The Life of Alexander the Great

by Nicholas J. Saunders

Turn the page and take a step back in time

From the Stories From History series, The Life of Alexander the Great takes a completely factual look at Alexander the Great, one of the World’s greatest military leaders. This book is presented in a fast-paced, edgy graphic novel format including bright, action-packed scenes.

Becoming King of Macedonia after his father was assassinated in 336 B.C. Though his life was short-lived, he died unexpectedly at the age of 32, he conquered most of the known world, making Macedonia the strongest empire in the world at that time. The Life of Alexander the Great is sure to capture any reader’s attention and turn even the most casual reader into a history buff

Features:

• Full-Color illustrations

• Fact Boxes

• Timeline, glossary, and index

Tales from the past meet modern-day storytelling Epic battles, secret plots, and brave warriors await readers in the nonfiction Stories From History series. Discover history in a fast-paced format, taking readers right to the action History has never been this exciting Check out the other titles in this series

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Nicholas J. Saunders is the world’s leading authority on the anthropological archaeology of the First world war. A lecturer in the department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol, he undertook the first-ever study of Great war material culture as a British Academy Senior Research Fellow at University College London between 1998 and 2004. His exhibition of trench art from the war was for five years a centrepiece of the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium. He has published more than twenty-five books, including Trench Art, Killing Time, Alexander’s Tomb and Matters of Conflict, and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC, the National Geographic Channel and the History Channel. He co-directs two major Great war archaeological projects, in Jordan and Slovenia, and lives in west Sussex.

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a quick and dirty guide to Alexander the Great's life, this book will work. I'm not an expert on him, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the details in this book, but I can say that they are presented in a simplified form that is easy to read. In some cases, it may be too simplified, but overall, it is a nice abbreviated guide to his life. That being said, it could have been presented in a more interesting way, and often times details weren't followed up on or were presented in a disjointed way.

The art was pretty bad at times as well -- especially in the faces. Some people looked like their faces were melting, and others looked like they had no necks. Between that and the way the writing was put together it made me feel like this was a book produced by a company that wanted to fill a niche, so they chose a bunch of historical figures and made the book as fast as they could. I don't know if that's what really happened and I don't care enough about this book to research it, I'm just saying that's how it comes off based on quality. Overall, I'm sure there are better short guides to Alexander the Great's life, but this one will do if you're looking for something extremely simplified and if you can ignore the illustrations.