Genre: Historical fiction
Setting: Asia Minor, late 4th century BC
Publication history:
First published: 2006 by Medallion Press, Inc.
Published in the UK by Transworld/Bantam
Reissued in 2018 by Crossroad Press
Acquired in 2022 for the Baen Library, Baen Books
Against history’s greatest conqueror, one man will stand alone …
When Alexander of Macedon crossed the Hellespont in the spring of 334 BC, he came ravenous for Glory, desperate for the immortality that was his birthright. At the Granicus River, he smashed an army devised by the formidable satraps of Asia Minor. Even so, Alexander’s road to conquest was not clear. For among the myriads of the enemy stood the one man Alexander feared: a mercenary, a seasoned commander on both land and sea who knew the secret to defeating the Macedonians – Memnon of Rhodes.
But Memnon was no common mercenary. In his youth, he had led a revolution and suffered exile as his punishment; a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, and a mediator, he had tasted tragedy as well as triumph. To his fellow Greeks he was a traitor, but to the Great King of Persia Memnon was the only man he could trust to stave off the destruction of his empire. For Memnon of Rhodes fought for something deeper than Glory or gold. He fought for loyalty, for honor, for duty; he fought for the love of Barsine, grand-daughter of kings and a woman of remarkable beauty and grace. Most of all, he fought for the promise of peace.
Praised for its “vivid conjecture, deft plotting, and graceful prose” (Publisher’s Weekly), Memnon is the epic story of one man – a man nearly forgotten by history – whose duty to his family outweighed that of his heritage; a tale of love and loss, set against the sweeping panorama of war.
“An eloquent and captivating historical thriller.” – Publisher’s Weekly
None of the editions of Memnon included a map, sadly. So, here’s one to use. From the Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923. The Aegean Sea was Memnon’s stomping ground . . .
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