Review of The Fox

[MarcellaM]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Fox" by M. N. J. Butler.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Leotychides was born in the Spartan royal family. He is a dutiful lad and heeds whatever statutes he is bestowed. He joins the flock at the age of seven years against his mother's wish. He is exceptionally anxious to learn the history of Sparta after he realizes he will become a king after the passing of his father, King Agis of the Eurypontid line. Leotychides later discovers that he is not the legitimate son of King Agis but finding out who his biological father is, is more surprising. This clarifies the suspicions he heard when he was still young. The Fox explains Leotychides' struggle through love, friendship, family, and deception as he strives to bring unity back to Sparta. The author M.N.J. Butler takes us on a journey through the Greek culture, traditions, and leadership. He accommodates Greek names and terminologies that portray a lot of this ancient history dated many years back.

The book is a wonderful memoir of Leotychides from his young days to his later days. The conversations of the characters kept me engaged to the very last chapter. The book was also filled with a sense of humor rendering the plot very fascinating. The book also involves battle scenes that were both entertaining and implicate the reader on an awesome journey to ancient Greek. I admired the relationship that Leotychides shared with his uncle Pausanios as it was more of a father-son relationship. Leotychides even went a step further to say that if he had the chance, he would choose Pausanios as his father. M.N.J. Butler had well-developed characters who were extremely unique. I gathered a lot of information from the character's conversations and their demeanor as well.

I would also love to mention that the book's cover, though a cliche, was appealing and communicated a lot about the book. The book also had a glossary at the beginning of the book for the reference of some of the Greek names and terminologies. Although I enjoyed this book to a great extent, some aspects did not seem appealing to me. First, the characters in the book were many and I had to keep track of all of them as most of them played a significant role. This might be an important aspect in the development of the story but some of them were unnecessarily placed. The format of the book that I read was also another problem since the font used was small and was straining to keep track of the story.

Despite the above-mentioned negative aspects, the book was naturally interesting and inviting. M.N.J. Butler went a great mile to do better research of the Greeks to come up with such an interesting book. I, therefore, rate The Fox 4 out of 4 stars because I only found a few grammatical errors indicating that the book was professionally edited. The aspects mentioned above were not enough to take away a star from the book's rating.

I would recommend this book majorly to lovers of historical fiction as it is a book that satisfies many questions on the history of ancient Greek. Those interested in learning more about the leadership of Greece might also find this book useful in their studies

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The Fox
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[Mtibza eM]

I have been postponing reading this book but after reading your beautiful review, I might give it a chance. Thank you for sharing. Great job!