RECENSIONE IN ITALIANO: QUI
Good morning everyone I’m Elena thanks for being on Alessandro III di Macedonia- Alexander the Great and Hellenism, today I’m telling you about my latest reading which after a few essays is a historical fiction and… wow! Read the review to find out more!
Dancing with the Lion #2 Rise
by Jeanne Reames
Riptide Publishing, 2019
ISBN: 978-1626499010, 324 pages
The story of Alexander before he became “the Great.”
Finished with schooling, Alexandros is appointed regent of Makedon while his father is away on campaign. He thrives with his new authority—this is the role he was born for — yet it creates conflict with his mother and Hephaistion. And when his soldiers, whom he leads with unexpected skill, start to call him “The Little King,” his father is less than delighted.
Tensions escalate between Alexandros and his father, and between Makedon and the city-states of southern Greece. As the drums of war sound, king and crown prince quarrel during their march to meet the Greeks in combat. Among other things, his father wants to know he can produce heirs, and thinks he should take a mistress, an idea Alexandros resists.
After the south is pacified, friction remains between Alexandros and the king. Hostilities explode at festivities for his father’s latest wedding, forcing Alexandros to flee in the middle of the night with his mother and Hephaistion. The rigors of exile strain his relationships, but the path to the throne will be his biggest challenge yet: a face-off for power between the talented young cub and the seasoned old lion.
Jeanne Reames received her PhD from the Pennsylvania State University in 1998, where she studied Macedonian history under Eugene N. Borza. In 2000, she was hired by the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and is now tenured faculty in the History Department, director of the Ancient Mediterranean Studies Program, and has served as History Graduate Program Chair.
In addition to short fiction, she’s published several academic articles and book chapters about Alexander and his court, as well as co-edited Macedonian Legacies with Tim Howe. Currently, she’s working on a biography of Hephaistion and pursuing research in Macedonian religion. She’s maintained an educational website about Hephaistion for almost two decades: jeannereames.net/Hephaistion/index.html.
She will probably continue Alexander and Hephaistion’s story on into their Asian adventures sometime in the future, but is presently at work on a science-fiction series involving Dionysos and Ariadne.
She’s visited Greece several times, driving all over Macedonia, Epiros, and even into Bulgaria (ancient Thrace). Although she enjoys the Greek Islands (especially Naxos), her heart belongs to the mountains of the north.
On her last trip, she made a number of vlogs showing the land and some important sites mentioned in the novel. You can take a virtual tour on her website, or uncover other goodies and background information about Alexander and his homeland.
Website: jeannereames.net/Dancing_with_the_Lion/DwtL.html
On Facebook: facebook.com/jeanne.reames.3
On Instagram: instagram.com/jeannereames
On Twitter: twitter.com/Jeanne_Reames
Reading date: from November 13 to December 1st, 2022.
I read Becoming practically two years ago and it’s normal for me not to read the books of a series one after the other, because in this way I extend the series I like for more time. This book was a confirmation and a surprise: a confirmation because already in Becoming, the first book on Alexander’s youth, we see that it’s written by a great connoisseur of the time as well as a good storyteller and this saga or diptych can only grow and improve, therefore it is above all a surprise because until a few days ago I thought that the best novel read so far on Alexander was Manfredi’s Alexandros trilogy but now I really believe that if someone asks me this question from now on I’ll answer “The diptych Dancing with the Lion by Jeanne Reames.” You’ll understand why I get so unbalanced, which I rarely do.
With this book we immerse ourselves in the story of the young Alexander from the years 340 to 336 and it is beautiful how history and historical fiction are mixed and united: the author’s choices are made to give depth and continuity to the narrative. Those who know Alexander’s story well will be pleased and even surprised to see how this part of the young leader’s life is told by Reames because they will find everything they already know but also something more, i.e. scenes of daily life that make the narration profound and the real story, we read about the beautiful glimpses of the life of Alexander, Hephaestion with the people close to them. The beauty of the novel is also to know why certain things happened and without telling you too much I can mention the Alexander’s exile, a beautiful part, full of meaning and a turning point in the youth of the protagonist, the Pixodarus‘ affair or the arrival of Kampaspē. There are also references to Platonic philosophy and to the authors Alexander knew.
