2 Book Lovers Reviews
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Gajendra was a young boy from India. With a couple strokes of good luck and a whole lot of ambition he became a general in the army of Alexander the Great, leading his elephants head first into battle. I enjoyed following his adventures from Babylon to his instrumental help in the sack of Carthage and beyond.
When I picked up Colossus I was expecting to read about a massive beast crashing through masses of infantry, and I certainly got this. But I got so much more. I never expected Colossus to be a love story. Colin Falconer wove a wonderful relationship into this story filled with death and destruction. It was not your typical relationship, more of a, “You can’t always get what you want…” a la Rolling Stones. It was well paced and not forced at all. Gajendra and his love interest’s relationship developed slowly and unexpectedly, you might say that “they get what the need.”
What I enjoyed most about Colossus was of course the elephants. The details that Falconer gets into regarding their characteristics, their habits and their mucus was essential to the story. I imagine he spent many hours researching these gentle animals, who made for incredible weapons of war.
It was nice to finally find an author willing to tackle Alexander. He was probably the greatest general of antiquity and there are too few works of fiction drawing from his life and times. By reading Colossus, I got a real feeling for what it was like to fight under such a great leader.
4 Stars