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A review by jjmann3
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
4.0
“The wild god wandered, through Thrace and across Hellespont, over the Phrygian heights and south to Karia. His worshippers who had shared his joy did not forsake him, but stayed to share his madness. It brought them ecstasy, for even his madness was divine. He followed the Asian coast to Egypt, whose wise race welcomed him; he rested there to learn their wisdom and teach them his. Then filled with madness and divinity, he set out over the unmeasured leagues of Asia, travelling east.”
Renault’s “Fire From Heaven” is a searing, soaring dream that takes you to the broken home and childhood that spawned Alexander, both the boy and man content at never sitting still. The prose is beautiful and sometimes haunting. I couldn’t help but think about the story constantly, even when I wasn’t reading. A good barometer of historical fiction is how often it takes you to research the time and lives you are reading about. Questions arising from Fire From Heaven’s historical background contributed to the length of time I took to read this near masterpiece.
As intriguing as it is, Fire From Heaven is just that -- a near masterpiece. At more than a handful of times, I found the dialogue to be awkward, vague, and masked. I enjoy reading carefully at times, but I found some of the transitions between the dialogue to be unnecessarily, and at times, frustratingly, opaque. This definitely isn’t a sit-back-and-enjoy book. It requires commitment, research, and, at times re-reading.
Renault’s “Fire From Heaven” is a searing, soaring dream that takes you to the broken home and childhood that spawned Alexander, both the boy and man content at never sitting still. The prose is beautiful and sometimes haunting. I couldn’t help but think about the story constantly, even when I wasn’t reading. A good barometer of historical fiction is how often it takes you to research the time and lives you are reading about. Questions arising from Fire From Heaven’s historical background contributed to the length of time I took to read this near masterpiece.
As intriguing as it is, Fire From Heaven is just that -- a near masterpiece. At more than a handful of times, I found the dialogue to be awkward, vague, and masked. I enjoy reading carefully at times, but I found some of the transitions between the dialogue to be unnecessarily, and at times, frustratingly, opaque. This definitely isn’t a sit-back-and-enjoy book. It requires commitment, research, and, at times re-reading.