Ouch - it starts out okay but quickly rolls downhill with 21st century slang. I would have appreciated it if the book summary said we would be referencing more modern speech and thoughts here, but I thought we we traveling back to an ancient Greek battleground... ( )

I have much preferred Unsworth's other novels. The Trojan War saga is a bombastic bore for me. Nevertheless, as a satire on getting the history (or the story) right for future consumption, this is very well done. The Greek commanders come across as self-serving, ignoble go-getters set on glory and enrichment once they reach Troy. They are morally unperturbed by encouraging the sacrifice of Iphigenia as a sop to the army's growing distrust at the way the campaign has started.

This was a good book, nothing phenomenal, but a diverting read and a look at the intrigues of politics in a pre-Trojan war military camp. ( )

I am much too much of a Homeric purist to really love this, but I didn't completely hate it either. ( )

Set during a week just prior to the start of the Trojan war. the Greek army is waiting to embark, but the wind is against them. this is unseasonal, and is causing a great deal of upset, particularly as the mission is supposed to be sanctioned by the gods - how can the gods now withhold their favour? The conflicting opinions on the interpretation of the omens (and the twisting thereof to suit the different agendas) result in a number of schemes that develop a life of their own. Such that the books ends with an innocent being sacrificed to the god, who has objected to the shedding of innocent blood, in order to appease them. No, it makes no sense at all. but it is told lyrically well. This follows on quite nicely from the penelopiad, which i read last month, as that was telling part of this sptry, but from the viewpoint of penelop, Odyseus' wife. here odyseus is one of the schemeers and is most concerned with the songs that will be told by the singers (an early version of worrying about the press). it's the tales of the singers that the stories persist in - the thing is, that the story that's told isn;t always what happened or what is wanted to be told. A good read, and quite an ambiguous story, it leaves a great deal to the reader to make their mind up about. ( )