Paperback: 312 pages
Release date: July 26th, 2011
Publisher: Createspace
Goodreads Rating: 4.47
Goodreads Rating: 4.47
Summary: Two spartan boys grow up together, and become inseparable friends. One is a prince of Sparta, destined to rule this ancient Greek state, the other a slave, or helot, who serves the young prince. In the harsh training camps, or agoges, where boys are groomed to become the great warriors of Spartan fame, their skills are honed and brutally tested. Only citizens may aspire to the warrior's red cloak, and one of the tests is the annual crypteia, or hunting of the helots.
A beautiful and mysterious young Sibyl speaks of an uprising of the slaves. The oracles warn of a deadly conflict between two ruling factions. Evil forces will challenge the two boys and test their loyalties, as secret truths about their own identities are revealed.
It is fast-paced story from a third person view giving more space to explore its surroundings and weigh each character's personality well. 'Song of the Red Cloak' made an impression to me for pricking my anticipation of what's going to happen next, after that and the following events then it surprised me for its twists and turns on some of which I did never expect to happen.
The two boys---Galen and Prince Nikolas---are two different characters but their loyalty and friendship unites them showing us of what true friendship means that it's not about your family background, status in the society, good looks or how wealthy you are but it's about accepting your friends for who they are and looking beyond their flaws and trying to look through their heart. They were put to tests that would measure their loyalty and that would strengthen their character which intensifies the plot of the story.
I'm impressed with this book because in spite of the fact that it didn't deal with plenty of love story but only with enough to show that the boys are still young and are trying to look for the girl of their dreams is still interesting to me because Acevedo did not rely on making her novel wonderful out of too much love story instead she worked greatly on touching some facts about Sparta's history during its Golden days like the story of the two ruling families, Crypteia, Helots, Sibyls or seers, Ephors and many more that does not make the story dull and lacklustre but adventurous and excting! The story is just a cliffhanger so I'm keeping tabs on the latest updates for the second book on this trilogy which is entitled 'Song of Glass and Dust'. Thumbs Up! I highly recommend this to all YA Historical fiction fans who wants to discover new characters with different identities from Sparta. S'agapo!
I wanted to use this time to give a huge thanks to Chantel Acevedo for the signed copies of her book which I won from one of her contests. It's a great pleasure to to read your book. S'agapo! :)
To know more about Chantel Acevedo you can check out my Author Interview with her through this link: A Pre-Christmas Author Interview with Chantel Acevedo.
