This book has everything a good book needs: intrigue, bloody action from mass battles to Hector's dramatic one on one fight with Achilles, love and hate, life and death. Helikaon, Andromache, Odysseus, Kalliades, Banokles, Hektor, Achilles, Agamemnon, Gershom - and all the others we came to love or hate have a role to play and will meet their fate, for good or for bad and for some with surprising twists. The sense of bravery, loyalty, grief, honor and happiness and the feeling that you know the characters so closely you feel their triumphs and pain like your own is the same as in the two previous books.

It is hard to tell which part was still written by David Gemmell himself and where his wife Stella took over after David's untimely death. Respect to Stella for this - it's quite an accomplishment.

The complete trilogy is a strong retelling of Homer's classic saga. For anyone who like their tales actionpacked, full of intrigue and great dialogue, with a big cast of characters to be loved or hated - don't hesitate to pick up this book. Be sure to read Lord of the Silver Bow and Shield of Thunder first!

Strongly recommended.

8,5 / 10

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Troy falls... ( )

It’s great to see an example of a series being successfully completed after the death of its creator – it can be a bit hit and miss, but this was definitely a hit. Stella Gemmell has done a fine job of finishing the trilogy, and I have to say I actually preferred her lighter touch, which was an improvement on her husband’s occasionally heavy-handed prose.

In terms of the actual plot, I read this book much more critically than the previous two. I have a slight obsession with the Trojan war, and while the first two books were really scene-setting, this one was right into the thick of the action. Perhaps it was because it is a story that is so well known to a lot of readers that Gemmell decided to change so much of it, but this was only partly successful. In places he made a very good point about the way stories grow and change and become what we know them as centuries later. The way Helen’s reputation for beauty comes about is a good example of this, and the ruse by which the Trojan horse finally gets into the city. In other places, however, the story and particularly the characters are spuriously mucked about with in ways that seem to serve no practical purpose whatsoever. That Andromache ends up walking off into the sunset with Helikaon is perhaps necessary in order to create a slushy ending which is apparently supposed to appeal to the reader, but having Agamemnon murder his sister Iphigenia before dying in the eruption on Thera is utterly pointless. It doesn’t do anything for his characterisation that hadn’t already been done in other ways, and that couldn’t have been done by sticking to the original myth. Kassandra’s treatment is similarly silly – no mention is made of her curse throughout the three novels, until about two paragraphs before her death Andromache makes a casual reference to it. By that time it’s too late to serve any purpose as a plot element, and would have been much better left alone.

Most bizarre of all was the inclusion of Gershom. Although interesting and amusing, it had nothing whatever to do with the story of Troy, and either has to be read as a clumsy attempt to dismiss the events of the Exodus as mythology, or as pure showing off on the part of the author.

In conclusion, then, this trilogy is entertaining to read, but as an example of how a modern writer should handle an ancient myth it’s not great, and it really doesn’t inspire me to read any of David Gemmell’s other novels. For those interested in retellings of the Trojan war, I would recommend Colleen McCullough’s [The Song of Troy] as a much better alternative. ( )

Another fine book.

I'd been putting off reading this one for a while because I was thinking finishing it would upset me, given that not many other writers would survive the 'pick one to save the universe, the other dies' tv test. Although it is likely he'd volunteer, in that case.

The finishing off of this book by his wife seems to be pretty seamless - in that I don't really notice much of a difference, except perhaps in the heat of the action. So a quite well done completion for what had to be a difficult thing to do.

Gemmell's historical novel version of the Trojan War has the same major outcomes that everyone is aware of. Here there are no supernatural agents at all, unless you call Kassandra's occasional prophecy such. So you get his take on the Helen of Troy legend, Achilles, the Trojan Horse, etc.

Just some decent and exceptional men and women stuck in the middle of a conflict between venal and descending into senility kings, as well as hotheaded conflict and revenge.

Andromache again is the lynchpin character, having had past relationships with nearly all the major players (Hector, Aeneas, Odysseus, Priam, Kassandra, Banokles and Kalliadis, etc.) - and having children to protect that neither Priam or Agamemnon will let escape.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/11... ( )

Concluding book of the Troy Trilogy--not as well written as the first two (Gemmell died before completing it and his wife finished it for him) but still a thrilling ride. ( )