Slowly we follow Alexander in his growth, we see him mature, gain more confidence and become more dedicated to work, he will begin to understand first-hand how power and command work. The authores has given space to Hephaestion and her relationship with Amyntor in contrast with that of Alexander with Philip. Both men were fathers to their children but they used very different ways and means.
Another very important person for Alexander was his mother Olympias and here we see how the boy swung almost like a pendulum between his mother and father, between trusting one and doubting the other, because after all he was still a young man. The author clearly shows the personalities of Philip and Olympias without taking them to extremes or making them fall into stereotypes but rather they are made human, as they were.
Hephaestion has a very important role for Alexander and also in the saga, he is the co-protagonist and this book will test him in different ways, with losses that will mark him. The relationship between him and Alexander will also evolve and it’s good to read how and in what way. This saga has merits compared to Manfredi’s books because it clearly shows the relationship between the two boys and does so without hiding but not even falling into the vulgar or too much. Being able to describe and give the right importance to Hephaestion is not easy but I think it is due, not to those who want to read about the relationship between two men, but to Alexander and this is the first novel that manages to do it well. Reames finds that difficult balance of describing the scenes between the two in a perfect way: they are lovers but also friends who grow up with their insecurities and problems. The explicit scenes aren’t put to please the malicious readers but it is as if they are an integral part of the story and don’t indulge in superfluous details. At one point the two reverse roles in bed but the topic is treated with the right importance and the implications it had at the time.
The narration is from the point of view of an omniscient third person in the past tense following the various characters, mostly Alexander and Hephaestion but also Cleopatra, Philip and others. The author inserts several times in a harmonious and unforced way the most famous quotations taken from ancient sources but adapted and made by her. The environments, uses and customs are explained and described in a natural way, without forcing or making it seem that you are reading a history manual and in this you can see that the hand is of a great connoisseur of the time.
There are many scenes that I liked and I can’t tell you all because it would ruin your reading, but there are some beautiful scenes between father and son (both between Alexander and Philip and between Hephaestion and Amyntor), between brothers, of battle, friendship, just think about what Alexander lived in those years and you can understand something more.
Reames has so far written two books of her history on Alexander and this one ends with the killing of Philip. I’m sure that if she will continue to write this saga like these first two books of about 300 pages each, something wonderful would result. I think that at this rate you could write another three or four books without problems and if these two are so beautiful how would they be those who would talk about the rest, those who would tell the episodes for which we like Alexander so much? How would Alexander mature and what would his thoughts be? I can’t help but dream of having the whole saga complete and I’m sure it would (or will be?) be a masterpiece even if it already is for Alexander’s youth. Usually I don’t get overwhelmed like this but it’s also true that I don’t always read novels written by academics and researchers (why doesn’t it happen more often?) but the value lies precisely in the background of knowledge they have. Reames also has excellent storytelling skills, because writing an essay is not the same as writing a novel. In short, I dream of having the saga of Alexander’s entire life fictionalized by Dr. Reames.
I was moved in three points: two concerning Hephaestion and think about it, in the Historical Note because there are some beautiful sentences about Alexander. In Rise unlike Becoming but was specified there, at the end there is the historical note, a note on the sources, the family trees and the acknowledgments. Also on the Reames website that you can find at the end of her author synopsis (above but also in the book) there are many more special contents and also some extra stories that I will read soon!
Rise too, like Becoming, in the English edition is available in two covers, those designed by L.C. Chase like mine, or in a more academic version like this one below.
I absolutely advise you to read this diptych, I hope that a third book will come out in a row because it would be wonderful to continue reading about the Alexander and Hephaestion written by Reames, because we have yet to read the best. I hope that this series will be read by more people and that it will slowly be translated into more languages because as well as being very well written it is also good for getting to know the young Alexander better. It’s also a novel that entertains, excites and moves, a sliding and beautiful read. I can’t wait to read the Italian edition (which I announced HERE) and rest assured that as soon as there is news I will update you! Speaking of the Italian edition, I’m happy that there will be because it will be a wonderful reading that will bring even more people closer to Alexander. I can’t wait, really!
