Changes

As a historian, he depicts battles and skirmishes, more by their results than for effect. The expedition is long and hard and men (and women) die along the way. The conflicts are brutal and bloody – pitched battles and guerrilla warfare and the ravaging pass of an army raiding to feed itself – but unlike many writers of the genre Manfredi steers clear of too great an emphasis on the hand to hand killing. The blood and gore are almost taken as read. By choosing a woman as his narrator he has given himself the freedom, or perhaps the restraint, of telling the tale from the point of view of someone who was always on the edges of the fighting, (unless by accident, and then suitably terrified and trying to hide or to run). It has a strange effect. The battles and the bodies are counted, but in the way that history does, simply for the record. Few are remembered by name or deed. Intuitively, that should make the story less ''real'', more remote. Instead , that very remoteness adds to the plausibility of it. The less that is imagined, the more we can assume is deduced from the genuine record. Rightly or wrongly.

The few characters of focus emerge and change slowly. Every one of them heroic and flawed. The soldiers and the women who serve and love them, over the many months of the campaign. And so it went on. For days and days. Weeks and months. Contrary to some reviewers I didn't find this ''moving at a blistering pace'' or a ''rip-roaring, page -turning yarn''. It isn't a fast -paced novel, but a finely judged one. In the nature of epics , it takes its time. It would have been a long, painful, slog for those involved. Harried at every turn by the enemies, the weather, intrigues and mere squabbles within their own ranks. The slow exposition works surprisingly well. Battles explode and are won and lost… but the push forward, the long march continues relentlessly.

A few continuity errors of detail can be overlooked as on the whole ''The Lost Army'' maintains a low -level suspense throughout and succeeds in doing honour not just to The Ten Thousand, but also to women and servants who followed them every step of the way.

If Manfredi has given you a taste for the darker side of Greek life, try Gemmell's retelling of the [[Troy: Fall Of Kings by David and Stella Gemmell|fall of Troy]]. You might also enjoy [[Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan and Jonathan Wright (translator)]].