Novels
- The Ten Thousand (2001)
- Gods and Legions (2002)
- The Last King (2004)
- The Sword of Attila (2005)
- The Fall of Rome (2007)
Novels Book Covers
Michael Curtis Ford Books Overview
The Ten Thousand
400 B.C. After decades of war, mighty Athens has been ravaged its navy destroyed, its city walls toppled, its army disbanded. The fierce military state of Sparta has triumphed, but passions and hate linger on. Thousands of battle hardened veterans from both sides in the conflict remain scattered across the Greek islands, restless and dangerous until Prince Cyrus issues a call to arms. The rogue exiled nobleman is raising an enormous mercenary army to conquer the most powerful empire in the world: Persia. The young philosopher warrior Xenophon, scion of a noble Athenian family and follower of Socrates, risks his father’s wrath and embarks on the adventure with high hopes for glory. Joining his cousin Proxenus, the war maddened Spartan general Clearchus, and a huge body of Cyrus’ native troops, he and ten thousand Greek mercenaries depart on an astounding march of a thousand miles, across the searing desert. Their near deadly journey culminates in a massive, bloody battle at the very threshold of Babylon a battle that proves disastrous for them. Their leaders are betrayed and murdered, their supply lines cut, and their route home across the desert blocked by the furious Persian king, bent on revenge. The Fates call on Xenophon to lead the devastated Greek soldiers in their escape, though he has little experience in commanding men. As the army flees toward the snowy north, its situation appears desperate. Months later, ten thousand battered, half starved soldiers stagger out of the frozen mountains of Armenia into a small Greek trading post on the Black Sea. Their true tale of survival, and of the heroic expedition Xenophon led through the heart of an enemy empire, astonished the incredulous natives and has been the stuff of legend ever since. Michael Ford combines his expertise on 5th century BC Greek warfare with explosive page turning action to give us one of the most spectacular Greek epics of the year. Not since Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire has the glory, the beauty, and the rampant bloodshed that was ancient Greece been so vividly captured. AUTHORBIO: MICHAEL CURTIS FORD, a native of Washington State, worked for many years as a consultant, banker and translator. He currently lives in Oregon, and helps his wife Cristina educate their two children at home. This is his first novel.
Gods and Legions
In the year, 354 A.D., Julian, a sheltered scholar and pacifist lives in peace until a summons from Emperor Constantine the Great changes the young man’s life forever. Dispatched to Gaul to help reclaim a beaten Roman territory from German barbarians, Julian displays a surprising and brutal genius for survival against impossible odds. Emerging as an unlikely hero and adored by a legion of zealots, his untapped ambition is ignited to reign as the new emperor. It’s a position of power that’ll test the loyalty of his friends, stir the ire of enemies, and cast an ominous shadow over his mad, and most magnificently impossible conquest of all…
From the author of the acclaimed The Ten Thousand comes a breathtaking recreation of the historic rise to power of a ruthless yet unlikely leader plunged into the chaos of war and his shocking fall that would become one of the most fascinating mysteries of the ages. A novel of courage and conviction, of loyalty and betrayal, of personal victory and dark ambition, Gods and Legions is epic storytelling at its most riveting.
The Last King
To the Romans, the greatest enemy the Republic ever faced was not the Goths or Huns, nor even Hannibal, but rather a ferocious and brilliant king on the distant Black Sea: Mithridates Eupator VI of Pontus, known to history as Mithridates the Great. At age eleven, Mithridates inherited a small mountain kingdom of wild tribesmen, which his wicked mother governed in his place. Sweeping to power at age twenty one, he proved to be a military genius and quickly consolidated various fiefdoms under his command. Since Rome also had expansionist designs in this region, bloody conflict was inevitable. Over forty years, Rome sent its greatest generals to contain Mithridates and gained tenuous control over his empire only after suffering a series of devastating defeats at the hands of this cunning and ruthless king. Each time Rome declared victory, Mithridates considered it merely a strategic retreat, and soon came roaring back with a more powerful army than before. Bursting with heroic battle scenes and eloquent storytelling, Michael Curtis Ford has crafted a riveting novel of the ancient world and resurrected one of history’s greatest warriors.
The Sword of Attila
For centuries, Rome had ruled from Africa to the wilds of Britain. Now, from across a broad plain of waving grass, a new enemy had poured out of the East to be led by a man whose goal was not just victory in battle, but the end of an empire…
In his novels of ancient warfare, Michael Curtis Ford captures the roar, clamor and horror of battle as well as the intimate moments of human choice upon which history turns. In his extraordinary new work, he brings to life the buckling Roman empire in 400 A.D., a jagged, sprawling realm of foreign fighters, unstable rulers, and battle lines stretched too far. At this pivotal moment, General Flavius Aetius is forced into a battle he does not want but cannot afford to lose. Once Flavius lived among the wild Huns, rode their stout warhorses and became like a son to their king. Now, he faces a man who once saved his life, a man he fears, loves and admires…
a man named Attila the most dangerous enemy Rome has ever known…
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The Fall of Rome
476 a.d.: The Roman Empire, riddled with corruption and staggered by centuries of barbarian onslaughts, now faces its greatest challenge not only to its wealth and prestige, but to its very existence. In his riveting novel The Sword of Attila, Michael Curtis Ford thrilled readers with his recounting of a cataclysmic clash of ancient civilizations. Now, in The Fall of Rome, he takes on the bloody twilight of empire, as the legacy of Attila once thought destroyed on the battlefield emerges again to defy the power of the Western World. In this powerful saga of Roman warfare, the sons of Attila’s great officers wage battle with one another as the dramatic confrontation between Rome s last emperor and Rome s barbarian conqueror leads to the thrilling d nouement that becomes the fall of a mighty empire. Pulsing with intrigue, saturated with historical detail, The Fall of Rome brings readers to new places pressed into the trenches as catapult bolts fly overhead, lurking within the palace where betrayal is plotted, imprisoned in a tower stronghold where an emperor turns mad. Once again, Ford demonstrates his mastery as a chronicler of battle, honor, and ancient worlds in this masterfully plotted epic novel that will leave readers begging for more. Praise for the Novels of Michael Curtis Ford The Sword of Attila Supremely well executed…
again, Ford offers solidly researched and lustily violent military historical fiction. Kirkus Reviews The Last King Michael Curtis Ford s love for the ancient world emanates from every page: in his magical settings and spectacular re creation of monuments and landscapes, in his bold portraits of the protagonists, and in his intriguing and swiftly moving plot. Valerio Massimo Manfredi, author of the Alexander Trilogy and Spartan This is Ford s best so far, and only those who have read his first two know just how good that makes this book. The Statesman Journal Gods and Legions Powerful and passionate. A truly compelling story one not just of gods and legions but of men. Library Journal starred review Thanks to the author s excellent research of both his subject and era, the reader experiences this great man s transformation step by determined step. Highly recommended. The Historical Novels Review The Ten Thousand A worthy successor to Steven Pressfield s Gates of Fire. Library Journal starred review Michael Curtis Ford s moving account of the fighting and dying of these heroic Greek mercenaries is not only historically sound, but very human, in making Xenophon s tale come alive in a way that no ancient historian or classicist has yet accomplished. Professor Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Soul of Battle
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