TROY

Final volume in the authors’ historical fantasy (Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow, 2005, etc.) very loosely based on The Iliad. The narrative was completed by Stella following the death of her husband in 2006.

Agamemnon of Mykene and his allies seek the destruction of Troy and its king, Priam, for the latter’s supposedly vast hoard of treasure, not revenge for the abduction of the fabled Helen—here she is plain, plump and peripheral. Odysseus, a wanderer and fabulist, has strong ties to Troy’s main ally, fierce mariner Helikaon (aka Aeneas) of Dardania, and sides with Agamemnon only because of a now-regretted oath. Warrior Achilles despises cold, treacherous, ambitious Agamemnon. Priam’s in his dotage, and turns over the defense of Troy to his sons. However, before the battle for Troy can reach its climax, Helikaon must take Andromache, Prince Hektor’s wife, to the island of Thera to return some bones and fulfill a vow. Andromache—just one of the many strong female characters—loves Helikaon as well as her husband, and complications ensue. Helikaon’s warship is the most powerful on the seas—and he’s armed with Greek fire! Other anachronisms abound: the Mykene fight in Macedonian phalanxes; the characters merrily chomp on corn bread. There’s plenty of revisionism, too: Achilles kills Paris, not the other way around, and never sulks in his tent, while his single combat with Hektor ends not at all as Homer would have us believe. Finally, the Trojan Horse, still a brilliant deception inspired by Odysseus, owes nothing to a hollow statue on wheels.

A rousing conclusion for fans of the previous volumes—but not one for the purists.