Recommendations from our site
“There are quite a lot of novels about Alexander and I think that, of them all, Mary Renault’s is the most readable and the most entertaining. It’s the first of what’s called the Alexander Trilogy, although it’s a slightly odd trilogy and the third volume, Funeral Games takes place after Alexander’s death. Mary Renault really knew her sources. She really understands the material. She has another particular interest and that’s in homosexuality. So, both in Fire from Heaven and in the second volume The Persian Boy, there’s quite a lot of focus on Alexander and male lovers.” Read more...
The best books on Alexander the Great
Hugh Bowden, Historian
Fire from Heaven is the first book in Mary Renault’s Alexander the Great trilogy. The novel starts when he’s a young boy and takes us through to the point when his father, Philip of Macedon, is assassinated. The book was recommended to us by Hugh Bowden, Professor of Ancient History at King’s College London, as one of the best books about Alexander the Great. The other two books in the trilogy are The Persian Boy and Funeral Games, which is set after Alexander’s death. If you like the first, you’ll probably want to read them all.
