Men of Bronze | Fiction - www.zzdbook.com

Men of Bronze

May 9, 2025 12:47 PM

Author:Scott Oden

Men of Bronze

526 BC and the empire of the Pharaohs is dying, crumbling under the weight of its own antiquity. Corruption and decay cripple its cities, infects its leaders and cripples its armies, while across the great expanse of Sinai, like jackals drawn to carrion, the forces of the omnipotent king of Persia watch and wait...

But all is not quite lost. For leading the fiight to preserve the soul of Egypt is the Phoenician warrior, Hasdrabal Barca, the pharaoh's deadliest killer - possessor of a rage few men can fathom and fewer can withstand. But the defection of one of Egypt's most celebrated generals, the Greek mercenary Phanes, to the Persians triggers a savage war that will test Barca's military skills and his humanity to the limit. But Barca is changing - a girl who was once a slave but with a gift for healing - tends to his wounds, and as she does so, eases his tortured soul and teaches him how to be truly human again.

From the political wastelands of Palestine and the searing deserts east of the Nile to the streets of the ancient city of Memphis, Barca and Phanes play a desperate and brutal game of cat-and-mouse that culminates in the bloodiest battle of Egypt's history. In the dusty hills east of Pelusium, a reckoning will unfold, for there over the dead of two nations, Hasdrabal Barca will face the same choice of as those great heroes of old: death and eternal fame, or long life and obscurity...

Reviews

I enjoyed this immensely. Fast, tense and exciting, Men of Bronze brings to life a fascinating moment in world history, the descriptions are terrific and the final, climactic battlefield scene is just brilliant

—— CONN IGGULDEN, author of the bestselling EMPEROR series

Powerful and tragic...Oden's masterful story of bloody battles, political intrigues, betrayal and romance offers a gripping portrait of the collapse of an empire.

—— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

San Francisco is fortunate in having a chronicler as witty and likeable as Armistead Maupin

—— Independent

I know I was not the only one who was up until two in the morning, promising myself to stop after just one chapter

—— David Feinberg , The New York Times Book Review

Armistead Maupin's acclaim is richly deserved. He uses suspense, mystery and coincidence far more inventively than the more typical novelist

—— Jonathan Coe , Guardian

Maupin is a richly gifted comic author

—— Observer

Maupin's work is like a drug: it's easy, it's fun and it leaves you greedy for more...superb

—— The Australian

The great joy of this tender little novel is Deborah Moggach's sensory imagination

—— Guardian

The characterisation is superb, Moggach has brilliantly resurrected a world of genteel penury and intense, furtive sex, and the book exudes quiet excellence

—— Mail on Sunday

Maupin remains a great storyteller, a magnificently unrepentant liberal, and a wise, witty observer of the differences which make us human

—— Sunday Telegraph

A creepy tale….set in a country house awash with secrets and strange happenings

—— Bella magazine

She takes relish in recreating a familiar Edwardian landscape, peopled by eligible cads and imperious dowagers... Jones’s highly combustible period piece makes the dramas at Downton look like a stroll in the park

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

Darkly humorous, quirky and engrossing, this is a ghostly tale full of twists and turns

—— Choice Magazine

What a delicious read! Like something written by a wicked Jane Austen, here is love and error in a ramshackle manor house complete with railway survivors, a birthday party and a pony. I was completely captivated by its madcap nature and then, utterly unprepared for the strange fruit that the story became. Passing like a spring fever, here is a fairy tale that stays with you long after it is gone. I couldn't put it down

—— SARAH BLAKE, author of The Postmistress

The Uninvited Guests is at once a shimmering comedy of manners and disturbing commentary on class. It is so well-written, so intricately plotted, that every page delivers some new astonishment. It is a brilliant novel

—— ANN PATCHETT, author of State of Wonder

What opens as an amusing Edwardian country house tale soon becomes a sinister tragi-comedy of errors, in which the dark underbelly of human nature is revealed in true Shakespearean fashion. Sadie Jones is a most talented and imaginative storyteller, and The Uninvited Guests is a very clever novel

—— JACQUELINE WINSPEAR, author of Elegy for Eddie

I will be surprised if I read anything stranger this year but I can’t help admiring Jones’s whimsical invention and the quality of her writing

—— Vanessa Berridge , Daily Express

A modern Mitford saga

—— ASOS Magazine

Award-winning Sadie Jones' third novel is her best yet. Hugely enjoyable with a superb, supernatural twist

—— Tablet

Cooly playful...the luscious prose is precisely steered

—— Helen Dunmore , Guardian

An intelligent and poignant reflection on death and loss… a fabulous read

—— Lesley Mc Dowell , Glasgow Sunday Herald

Sadie Jones…enters new literary territory with a whimsical Edwardian farce that takes its lead from the darker offerings of Saki and JB Priestley...The novel's denouement is satisfyingly outlandish

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

With elegant ease, Jones spins a good old-fashioned comedy of manners

—— Katie Owen , Sunday Telegraph

Andrew Motion brings lyricism but, more importantly, rollicking adventure to this sequel to Treasure Island

—— Mail on Sunday

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