Rating: 4 out of 5
The period of the Successors is slowly continuing and we get closer and closer to the founding of a state of which I was a great fan as a child – even if accessible information then was nearly impossible to find. Seleukos, who founded his eponymous realm, is also one of the most enjoyable characters here while the others are more noise than content.
Combat has continued in Thrace which has not really been in focus in the prior books, but it seems that the author wants to come here in more depth in the next book. That’s at least how I read his way of drawing this title to a close. Lysimachus was very much reduced into a brutal tyrant in the short sections he was in view.
Ptolemaios (in the book, “Ptolemy”) who has been very interesting in prior volumes didn’t carry the same charisma through to here. Somehow the reader comes to expect a trick here and there, so his workings here were not particularly remarkable, leaving aside gaining the ownership of a fleet. Ptolemaios’ dialogue gets old pretty quickly however and I wish the author managed to show a bit more depth to this character.
This series is good entertainment, but aside from some changes in who are commanding the troops, there have been no significant changes. The people lording it over the others are all pretty much the same and I wish the author had tried to look into their depths a bit more.
