Semi-OT: The Icaran Empire Preview (the book one)

[Hunpecked]

Starhawk writes: "...my College Writing prof. said she looks forward to seeing my name on a book some day soon..."

I wouldn't get a swelled head over that; I'm sure she says it to all her future best-selling authors.

Not a bad read, but it needs a good editor, e.g. misspellings: "triumvirate", "nonexistent", "falter", etc. The term "outer most tip of Greece" should perhaps be replaced by something more directional, e.g. southernmost, easternmost, or something like that.

This is clearly an alternate history, but it's not clear how far back it diverges from actual events. For example, I've read that Sparta didn't take on its distinctive militaristic character until the time of the (mythical?) king's advisor Lycurgus in the early Ninth Century BC.

I'm hazy on dates for the Bronze Age in Greece, but I think iron wasn't used on a large scale until well after 1,000 BC. Starhawk's tale of horse archers & such against the Spartans is quite interesting. I've been reading Kagan's book about the Peloponnesian War, 431-404 BC. In that period I gather that combined-arms forces of hoplites, cavalry, skirmishers, and missile troops generally outperformed armies based mainly on the heavily armed and armored hoplites alone.