Salamis
The fifth novel in Christian Cameron’s Long War series set in ancient Greece begins after the gates of Thermopylae have fallen. With a Persian invasion now seemingly inevitable, some Greek states are already evacuating their citizens while the allied Greek fleet sits on the beach arguing about what to do next. The hero of this series, Arimnestos of Plataea, takes the lead in welding together this fragile Greek naval alliance so they can take on the Great King, Xerxes, and the greatest fleet every assembled. It is his personal battle to defeat both Persian and Greek enemies that will determine the fate of the western world as the book builds towards the climactic and decisive battle of Salamis.
Using the framing device of Arimnestos telling a campfire tale to his daughter and friends, Cameron provides an extended prologue to fill readers new to the series in on the events of the previous four novels before jumping into the action-packed narrative of Salamis. The author is exceptionally skilful at battle descriptions, creating fight scenes that live and breathe while panning back and forth with impressive smoothness from large-scale battles involving hundreds of ships to the close-up horror of hand to hand combat. But Cameron really impresses in combining that military expertise with dextrous characterisation and vibrant story telling as Arminestos and a huge cast of characters love, live and die. At the same time, strategic and political viewpoints are not neglected, and the author manages to keep a healthy balance between action and exposition. The research is convincing and Salamis is full of seemingly authentic period detail that always serves the story. This is an outstanding historical novel with much to attract historical fiction fans of all genres.
