Tag Archives: historical fiction

I found a treasure between the covers of a book; Millman’s The Journeys of Socrates. I recommend this story to anyone to reads with a love of adventure, and who seeks the way to unlocking the secrets of the spirit.

This is the story of young orphaned boy, Sergei brought up in a harsh military college in 19th Century Tsarist Russia where boys are trained to be soldiers and the best are chosen to train as the Tsars personal elite Cossacks. Sergei’s father was an elite Cossack but his mother was a Jew. It is the time in Russia when the Jews are increasingly hunted from their homes and murdered. Sergei is aware of his Jewish heritage and if he remains as a Cossack he will be called upon to take part in the pogroms. He makes a decision to leave the college when he is 15 years old and begin his life’s journey. His military training ensures his survival as he finds his way through the harsh Russian terrain. Wonderful and tragic happenings are ahead for Sergei. He will meet many people who will help him to grow into the man he will become; he will be shaped mentally and physically into a warrior and so commences the journeys of Socrates.

Millman draws the reader and develops the character of Sergei from the very beginning of the story; the reader and Sergei unify and share life’s experiences from childhood to manhood. Millman has many characters throughout the story but none hold so prominent a place as the despicable Zakolyev who comes to the military college as a boy and immediately takes a hatred to Sergei. Millman’s character of Zakolyev is cruel with a psychotic personality and he refers disparagingly to Sergei as Sergei the Good. The reader can conclude from this Millman means us to view Zakolyev as Zakolyev the Bad..or Evil. These two will be the central characters throughout the novel in a battle between good and evil.

The story has a sprinkling of martial-arts, philosophy, spirituality and self-development without being weighed down by an overzealous amount of religious theology for readers who just don’t want to find that in a good read.

The sentence structure flows well. I never felt there were any parts of the story that dragged. The prose is superb, Life is about refinement, not perfection and so many more gems. So if you just want to be entertained or if you want to be entertained and to feed the soul, this is the book for you. It is one of those stories you don’t want to put down and before you know it – it is finished. I am new to Millman’s work and I can’t wait to read more.
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