Funeral Games

The third and final book of Mary Renault’s Alexander the Great trilogy, “Funeral Games” begins with the death of Alexander. However, at the time of his death the only direct heirs were two unborn sons and a mentally-impaired half-brother, creating an immediate and fierce struggle to claim the power and throne. Like the previous two in the series, this book is dense with names, locations, and shifting political alliances. However, it is well worth the read! The book is magnificently written, and truly captures the chaotic time, as well as the endurance of Alexander the Great’s legacy.

Pros: Interesting concept, a few well drawn characters, well written, suspenseful. Cons: The character jumping is not Renault's best technique, doesn't work together as a whole. This book is perhaps one of Renualt's more intriguing. At least it has a great many political conflicts and machinations and plots, all following Alexander's death. The omniscient third person point of view is certainly more suited to this type of book with all its twists and turns than it is to a book like "Fire from Heaven", but it still gives the story an oddly disjointed feeling. Renault excels when she focuses more closely on one character, though there are certainly some interesting figures in this book. It is nice to see more of the story from women's viewpoints as opposed to the last two books which were almost entirely about men. Eurydike, at least, is well drawn. The book is well written as always. Amazingly, it doesn't seem to suffer despite the fact that the main character (Alexander) is dead. The book's ending seems appropriate, but also makes one wish that Renault would have developed the characters that had a personal connection with Alexander more fully rather than concentrating more on the characters of political importance. Renault is somewhat unable to tie up all her loose ends. "Funeral Games" is a well written and in some places intriguing book, but it lacks a certain cohesiveness. 4- stars.

Mary Renault wrote numerous historical novels set in the ancient Greek world. She meticulously researched her subjects, and her novels are credited for being historically accurate. The interactions of her characters are highly plausible, with dialogue that rings authentic. Her first novel was The Last of the Wine , written in 1956, and set during the Peloponnesian Wars. Her trilogy was written over a period that spanned the `70's. I've read and reviewed the first two volumes, Fire from Heaven , written in 1969, and The Persian Boy , written in 1972. This would be her concluding volume, written in 1982. She died the next year. Renault was a homosexual. It is difficult to imagine the full circumstances for her decision, but in 1948 she and her "significant other" fled what they considered to be an intolerant England for a more liberal South Africa, where she would live for the rest of her life. Though she always stated that she did not want to be categorized as a "homosexual writer," she did legitimately depict the various known and suspected homosexual relationships in the Greek world, including Alexander's. Such inclinations had very real world consequences for the survival of his empire. As Renault recreates the words of Ptolemy: ` "A pity his mother was not like her. She would have had him married before he set out from Macedon, and seen that he got a son. He could have had an heir of fourteen by this time. She'd not have sickened him with a marriage while he was a child. Whose fault was it that he wasn't ready for a woman till he met the Bactrian?" Thus, unofficially, did most Macedonians refer to Roxane.' Though homosexual rights are now the daily grist for Supreme Court decisions, when she was writing, it is important to recall that it was not until 1964 that the same Court declared Tropic of Cancer not obscene, and homosexuality inhabited an even further outer fringe from "acceptable society." But the sexuality, as Renault herself would state, was only incidental to her works. And this final volume primarily involved the power struggle upon Alexander's death in 323 B.C. among Perdikkas, who was Alexander's second-in-command, Antipatros, his trusted Regent, and Olympias, his mother. As one might suspect, it was "ugly," with Renault graphically depicting same. It eventually led to four relatively stable power blocks 40 years later. Renault's work focuses on the first 13 of these years, with an epilogue of sorts, in 286 B.C. set in King Ptolemy's book room in Alexandria, in present-day Egypt. Of the three volumes, I felt the middle one, The Persian Boy to be the strongest. In the final volume, she may have realized that her powers were waning. Still, all three volumes are an important legacy that help the modern reader understand the ancient world. 5-stars.

Another story about the Greeks and Macedonians and funeral rituals BCE. Memorable.

