Listen free for 30 days
-
Gates of Fire
- An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $27.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
Gates of Fire puts you at the side of valiant Spartan warriors in 480 BC for the bloody, climactic battle at Thermopylae. There, a few hundred of Sparta’s finest sacrificed their lives to hold back the invading Persian millions. The time they bought enabled the Greeks to rally - saving, according to ancient historian Herodotus, “Western democracy and freedom from perishing in the cradle.” How did the Spartans accomplish this superhuman feat? This is what the King of Persia hopes to learn from the sole Spartan survivor. The squire’s story indeed reveals the incredible rigors of Spartan training - and more importantly, how the whole culture fostered the mindset of fearlessness.
Steven Pressfield has skillfully combined scholarship and storytelling to bring the whole world of ancient Sparta brilliantly to life. George Guidall’s dramatic delivery enhances the richness and feeling of this inspired recreation.
You may also enjoy...
-
A Man at Arms
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jerusalem and the Sinai desert, AD 55. In the turbulent aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus, agents of the Roman Empire receive information about a pilgrim bearing an incendiary letter from a religious fanatic calling himself Paul the Apostle to insurrectionists in Corinth. What's in the letter could bring down an empire. The Romans hire a former legionary, a solitary man-at-arms named Telamon to intercept the letter and destroy the courier. But once he meets the courier, Telamon experiences an extraordinary conversion.
-
-
hardcore
- By joe landry on 2024-09-18
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
The Virtues of War
- A Novel of Alexander the Great
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I have always been a soldier. I have known no other life. So begins Alexander’s extraordinary confession on the eve of his greatest crisis of leadership. By turns heroic and calculating, compassionate and utterly merciless, Alexander recounts with a warrior’s unflinching eye for detail the blood, the terror, and the tactics of his greatest battlefield victories.
-
-
Captivating
- By Anonymous User on 2022-04-30
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
Killing Rommel
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Alfred Molina
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Autumn 1942. Hitler's legions have swept across Europe; France has fallen; Churchill and the English stand isolated on their island. In North Africa, Rommel and his Panzers have routed the British Eighth Army and stand poised to overrun Egypt, Suez, and the oil fields of the Middle East.
-
-
Brilliant!
- By James on 2024-07-04
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
The Lion's Gate
- On the Front Lines of the Six Day War
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
June 5, 1967: The fearsome, Soviet-equipped Egyptian Army and its 1000 tanks are massed on Israel's southern border. Meanwhile, the Syrian Army is shelling the much smaller nation from the north. And to the east, Jordan and Iraq are moving brigades and fighter squadrons into position to attack. Egypt's President Nasser has declared that the Arab world's goal is no less than "the destruction of Israel."
-
-
Timely read … perhaps always
- By James Wassenas on 2024-10-05
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
Lone Survivor
- The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
- Written by: Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive. This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history.
-
-
Glad I had free credits
- By Matthew Nikirk on 2019-02-24
Written by: Marcus Luttrell, and others
-
Tides of War
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi
- Length: 7 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One man. Two armies. The fate of the ancient world in the balance. In Tides of War, Steven Pressfield presents an epic saga of Greek strife and conflict with the same historical precision and heartbreaking human scale that made his last novel, Gates of Fire, an international best seller.
-
-
Enjoyable history lesson on Alcibiades
- By Jeremy on 2019-04-15
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
A Man at Arms
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jerusalem and the Sinai desert, AD 55. In the turbulent aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus, agents of the Roman Empire receive information about a pilgrim bearing an incendiary letter from a religious fanatic calling himself Paul the Apostle to insurrectionists in Corinth. What's in the letter could bring down an empire. The Romans hire a former legionary, a solitary man-at-arms named Telamon to intercept the letter and destroy the courier. But once he meets the courier, Telamon experiences an extraordinary conversion.
-
-
hardcore
- By joe landry on 2024-09-18
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
The Virtues of War
- A Novel of Alexander the Great
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I have always been a soldier. I have known no other life. So begins Alexander’s extraordinary confession on the eve of his greatest crisis of leadership. By turns heroic and calculating, compassionate and utterly merciless, Alexander recounts with a warrior’s unflinching eye for detail the blood, the terror, and the tactics of his greatest battlefield victories.