I underlined many sentences which I reproduce below.
Quotes:
“Don’t get cocky on me, now,” he said, because he didn’t know how to say, I’m proud of you.
Yet what could he say? She’d carried him for nine months and never let him forget it hadn’t been an easy pregnancy.
Was it true? Alone, would he achieve nothing? His father on one side, his mother on the other. Was there nothing to which he could put his own name?
When he gave direct orders, they obeyed with more alacrity than he might have expected but knew it was temporary. They liked his success, but didn’t respect—or fear—him enough to follow orders when he was out of sight.
Command involved more than winning battles.
“That’s the past. We’re judged by what’s next.”
“Our lives are already at risk. Every day we live, it’s a risk of some sort.”
“Not every man has the luck to see Hermes’s hand held out before his shade is demanded of him.”
A man’s firstborn was the child of his pride; the last, the child of his heart.
“If you can’t trust your own son with plans before they’re chiseled in stone, how can you expect him to trust you?”
“A man can only trust as far as he’s trusted himself, even one of your own blood.”
“It’s not what the world makes us, but what we make of ourselves.”
“Your household is the affair of everyone, King Philippos.”
Makedonian kings rarely used honorifics. If one needed to be called king, one wasn’t; Philippos understood the insult precisely.
Sometimes kindness mattered more than rightness.
Age didn’t matter; a son was never ready to lose his father.
“You’re an idealist, Aleko. You want Plato’s Reality instead of the shadows on the wall, but shadows are what most men see.”
“The sun is always better than shadows, even if it blinds us at first.”
“I’ll run in the Olympics when I have kings to run against.”
“Oa! It’s not a matter of trust. You’re not immortal. Back at Mieza, Aristoteles asked if I could sacrifice you if I had to. As king. I said no. He said I wasn’t ready to be king then.”
“You’re the only one who can make me feel everything. Good, bad, everything. Only you completely rip me up inside. How can I be king when you make me so bedamned weak?”
“Of course you do. It still scares the shite out of me. Is my fear for you worth less than yours for me? But I don’t try to stop you. It’s who you are. I knew, when I fell in love with a prince, that I’d probably bury you before you buried me.” Rising, he crossed to look right in Alexandros’s eyes. Naked in both body and soul. They still didn’t touch. “But if it’s my fate to die before you, to protect you or for some other reason, love me enough to let me die well, with honor. Give me a good funeral. See that my lands go to my baby brother, not my greedy cousins. Cry for me, then get on with living. That’s all I ask. Aleko, there’s no such thing as too much love; that’s not akratía. An abundance of selfishness is. If you truly love me, you won’t protect me to dishonor—yours or mine.”
“Don’t let inflated ideas of justice get you killed.”
A man became what his choices made him.
Alexander’s magnetism in life has been rivaled only by his magnetism after death.
By their very nature, stories touch the capacity of the heart, move us in ways visceral as much as intellectual.
My decision to use Greek forms arose from a desire to create ambiance, but I do have an ulterior motive. In trying to bring the world of Alexander closer to our own, I don’t want readers to confuse them. As similar as they seem at times, they were not like us.
In the end, whatever approach one takes to Alexander, whatever theories one subscribes to, more or less hostile to the conqueror, we are left with the man himself in all his complexity and contradiction. The phenomenon called “Alexander the Great” has evoked vastly different interpretations from his era to ours. It’s tempting to seek internal consistency for his behavior, or to force it when it can’t be found.
So Alexander was neither demon nor god, whatever he wanted to believe about himself. He was a man, capable of cruelty and sympathy, brilliance and blindness, paranoia and an open-handed generosity.
As remarkable as he was, he was human.
And that’s what makes him interesting.
Thank you all for reading and we hope to have new information about this saga soon! Good day,
Alessandro III di Macedonia 
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