The Fire of Ares
By Nico Moulle-Berteaux
Book Summary
The Fire of Ares is a captivating. Its wonderful author, Michael Ford, has kept a journal on, Lysander, a young spartan to be. This book takes place in ancient Rome. The main character, Lysander, is a slave or heliot. However, his mom has kept a secret from him. The secret is that Lysander is half spartan on his father's side. A spartan is a warrior. A boy can only be a spartan warrior if his father was a spartan warrior.
There are many problems in this story that the main character, Lysander, has to deal with. One of the major problems is that The Fire of Ares is lost. It was a gift to Lysander from his mom. It is an amulet. Ares is the Greek god of war. The amulet is supposed to give whoever wears it power in fights. However, Lysander gets knocked out by a group of nasty Spartans. Once Lysander is knocked out, he is saved by his grandfather. His grandfather recognizes his son's face in Lysander and later tells him that he is a spartan. They take the amulet and disappear with it. Now, it is up to Lysander and a fellow spartan to find the amulet.
The book becomes really interesting when the heliots rebel and kill many Spartans. Then, Lysander finds the Fire of Ares. It was given to the spartan tutor, Doikles. However, when Lysander battles Doikles in a burning building, a support beam falls on Doikles and knocks him out. Lysander ties Doikles up and waits for him to wake up.
Character Traits
Spotlight on History
- They make references to the Messiaen slaves.
- “I’m tired of being called a helot, a slave. I’m Messiaen, Timeon. So are you.the land over the mountains once belonged to us.
- Page 17
- They have good representations of Spartan life.
- “the normal punishment for breaking curfew is Twenty lashings, but Drake has shown repeated disregard for those rules. So today he will receive... one hundred strokes.” the boys in the crowd gasped and there was shuffling of feet.
- Page 174
- The book tells of the ruthlessness of Spartans.
- “Good head shots,” said Diokles . “ His brain would be one the end of your spear.”
- Page 98