A Song of War A Novel of Troy

Kate Quinn, Libbie Hawker, Stephanie Thornton, Simon Turney, Russell Whitfield, Vicky Alvear, David Alexander Blixt

A SONG OF WAR Troy: city of gold, gatekeeper of the east, haven of the god-born and the lucky, a city destined to last a thousand years. But the Fates have other plans—the Fates, and a woman named Helen. In the shadow of Troy's gates, all must be reborn in the greatest war of the ancient world: slaves and queens, heroes and cowards, seers and kings . . . and these are their stories. A young princess and an embittered prince join forces to prevent a fatal elopement. A tormented seeress challenges the gods themselves to save her city from the impending disaster. A tragedy-haunted king battles private demons and envious rivals as the siege grinds on. A doomed hero launches a desperate plan to bring the war to a close. A grizzled archer and a desperate Amazon risk their lives to avenge their dead. A trickster conceives the greatest trick of all. A goddess' son battles to save the spirit of Troy even as the walls are breached in fire and blood. Seven authors bring to life the epic tale of the Trojan War: its heroes, its villains, its survivors, its dead. Who will lie forgotten in the embers, and who will rise to shape the bloody dawn of a new age?

Reviews

Amanda@groovyginger

Aug 9, 2024

I listened to this as an audiobook. This is a novel in seven parts, with each written by a different author; some were better than others. I especially enjoyed Kate Quinn's novella setting the stage for the war to come, and Andromache and Helenus were great characters. Cassandra written by Stephanie Thornton was also well done. But trying to make Agamemnon a sympathetic character did not work in the slightest. And besides, any of that character work seemed to disappear by the next novella.

The male dominated chapters were also slow (to me) and not as interesting, especially as they were pretty much straightforward retellings of The Iliad. I liked Penthesilea, but she didn't have as much time in this book as I thought she could have; her character could have been explored more. The final novella centering around Aeneas was strong, and I did like the Odysseus novella too.

My major gripe with this novel was making Helen the bad guy. She was pretty much evil with no redeeming qualities IMO. I find it unimaginative when retellings make Helen out to be like this. The war was not her fault, and yes, she is calculating and thinking of her own interests, but I think overall her character was handled poorly. It's almost cowardly to include so much about Helen without giving her a chance to speak for herself!

There was a lot explored here, and some other things I wish we could have read about, but overall this was a sold, if mostly straightforward, retelling. A good audiobook experience that brought the world of Troy to life.