Review by AlleyCat20 -- The Fox by M. N. J. Butler
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- Latest Review: The Fox by M. N. J. Butler
Review by AlleyCat20 -- The Fox by M. N. J. Butler
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Fox" by M. N. J. Butler.]
3 out of 4 stars
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This is Sparta!
Since those famous words were uttered by Gerard Butler in The 300, Ancient Sparta has been a huge part of pop culture, and the famous saying has been forever embedded in history as an internet meme. The Fox by M.N.J. Butler takes the legend of Sparta once step further in exploring not only Sparta’s culture, but those of the civilizations of Ancient Greece.
The book takes place 1,000 years after Leonidas, the hero of The 300. Our main character in The Fox is Leotichydes, which is often shortened to Leo throughout the book. The prologue introduces us to his blunt and slightly sardonic, if not deep, viewpoint. He is coerced into writing down his story down, starting from when he was a child to his current, sorry state.
Leo is a prince of Sparta, the son Agis, one of the two kings of Sparta. He was raised as a prince, although even at a young age he noticed that people would look at him differently, almost in disgust. No matter who he asked (his mother’s maid, his uncle-king Pausanious) no one would tell him. When he was seven years old, he was sent to be reared in a flock. A flock is a group of boys aged 7-20, who live together and train to be warriors of Sparta. While there he makes friends with several of his flock-brothers, and learns themes that remain present throughout the rest of the book.
To tell the rest in detail would entail spoilers. The story follows Leo as he trains for the Olympic games; we watch him as he becomes a warrior and slowly becomes a leader of renowned skill in battle and in speech. Unexpected things happen, friends die, battles are lost, every hopeful image for the future crumbles. The end is not happy, for the reader or the characters.
This book is a surprising gem. From the prologue I could tell how much research the author had put into the story. Having little previous knowledge about Ancient Greece, I was initially confused. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I applaud the author on doing his homework. I also enjoyed the characters. Each one was unique and had a distinctive voice that made it easy to differentiate them. The plot was enjoyable and not overly complicated, with many twists in the story that I did not anticipate.
Yet this book is far from perfect. From the very first pages it became clear that this book has not fallen into the hands of a professional editor. So many grammatical errors exist that it took nine notebook pages to write them all down. Many are simple fixes and should be easily seen. For example, paragraph 9 on page 17 is missing the end to a pair of parentheses, and paragraph 15 of page 18 needs a semicolon to separate the concepts of the sentence. There are also a few spots where the scene suddenly changed without warning, and it left me confused for a few moments. I really wish the author would put some sort of indicator so his readers would know when the story was shifting. A few times the words would fill up maybe a fifth of the page before jumping to the next one. I do not know if this was accidental or not, but I do not see this as much of an issue. The jumps seem to happen after something profound or dramatic was said, which leads me to believe they are there for dramatic effect. There is one instance of profound language on page 296, in paragraph 24, where a character uses the f-word. This is the only time I noticed language like this, so readers who do not want to read cursing should not be concerned. There is perhaps only one scene in Chapter 14 which could perhaps be defined as “erotic.” I will give it a 1 out of 10 for safety, even though it is very vague in the way it is written.
This book was great, and had it not been for the numerous grammatical issues, it would have been given the highest score. Alas, I must award it three out of four stars. I encourage those interested in history, Sparta, Ancient Greece, or acts of heroism to read this book, though I do not recommend this for anyone under 14.
Maybe you will find your warrior spirit within, just like Leotychides.
******
The Fox
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
This is Sparta!
Since those famous words were uttered by Gerard Butler in The 300, Ancient Sparta has been a huge part of pop culture, and the famous saying has been forever embedded in history as an internet meme. The Fox by M.N.J. Butler takes the legend of Sparta once step further in exploring not only Sparta’s culture, but those of the civilizations of Ancient Greece.
The book takes place 1,000 years after Leonidas, the hero of The 300. Our main character in The Fox is Leotichydes, which is often shortened to Leo throughout the book. The prologue introduces us to his blunt and slightly sardonic, if not deep, viewpoint. He is coerced into writing down his story down, starting from when he was a child to his current, sorry state.
Leo is a prince of Sparta, the son Agis, one of the two kings of Sparta. He was raised as a prince, although even at a young age he noticed that people would look at him differently, almost in disgust. No matter who he asked (his mother’s maid, his uncle-king Pausanious) no one would tell him. When he was seven years old, he was sent to be reared in a flock. A flock is a group of boys aged 7-20, who live together and train to be warriors of Sparta. While there he makes friends with several of his flock-brothers, and learns themes that remain present throughout the rest of the book.
To tell the rest in detail would entail spoilers. The story follows Leo as he trains for the Olympic games; we watch him as he becomes a warrior and slowly becomes a leader of renowned skill in battle and in speech. Unexpected things happen, friends die, battles are lost, every hopeful image for the future crumbles. The end is not happy, for the reader or the characters.
This book is a surprising gem. From the prologue I could tell how much research the author had put into the story. Having little previous knowledge about Ancient Greece, I was initially confused. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I applaud the author on doing his homework. I also enjoyed the characters. Each one was unique and had a distinctive voice that made it easy to differentiate them. The plot was enjoyable and not overly complicated, with many twists in the story that I did not anticipate.
Yet this book is far from perfect. From the very first pages it became clear that this book has not fallen into the hands of a professional editor. So many grammatical errors exist that it took nine notebook pages to write them all down. Many are simple fixes and should be easily seen. For example, paragraph 9 on page 17 is missing the end to a pair of parentheses, and paragraph 15 of page 18 needs a semicolon to separate the concepts of the sentence. There are also a few spots where the scene suddenly changed without warning, and it left me confused for a few moments. I really wish the author would put some sort of indicator so his readers would know when the story was shifting. A few times the words would fill up maybe a fifth of the page before jumping to the next one. I do not know if this was accidental or not, but I do not see this as much of an issue. The jumps seem to happen after something profound or dramatic was said, which leads me to believe they are there for dramatic effect. There is one instance of profound language on page 296, in paragraph 24, where a character uses the f-word. This is the only time I noticed language like this, so readers who do not want to read cursing should not be concerned. There is perhaps only one scene in Chapter 14 which could perhaps be defined as “erotic.” I will give it a 1 out of 10 for safety, even though it is very vague in the way it is written.
This book was great, and had it not been for the numerous grammatical issues, it would have been given the highest score. Alas, I must award it three out of four stars. I encourage those interested in history, Sparta, Ancient Greece, or acts of heroism to read this book, though I do not recommend this for anyone under 14.
Maybe you will find your warrior spirit within, just like Leotychides.
******
The Fox
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Fox by M. N. J. Butler
