Cyrus the Persian

by Sherman A. Nagel

The most fascinating story that a man could write is that kind which deals with history that God has shaped. CYRUS THE PERSIAN is that kind of a story, intensely alive and absorbing, because it is drawn from the history of the Jewish people up to the time of their delivery under Cyrus the Great, King of the Medes and the Persians.

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because I found a signed first edition in my great uncle's possessions. Boy was it a let down. It's part history, part useless platitudes, part preaching, and part fiction. It skipped around, would start talking about modern issues, and have whole paragraphs full of weird platitudes that preached at the reader. Nagel couldn't for the life of him stay focused on the story. At one point he seemed to be doing well with describing a wedding scene, but then only said "it was much like the wedding described in a previous chapter." What?? You spend chapters building up to it and don't even describe it? A weirdly constructed, poorly written, and altogether bad book. Somehow it also managed to be a tad antisemitic at times in a book about the Jewish people. I'll keep the book because it's a family heirloom of sorts, but I definitely won't be rereading it or recommending it to anyone.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I found this book in our local homeschool library, I thought I'd give it a chance. When my husband asked me how it was, I concluded that it was definitely a product of its time (1940s?), and it reminded somewhat of those old Hollywood Bible movies from the 50's. The platitudes and asides to the reader killed what might have been a decent-ish story. Another distraction was the fact that the text seemed to be created on a typewriter, with no one taking the time to fix misspellings and such for this reprinted version. I definitely decided that this book wasn't a candidate for a read aloud or something to one day pass off to my kids to read on their own when I read the part about one of the kings getting revenge on a nobleman by serving his son to him in a soup!

[M.K. Laffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and engaging plot and an easy-to-read yet descriptive narrative made this book an enjoyable read. In addition, it was also fascinating to read about a part and character of history I hadn’t known much about prior to reading this book.

[Heidi Morrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great inclusion to our Ancient Civilizations and the Bible for our junior high student.

[Joya Schrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. And I have read a lot of books. The author, Sherman A. Nagel, has taken a story from history and made it into a fun and interesting book. This book also has a biblical side to it as Cyrus’ birth was prophesied about years before he was born. He was going to the king over the Medes and the Persians. It is a historically accurate book with details that make it a delight to read. Cyrus’ life story is very interesting because as a child he didn’t know that he was royalty. He grew up as the son of a shepherd because his maternal grandfather had tried to kill him. He eventually discovered who he was and embraced his heritage.
What I really like about this book is how it shows and explains this story in a way that won’t bore a high school student or an adult. It was full of suspense and drama. At times there was violence and death but just enough to keep us interested. In this book there is just enough of everything. There is a little bit of romance, drama, war, murder, secrets, and lies throughout the whole book but not an overwhelming amount.
This book is definitely worth your time to read. I couldn’t stop reading it and so it only took me a couple of days to read.