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The Afghan Campaign: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Steven Pressfield
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  66 reviews
Sales Rank: 57621
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0767922387
EAN: 9780767922388
ASIN: 0767922387
Publication Date: June 5, 2007
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Product Description
2,300 years ago an unbeaten army of the West invaded the homeland of a fierce Eastern tribal foe. This is one soldier’s story . . .
The bestselling novelist of ancient warfare returns with a riveting historical novel that re-creates Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Afghan kingdoms in 330 b.c.
In a story that might have been ripped from today’s combat dispatches, Steven Pressfield brings to life the confrontation between an invading Western army and fierce Eastern warriors determined at all costs to defend their homeland. Narrated by an infantryman in Alexander’s army, The Afghan Campaign explores the challenges, both military and moral, that Alexander and his soldiers face as they embark on a new type of war and are forced to adapt to the methods of a ruthless foe that employs terror and insurgent tactics. An edge-of-your-seat adventure, The Afghan Campaign once again demonstrates Pressfield’s profound understanding of the hopes and desperation of men in battle and of the historical realities that continue to influence our world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 61 more reviews...
 Like being there for the making of history July 21, 2006
Joe Tye (Iowa)
36 out of 57 found this review helpful
Steven Pressfield transports readers to another time and place like no author I've read since James Clavell's Shogun. Having read each of his previous novels, I've been anxiously waiting for "The Afghan Campaign." It's exceeded my every expectation. He puts flesh and bone on the historical skeleton of Alexander's campaigns, then fills the veins with blood. If you want to understand why Afghanistan became a graveyard for the Soviet army, or gain a whole new level of sympathy and respect for American troops serving there now, read this book. And if you're a writer or a would-be writer, watch how this master of the craft makes a foreign landscape become so real that you can almost remember having been there yourself.
One warning: if you do pick up "The Afghan Campaign,: you might also want to get some Visine, because once you start reading, it's probably going to be the middle of the night before you finally put it down.
 Serious disappointment November 11, 2006
N. Perz (St. Louis)
34 out of 55 found this review helpful
What this book is lacking most is a plot. Most of the book is just the main character walking around from place to place. What is more disturbing, however, is how out-of-place the character's moralizing seems to me.
Of course, I wasn't in Macedonia in the 4th Century B.C.E. but all the soul-searching about the horrors of war seem awfully Western-liberal-Christian-21st Century to me. Pressfield imports a completely foreign value-system and superimposes it on his story, undermining any authenticity for the book.
The third major flaw is the predictable and contrived way he set's up his tragic ending. I won't spoil it but, when you're done I'll bet you'll find it as unsatisfying as I did.
Sure the book has good points (which others here have lauded far beyond their justification) but, over all, this is a disappointment--especially when I know he can put out good stuff ("Gates of Fire," "Virtues of War," "The Last Amazon.")
`A different kind of war.' March 2, 2008
J. Cameron-Smith (ACT, Australia)
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
Weaving fiction around historical fact, Stephen Pressfield, has written a novel based on Alexander the Great's 3 year campaign (from 330 BC) to conquer Afghanistan.
We experience the campaign through the eyes of Matthias, one of the Macedonian infantry who forms part of Alexander's army. This is a different kind of war - proud warrior tribes who are willing to die for their cause and do not recognise the same rules of warfare as their invaders. Mr Pressfield brings these distant times to life: the sights, suffering, smells, despairs and occasional triumphs. The descriptions of life on campaign contrast the best and worst of human behaviour. His vignettes of Alexander reinforce the charismatic nature of Alexander's leadership and reinforce why he earned the designation `Great'.
Reading this novel, with its pain, heartbreak, triumph and failure, it is difficult not to draw parallels with more recent, and even current, wars.
I would recommend this novel to those who like fiction set in this period and who are interested in the life and times of Alexander the Great. I'd also recommend this novel to those who seek some historical perspective on Afghanistan.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
 A phoney premise July 27, 2006
MJ (Clearwater, FL)
12 out of 31 found this review helpful
This book is based on a phoney historical premise: that Alexander's campaigns in what is now Afghanistan (it wasn't called that back then) bear any resemblance to what the modern Western powers are trying to do there today. For one thing, unlike Alexander's Greeks, the United States isn't attempting to add Afghanistan to its territory. For another, religion was not such a divisive factor in Alexander's time as it is today. One could go on and on listing the differences.
What Pressfield and his publishers are really trying to do, it appears, is to make his material seem politically "relevant". One could feel sorry for the enterprise if the ploy wasn't so transparently handled. One of the unfortunate consequences of this, though, is that it implicitly equates Americans with Macedonians. This is misleading--ancient people were not the same as moderns, no matter how much we want to admire them.
The writing is uninspired stuff typical of Pressfield since "Gates of Fire." He's clearly trying to recreate the success of that book, but he hasn't really come close since. It might be better for Pressfield to try his hand at some other kind of historical material soon. The change might bring him some much needed inspiration.
"Mute, pitiless, and remote, Afghanistan's deity gives up nothing" July 31, 2006
Chuckleberry (New York, USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Though Pressfield draws many intriguing and insightful connections from Alexander's Afghan war to conflicts in the region at present, the parallels are not what makes the book the masterpiece it is. Indeed, it is merely a patch in the great mosaic he has created for the reader; one must not overlook the other outstanding qualities inherent in the characters and the myriad emotions and trials they go through. For the book is about many things. It is that ageless story of an innocent transformed into a heartless instrument of war, of forbidden love, and of friendship bolstered by blood. Romance, war, horror, and tragedy. The reader will find all of these in "The Afghan Campaign."
The book follows a young Macedonian youth named Matthias, who enlists as a mercenary in Alexander's army as it leaves the glories and supreme wealth of Persia. Matthias and his lifelong friend, Lucas, are eager to join up with relatives already in service and to partake in the triumphs of conquest. Yet, in Afghanistan, the foe will not fight a conventional battle. Using guerilla tactics and unspeakable acts of torture, the various tribes of the region, under the command of Spitamenes (who manages to outwit even Alexander), lure the undefeated army into a hellish conflict. Falling in with a group of hardened veterans (each one a memorable and intriguing character), Matthias and Lucas struggle to stay alive, safeguard their friends, and salvage what little bit of humanity they can out of a war where massacre and apathy are the norm.
The best attribute of the book is the sense of realism. Pressfield tosses you a half-pike and sends you into the unforgiving mountains of tribal Afghanistan. Not one detail, however unthinkable or disgusting, is left out, giving the reader a true idea of what war, in any time period, is like. You feel the grit and taste the blood. From the nausea of slashing the throat of a bound, pleading, and possibly innocent captive to the stench of a battlefield covered in horse excrement, the book will, in effect, make the reader a witness to war. Pressfield has obviously taken ample time to thoroughly research all pertaining subject matters.
For those who have read a Pressfield book before, there is no reason you should waste time reading this review. The author has served up another classic akin to Gates of Fire. For others, I cannot even put down on paper the emotions I experienced whilst reading this brilliant piece of historical fiction. Whether you are looking for a great, complex, and informative read or want to learn more about the problems going on in the Middle East now and throughout history, this is your book.
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