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Killer of Men

The Long War, Book 1

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Killer of Men

By: Christian Cameron
Narrated by: Peter Noble
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Summary

In the epic clash of Greece and Persia, a hero is forged - a monumental novel from the author of the Tyrant series.  

Arimnestos is a farm boy when war breaks out between the citizens of his native Plataea and their overbearing neighbours, Thebes. Standing in the battle line for the first time, alongside his father and brother, he shares in a famous and unlikely victory. But after being knocked unconscious in the melee, he awakes not a hero but a slave.  

Betrayed by his jealous and cowardly cousin, the freedom he fought for has now vanished, and he becomes the property of a rich citizen. So begins an epic journey out of slavery that takes the young Arimnestos through a world poised on the brink of an epic confrontation, as the emerging civilisation of the Greeks starts to flex its muscles against the established empire of the Persians.   

As he tries to make his fortune and revenge himself on the man who disinherited him, Arimnestos discovers that he has a talent that pays well in this new, violent world - for like his hero, Achilles, he is 'a killer of men'.

©2019 Christian Cameron (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Action & Adventure Ancient Europe Fiction Genre Fiction Greece Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Thriller & Suspense War & Military War Ancient Greece Military
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this is a good listen. you have to concentrate in places because of the Greek names and terminology but the reward is a very good book well narrated.

a good story

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The subject matter is rich. The reader was clear, well spoken with good intonation. Some of the complaints I have read were...focused on repetitive statements, specifically the characters need to say "I am a killer of men." While this is true, I found his constantly referring to his listener as "Honey" and the need to mention her blushing.

Once...twice....three times? No, OVER AND OVER. It got old.

His research of Hellenic culture, or PART of Hellenic culture was quite good, but other parts were pretty feeble. Hellenic Greeks were FAR more controlling and suppressive of females. And The Persians EVEN MORESO. Freewheeling, speaking and thinking women would be far more rare. Except for Hetara, women were virtually owned animals. This made the independent women we know of more like shooting stars.

The opponents of the hero were stupidly evil or myopic.

I will read reviews of book two before investing further. I cannot buy the next book without exploration, based on what I have read so far.

A bit formulaic

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An old man tells the story of his incredible life to the young, I've been here before, most recently with Angus Donald's most excellent Robin Hood series and I have to say this is right up there. This time, it's a venerable Arimnestos, once a young farm boy who becomes a very young warrior only to find himself enslaved. What unfolds is an incredibly vivid tale of war, destruction, forbidden love and one man's journey within a truly epic ancient conflict. I found the slavery part particularly engaging as it took a quite unexpected direction compared to the norm for novels of this type.

Like a lot of old men, the old Arimnestos is guilty of a bit of repetition and possibly Cameron was let down a little by his editors as the brief sequences where we come out of the story and back to the storyteller and his young listeners are a tad grating as he says the same thing time after time. This might annoy some but really it's more a wrinkle on an old, handsome face than some massive, hair-sprouting mole sprouting from an ugly story's nose.

Peter Noble gives a genuinely fabulous performance. He has a beautifully posh rasp that suits the elder Arimnestos as a story-teller, a throaty growl for the warriors as he gets into the action scenes and wonderfully he is able to chisel it all instantaneously to a mirror-like smoothness when he switches to a young female character. He brings real life to the tale and is never phased by the tricky place and character names.

This is obviously going to be a seriously epic series with battles on land and sea, betrayals, politics and tragic loves. If Cameron can keep up this level of intensity then it's going to be a bit of a classic!

Killer of a Book!

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I didn't like the format of the narration at first but about a third of the way though I released I was gripped ans really like it by then.
geart story .. the end

I changed my mind

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Absolutely loved this book, I'm an ancient history buff and I've read a lot about Athens and Sparta so to have the main character come from Plataea was genius. The story was fast paced and detailed and held my attention from beginning to end. Off to download the next in the series.

Brought Ancient Greece Alive

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