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Tyrant: Tyrant, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Christian Cameron (Author), Peter Noble (Narrator), Orion (Publisher)

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Ruler. Puppet Master. Killer.

Glory. Death. Well-born Athenian cavalry officer Kineas fought shoulder to shoulder with Alexander in his epic battles against the Persian hordes. But on his return from the east to his native city, he finds not glory but shame - and exile.

With nothing to his name but his military skills, Kineas agrees to lead a band of veterans to the city of Olbia, where the Tyrant is offering good money to train the city's elite cavalry. But soon Kineas and his men find they have stumbled into a deadly maze of intrigue and conspiracy as the Tyrant plots to use them as pawns in the increasingly complex power games between his own citizens and the dread military might of Macedon.

Caught between his duty to the Tyrant, his loyalty to his men and a forbidden love affair with a charismatic Scythian noblewoman, Kineas must call on all his Athenian guile, his flair on the battlefield and even - he is convinced - the intervention of the gods to survive.

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Product details

Listening Length	19 hours and 3 minutes
Author	Christian Cameron
Narrator	Peter Noble
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	27 August 2020
Publisher	Orion
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0848CT4N9
Best Sellers Rank	17,319 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 14 in Ancient History Fiction 307 in War & Military Fiction 1,038 in War Fiction (Books)

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 19 July 2015

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Great read! Buy it and get into it! Halfway through the 2nd book, getting even better!

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on 1 April 2015

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Great series.

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Top reviews from other countries

Clemens A. Schoonderwoert

A Marvellous Opener!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2016

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Being a great fan for some time of the "Killer of Men/Long War" series, I've decided to give the "Tyrant" series a go as well, and this book Tyrant has certainly thrilled me to bits.
Just like the "Killer of Men" series the storytelling is of an absolute top-quality, and thus bringing vividly to life the Ancient Greeks within this wonderful book.
As far as possible the book has been thoroughly researched historically, and the details provided in this book are of a very clear definition.
The book starts off in the year 333 BC when Kineas and his Athenian Cavalry comrades are leaving Alexander the Great's army after a hard fought battle against the Persians, and so finally they are going back home to Athens.
Once there Kineas finds out that his father is dead and he himself has been exiled for serving, as an Athenian, Alexander the Great Macedonian army, and he will finally end up along with some of his Athenian veterans on the Euxine, in Olbia to be exact.
In Olbia Kineas and his Athenians are hired by the Tyrant to train the city's elite cavalry, only to find out soon enough that they are being used as pawns in the Tyrant's schemes, and so after first fighting with the Macedonians, Kineas now has to fight with Olbia and their unpredictable Scythian allies against the might of Macedon, for gold and grain.
What will unfold is a thrilling and gripping story which keeps you spellbound from start to finish, and with great interaction and with hard fought battle scenes in which Kineas and his allies have to fight for their lives against the mighty Macedonians in a Greek world in turmoil.
Fully recommended, because this book of this particular series is "A Marvellous Opener"!

4 people found this helpful

Mr. M. Tiernan

I believe this is one of the greatest historical novels I have ever read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 July 2017

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I believe this is one of the greatest historical novels I have ever read, and I have read a few. The novel covers a period of history largely forgotten because the sources for it are so few and far between and all written down at a much later date. The author managed to have a six book series on the wars of the diadochi, the Macedonians fighting over the empire of Alexander the great, I know Eumenes was a Cardian one of the few none Macedonians involved. Kineas the Athenian became an old friend struggling to deal with his terrible dreams and foresight of his death as he believed. The Scythians those mythical warriors of Herodotus come to life on the pages of Tyrant as never before, the Sea of Grass grows in your imagination and reaches on towards the far east and the mysteries of China. I have read and reread this book and its sequel Tyrant Storm of Arrows they are different in tone than the rest of the series more introspective Kineas and Strayanka his beloved dominate both books of course.

One person found this helpful

Peter Hoare

Superb historical fiction set in the Greece of Alexander.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 July 2020

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Christian Cameron is one of those authors who effortlessly manages to suck you into whichever world or era they are writing about. This was the first book I read of his, being a fan of the genre. I have since read and re-read his other work. What sets him apart is that, apart from the fast paced action and excellent storytelling, Cameron weaves culture, religion and philosophy into a rich backdrop which offsets the violence and intrigue, and makes you care about why it is happening and the people involved.

One person found this helpful

JPS

Historical novel at its best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 September 2011

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Reviewing a book isn't always easy, especially when you are trying to remain objective while having either loved or hated a book. I bought and read this book three years ago and I loved it. I have just re-read kit and, for me, it is still one of the best ever.

