Six years ago Steven Pressfield released The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great, a work of historical fiction told from Alexander’s point of view. Filled with blood, dismemberment, and disemboweling, this book presents war in all its horrors.

Pressfield creates a based-on-reality story in which the reader follows Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) as he ascends Macedon’s throne at age twenty, conquers his way past the Persian empire, and continues east past the borders of India before his army stops him. Alexander dies of a fever a few months short of his thirty-third birthday, having never returned home, but also having never faced defeat.

In this work the author captures well the ancient Greek hunger for honor above comfort and individual happiness, even if he occasionally seems to forget that the Greeks worshiped gods rather than a singular God.

If you like military stuff, put this on your list. If you’re squeamish, don’t even think about it. It was on mine because it's historical fiction (which I plan to attempt), and because it lays the groundwork historically for the period of my focus, 100 BC to AD 100.