Karla B. (gaslight) - , reviewed on 10/19/2009 + 145 more book reviews

A interesting re-imagining of the lead-up to the Trojan War, almost a complete alternate universe at points. However, I didn't find it an absorbing read. It had way more potential than it actually delivered.

The main character is the uninteresting Helikaon/Aeneas, sort of a mash-up between Aeneas & Achilles in valor and temperament. He's a driven man of contradictions, vengeful one moment and spouting mission statements of diversity/gender equity workshops the next. Such sentiments were clunky and phrased with too modern a tone.

Andromache here is a beautiful swan who thinks she's an ugly duck, accomplished in seducing women and handing advanced archery weaponry. There was little in her characterization that was surprising once I got a sense of the author's sentiment and aims. For all her powers, mental and physical, she wasn't interesting at all. Her and Helikaon's immediate attraction had no depth, but simply a device that yarned the gods into it and seemed to make it a matter of destiny that required no discussion or attention. Things happen, people are. Let's move on to the next scene.

The characters, with the exception of Odysseus (fail-proof), Laodike and Argurios, were flat and dull. There was no engaging internal activity, no brain- and soul-digging, no spark that made me care about them.

What "insight" there was consisted of the repetitious -- and eventually boring -- device of flashbacks within scenes whenever a character saw or said something that prompted a memory. It didn't even have to be important for DG to slip into another paragraph or 3 of pluperfect. For example, the Mykene mercenary Argurios polishes his armor for a feast, sees the dings on it, and recalls the battle where the damage occurred. There is no new information to be gained by this. The reader has already been informed often and at great length by a dozen characters what a great and fearless warrior he is.

DG may be considered a master of plot, but the book read like chess pieces moved with checkers prose. I'd say 95% of the book has a style that's simplistic like woah. Only a couple passages with Laodike & Queen Halysia prompted me to re-read them because they were so evocative of their inner turmoil (a rare occurrence elsewhere with other characters). Both women weren't the fantastically gifted warrior priestess/princess that Andromache was, and hence seemed more realistic and accessible.

There are several flagged "Aha!" moments of dual identities revealed where we discover that two different characters are actually one and the same, but after the first, the second and the third seem like a dull repeat of the same ploy and further plot twists had already been telegraphed far in advance.

In the end, there was too much I found impossible to ignore and "just enjoy it" for what it was. DG seemed to be too intent on reinventing some characters for newness's sake, going to the extent of having Paris be stoop-shouldered (!), bookish (!!) and balding (!!!), as well has having Helen be thickset, plain and unremarkable. Come on! If an author is going to reinvent the wheel in terms of Paris and Helen, then utilize them sensibly since so much of the action took place in Troy anyway. By dropping these new images for a brief glimpse but no commitment, it came across as a cheap trick.

After all this, why still 3 stars? Well, I appreciate re-imaginings of known universes. DG's Odysseus is very in-character with the new twist of The Odyssey being an anthology of his fireside tales. I enjoyed the meshing of Hector's battle exploits with the Hittite-Egyptian Battle of Kadesh, along with the political and martial relationship between Troy and the Hittite empire. (The utter absence of Hector was disappointing, however.)

Overall, a great disappointment, but at least I know what to expect and am prepared to be underwhelmed by the next two books.

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