-
-
Captivating
- By Anonymous User on 2022-04-30
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
Killing Rommel
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Alfred Molina
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Autumn 1942. Hitler's legions have swept across Europe; France has fallen; Churchill and the English stand isolated on their island. In North Africa, Rommel and his Panzers have routed the British Eighth Army and stand poised to overrun Egypt, Suez, and the oil fields of the Middle East.
-
-
Brilliant!
- By James on 2024-07-04
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
The Lion's Gate
- On the Front Lines of the Six Day War
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
June 5, 1967: The fearsome, Soviet-equipped Egyptian Army and its 1000 tanks are massed on Israel's southern border. Meanwhile, the Syrian Army is shelling the much smaller nation from the north. And to the east, Jordan and Iraq are moving brigades and fighter squadrons into position to attack. Egypt's President Nasser has declared that the Arab world's goal is no less than "the destruction of Israel."
-
-
Timely read … perhaps always
- By James Wassenas on 2024-10-05
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
Lone Survivor
- The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
- Written by: Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive. This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history.
-
-
Glad I had free credits
- By Matthew Nikirk on 2019-02-24
Written by: Marcus Luttrell, and others
-
Tides of War
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi
- Length: 7 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One man. Two armies. The fate of the ancient world in the balance. In Tides of War, Steven Pressfield presents an epic saga of Greek strife and conflict with the same historical precision and heartbreaking human scale that made his last novel, Gates of Fire, an international best seller.
-
-
Enjoyable history lesson on Alcibiades
- By Jeremy on 2019-04-15
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
Richard Nixon
- The Life
- Written by: John A. Farrell
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 28 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Nixon opens with young navy lieutenant "Nick" Nixon returning from the Pacific and setting his cap at Congress, an idealistic dreamer seeking to build a better world. Yet amid the turns of that now legendary 1946 campaign, Nixon's finer attributes quickly gave way to unapologetic ruthlessness. It is a stunning overture to John A. Farrell's magisterial portrait of a man who embodied postwar American cynicism.
-
-
Bad people can do great things
- By James on 2024-02-29
Written by: John A. Farrell
-
Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be
- Written by: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Steven Pressfield
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are you losing your "war of art"? Are you being defeated by a tendency to procrastination, self-doubt, fear, distraction, and perfectionism? Are you self-sabotaging your loftiest artistic entrepreneurial dreams? The antidote is in nine words: Put your ass where your heart wants to be. Can you shift your artistic identity—your "ass"—from the shallow, fearful, superficial ego to the wise, loving, fearless self? Can you commit to your dream for the long haul and for keeps? Steven Pressfield delivers the tough-love inspiration to help you make this life-altering transformation.
-
-
A must listen if you're a creative person
- By The Wanderer on 2022-10-18
Written by: Steven Pressfield
-
Helmet for My Pillow
- From Parris Island to the Pacific: A Young Marine's Stirring Account of Combat in World War II
- Written by: Robert Leckie
- Narrated by: James Badge Dale, Tom Hanks (introduction)
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries.
-
-
Disappinting
- By Michael on 2024-11-15
Written by: Robert Leckie
-
Master and Commander
- Aubrey/Maturin Series, Book 1
- Written by: Patrick O'Brian
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.
-
-
Set sails
- By David mcmahon on 2020-07-13
Written by: Patrick O'Brian
-
Dances with Wolves
- Written by: Michael Blake
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ordered to hold an abandoned army post, John Dunbar found himself alone, beyond the edge of civilization. Thievery and survival soon forced him into the Indian camp, where he began a dangerous adventure that changed his life forever. Set in 1863, the novel follows Lieutenant John Dunbar on a magical journey from the ravages of the Civil War to the far reaches of the imperiled American frontier, a frontier he naively wants to see "before it is gone".
