Memnon by Scott Oden

War, war and more wars... it is not surprising that we live in an environment of constant warfare from ancient time onwards. In this book simply entitled "MEMNON", we're introduced to yet another valiant hero whose deeds and bravado have unfortunately been eclipsed by the mercurial conqueror called Alexander the Great.

In fact, little is known of this Memnon fellow... that is until a mysterious old lady and his loyal Egyptian servant (Harmouthes) engaged a scribe (Ariston) to pen down the life story of this great man.

In this book, we're introduced to the life and tribulations of Memnon from his early years to his encounter with Alexander the Great. The storyline is written from both sides of the coin. That is, from the narrator and also the hero's point of view. This is indeed a thick book, thus, details are not unnecessarily truncated to make way for brevity of facts. Heroes are made and unmade in the course of history and I can't help but to pity the fate that fell on such a great man... man who deserve the honour amongst the great ancient fallen heroes.

War is indeed brutal and Scott really made it a point to describe the harsh reality of ancient warfare especially in man-to-man combat that made me cringe just by imagining the sort of wound inflicted on both the winner and the vanquished.

This is indeed a book not for the weak hearted. However, there are of course some element of love and feelings infused on the layers upon layers of mortal humans. Inescapable facets of life as usual.

Thus, I would recommend this book to the people who intend to understand more about ancient warfare and how it affects the life’s of those within and around it. As it is obvious that war does not affect only the losing party but also the winner in the tugs-of-war of life.

Personal rating: 7 out of 10

Cons:
1) Can be a bit draggy at times especially on the midpart of the novel

Pros:
1) Descriptions of war can be brutal and lifelike.
2) We're introduced to yet another hero of the ancient times; with a lot of details to boot.
3) Lessons in life. War is never a great thing. Both the winner and the vanquished suffer the same amount of torture in their claim to victory.