"Birth of a Warrior" by Michael Ford

(ISBN 978-0-8027-9794-0)

Birth of a Warrior is the second in the "Spartan Quest" Trilogy by Michael Ford

In this sequel to The Fire of Ares, Lysander has completed has successfully competed in the Festival Games and convinced the helots not to rebel against their Spartan masters, but now he must face his greatest challenge yet...the Ordeal.

At 13, Spartan youth were sent out into the wild with no weapons, no clothing but their loincloth, and no food and water. They were expected to remain in the wild for one whole week and survive by their wits. Many boys did not return, but those who did were accepted as full citizens of Sparta.

In this journey, Lysander is joined by his nemesis from the first book, his barracks mate Demaratos. They are to be guided by a savage 18 year old named Agesilaus. What kind of man is Agesilaus? Well when he was younger, he and his brother were opponents at a barracks tournament. They fought savagely until Agesilaus managed to get his brother Nisos into a choke-hold and wold not let go until the referee forced him to. His brother was left "lying face down on the ground...[w]hen they turned him over, there was a lot of blood. The vessels in his nose and eyes had burst. He died there in the dirt. Agesilaus turned away from his brother and went to accept his prize...after Niso had been carried away...Agesilaus' father approached his son, his face unreadable. Many thought he would slay his son on the spot. He looked down at Nisos' blood in the dust, and then placed his hands on either side of Agesilaus' face to look him in the eye...He said, "I see I have raised at least one good son." (from pages 30-31)

This is the person who will guide Lysander and Demaratos! It is soon apparent, however, that Agesilaus has more in mind than his normal cruelty, for he is a candidate for the dreaded Krypteia. The Krypteia are Spartan warriors who by night carry out assassinations of troublesome helots. In order to join, a candidate must carry out three assassinations of random helots. In the mountains, Demaratos and Lysander find that they must put their differences aside and face a common enemy.

This novel is a worthy sequel to The Fire of Ares and includes a number of exciting battle scenes. Also, Lysander must deal with the consequences of some of his actions in the first novel, and he comes to appreciate the value of shared experiences and the value of a true friend. Without spoiling one of the key scenes, we find that Lysander must also do some horrible things in order to prevent even more horrible things from occurring. All in all a great and satisfying read! My only disappointment is that the third in the series is not available in any of our consortium libraries...which means I'm going to have to order it through ILL or, more likely, recommend we purchase it! ;-)