Gregory Michael Nixon

upvoted The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empire9 months ago

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left a comment on The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empireover 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

Hi Susie. I now like you very much. I also like the amended and more fact-based review of yours that I found on GoodReads. Thank you very much. (Can't seem to find the amended review here on Reedsy, however.

commented on over 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

Susie Helme must read very quickly, for she got many of the events in my novel simply wrong, and her knowledge of ancient history with regard to the Peoples of the Sea and the Hittites was lacking.

commented on over 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

Susie Helme must read very quickly, for she got many of the events in my novel simply wrong, and her knowledge of ancient history with regard to the Peoples of the Sea and the Hittites was lacking.

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over 2 years ago

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over 2 years ago

left a comment on The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empireover 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

THIS was my "book launch"? I have to wonder what I've gained from this.

commented on over 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

Please do.

liked over 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

launched The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empireover 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empire

Gregory Michael Nixon

A historically-based novel with authentic, legendary, & fictional characters interacting across the ...

left a comment on The Diomedeia: Diomedes, the Peoples of the Sea, and the Fall of the Hittite Empireover 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

I appreciate the review from Susie Helme, as well as her praise and criticisms. I gratefully accept her judgment in the stars. I will not quibble about her aesthetic judgment or the all-important "three-beat rule" of writing contemporary dialogue, but it seems to me she must have read my tale very quickly, for she renders so much of its content – and history itself – inaccurately. (I'm a history buff, Susie, so forgive my pedantic points. I am really just very glad to be read. Why write if one is not read? You seem to have read a good deal around the Trojan War, but less so beyond that. Anyway, I really do appreciate the time you put into this and your generally positive review!) "...the Dorians (Sea People), prepare to invade Hittite capital Hattusa." My only mention of the Dorians is of a downtrodden tribe in Hellas. The idea that the Greek Dorians may have been the Sea People is dated and mistaken. The Dorians are not the Sea Peoples. It was not the Dorians who later attacked Egypt! In the book I make it very clear that the Peoples of the Sea are a conglomerate from nations across the Mediterranean, just as portrayed in inscriptions of Ramesses III at his Medinet Habu mortuary temple (ca. 1175 BCE). "Approaching the city, the Ahhiyawa (Achaians) encounter a band of Achaian refugees, including Diomedes." A lot of Achaians going both ways — too many. It is the Peoples of the Sea who approach Hattusa, and they do have a contingent of Danaans (related to the Achaians) among them, but that's it. Diomedes meets them coming from Hattusa as he leads a ragged band of *Hittite* refugees escaping the destruction, but he is the only Achaian amongst them. "Diomedes and his warriors go in pursuit to Lawazantiya, cult city of the goddess, and they conquer and plunder other Anatolian cities." Diomedes leads only 15 warriors with only one other Achaian amongst them. They "conquer and plunder" no Anatolian cities at all. Later, Sarpedon the Sardinian leads down through Anatolia a 2000-man warrior troop and they do indeed plunder a number of cities on the way. However, these are not the same troops. "In an attempt to save his kingdom, Suppilulima has a crazed plan..." By the time he is convinced of his "plan", the Great King Suppiluliuma knows the kingdom is lost. His plan to achieve godhead in life is for his own sake only. This matters to the story's theme a great deal. "There is controversy around the dating of ancient history. Nixon accepts, as do I, the dating of the Sea Peoples’ invasions as directly following the fall of Troy and led by returning Achaean veterans of the Trojan War (the Nostoi)." My reviewer seems to take the Trojan War as some sort of central standard for the era, while I treat it as almost peripheral to the larger events of the time. The Sea People migrations and "invasions" went on for many years, including before the most agreed upon date for the legendary Trojan War. The Pharaoh, Merneptah, described on his Victory Stele how he defeated an earlier invasion of the Sea Peoples led by the Libu (Libyans) in about 1208 BCE. (I mention no "Nostoi", a later invention of post-Homeric Greek poets.) "I also don’t think warriors used negatively connoted words like ‘pillage’ or ‘maraud’ when referring to their own forces. They would have told the story using more boasting and heroic language." The actual speech of kings as recorded on clay tablets shows that part of that "boasting and heroic language" was to brag about cities they had pillaged and destroyed. They were not delicate about it. "The ending is disappointing." I'm sorry Ms Helme felt that way, but she has the right to her own subjective call. The "ending" implies further adventures ahead. Others have told me the two final chapters involving the descent into the Underworld (which the reviewer never mentions) are the most compelling and disturbing chapters in the book. Best to see for yourself. Again, sorry for being perhaps pedantic, but I sincerely appreciated someone taking the time to read & review my book (even if it was perhaps rushed).

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started following over 2 years ago

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started following over 2 years ago

over 2 years ago

About me

As a former university professor most of my publishing has been academic. Once retired, I returned to the novel I had been dreaming of writing since reading Homer's Iliad at 15. I moved to the countryside and finally this unusual book emerged: historical fiction set in the Bronze Age Hittite Empire.

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To write historical fiction, one must learn history, but the tale itself can only be heard from the invisible Muses of the imagination.

Gregory Michael Nixon

Gregory Michael Nixon

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