A review by berenikeasteria
Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault

5.0

Where to begin in reviewing such a classic of historical fiction? I’ve read Mary Renault before – The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea; engrossing tales based on the legend of the Greek hero Theseus but grounded in a more historical, plausible world by Renault – but this was my first time reading Renault’s magnum opus. Fire From Heaven is the first book in a trilogy about Alexander the Great, and covers the conqueror’s life from childhood through to the moment he became king at the age of just 20 years old, and is far and away her best work. Frankly, it puts The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea in the shade.

Renault has an innate sense of time and place, situating the story within its historical and cultural context with sublime skill and understanding. This is such a critical point in immersing the reader in the story. As some who loves both history and reading, it’s fair to say I actively seek out novels recreating the ancient past, and it’s equally fair to say that some of them disappoint the historian in me. I’ve read historical fiction where it’s obvious that the author has completely failed to understand the times he or she is writing about, failed to understand the culture, society, and thought of ancient peoples. For me it’s incredibly frustrating, not to mention jarring, when I want nothing more than to be immersed in ancient Rome or Egypt, only to find myself on a 21st century stage with unconvincing cardboard sets and characters spouting dialogue espousing 21st century values. It’s cringe-inducing. Thank goodness for wonderful writers like Mary Renault. A rarefied few, and I happily count Renault among their number, seem to have genuinely researched the period they’re writing about and succeeded in getting inside their characters’ heads – not to mention, skilfully conveyed this on the page, another challenge entirely. It’s a vicarious experience for a historian – just about the closest to time travel we’ll ever get – and I’m pleased to say Fire From Heaven swept me away to ancient Macedon.

Characterisations are rendered not only deftly but with astonishing vividness and humanity. Renault clearly had a talent for understanding the human condition, and how to make her characters breathe with believable warmth, spirit, and life. It’s easy to forget that the Alexander presented here is a product of Renault’s imagination. His subtle and complex characterisation gives a stamp of authenticity that adds tremendously to the quality of the story. If I can believe a character could exist in real life as an actual human being, my immersion in the tale and my empathy for those characters is exponentially increased. Often, the books I most frequently DNF are those populated by implausible, two-dimensional characters, existing in an inauthentic, fake setting. “It’s only fiction” is quite the rallying cry amongst historical fiction debates – but, for me, it’s got to be believable fiction. Renault actually makes a decision in Fire From Heaven that tweaked my historian’s accuracy radar: in the story Ptolemy is Alexander’s bastard half-brother. As a Ptolemaic enthusiast I’ve got to acknowledge that, on balance of the evidence, it seems extremely unlikely to have actually been the case. But that didn’t keep me from enjoying the book. It’s a minor alteration that ultimately doesn’t affect the plot, and it’s slipped in to a world that is otherwise highly researched and feels real, not just in the facts but in the humanity of the people. The critical factor is not the accuracy, but the believability, and this is something that Renault was a master at creating. Moreover, she doesn’t shy away from allowing the book to have a complex plot, allowing the characters to be complex, contradictory, unexpected human beings – unlike the oversimplified, dumbed down, liquidised historical fiction that some popular authors prefer to spoon feed their readership – and this is why Fire From Heaven succeeds as a novel, and does so spectacularly.

10 out of 10