Gates of Fire is the literary equivalent of the films Saving Private Ryan or Glory in that from the outside looking in it seems to capture not only the horror but also the courage and randomness of combat. Although the style of warfare depicted in Gates of Fire is extinct, war and death remain the same across time and place. I wonder if combat veterans think this book accurately illustrates the experience. The author is a Marine veteran. The book is on the reading list at West Point. Gates of Fire details the Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartans allied with roughly 3-5000 Greeks from other city-states held off a Persian invasion force of at least twenty times their number for seven days before being betrayed, surrounded and annihilated in a last stand. This book is not just about the battle but about the entire Spartan way of life. It does not shrink from the uglier and more brutal aspects of Sparta. The story is told by a brief survivor of the battle, Xeones, who is a Spartan not by birth but via will. Before he dies he attempt to explain the Spartan lifestyle to an incredulous but respectful Emperor Xerxes. This was a very entertaining book that is as much about why and how men are able to fight, kill and die when every instinct tells them to run away as it is about the battle itself. There is a scene before the end that was reminiscent of Glory, in which various men tell each other "It's been an honor" or explain why they decided to come to the fight.