Comments on: Review: Persian Fire, Tom Holland (or, awesome stories)

By: countrygirlsread

countrygirlsread — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 16:21:50 +0000

The noted author PD James wrote about a character in “The Black Tower” who was accused of sodomy and the context she uses is the historical one.

Actually if you read the biblical account of Sodom the men of the city were so depraved as to try to ‘rape’ (dare I use the word ‘sodomize’?) Lot’s guests…and that is where the definition comes from. Women (and girls) are raped, men (and young boys) are not ‘raped’, but ‘sodomized’, (which is why we need laws protecting both sexes since we can’t know whether God will send his angels to ‘smite them with blindness’ as he did in Genesis chapter 19!)

Just my thoughts. Your book review sounds very intriguing and I will have to look in my library for this one!

By: Lenore.Green@gmail.com

Lenore.Green@gmail.com — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:40:43 +0000

So, I bought this book because of this review, and I finally read it. WOW. Thank you SO MUCH for it. I love history, but I usually go in for later European history, and lately its been WWI. But I seriously love this book, and this story, so much I want to read about it over and over again. I’m picking up so many Greek books now. I’m going to finally read the Illiad. THANK YOU for your wonderful review which made me pick up this book.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:42:19 +0000

That bit about “raped and sodomized” and the stepford wives is exactly what I love about you, oh lady-of-the-internet. It’s the same sort of thing I do, and I’m always glad to be at least partially validated by someone else having the same sort of crazy habits as me.

Anyway, I’m cool with the fact that I couldn’t say “no”. XD

By: Amused

Amused — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:32:25 +0000

I love history and classics so now I need to read it. You got me all excited!

By: amymckie

amymckie — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:10:13 +0000

Wow, this is quite a review / pitch for the book! I think I clearly must add it to my wishlist!

By: Vishy

Vishy — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:57:01 +0000

In reply to Jenny. Yes, that is really sad, Jenny. Have you read 'Persepolis' by Marjane Sartrapi? When I read your comment I remembered that book. I have ordered 'Persian Fire' today :) Looking forward to reading it soon.

By: anna

anna — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:44:55 +0000

It’s true. You cannot say no. Or, rather you can, but it will not be effective and will either be ignored, or lead to you being chased by Jenny alternately begging you to change your mind and threatening you with consequences like her puppy voice if you don;t.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:59:02 +0000

In reply to Mumsy. Huh. Cool. Poor old Leonidas. He was nice. When the Persians wanted him to surrender, and a bunch of his troops were like "Yes! Surrender surrender!", and the people who lived near Thermopylae were all, "Please don't surrender. The Persians will crush us," he did not surrender. So that was nice for the Greeks living near Thermopylae.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:56:21 +0000

In reply to Ela. Oh my God, Spartan food sounds terrible. I am currently engaged in reading his book The Forge of Christendom, and it's pretty good. I don't have a very good sense of medieval history, so I think there's a lot that I'm missing. Rubicon would be better because I do have a vague notion of the course of Roman history.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:55:24 +0000

In reply to Vishy. I hope you do read it! When I was reading it, I thought a lot about Iran and how absurd and tragic it is that they are Persia, this tremendous empire with this incredibly rich cultural tradition, and how the country is controlled by these petty small-minded people. Hrmph. It's not fair to Iran. Iran is Persia and deserves more awesomeness.