Prince of Macedonia: I am the Great Horse, #1

By Katherine Roberts

This first episode of Katherine Roberts' epic novel "I am the Great Horse" tells how the young Prince Alexander tames the spirited stallion nobody else could master, and then rides him to victory in his debut battle on the Thracian border. You'll also meet Bucephalas' groom Charmeia, who disguises herself as a boy so that she can look after the horse the other grooms are afraid to touch.

This short ebook is a perfect introduction to the full-length novel originally published in 2006 by Chicken House/Scholastic.

"A wild, surging, enormously readable narrative… Bucephalas joins Anna Sewell's Black Beauty and Richard Adams' Traveller as one of the great equine storytellers." Books for Keeps (5 star review).

"Unique and brilliant!" Dr Ian Mortimer (author of the Time Traveller's Guides).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katherine Roberts
• Release date: Sep 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781502295316

Katherine Roberts

Katherine Roberts grew up in the southwest of England, where her first fantasy stories were told to her little brother at bedtime. She graduated in mathematics from the University of Bath, after which she worked for the General Electric Company, and later for an American company developing business models for petrol stations. When redundancy struck in 1989, she fulfilled her childhood dream of working with horses in a National Hunt racing yard, writing in her spare time. After several years of writing short fantasy and horror stories for genre magazines, her first book Song Quest won the 2000 Branford Boase Award for best debut novel for young readers, kick-starting her career as an author. Her books have been published by HarperCollins, Chicken House and Scholastic US, and translated into 12 languages worldwide – one of them even hit the bestseller list in Taiwan. Her latest series for young readers, The Pendragon Legacy about King Arthur’s daughter, is published in the UK by Templar Books. Away from her computer, Katherine enjoys folk music, cycling, skiing, and horse riding holidays. She has flown a glider solo and scared herself silly doing aerobatics in a small plane. All of these experiences eventually find their way into her books – though sometimes the horse becomes a unicorn, and the plane becomes a dragon!

Book preview

FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH

MY NAME IS BUCEPHALAS, and you should know right away that I’m no Black Beauty.

My coat is the colour of oil-from-the-ground, but that’s where the resemblance stops. I have a big head, a white splodge between my eyes, battle scars, and a brand in the shape of two horns burnt into my backside. I am, however, very strong and worth my considerable weight in gold as a warhorse.

This is the story of how I met Prince Alexander and my groom Charmeia, and how we fought our very first battle together on the Macedonian border. It includes the first three Hoofprints (chapters) from my book I AM THE GREAT HORSE to give you a taste of our adventures.

Climb on my back, if you dare, and let me carry you into the battles that changed the world!

MAP

Macedonia, 344-340 BC

First Hoofprint

MACEDONIA 344BC

~ DOMINATING DUNG ~

When we reach the river landing, I can’t get off the ship fast enough. A storm hit us during our voyage up the coast, which is no fun if you’re tethered in a dung-splattered hold with a hundred terrified horses slipping and neighing around you.

I gallop down the ramp, dragging with me the two strongest man-colts employed by our trader Philonicus. The little curved spikes of the rough bit I’m wearing dig into the corners of my mouth when I fight against it, and they have attached a rein to each side of my bridle so I can’t bite them. They haven’t a hope of controlling me, of course. The only reason I’m going in the direction they want me to go is because I NEVER abandon my herd.

The sand steams under our hooves as we are led on to the riding ground. It smells of strange horses, and I need to stop several times to dominate dung, lifting my tail over the stranger’s pile and dropping my own dung on top to show I’m boss. My grooms jerk on my bit, so I rear up and fight them. By the time we catch up with the others at the far side of the ground, I am covered in white foam and the corners of my mouth are bleeding.

Philonicus squeals at my grooms, who mumble that I’m mad-fresh after being on the ship and that the state I’m in ain’t their fault. Nothing ever is with man-colts, I’ve found. The Macedonians who have come to try us out give me sideways looks.

He’s a bit excitable after the voyage, Philonicus tells them. He’s high-spirited, like all the best warhorses. He’ll calm down in a moment.

Ha! Not unless he finds me a groom who knows what he’s doing, I won’t.

Philonicus gives the man-colts a glower that is the human form of flat ears and hisses, "Take him over there and walk him round until he’s cooled off. And for Zeus’ sake, wipe that blood off his mouth

Reviews for Prince of Macedonia

[smiler69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Based on real-life events, this book describe the relationship between Alexander the Great and his horse. We follow the ambitious young king on his long campaign to conquer the Persian empire along with India and form the largest empire in ancient history, the twist being that the story is literally told from the horse's mouth. The description of their initial encounter in the novel is very similar to that stated in wikipedia:When Alexander was ten years old, a horse trader from Thessaly brought Philip a horse, which he offered to sell for thirteen talents. The horse refused to be mounted by anyone, and Philip ordered it to be taken away. Alexander, however, detected the horse's fear of his own shadow and asked for a turn to tame the horse, which he eventually managed. According to Plutarch, Philip, overjoyed at this display of courage and ambition, kissed him tearfully, declaring: "My boy, you must find a kingdom big enough for your ambitions. Macedon is too small for you", and bought the horse for him. Alexander would name the horse Bucephalas, meaning "ox-head". Bucephalas would be Alexander's companion throughout his journeys as far as India. When Bucephalas died (due to old age, according to Plutarch, for he was already thirty), Alexander named a city after him, Bucephala.In this fictional account, Roberts invents a young groom, Charmedes who is attached to Bucephalas by a strong spiritual connection, and since the horse is dangerous to handle by anyone else, Alexander appoints young Charmedes as his official horse groom. When it turns out that Charmedes is actually Charmeia, even though it is unheard of that a girl should do a man's work, Alexander still keeps her on as she is the only one who can give the special care required by Bucephalas to heal all the wounds he receives in battle, and he also relies on what appears to be her prophetic dreams. I really wanted to like this book a lot. I'm usually immediately taken in by stories about animals and this one was recommended by Kerry, who's suggestions usually hit the spot for me, but it just didn't click. One of the problems is that I don't enjoy stories of battles to begin with and this book described Alexander's conquests step by step. I might have enjoyed it more if it had not been written for young adults, because the tone and approach sometimes grated on me. For example, most of the chapters ended with a tally by the horse of the results following each battle with numbers of enemies dead, numbers taken as slaves, numbers of Macedonians dead and how many horses have perished. The last statistic was usually accompanied by a comment from Bucephalas such as: "Horses dead: 100, including Zoroaster and Aura's foal (VERY sad!)" One interesting aspect was that we got Bucephalas' unbiased view of the great conqueror, who believed himself to be the son of Zeus and was obsessed with reaching the end of the world where it was prophesized that he would attain immortality. Not surprisingly, Alexander comes across as an insecure brute who is intent on forcing the world to regard him as a great king. An interesting book, but unfortunately not quite my cup of tea.

[mcocuzzo2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You never truly know anything until you see it through a horse's eyes. This book was amazing.

[nikhilsuri · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a pretty good book, but is long and can get a little stale in the middle; but it is not bad. It is about Alexander the Great's war horse. It tells the story through Brucephalas (Alexander's war horse) eyes and ears.

[theteenspot · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an epic tale with a twist. Alexander the Great's stallion, Bucephalas, tells the story of life as a battle horse as seen through a horse's eyes. The steed of a king is as important as any weapon and it therefore lays on the shoulders of Charmeia, the stable girl, to make sure Bucephalas is fit and ready for battle. But can she do it and still keep all her secrets?