A Biography of One of the 'Great' Men of History - Rated 
This is a big book in volume as well as content being over 500 pages long but Oxford historian Robin Lane Fox has contrived to make it interesting for the reader from beginning to end. Many facts have been written about Alexander over the years, some true, some doubtful and much that is pure speculation. This in turn has given Alexander a mythical quality, bordering on god like proportions.
The author's writing style is both concise and lucid with no pretensions to the fact that he is the master and the reader by his very nature is the pupil. In a nutshell the author writes for everyone not just the scholar. This book is for anyone with an interest in the life and times of Alexander. The author progresses through the life of Alexander putting a little more meat on the bones with every passing phase of Alexander's relatively short life.
This is a book for everyone. For those who have found it difficult, or even impossible in the past to read and I mean read a history book from start to finish, rather than just go cherry picking facts from the numerous pages, then this is a good book to get your teeth into. It can be read almost like a novel, but is far more interesting than any fictional book.
Essentail reading for "Advanced" Alexanders - Rated 
This is "the" book for those wishing to get to grips with every detail. But I have to echo the drawbacks from previous reviewers: detailed, complex English in places, and very poor maps by today's standars: even the new 2004 edition is a essentailly a reprint from the 1970's.
Beginners would be far better off with Michael Wood's "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great"; then read the original ancient sources; then this.
Magnificent - Rated 
What boy hasn't imagined being Alexander the Great? Conquering one of the largest empires ever by the age of 32, the man has been stamped indelibly upon our collective memory as one of the greatest warriors ever. That he was for sure, but much more besides as well.
This very detailed biography delves into all aspects of Alexander, and it's evident on every page and in every sentence that Robin Lane Fox has studied his subject extremely well. Couple that with Fox's easy style and what you get is a real page-turner. Learned and yet accessible, what more could one expect from a history book? Extremely well done!
Humanising the myth - Rated 
Oxford historian Robin Lane Fox has written a superb biography of one of history's most mythologised characters.
Fox never patronises his audience with his writing style but neither does he make any assumptions that the reader is pre-armed with a firm grasp of classical history. He clearly explains where he gets his sources from, who he trusts, if there are conflicting accounts and where his judgements lie.
The book relates an epic story and Fox tells it in great detail; normally, the more detail a book provides, the better but in this particular case, the book loses one star in its rating because Fox's sentences can run to great lengths and become rather muddy (I'd give it four and a half if I could). Don't let that put you off buying this book, though, as it animates quite successfully Alexander's life and times, the politics and the geography. This book is especially recommended to those of you who have Oliver Stone's film, Alexander Revisited, to which Robin Lane Fox was an advisor.
Alexander The Great - Highly Recommended - Rated 
I have not studied Classics and I had never read a biography of Alexander before but I could not put this book down. It was detailed and inspiring and I will be buying copies for friends. It is more than a biography, it is a tale of true adventure, war, bravery and leadership. I felt the author helped me, the reader, live in the times of Alexander. At the same time he reminded me that I was reading a historical chronical that was based on pieces of information that had been passed down or preserved. He distinguished between educated assumptions and facts, so I trusted him as an historian. The adventure and times as depicted in the book are thrilling and I recommend it highly.
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