I’ll admit, I picked this series up because it had a brilliant cover and seemed to be about Greek mythology. As a family, we are obsessed with Ancient Greece. All our holidays were to Greece and each of us were enraptured by stories of Ancient Greece. Cameron deftly weaves fact and fiction together with this historical fiction series.
I was reluctant at the beginning of The New Achilles; there was a much heavier focus on war than I had expected (because I saw Achilles and immediately thought mythology). Whilst the book does draw on Greek mythology, it is firmly rooted in historical fiction and follows Philopoemen in his journey as Greece’s champion. However, once I got into the book I was unable to put it down.
Through Cameron’s vivid descriptions of the battles we encounter, you truly feel as though you are there. Alexanor, our narrator, often observes the battle from a distance as a healer/priest/doctor and this helps you empathise with him and his story. I learnt a lot about the history of Greece’s wars and different tactics that may have been used.
As I mentioned above, the characters truly do leap from the page. You, like most others, end up enraptured by Philopoemen. Alexanor’s journey through priesthood and his friendship with freedman Leon is intriguing.
I feel like the strong war/battle elements may put some people off, but I found it really interesting. Cameron paints a visceral picture of Ancient Greece and by focusing in on Alexanor and Philopoemen’s intertwined lives educates the reader on a history which gets lost amid Greece’s rich past. The New Achilles is followed by The Last Greek which is (thankfully) already sat on my bedside table ready to be read!
Prose Amongst Thorns 
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