Alexander and Alestria

I just finished this book tonight & from the very beginning this book has not been what I expected. The book tells the story of not just Alexander the Great but also of Alestria, Queen of the Amazons. You see the life of Alexander the Great & what he went through depicted by the author, telling of a life led by the son of vicious king & a queen who hid from her husband, but the author leaves the speculation that this soon to be great of all Alexander’s, was never the son of a king. Through this though you see how twisted Alexander becomes because of the life around him. He is innocent & beautiful, his mother treats him like a girl, while his king father berates him for going along with his mother. Alexander is also subject to the sights of his father’s exploits with other men & his father’s fury. And up till the age of six when Alexander is taken away to become a man, a great warrior at a school, which all six year old boys in his country must go to, he lives with all this & more. Struggle more & more everyday, with how he has slowly & embedding becomes his father, causing him to struggle even more in the life he’s adopted.
At the same time the book tells the story of a young Amazon queen, who is taken in by the former queen & raised to be the new queen. Her story is told not just by her, but by her friend & servant Ania. You see how Alestria was abandoned & hurt growing up, how she faced similar things as Alexander, but because raised by the Amazons, she becomes another type of person, another type strength.
The more you delve into the story the more you see the twists of Alexander’s mind portrayed by Shan Sa. You see the sadness & strength of Alestria. Who along with Ania, whenever truly an Amazon add a ‘t’ in front of the ‘a’s’ in their names. Like the way of the horses.
As seen in the book; you see Alexander the fire, a destruction & Alestria the ice, a peace. And when the two come face to face in battle, Alexander for the first time meets his match & to his surprise his only true match is a woman. But the passion of war is not the only thing that is shared between the two. For when they meet, love is a surprising thing that rears its head towards two people that never comprehended the word of love & always saw it in a way a form of weakness they’d never encountered.
With love though comes learning & sacrifice & of course Alestria is the one who sacrifices her freedom as an Amazon & as the queen of the women she so leads with strength & of the rules she breaks for Alexander. All those that fought with her though come with her ashamed of leaving their queen, who if they went back to the tribe, would have to proclaim her dead. For to the Amazons, when one falls for a man & chooses to go, she has chosen death & their queen had chosen this.
Throughout this book, showing the change & experience that Alestria goes through to be with Alexander, people would see as another woman lost & given in to what she had to give up to have love. But with Alestria it was never that, she was only ever like a Goddess in slumber. Quiet & still waiting for her God to catch up to her. So that in the end it is truly Alexander who changes & deserts his world for the one he loves. Though it took the bit of an arrow, to show him the truth.
And as I read the end of book, the beauty of how it was written & of how it came to an end, made me cry. For even Alexander did what the Amazons did & choose to become a star to await his Alestria to join him. For it was an amazing beauty that held together & finally truly comprehended in the end.
I think people should really read this.