-
-
Only one thing could make it better
- By Owen Enstrom on 2020-02-12
Written by: Michael Blake
-
Black Hawk Down
- Written by: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ninety-nine elite American soldiers are trapped in the middle of a hostile city. As night falls, they are surrounded by thousands of enemy gunmen. Their wounded are bleeding to death. Their ammunition and supplies are dwindling. This is the story of how they got there - and how they fought their way out. Black Hawk Down drops you into a crowded marketplace in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Special Forces and puts you in the middle of the most intense firelight American soldiers have fought since the Vietnam war.
-
-
Expected a history book got a dramatization.
- By Parker on 2024-05-17
Written by: Mark Bowden
What listeners say about Gates of Fire
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kalen Davidson
- 2017-12-02
Epic. Visceral. Awesome.
I truly enjoyed the immaculate detail and awesome storytelling. A truly epic tale of human struggle, strength and war.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Langer MD
- 2022-02-05
'More Than Acceptable' Historical Fiction
I admit that I was swayed by a Publishers Summary that implied a more historically accurate depiction/interpretation of the battle of Thermopylae (made famous by the film version of Frank Miller's '300'). Instead, this book is a fictional story about a young Greek who joined the Polis of Sparta after his home was sacked, participated in the battles against the Persians, and describes life, training, and adventures in Sparta in the 4th century BC.
Steven Pressfield's action-heavy offering is a great tale (well-written, populated with interesting characters, plotted reasonably well, with an immersive setting, making some excellent philosophical points about life & death, and including some of the best descriptions of pitched battle I have ever read).. just not what I anticipated. Ben Kane and Bernard Cromwell actually provide similar "man-in-the-trenches" stories more effectively (if less maturely).
George Guidall's narration is similarly overshadowed by the availability of superior readers (I get the impression that Recorded Books Inc. could have cast this project better).
That's not to say that the reading isn't professional.. Guidall delivers a performance with commendable diction, cadence, and tone, but he reads slightly too slowly (listen at 1.15X), and with unimaginative voice-acting (every character sounds similar).
In toto, the recording is "passable".
Altogether, this is a creditable effort from all standpoints. I rate 'Gates Of Fire' 8.5 stars out of 10. I bought the book on sale (and I'm glad I took the chance), but fans of cerebral historical adventure books are warranted in spending a Credit on it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 2023-03-16
Remarkable
Without a doubt one of the most outstanding performances I’ve ever had the privilege to enjoy. The story is constructed so beautifully. I was not expecting such a work of art as this. It captures the moments and the emotions that weave through them. The picture of life in these times is stark and humbling. It makes you realize how lucky those that live in safety and security are. That this is possible is down to men like the Spartans, for they and those like them endure such hardship so they can fight for others. This book is a testament to that.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Eleena
- 2019-07-04
Freaking Epic!
Loved it! Pure epicness througout the whole tale, very inspirstional and thought provoking! I bought the actual book just so i could own a physical copy, and gifted another copy to my friend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- alison
- 2022-08-30
Great great book
Well written .. a wonderful story .. inspiring recounting of leadership and loyalty … definitely a great read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert Dawson Link
- 2018-05-25
one of my favs
I read this book in my early 20s and is still one of the best books I've ever read. it translates to audiobook perfectly.... what a great story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2023-03-04
A great story and a great performance
Great historical fiction, with a great Narration. The story comes alive to the modern reader but stays true to the characters at their place in history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tyler Benedet
- 2021-08-18
outstanding
brutal and beautiful.
lessons in lbeing a leader or future and current leaders.
narrator was excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sarah
- 2022-01-19
I couldn't get enough
Simply put, this is a superb listen. 5 stars all around. I already somewhat knew the story of the battle of Thermoplae, thanks mostly to the movie The 300, however this book weaves a complelling tale of the Spartan way of life. Seen through the eyes of a Squire, the narrator takes the listener on such a beautifully detailed journey, that one feels transported in time. You get to feel the passions and emotions, the guts and the grit that made up the psyche of the heroes of this battle. I felt compelled to listen... And was left bereft by the end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-06-14
Excellent historical fiction - would recommend
Excellent historical fiction - would recommend. Really well-told story and characters. Excellent narration and glad I listened.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful