I love fantasy books, and I love adventure so, put those two genres together, and I get very excited! I was, therefore, delighted when I was offered the opportunity to review this book. The author sent me a copy in exchange for an honest review. The book can be purchased here. Summary Matthew is an average boy who doesn't realise his father is the Blademaster, a title given to one person capable of wielding the sword of the elements. This sword can metamorphosise, depending on what the Blademaster needs. The sword of wind can creating tornados, while the sword of water can manipulate (you guessed it!) water. When Matthew's father goes missing, and is presumed dead, Matthew is given a special book that can transport him to his father's native world. There, he finds out that he is the new Blademaster and begins a quest to seek out the evil Black Knights and hopes to find what happened to his father. Reviewing... The Plot I love stories about parallel worlds, and it's alw...
A couple of weeks ago, I shared my book review for Simon Elliott's book Alexander the Great versus Julius Caesar. Since then, as I mentioned in the review, I have completed the first draft of a short story set in 46BC-45BC which, now needs some serious editing before it can go out there... But it will be appearing later this year! It was about Caesar and he featured as a character, although he's not the main character.
So, having spent so much time writing about him and his time period, it's only fair I redress the balance and today look at Alexander the Great...
I feel like I know a lot more about him than I did when I started watching this song. He's a character from history who speaks to us all in our youth, because he is the epitome of the youthful adventurer. We all imagine we can do immeasurable things, although hopefully not as brutally as Alexander did them!
His story, though, was not one of rags to riches, but riches to glory. He took a great nation across the world to become a legendary people. But his interest in his home nation seems to have dwindled as he took on the world, a fact which led to several of his native Macedonians feeling aggrieved enough to confront him on this repeatedly. I think, in his eyes the Macedonians were Macedonia, and through them he maintained his link with home even as he travelled hundreds of miles away. The spirit of his nation was in the souls of the people.
From the point of view of historical fiction, we all have these characters. My sister is writing a book set in the aftermath of the Battle of Hydaspes River which I'm really looking forward to reading! But we don't have to be writing in fourth century BC to have Alexander the Great in our stories. That youthful yearning to prove yourself was written into Cat in Day's Dying Glory, the young commander desperate to prove his worth to himself was written into Robert in The Year We Lived. In Alexander's legacy it's clear that these things did happen, which means our characters are entirely justifiable.
All in all, if you're writing a youthful hero you couldn't do better than to have a quick look at this man's life. His story is timeless and he has continued to influence scores of generations over the years, his life passing from fact into legend. Perfect writing inspiration!
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