Book Review: The Fire of Ares (Spartan Warrior #1)

It's easy to mistake this book for a cheap Percy Jackson knock-off, but it's actually a pretty good modern work of historical fiction.
One of the first good thing I noticed was that I really cared about the protagonist, Lysander. He's working especially hard to earn food for his really sick mother, even taking a whipping from his sadistic overseer for her. His friend Timeon is supportive and loyal and quite likeable. As the book goes on, Lysander finds out more about his father's family who he's never met; there's some really good character development. Even the bully characters have redeeming features.

The story is fairly intriguing and the drama and twists really surprised me. The description was fairly good. I've read a bit of Henry Treece and classics like his are hard to live up to when it comes to the writing, but with the Mediterranean setting you get a fairly nice picture in your head anyway. That said, when the author describes a character's appearance he does it quite well. On top of that, the fight scenes were pretty well-written. Reading them, I winced because there was a surprising amount of blood and brutality, it SOUNDED painful!
If you're a parent, don't let that put you off. There is a lot of educational value. The author used to write non-fiction history books, so there are no big inaccuracies.

If I had to find fault in it, Timeon could have had an interesting character arc, but he did seem a little bland. Also, the book's ending lost a bit of its brutal realism and rather let it down. There was a big reveal and a really good dramatic climax between just two characters, but then a big uprising got squeezed in at the last minute and ended with a big "two wrongs don't make a right, make peace" speech.
To be honest though, I'd rather have an unrealistic ending than a bad beginning or a mundane middle. It's a really good middle-grade book, better than Alex Rider. I got more than what I paid for and I want to try out some of Michael Ford's other books. Give it a read.