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Loading... A Memory of Windby Rachel Swirsky
Agamemnon's legacy (17) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A Memory of Wind is a short story/novella that tells the story of Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, who was sacrificed to Artemis in order to have wind to power the war ships to Troy. Swirsky tells a beautiful tale of a girl who was betrayed by her father for the sake of a war caused by her aunt's actions. The descriptions really brought Iphigenia's world to life. The relationships in the book were realistic and heartbreaking, especially the bond between Iphigenia and her toddler brother Orestes. I would definitely recommend this short story (it was a short 38 pages long) to anyone interested in the story of the Trojan war. We all know the story of the Trojan fleet becalmed at Aulis, and of the terrible bargain that Agamemnon makes in order to ensure a favourable wind. This tells the story in the voice of his daughter Iphigenia, the unwitting sacrifice, who is brought to Aulis with the promise of a wedding to Achilles, only to find a bloodstained altar awaiting her. Swirsky sticks closely to the original and casually includes words like 'megaron' and 'hequetai' that left me running for the dictionary. But she adds a poignant twist in the way that, from the moment the sacrifice is decided, Iphigenia begins turning into wind. Fragment by fragment, scent by word by memory, her existence strips away. Beautifully conceived and just as beautifully written, it's a worthy addition to the canon of Troy stories. (A Tor.Com Original) A lyrical and evocative short story about Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, during those short hours from the time the sacrifice was decided upon until she was gone. From another reviewer's words on Amazon: "Iphigenia feels her memories slipping away from the moment her father agrees to sacrifice her." Couldn't have said it better. no reviews | add a review
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The heroes are eager to sail to Troy for war, but the wind is still. To fill their sails and set out, they must sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia-and how does a human girl become the wind? The starkness and psychological insight of Rachel Swirsky's Tor.com story earned it a place among the finalists for the 2010 Nebula Award. Rachel Swirsky's short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Subterranean Magazine, among others, and has been collected in Year's Best anthologies edited by Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, and the VanderMeers. She is also the submissions editor of Podcastle, an audio fantasy magazine. No library descriptions found. |
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I particularly loved the the concept of Iphigenia losing parts of her memory as she drew closer to her fate. Wonderful imagery. ( )