sparta is an adventurous historical story about Greeks, most of them Spartans, and Persians that offers you an enjoyable and relaxing read.

So if you will read this novel, I can only wish you a good read! Of course, you can find The Falcon of Sparta in hardback, softback and e-book.

Are you more interested in a graphic novel about the Second World War which reads like a book? Than you have to check out my review of Maus!

Source:
Book cover picture
Picture old books
Picture of old Greece