Manfredi himself states he wanted to tell the story, not of the Trojan War itself, but of the aftermath and of the fates of many of the combatants and others, covering the period between the The Iliad and the The Odyssey and after the The Aeneid. In his faux epic, I think he has succeeded for the most part. I called this a faux epic, because the author's prose lacked the majesty of the Homeric or Virgilian poetry. An unnamed 'foreigner' tells us of Diomedes, King of Argos, one of the Greeks who had fought the Trojan War. After the burning of Troy, the Greeks leave for home; Diomedes upon reaching Argos, overhears his wife plotting his betrayal. So Diomedes and his faithful followers search for a new land in which to settle. After many adventures they reach Hesperia, a fabled land to their west and battle their way across the land against kings and nature. They undergo many hardships. The last fight is a hand-to-hand duel with Aeneas, who has founded his own city, for possession of the land. We also find out what happened to many of the other mythological characters: not what we commonly read.

The author really conveyed the gloomy and bleak atmosphere. I like how he incorporated some of the other non-Homeric legends. He posits a whole different reason for the Trojan War than the usual and his reasoning drives much of the action. This novel was a fascinating look at a fascinating time. I believe with part of the action the author is trying to show the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Some foreknowledge of Homer and Virgil is certainly helpful. ( )

An atmospheric, dark and at times bleak tale of men surviving the aftermath of the Trojan War.

The story pivots around Diomedes of Argos and his retinue as they find that they cannot return to their Greek dominion and are forced to sail west. The author dramatises the collapse of the Bronze Age Aegean world well as the various city states attempt to recover from the ten years of the Trojan War. A picture of inescapable destruction is painted with the Dorian Greeks pouring south to devastate the old seats of power which are themselves tangled in treachery and power struggles.

I almost felt part of the Diomedes' crew as they escaped from this turmoil and into the misty and eerily quiet world to the west.

However, I found the last third of the tale capped the mood of the story appropriately, but left me feeling flat - like the climactic end I wanted never quite materialised.

Not my favourite from Mr Manfredi but a decent read nonetheless. ( )