Procure The Twin Soul Of Alexander: A Novel Of Alexander The Great (Alexander And Hephaestion Book 1) Generated By Lawrence M. Scheier Rendered As Print
on The Twin Soul of Alexander: A novel of Alexander the Great (Alexander and Hephaestion Book 1)
we have yet another novel about Alexander the Great, evidently intended to be the first volume in yet another Alexander trilogy, Not that I'm complaining we all know I'll snatch up absolutely any and every Alexanderrelated piece of writing I come across! As seems to be the norm for such trilogies, this one covers the period of Alexander's youth up to succeeding his father as king.
What sets this version apart is that here the story is told from Hephaestion's POV, narrated in first person and with a strong focus on his relationship with Alexander, which I quite enjoyed.
At the beginning this felt very much like a debut novel, with decent substances but lacking polish in the writing and characterisations, However, Scheier quickly gained more experience during the process, By the second half of the book, he had very much hit his stride, with the writing flowing better, the pace more even, and characters and relationships having acquired the necessary depth to make them feel realistic and worth feeling invested in.
The author chose to change some names so as to avoid confusion that might arise from having too many people with the same names among readers less familiar with the historical facts the novel is based upon which is probably very helpful for them but which I found a little irritating, mostly because my inner armchair historian just wouldn't shut up whenever she perceived a historical inaccuracy.
But hey, you can't please everyone with decisions like that, I can live with a little irritation now and then it certainly won't keep me from picking up the next installment whenever it is released.
Rewiev of the blog Alessandro III di Macedonia your source about Alexander the Great
First I want to thank the author for sending me the book to read and review it!
Hephaestion is the narrator of this novel and its through his eyes that we know this very interesting Alexander.
Hephaestion felt a magnetic attraction towards the young prince from the beginning and it was nice to see how their friendship born, We will thus follow the adventures of the two young boys just as they actually lived, The author remains very faithful to what we know from the sources and when he takes some license he does so by changing some names so as not to have namesakes, in order to help even the less expert of Alexander the Great while reading the novel.
Im not a MM novels lover, however Scheier paints the relationship between the two boys in a very natural way, without excesses and without falling into the vulgar.
In fact, I really liked imagining what I was reading and it was like being there too, In these pages we experience the adventures of the boys in Mieza, the machinations of the everpresent Olympias, we experience the encounter between Alexander and his faithful Bucephalus, the difficulty and also great ability of Alexander to establish himself as the true heir of the Argead dynasty.
In short, there is everything in this novel! What I like about novels like this, those well written and faithful to the sources, is that with the details and scenes of everyday life that can only be present in the novels, we read a more real and concrete Alexander.
To mention some of the elements that I liked: Hephaestion in Mieza is marginalized a bit compared to the others because of his humble origins and small groups are created among friends as is normal, among the great generals sons and with a few years in addition and the younger ones Olympias is always present from afar, like a puppeteer always tries to move the threads of people close to Alexander and will try to influence Hephaestion too the author inserts Ahmed, a slave of Hephaestion who will influence Alexander for his conquest of Egypt.
In the fourth chapter Hephaestion dreams of a uchronic future: what would have happened if Philip had not died so early He probably would have collided with his son Alessandro.
Prophetic, beautiful!
At the beginning of the book, the author makes two extremely important premises that are obvious to
Alexanders connoisseurs but that in my opinion are necessary because often especially in reading novels they are left out by readers because they arent necessarily specialists or are in any case informed about events:
homosexuality at the time was normal: men stayed most of the time with other men, from an early age they grew up with other males and women were seen as a way to have children.
There is nothing to do with feminism or machismo, but it was so, In this context the terms of erastes and eromenos are inserted the author for the age difference chooses to make Hephaestion the erastes and Alexander the eromenos, but in my opinion its nice how the two roles are not so defined between the two because in the relationship that Alexander has with the other Hephaestion acts as a trusted adviser and guide, even when it concerns the approach to female sexuality, but the roles seem to reverse when they are among them because often Hephaestion is the insecure one that must be reassured by Alexander
at that time the events of the Iliad and the Trojan War were not legends and myths, but were considered history.
This is the reason why Alexander, although referring continuously to Achilles and comparing himself to him, was not considered a madman,
I liked this reading very much, its proposed as a historical novel and it is, Im also curious to read the other two books of this trilogy yes, because this is the first volume of a trilogy on Alexander and Hephaestion and, narrating the events from the point of view of Hephaestion I think they will stop with his death.
Im already dreaming about one last chapter of the third book narrated from Alexanders point of view that is a sort of final summary that tells us the highlights of the story and introduces us to Hephaestion also from the eyes of his beloved great conqueror who never betrayed and always supported him.
But this is just my idea because I cant wait to continue reading the adventures narrated by Lawrence M, Scheier!
sitelink word Romance. War. Deception. Lust. Companionship. Hierarchy. An impressive account of history which is, as the author explains in the afterword, mostly accurate, Enjoyable and educating. I look forward to the sequel,.stars. I was arounddone and wanted to read something else,
This was good! Im used to more prose in stories about Alexander the Great but this was a more YA take to Alexanders youth, It was refreshing and an easy read, Ill come back to this when Im in the mood,
What sets this version apart is that here the story is told from Hephaestion's POV, narrated in first person and with a strong focus on his relationship with Alexander, which I quite enjoyed.
