Torn from Troy: Odyssey of a Slave

I hadn't read a description of this book before I started listening to it, so it was a fun surprise to discover it to be a slave's eye view of the Homeric hero. The author seems to have really done his homework on the history and culture of the ancient Greeks. Being already familiar with the setting and the story, I felt this telling dragged. Someone much younger would probably enjoy this a lot more. It's well written and engaging, just not quite engaging enough to hold my interest.

Part of the Odyssey as seen through the eyes of a 15-year-old Trojan slave. A little bit graphic (the Cyclops was NOT gentle), but an interesting look at the well-known legends.

I listened to this on a car trip with my 11-year-old, and he liked it well enough to ask me to get the second book in the series.

While I have seen YA retellings of myths, I have never seen one that retells the classic Greek Odyssey. Torn from Troy starts with the sacking of Troy goes through the Island of the Lotus Eaters and finishes with the Cyclops, leaving plenty left for the rest of the series. Unfortunately, there was a bit of down time between each recognizable event.

Retelling of Homer's Odyssey as seen from the view of a teenage Trojan captured & enslaved by Troy's downfall. OK for the young end of the young adult audience, but why did the author not call Odysseus Odysseus or even Ulysses?

Gerald Doyle does a fine job with the narration.

y Patrick Bowman | Read by Gerard Doyle
Young Adult Young Adult • 5.5 hrs. • Unabridged • © 2011
Some narrators have an intangible star quality. Their voices say, “Listen to me! I have a wonderful story to tell.” Gerard Doyle is such a narrator. His facility for accents and characterizations and his ability to set time and place by just the slightest vocal nuance make it almost impossible not to listen to him. The morning after the Greek invasion of Troy via the Trojan horse, 15-year-old Alexi is enslaved by Odysseus and brought aboard his ship. With a slave’s vision of the legendary heroes, Alexi tells of the ship’s foundering, of coming ashore to the land of the Lotus-Eaters, and of meeting the monstrous Cyclops, who show more likes the taste of Greeks. A delightfully original introduction to Homer’s ODYSSEY, read by a master craftsman. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, SYNC 2014 © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2013]

Trade Ed. • Post Hypnotic Press • 2013

CD ISBN 9781927401590 $30.00 • Five CDs

MP3-CD ISBN 978-1-927401-60-6 $19.50 • One MP3-CDs

DD ISBN 978-1-927401-61-3 $15.00 show less