Valerio Massimo Manfredi Books In Order

Publication Order of Alexander Books

Publication Order of Odysseus Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Valerio Massimo Manfredi is an Italian author of historical books. He’s also an essayist, journalist, and archaeologist. Born in Modern, Manfredi attended the University of Bologna and ventured in archaeology. Manfredi has published as a series of articles and academic essays and published some best-selling novels. He also writes for many magazines and newspapers.

Manfredi’s book The Last Legion was the concept for the movie by the same name. The film was released in 2007 and featured Ben Kingsley, Colin Firth, and others. Additionally, the author’s Alexander Trilogy has been adapted for the big screen by Universal Pictures, a cinematic re-enactment of the story of the Alexander the Great. Manfredi has also written screenplays for Gilgamesh and Marco d’Aviano and has also optioned Le Memories di Adriano for big screen adaptation. Furthermore, the author has hosted TV series Stargate for three seasons and also Impero on the Italian Television channel LA7.

Alexander: Child of a Dream

It was 1998 when Valerio Massimo Manfredi, archaeologist, and historian of international fame, published the first volume of the trilogy. The series is dedicated to the one who historians and scholars believe to have been the greatest leader of all time. Great not only on the battlefield but also and above all in that ruthless war and without the exclusion of blows that is life: Alexander the Great.

In Child of Dream, Manfred traces the youth of the future sovereign in the form of an exciting and beautiful novel, full of twists and full of emotions.
The heart of the book is the childhood of the future condottiere, his relationship with his father Filippo and his mother Olimpias, and above all with those friends who will become the companions of his entire life. The inseparable Hephaestion, Ptolemy, Perdicca, Leonnato, Cratero, the future admiral Nearco, the poor Eumene, victim of the jokes and pranks of the comrades and a pretty girl from unknown origins (but who will be revealed in one of the following novels of the trilogy) named Leptine, the first love of the young prince.

During his childhood, Alexander was educated in military art by his father in person, before being sent to Mieza where he spent several years learning politics, rhetoric, and philosophy from the famous Aristotle.

The novel also deepens a figure often passed in shadow in front of the greatness of Alexander, or the man who with the sweat and fatigue gave the young leader all the means to realize his dream of conquest of the East, the King Philip of Macedonia.

However, we must not fall into the trap of thinking that Child of Dream is only a historical novel with a military background. Manfredi’s best seller is much more. You will be impressed to discover how many emotions it is possible to experience from a story in which battles, which in general in historical novels represent the most exciting moments, are counted on the fingers of one hand and in which they are not at all the fulcrum of the story that the writer aims to tell us.

Alexandros Child of Dream aims to give you a better understanding of the soul of characters who have always filled the pages of our history books that instead exalt their military deeds. The meeting between the young Alexander and Aristotle. The ambiguous relations between Philip and Olimpias and the suffering that involved the exile of the protagonist from Macedonia following a dispute during the wedding ceremony of his father’s second marriage. The incredible devotion that the ” Torma di Alessandro ” nourished against the future emperor of the world. The pain suffered for the assassination of Filippo and still the incredible feat of taming the steed Bucephalus destined to become the faithful companion of a thousand adventures and much more. These are the main cornerstones of a fantastic adventure that begins with a prophecy and ends with an open ending that drives the reader to run to buy the second episode, Alexandros Amon’s Sands.

From the “technical” point of view, the novel is fluid, well written and some events are poetically narrated sublimely, others recounted with an emphasis that contributes to nourishing the spectacle. And it is precisely when the action comes alive and the moment of the fateful landing of the new ruler of Macedonia in Asia seems to be very close that the reader’s tension rises dramatically to the stars. Thanks to the mastery with which Manfred transmits his own emotional charges to who is lucky enough to hold the book in his hands through verses and sentences full of meaning, value and loads of adrenaline. A great story, able even to tear some tears of emotion to the most sensitive readers or particularly fond of Alexander.

The Sands of Ammon

The second book in Manfredi trilogy The Sands of Ammon covers the crossing of Anatolia and the landing in Egypt. It’s a transitional novel that remains firm in its detailed historical descriptions, especially for the battles of the Granicus and Isso, are introduced the characters of Memnon and his wife Barsine, who are inserted authoritatively in the Alexandrian vicissitudes. Moreover, investigations, deceptions, and intrigues are wisely developed and set in the most famous events, always with that embellishment in the middle between the mythical and the historical realism that the writer manages to affix. Of particular impact is the narration of the famous comparison between Darius and Alexander that acts as the perfect cliffhanger for what will come then in the third and final novel in the series.

The Sands of Ammon is a fantastic second series installment that showcases the epic and rapid world-changing events. It’s an episodic narrative that reveals to the readers Alexander’s travel as he travels with his companions and soldiers around the globe, conquering everything that he could find along his way during his journeys. Apparently, the action kick in when the cities he tries to conquer resists him and through this Valerio Massimo Manfredi can give gritty depictions of the siege. The author has a knack of crafting complex situations and presenting to the readers in understandable and straightforward phrases.