Rather than the "usual" book (or series) about and around Alexander's the Great (see Pressfield, among many others), this is about some Greek cavalry who, when dismissed by the victorious young king, turn mercenary and serve a Tyrant in one of the Greek cities (Olbia) around the Black Sea.

The military research on the Greeks, Macedonians and Scythes is excellent. The praise, however, goes well beyond that because Christian has also taken care to make the characters come alive, even secondary ones, and taken the trouble to describe features of everyday life at the time (for instance, the athletic contests or the dinners). He has also attempted (and in my allegedly biaised view succeeded) to recreate the mentality among educated Greek elites - the Hippeis (whatever you might want to call them nobles, gentry etc...). I admit that some readers may have been put off by this and believed he was trying to be pedantic and showing off his knowledge. However, it seems that they did quote the Classics to each other during dinners. You may find this kind of behaviour pedantic and snobbish, but it is somewhat unfair to blame the author for it. In fact, this has happened through the Ages with all elites in all countries or regions in one form or another (think of the lords and ladies in the Middle Ages, the Aristocrats in the 18th century or the British gentleman in the next one, to limit oneself to Western Europe).

Some commentators also got a bit tired of the mystic pieces - the dreams of Kineas who seems to have some kind of foresight of the future and foresees what he believes to be his own death. Well, whatever personal opinions we may have have, Greeks and Macedonians, despite the wars, slaughters and brutality, were rather religious, superstitous and even mystic and professional soldiers (or even killers if you will) obviously do not necessarily have to be dumb brutes. For me, characters like Kineas, Philokles or Nikeas, and there are many others, illustrate that point.

Another strong point is that Christian has chosen a geographical region - the Western part of the Great Steppe - (from the Danube to the Caucasus) covering parts of modern Ukraine and Southern Russia within a period were we mainly know about the events that happened south of this region. This may give him a somewhat greater degree of liberty than being constrained by specific historical events.

Two final points:

I loved all of the battle scenes - and especially the cavalry fights - because they felt so real. No "blue-eyed hero" slaughtering half of the ennemies with the back of the hand. Rather, it's more like blood, sweat anf tears, with Kineas (and others) being wounded at almost each encounter. This seems to be quite realistic, in part because many leaders (with Alexander as the most obvious example) tended to lead from the front and in part also because, at the time, cavalry had no shields and little protection for legs and arms (nothing to do with the chainmail armour of our medieval knights, for instance). Each time there was close combat and a melee, they would suffer multiple cuts even if these were very often not fatal.

We do not know exactly what happened north of Macedon while Alexander was busy conquering and enlarging the Persian Empire, although we do know about one Zopryon, a Macedonian governor of Thrace, being defeated and killed in battleby Scythians. We also do know that both Alexander's father (Philip II King of Macedon) and one of the Persian Emperor's (Darius the Great, if I remember correctly) tried, and failed, to subdue the nomad tribes north of the Danube. Although the contemporary Greeco-Macedonian and Persian secondary sources are rather discreet (and they would be, of course!) on these episodes, it seems that both were defeated although managing to extricate at least part of their forces and pull back across the Danube. It is very possible that another attempt by the Macedonians to conquer the rich cities of the Pont Euxin could have happened again while Alexander was in Asia. As described in the book, it would have made perfect strategic and political sense (for instance to better control Athens who - quite literally - depended on the wheat from the north for it's daily bread.

Well worth five stars, in my view. I hope you will enjoy it at least as much as I did.

13 people found this helpful

Ben Kane

Historical fiction in a class of its own

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 August 2013

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I bought this book when it came out in 2008. It's the story of my life that I buy more books than I can read, and it languished in the 'To Be Read' pile for 4 years. More and more people began to tell me how good an author Cameron was, however, so I tackled it in the summer of 2012. I was astonished by how good it was, and devoured it in 3 or 4 days. To say that it's well written is an understatement of the greatest kind.

Cameron is a reenactor, and has therefore spent many an hour, and day, wearing and using the kit of a Greek soldier of the 4th century BC. He's also spent considerable time learning ancient Greek, and reading all the sources that he can lay his hands on. Boy, does it show. Kineas, the main character, reeks of authenticity. So too do the people he encounters: his friends and enemies, and the world that they all inhabit.

Rarely have I been so transported to another place, another world. I lived with Kineas and his comrades for every moment that I read this book. I could not wait to buy the sequel, and over the last 12 months, I have read three of the four others in the series. It's a benefit of not having read them as they were published, I suppose, but I will be sorry to come to the end of Tyrant: Destroyer of Cities . At least I will have the Long War series to read then, however!

If you haven't read any of Cameron's books, I suggest that you start now. He stands head and shoulders above most authors out there, and is now one of my favourite writers. If I could award this book more than five stars, I would.

Ben Kane, author of the Spartacus and Hannibal novels.

2 people found this helpful

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