I am interested in the Alexander novels you recommended because I am looking for some good ones.

I already read both trilogy from Mary Renault and Valerio Manfredi and I am disappointed with both of them. For Mary, she obviously mixed up love with lust and considered a pleasure toy also a true love. So Chinese emperors (I came from China) had hundreds and thousands of 'true love's. I never disliked Bagoas. He was a normal eunuch who would compete for his master's favor by hook or by crook, and he would be eager to please any master. If Alexander was defeated he would be more than happy to serve a new master, but then most people, not just eunuchs, would do the same thing. He gave his masters (Darius, Alexander, whoever) pleasure and they gave him money and status in return. Fair deal. But it is a total joke to think there is something more to their so-called 'relationship'.

For Valerio Manfredi, I think the first one is great but the second and third one terrible. The second one should be renamed Memnon and Barsine because that’s what the book is all about. In history Alexander defeated Memnon within a year of his campaign and the mercenary died soon after. In the book Memnon was a military genius while Alexander helpless and scared of him. Alexander was depicted as a lovesick teenager who was infatuated with Barsine and completely under her spell. And Roxanne the perfect wonderful wife who was thoroughly devoted instead of the illiterate, uneducated barbarian who was also a cold-blooded murderer. Oh my.

I bought the 'A choice of destinies' upon your recommendation and I just start reading it. I plan to buy "The young Alexander the Great" for my 9-year-old son, only to find it cost $60, and I gave up. Is there anything else you would recommend?

Hua

oh my god this is terrible!
I knew Phain would forget everything, including himself, I knew it!
but... but ! why had you really made this worst scenario happen T T
(sorry I'm going crazy here _)

'I thought the gods were with me… now I know they were only laughing at me, watching me fly closer and closer to the sun so they could melt my wings… "

I love this line.

I LOVE this story!

Oh. My god. That was brilliant, perfect. I love you. D I'm sort of incoherant right now, but you have my deepest thanks. This should've been what really happened! XD Thank you so much for writing this. It was absolutely awesome.

Oh. My God.

This story is amazing. I love the caracterisation, your writing, it's all amazingly balanced. Alexander's despair and...

HOW DOES THIS STORY NOT HAVE MORE REVIEWS?D

This is just a marvelous story.

Like others have mentioned, I wish Drypetis and Stateira had gone back with Alexander and Hephaistion just because NOT going back could have been dangerous for them.

I wondered if your Hephaistion had slept with Drypetis after he came back (after all he WAS married to her and he was always trying to fit back into his life). I just want him to be a father so much. I would have liked to read it.

This was the first of your long-form stories that I read and I like it so much. The ideas that go thru it - I love the concept of amnesia. OF COURSE he drank the waters of forgetfulness. It makes perfect sense.

I always wondered WHY he never regained full health. It appeared to me that GOD took the "excess" life from Alexander which made him such a great king and conqueror so that Hephaistion got the essentials for life but none of his own robustness back. I am so sorry he never regained full strength.

Or maybe eating his momma's cooking would do it.

Thank you so much for your notes regarding Choice of Destinies; I would so much like to read a story based on that book; however, I don't know if it would be kosher. I want Alexander to get to the Outer Ocean right at the Pillars of Hercules, wouldn't that be terrific?

I don't get the ending...My head is pounding...

Great writing as usual, you always have me engaged. )

Ah...it just shows you! don't fight with the gods, or there will be a price to pay. poor hephaistion. absolutely rivetted, can't stop reading. you've disrupted my life haha.

nicely done.

xox

Wow

I am completely hooked :O

Wish I had something constructive to say, but your writing seems flawless to me.

I enjoyed your story a lot.

Unfortunately the real Alexander was so blinded by his chase for glory and his ambitions that he never knew when to stop. He achieved so much but I fell that he never gave himself the chance to slow down and really enjoy his accomplishments. He was just never content with what he got until he lost Hephaistion.

You spun a great tale about what could have been if Alexander would have gotten a second chance. Keep up the good work!

Well... Let me start saying my english is not good. I can read, understad and speak, but not write, he, he. Sorry.

Anyway, I just had to try to say to you how I feel about your fics; your Alexander fics n.n

I love reading fics, specially slash. I already read all your other Alexander fics; they are all great!. Every time I read a fic I like, I see the author name and most of the times, it was you!

But this is the fic that defenetly pushed me to emberres my salf trying to write in other lenguage just to tell you all this. I was reluctant to read "The Evory Eros" because the summary said that Phy died... And I cry easily... So... 9.9

But when I was out of fics to read, I give it a try. And I cryied like a baby on the first chapter, but now that Phy is alive, I can go on.

Is 2:17 am where I am, and I konw now that a wont go to bed till I finish reading this fic!

So keep the good work! And I hope you could understad a word of all this I just write... he, he

Long but GREAT story! And... Ha! I knew Alexander had missed the gigantic problem with Olympias! Poor fellow, too content to realize that sooner, heh...

The description of the characters are very exquisite and detailed, and this is just the exact ending I've been contemplating for Alexander had Hephaestion not died.

Splendid story and enjoyable to read!

What a wonderful conclusion. Alexander at long last learns the very high price he must pay for the resurrection of his beloved Hephaestion. I'm happy to see that after a hard struggle with himself he realizes there are things more important than his pothos and longings for endless wars and conquests. The Ivory Eros is a most demanding master. What he asks from Alexander is the things that are hardest for him to give up! At the same time he saves the King from himself and the Unlucky Fate is averted.

This is what I would have liked for our friends in *real* history. A happy return to their native country, living in domestic bliss. Through the AR concept and your clever imagination this has been made possible!

Only one thing makes me feel sorry. You give Hephaestion such a big and happy family to return to. Due to dynastic troubles and power for struggle the only one waiting for Alexander is - the Queen Olympias! Something tells me their reunion won't be all that happy...

All the best wishes,

/NorthernLight

Hello moon 71,

This is such a wonderful AR, using its possibilities to the very best. I just love your clever blend of Greek Mythology and *real* history in your wonderful resurrection of Hephaestion. Losing his memory by drinking from the Waters of Lethe seems like a curse - but it also gives him a truly new life! It's quiet a humorous touch, letting him confront his detractors again, asking them why they did hold such dislike for him. No wonder Eumenes was speechless!

It's most exciting, Hephaestion having to start all from *scratch*, exploring all the facets of life and his powerful position as a new and IMO better man! He has even forgotten his love for his Beautiful Golden One - but fortunately all comes back to him again.

Your Ivory Eros surely is a good and beneficial deity, very far from the Evil Discord in your other story.

I like this story a lot, you being able to give our friends a new and happy life together by means of the AR concept. It has become one of my very favorites in the Alexander universe.

All the best wishes,

/NorthernLight