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Fire from Heaven

A Novel of Alexander the Great

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Fire from Heaven

By: Mary Renault
Narrated by: Roger May
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Summary

Alexander's beauty, strength and defiance were apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed those gifts into the makings of a king. His mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son's loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle.

His love for the youth Hephaistion taught him trust, while Aristotle's tutoring provoked his mind and Homer's Iliad fuelled his aspirations. Killing his first man in battle at the age of twelve, he became regent at sixteen and commander of Macedon's cavalry at eighteen, so that by the time his father was murdered, Alexander's skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.

©1969 Mary Renault (P)2014 Audible Studios Ancient Fiction Historical Fiction Ancient History Ancient Greece Royalty
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Critic reviews

"Renault's skill is in immersing us in their world, drawing us into its strangeness, its violence and beauty.... a literary conjuring trick.... so convincing and passionately conjured." (The Times)

"The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat." (Sarah Waters)
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When I was in my teens, 40 years back, they had 3 Mary Renault books in my local branch library in Rochdale . These books opened up a world of stunning imagination and colour to me and I devoured all three - The King Must Die, The Bull from the Sea and the Mask of Apollo.

Many years later I downloaded this novel, and all the rest of Renault's historical novels, and for sure these books have lost nothing whatever for me. This woman writes like an angel. This is prose of the very highest class. I have reread and relistened and enjoyed them every time.

The Ancient Greece-based titles are all historical in a sense. Certainly Mask of Apollo, the Praise Singer and Last of the Wine include historical characters of one kind or another, but more of an exploration of the time and place, with relationships and characters woven through them. In that respect I think perhaps Ken Follett's Kingsbridge novels are comparable. Whereas the Kingsbridge book are vast in scope, their characters and themes are fairly straightforward, although always compelling.

Mary Renault's stories, characters, relationships and themes are on a different level of sophistication, and even more beautifully written than Follett.

Meanwhile, Fire from Heaven and the other Alexander the Great books are true historical fiction. I have never read better examples of the art for sure. Hilary Mantel has nothing on this. Telling the story of Alexander's conquest of Persia from the point of view of his Persian eunuch and bedfellow is the kind of approach many a modern writer might conceive of. However, actually writing it and pulling it off as Renault has done in The Persian Boy is a feat totally beyond most writers.

The Persian Boy must be Renault's crowning achievement, but Fire from Heaven is my favourite of all these books - fabulously written and a wonderfully imagined Alexander, full of fire, intensity and a nobility akin to purity. And why not? He must have been an incredible human being. Then there are the nuanced and beautifully drawn relationships with his mother, his father and with Hephaestion.

Make no mistake, very, very few writers in any medium are capable of this imagination, this sophistication of characters and relationships, and above all the craft and technique to realise the whole.

The Joy of Rediscovering Mary Renault

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Exactly what one expects from Mary Renault and in my humble opinion a classic. An audio book that I can listen to many times without tiring of it.

A true classic

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Superb, glorious detail, a story that is truly timeless. Loved every minute! Mary Renault's ability to weave a narrative that captures the reader is unparalleled where the ancient world is up for the offering.

The Best of Storytelling

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I would like a CD version of this like a collector's edition, it's such a beautiful work of art. I listen to it again and again, the narration is so masterful. A brilliant performance.

The best voice acting and narration ever

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The story follows the childhood of Alexander the Great from a young child to becoming King at 19. Through the inferno of his parents’ bitter in-fighting, often with their son as the most effective weapon, the plot follows how Alexander manages to live through it all to become a functioning adult despite this crippling emotional experience.

The novel depicts a period of the famous conqueror’s life of which no accounts have survived, but for a few well polished anecdotes.
Renault takes the anecdotes and brings new life to them, uses the general political situation of the time, some good splashes of imagination and a seasoning of human knowledge to serve up a believable and exciting tale told in a gorgeously stark language.

Would Alexander have recognised his own childhood? Well, no, this is fiction after all - but it’s a swashbuckling and psychologically persuasive tale.

Are there no flaws then? Well, yes there are. Alexander’s mother, Olympias, is portrayed as an outright ogre - and quite foolish as well. Alexander’s father, Philip, is portrayed with much more understanding and humour. The adage “It takes two to tango” comes to mind. Renault’s well known issues with women are not unlikely behind her portrayal of the famous parents - that said, she is a brilliant author and makes the characters believable all the same.

Nicely performed. I do miss the introductory quote, though - and the interesting Author’s Notes.

The inferno that forged Alexander

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