I have just read the trilogy of which this is the final installment. From the first words of "Fire From Heaven" through "The Persian Boy" and ending with the last words of "Funeral Games" this remarkable series of novels leaves me wishing Alexander had lived longer so these books could have also. Renault's in depth research and her skill with words made me feel that I was on campaign with Alexander. If I had to pick a personal favorite among the three books it would have to be "The Persian Boy" and, though a difficult task, my favorite character its title player Bagoas. Highly recommended to lovers of historical novels.

the problem with Funeral Games is that it is essentially static. everybody dies without much suspense. Of course, Roxane would try to murder everybody else. and of course poor Arridaios would be murdered as would be his intended bride. AGRGH

For you history buff, this is a well written and interesting historic novel. I recommend you read the first two in the series first though. This book can stand alone but the others are so good, it would be a pity not to read them in order.

This is the book where Ms Renault had many sources to access and by now had developed an intimacy with time, place and characters. This book deals with the vacuum Alexander left behind. It was a bloody, vicious and precarious time but by denying herself and us a framework of modern judgement or sentimentality, Ms Renault encouraged us all to look upon everything she presented (violence, love, homosexuality, ambition) without prejudice. To see it as all being one. Ms Renault wrote only as a human being, neither as a man nor woman, and I admire her all the more for it.

No encontraba esta trilogía por ningún lado y después de años al fin la tengo. Estoy muy feliz, es una gran autora y la historia te cautiva hasta el final.

The title of this book is bitterly ironic, for the only games organised to celebrate Alexander's life, turn out to be a lethal and unrelenting dismemberment of his wonderful dream. This brilliant conclusion to Renault's trilogy in honour of Alexander - a work of love, if ever there was one, does its work all too well. The author was painfully aware that she was a voice in the wilderness attempting to face down the bitter consensus that ancient record and modern turmoil had foisted on our collective imagination. Clearly, however, she was all the more determined to see justice done for her hero. This book, like a dark sunset and a bleak dawn after an unbelievably glorious yesterday, could hardly have been easy to write. Reading it is a very different experience from reading either of its predecessors. In each of them we had a single, highly attractive protagonist to focus on - the young Alexander himself and then the single-minded Bagoas who finds healing, purpose, and a living hope in watching him take hold of the world. Now that hope dies, and we watch it fade away, torn to pieces by a pack of wild dogs. That's the story! Renault is unrelenting in showing how Alexander's self-interested generals dismember his empire - the world he had so boldly but so briefly united, in imitation of his hero Cyrus. The only loyal and lovable character among them is Ptolemy who settles for Egypt while the others squabble for the rest - Seleukos gets a good report from our author, but he makes so few and such brief appearances that he does nothing to relieve the horror. Bagoas stays strong and focussed and with Ptolemy's help sees Alexander's remains gloriously established in his Alexandria, set to become perhaps the greatest city in the world in the early years of the Christian era. Cassandros, Alexander's enemy from boyhood works out a bitter revenge, even to the dismantling of his reputation by forcing a poisonous rewrite of his life at the Academy in Athens. From there he goes on to tie up the loose ends of his hatred, by murdering his enemies, having Alexander's mother stoned and grabbing the European end of the Empire. Happily, Renault leaves us with a peacefully united Egypt and Ptolemy's loyal account of Alexander's achievements to counterbalance Cassandros' lies... a noble effort, to which she lends the support of her brilliant trilogy. Louis Macneice's little poem "Aubade" expresses the tone of this book perfectly: Having bitten on life like a sharp apple Or, playing it like fish, been happy, Having felt with fingers that the sky is blue, What have we after that to look forward to? Not the twilight of the gods but a precise dawn Of sallow and grey bricks, and newsboys crying war.

All three books in the series are exceptional. Rich in historical details. The narrative is engaging and you find yourself wondering why aren’t there more authors like her. With Alexander and Hephaestion already dead and the Persian boy only briefly present, this third book perhaps lacks that special character narrative of the first two, but it is a necessary closure that completes the Alexander true story.

I found this novel much easier to read than the previous Persian Boy and finished it in two to three days. Fast moving and eventful, though difficult to keep up with who’s who! Definitely worth reading, in my opinion.

Imaginitivly written, as is the whole trilogy, and a stunning wrap up of the power struggle that followed after Alexanders death.