At the beginning this felt very much like a debut novel, with decent substances but lacking polish in the writing and characterisations, However, Scheier quickly gained more experience during the process, By the second half of the book, he had very much hit his stride, with the writing flowing better, the pace more even, and characters and relationships having acquired the necessary depth to make them feel realistic and worth feeling invested in.
The author chose to change some names so as to avoid confusion that might arise from having too many people with the same names among readers less familiar with the historical facts the novel is based upon which is probably very helpful for them but which I found a little irritating, mostly because my inner armchair historian just wouldn't shut up whenever she perceived a historical inaccuracy.
But hey, you can't please everyone with decisions like that, I can live with a little irritation now and then it certainly won't keep me from picking up the next installment whenever it is released.
Rewiev of the blog Alessandro III di Macedonia your source about Alexander the Great
First I want to thank the author for sending me the book to read and review it!
Hephaestion is the narrator of this novel and its through his eyes that we know this very interesting Alexander.
Hephaestion felt a magnetic attraction towards the young prince from the beginning and it was nice to see how their friendship born, We will thus follow the adventures of the two young boys just as they actually lived, The author remains very faithful to what we know from the sources and when he takes some license he does so by changing some names so as not to have namesakes, in order to help even the less expert of Alexander the Great while reading the novel.
Im not a MM novels lover, however Scheier paints the relationship between the two boys in a very natural way, without excesses and without falling into the vulgar.
In fact, I really liked imagining what I was reading and it was like being there too, In these pages we experience the adventures of the boys in Mieza, the machinations of the everpresent Olympias, we experience the encounter between Alexander and his faithful Bucephalus, the difficulty and also great ability of Alexander to establish himself as the true heir of the Argead dynasty.
In short, there is everything in this novel! What I like about novels like this, those well written and faithful to the sources, is that with the details and scenes of everyday life that can only be present in the novels, we read a more real and concrete Alexander.
To mention some of the elements that I liked: Hephaestion in Mieza is marginalized a bit compared to the others because of his humble origins and small groups are created among friends as is normal, among the great generals sons and with a few years in addition and the younger ones Olympias is always present from afar, like a puppeteer always tries to move the threads of people close to Alexander and will try to influence Hephaestion too the author inserts Ahmed, a slave of Hephaestion who will influence Alexander for his conquest of Egypt.
In the fourth chapter Hephaestion dreams of a uchronic future: what would have happened if Philip had not died so early He probably would have collided with his son Alessandro.
Prophetic, beautiful!
At the beginning of the book, the author makes two extremely important premises that are obvious to
Alexanders connoisseurs but that in my opinion are necessary because often especially in reading novels they are left out by readers because they arent necessarily specialists or are in any case informed about events:
homosexuality at the time was normal: men stayed most of the time with other men, from an early age they grew up with other males and women were seen as a way to have children.
There is nothing to do with feminism or machismo, but it was so, In this context the terms of erastes and eromenos are inserted the author for the age difference chooses to make Hephaestion the erastes and Alexander the eromenos, but in my opinion its nice how the two roles are not so defined between the two because in the relationship that Alexander has with the other Hephaestion acts as a trusted adviser and guide, even when it concerns the approach to female sexuality, but the roles seem to reverse when they are among them because often Hephaestion is the insecure one that must be reassured by Alexander
at that time the events of the Iliad and the Trojan War were not legends and myths, but were considered history.
This is the reason why Alexander, although referring continuously to Achilles and comparing himself to him, was not considered a madman,
I liked this reading very much, its proposed as a historical novel and it is, Im also curious to read the other two books of this trilogy yes, because this is the first volume of a trilogy on Alexander and Hephaestion and, narrating the events from the point of view of Hephaestion I think they will stop with his death.
Im already dreaming about one last chapter of the third book narrated from Alexanders point of view that is a sort of final summary that tells us the highlights of the story and introduces us to Hephaestion also from the eyes of his beloved great conqueror who never betrayed and always supported him.
But this is just my idea because I cant wait to continue reading the adventures narrated by Lawrence M, Scheier!
sitelink word Romance. War. Deception. Lust. Companionship. Hierarchy. An impressive account of history which is, as the author explains in the afterword, mostly accurate, Enjoyable and educating. I look forward to the sequel,.stars. I was arounddone and wanted to read something else,
This was good! Im used to more prose in stories about Alexander the Great but this was a more YA take to Alexanders youth, It was refreshing and an easy read, Ill come back to this when Im in the mood,
While many books, fiction and nonfiction alike, chronicle Alexander the Greats ascension to power and conquest of the ancient world, few go back to Alexanders early adulthood, In this vividly written and thoroughly researched novel, Lawrence Scheier explores Alexanders early years through the eyes of the renowned leaders best friend and lover, Hephaestion, Scheiers fictional biography is full of political intrigue, family treachery, and enticing romance,
Do not waste the opportunity! The words of Hephaestions father ring in his ears when he first approaches the young Alexander in the Macedonian capital of Pella.
Hephaestion hopes to use his fathers relationship with King Philip to be appointed as one of Alexanders royal companions,
Hephaestion quickly becomes entangled in the complex politics of the royal family, Queen Olympias, Alexanders mother, gives him the position in exchange for his loyalty to Alexander and asks him seduce her son, Hephaestion realizes that he is being used a pawn in the twisted game between the king and queen,
Hephaestion must make difficult choices to stop Alexander from being sacrificed on the altar of his parents dysfunction, At the same time, Hephaestion must confront his own feelings for the prince and the dangerous consequences of Alexanders ambition,
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Lawrence M. Scheier