THIS historical fiction attempts to recreate Greek history through the author’s imagination while ensuring the basic facts are true to history. It is a saga of vendetta and travels of Seleucus, match fixings in chariot races, battles and gory deaths told in the voice of Alexander’s emissary, Seleucus.
Set in 4 BC, the book describes Greece as a cluster of battle-scarred nations, nervous of losing their independence and when Alexander is the Macedonian prince. In that period, Triremes are the fastest means of travelling. Priests speak of predictions that come true. Men are bribed; intrigue is rife. The hero of the novel, Seleucus, who is the son of Nicanor, must learn cunning and ruthlessness if he wants to reach adulthood. So he learns to cope with treachery at a very young age. It does not take him long to master the art of deceit himself – his journey from a renegade citizen to a powerful public figure – is a testimony to his skills. He discovers the treachery and stratagems that characterise the times, as a teenager. His father is killed, his own life is in peril, his mother is raped and murdered and his friends have been slaughtered. With the exhilarating chariot race to Alexander’s coronation with the Persian army on the banks of the River Granicus, the story holds attention from beginning to end.
Slowly, one by one Seleucus loses his friends, gains allies, tricks people, outwits spies, wins battles and is on the run from the Macedonians including Alexander, who are baying for his blood.
The problem with the story is that there are too many characters to deal with, especially since Seleucus’s story consists of a plethora of people he meets as he continues to run from the Macedonians, who are unable to forgive him for the chariot race.
“I, Seleucus, son of Nicanor, begin my account from the time when Kelos, son of Patrimus, was the chief controller of the Games in Olympia.” So begins the story as narrated by 22-year old Seleucus, a contemporary of Alexander the Great. His father is Macedonian and he grows up “in Olympia, in a Macedonian family that made its living looking after the Macedonians who came to prepare for the annual Games and visit the oracle. At my home I spoke the Macedonian tongue, but my friends were largely from Olympia.”
The protagonist Seleucus is a focused person who promises to tell the truth in his account which he weaves while recounting minute details to help create the period and the environment. The protagonist, while growing up, peppers his story with grim references to lying, deception, danger, death, fear, dark fate, stabbings, poison and revolt.
Unfortunately this fascinating story may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
-MG
(Fourth Estate, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers India, A-53, Sector 57, Noida- 201 301)
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