It was a clash of arms that would echo through the millennia: a hard-fought conflict born of love, pride, greed and revenge; a decade-long siege of the ancient world's greatest city from which nobody will escape unscathed.

As urgent and passionate as if told for the first time, international best seller Colleen McCullough breathes life into legend, swinging our sympathies from Greece to Troy and back again as they move inexorably towards a fate not even the gods themselves can avert. Here are Greek princess Helen, sensuous and self-indulgent, who deserts a dull husband for the sake of the equally self-indulgent Trojan prince Paris; the haunted warrior Achilles; the heroically noble Hektor; the subtle and brilliant Odysseus; Priam, King of Troy, doomed to make the wrong decisions for the right reasons; and Agamemnon, King of Kings, who consents to the unspeakable to launch his thousand ships, incurring the terrifying wrath of his wife, Klytemnestra.

Writing from various characters’ viewpoints, both Greek and Trojan, may have meant to swing our sympathies from Greece to Troy, and back again, but, because of how the author wrote them, I came away not caring for any of the characters. It’s a major flaw in an otherwise satisfying novel. I need someone to root for.

I suppose having read Gemmell’s trilogy about Troy only months ago, I couldn’t help but compare the two. In Gemmell’s books, Aeneas was the obvious hero, though there were others. Here, he thinks only of himself, grasping for the crown of Troy. I suppose I prefer the Latin tradition of this character, as opposed to the Greek, which is what the author uses.

So while, yes, Paris and Helen and self-indulgent, the same can be said of all of the major characters here. The story couldn’t help but be interesting, and I did like that we get both sides’ stories, but would it have hurt to have at least one major character who thought just a little bit less of himself?




( Mount TBR 2018 Book Links )