The Fire of Ares

By Michael Ford

Rating: 3 3/4 stars

Lysander is a Helot slave, working in the fields for his Spartan masters and railing against the unfairness of life. He keeps hidden a valuable pendant, the Fire of Ares, which is mother says belonged to his long dead father. Then Lysander discovers the impossible--he is actually the son of a Spartan warrior! His grandfather gets him entered into the agoge, the school where young Spartan boys are trained from age 7 onwards to fight and become part of the glorious and unbeatable Spartan army. But before he can even start the school, the Fire of Ares is stolen. Who has it? And how can he get it back? As Lysander begins his harsh training and begins to sort friends from enemies, he realizes that ultimately he is going to have to decide between his Helot upbringing and his Spartan ancestry. Filled with lots of fighting and action, readers will be drawn into the world of ancient Sparta and Lysander's struggles. Fans will eagerly pick up book 2 in the Spartan Quest series, Birth of a Warrior.