Leila Anani's Reviews > Becoming

The first of two novels, this charts the teenage years of Alexander the Great and his relationship with Hephaestion.

It's really well researched and does a great job of evoking Ancient Macedonia -The supporting cast (Cassander, Ptolemy, Harpalus etc) are much how I picture them myself which is really pleasing and I love that this gives the A/H romance the attention it deserves. It's also refreshing to spend so much time in Mizea with Aristotle - Not much happens during this period and so most Alexander fiction is set later. once the battles kick in; it's rather nice to step back and look at his adolescence.

The problem is plot - lack thereof. Historically not much happens and not much happens in this novel either. While being a massive Alexander fan-girl I was content to wallow in the evocation of 3rd Century BC Macedonia, it does make this quite slow and i won't say dull (because this period fascinates me as much as the characters) but just not that exciting. Pacing's a bit all over the place and I'm not sure what the purpose was of the Dionysian mystery rite at the end - it seems a very weird way to end this.

My biggest annoyance however is the bold choice to use the original Greek forms for character and place names - Alexandros for Alexander, Aigyptos for Egypt, Myrtale for Olympias etc - Because the western spellings/pronunciation are so ingrained using the stranger sounding Greek slows the pace even further and seems to over complicate things merely for the sake of it. This is clearly aimed at a YA audience and so I find the choice doubly baffling - Because you want to encourage teens reading not put them off by making this harder than it needs to be.

Over all though I really enjoyed this. Story-wise It makes a nice companion piece to Mary Renault's Fire from Heaven and Judith Tarr's Bring down the Sun (the only other novel I can think of which refers to Olympias' original name as Myrtale). It's not got the heart-in-your-mouth sweeping romance of Fire from Heaven or something like Song of Achilles but it is a nice portrayal of m/m first love with the added impediment of royalty and the responsibilities that brings.