Well I actually liked Virtues, and the portrayal of Alexander, though it was a little romantic (in the way ancient Greeks dramatised and romanticised their own histories). He felt really lifelike to me, as one reviewer put it "it was like sitting in Alexander's tent while he spoke his tale to you directly" (not the actual quote, but close enough). Ultimately, in the end, we have little proof about the personalities of historical figures from the classical age, so a lot of it is up to interpretation. It wasn't as good as Gates, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.SckizoBoy said:
Last of the Amazons was pretty good, though trying to figure out who Steven was trying to make the protagonist was a challenge. You'd think, because of its title, the Amazons were the protagonists, but the book actively made me despise them. A certain event about a third of the way in (I won't spoil in case you wish to read it sometime) really shifted my allegiance to the Athenians, and I wanted nothing more by books end than to see Theseus smash their whole culture into the dirt. For me, that's saying something, as I usually barrack for the smaller barbarian peoples fighting with little hope against the big bad civilised empires (ala Vercingetorix, Viriathus etc). But this book certainly made me hate the Amazons, whether that was the intention or not, I cannot say. Still, it was a good read.
While we're discussing historical fiction, have you read Pride of Carthage by Anthony Durham? I recently finished reading it and it was pretty fine, though it ended pretty abruptly.
