Black Ships

"The world has ended. And I don't know why I yet live."
"You live... because the world ends and then begins."

Summary: The Trojan war marked the beginning of a time of great upheaval, with the great cities falling, vast numbers of people either killed or dispossessed and homeless, and the old world going up in the smoke of raiders' fires. Into this world is born Gull, the daughter of a Trojan woman brought to Greece as a slave. When she is young, she becomes an acolyte to Pythia, the handmaiden of the Lady of the Dead. On her sixteenth birthday, Gull sees black ships sail into the harbor - Prince Aeneas and his warships, the people of her blood, come to wreak revenge and reclaim their kinsmen from slavery. She makes her choice and leaves show more with them, where she - and her Lady - must help to guide the straggling remnants of a people across the sea, to Byblos, Egypt, and beyond, through a world that is failing around them, struggling to find a future and a home.

Recommendation: I'm having a hard time finding words that can do justice to how much I enjoyed this book. I've never read the Aeneid, which is this book's inspiration, but taking the story of Black Ships on its own merits, it's wonderful. To see how people react to the world almost literally falling apart around them... it's an incredible period of history, this turning point, the falling into a Dark Age, and it's one I'd never considered before. Guiding us through this world is Gull, whose voice is strong and beautiful, but still recognizable and immediate - the motivations of all of the characters are familiar and believable, and they are relatable as young people doing their best to find a future in an uncertain world. I thought the religious aspects added a complex touch as well, bringing in the mysticism that we associate with that time period, without overplaying it or stretching credibility too far.

However, as much as I loved the characters and the story, what tipped this book into five-star territory for me was the writing. It's deceptively simple and unobtrusive, but at the same time, I found it achingly beautiful and incredibly haunting. I can't describe it any better than to say that it was the kind of writing that seemed to expand inside my chest, grabbing my heart and making it hard to breathe, even at parts that wouldn't ordinarily be particularly emotionally stirring. The writing fit the subject and the narrator perfectly, and vice versa. It's not a match that comes along often, and to find it in a debut novel blew me away.

Recommendation: Highly recommended. It's not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but anyone with even a vague interest in historical fiction, Mists of Avalon-type fantasy, or the ancient world should definitely seek this one out. show less

ADVANCE READER COPY
Based on the Aeneid by Virgil, Black Ships is a historical fiction about the Wilusans' search for a homeland after the destruction of Troy, and about their trials as they are lead around the Mediterranean by Aeneas, their prince and future King until at last they settle on the site of present day Rome, founding that city. The narrative is told in the first person, by Gull, who becomes Pythia, the Sybil or oracle to Aeneas, speaking to her people on behalf of the Lady of the Dead. My concerns about the story being told in the first person were quickly dispelled, as Jo Graham handled this sometimes difficult "voice" with skill. This is a very impressive first novel by someone who shows she has the potential to become a show more good writer, particularly in this genre.

Gull's mother Kyla is raped and kidnapped into slavery by Achaian raiders who almost destroy what is left of the Wilusans, as the raiders take most of the women away to Pylos on the Greek Peninsula. The product of this rape, Gull, faces a life of slavery but has her foot crushed by a chariot wheel, which makes her worthless in that capacity. Desperate to find a safe life for her daughter, Kyla takes her to Pythia, the current oracle or voice of The Lady, to serve as an acolyte. The Lady quickly makes it evident that Gull will be her next Pythia and so the story begins.

Although it is fiction, Jo Graham has done her homework, both with the conditions of the time and with the Aeneid itself, creating a story which echoes the intent of Virgil's original while giving a small history lesson about the Mediterranean area of that era. Egypt is shown as the ancient land and rising power that it was under Ramses, while the lawlessness and chaos of umpteen different tribes jockeying for land and power everywhere else is well depicted. Where her real success lay, for this reader, was in depicting characters who were very believable and about whom I could care and have an interest. She developed the relationships of Aeneas and Xandros, Xandros and Gull, Gull and Hry, the Egyptian seer, Aeneas and his father, Anchises, with restraint and a lovely understated style. I'm not quite sure where she was going with the relationship between Xandros and Ashtera but it didn't create an insurmountable block in the story for me. Gull as Pythia was a very good character, with no histrionics or over the top dramatics as the avatar of the goddess that a less skilled writer might have indulged in but rather as a strong woman with a sense of dignity and real purpose in how she served both the Lady and her King.

Graham is also particularly strong in her depiction of the vessels used at that time, of sailing/rowing them and using them in warfare. I also enjoyed her conceit of having Aeneas invent the Romans' phalanx style of warfare, using new style swords and developing shields. The sea was everything to the peoples clustered around its edges and Graham allows this to imbue her tale but sees the shift to the land at the end with the movement away from its edges to a more agrarian lifestyle.

I enjoyed reading the Advanced Reader's Copy of this book very much indeed. If a reader enjoys historical fiction, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend "Black Ships" despite a couple of bumpy spots in the narrative. Well done, Jo Graham! I hope you write many more. show less

I wonder how many people read this and [b:Lavinia|2214574|Lavinia|Ursula K. Le Guin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266641631s/2214574.jpg|2220362] together? I got them together in a book-shedding from a friend.

Jo Graham is one of the most vibrant writers of landscape I have ever read. Her Egypt, her Byblos, her Mediterranean live in my mind now, deliciously, beautifully and so, so distant. I feel as if I've been on the journey with Aeneas, too.

This remarkable skill as place is matched with a lack of skill at emotion, but not one so great that it marred the book. I guess I wanted passion for people to match the passion for place.

I enjoyed it, though after some great storytelling it rushed to the end, packing decades in to a few show more pages all of a sudden. show less

A lot can go wrong in a work of historical fiction, all the more when it’s based on a semi-mythological historical record. Since the story has already been plotted out in its entirety the author doesn’t have to engage as deeply with her characters as if she’d invented them from nothing, with the result that many such endeavors simply go through the motions instead of truly telling a story. Similarly, the mythological origins of the work can tempt an author to rely on fantastic deus ex machina in lieu of moving the plot forward in a more considered, believable fashion.

Jo Graham’s Black Ships retells the Aeneid from the point of view of Gull, a young Trojan captive of the Greek city of Pylos, while avoiding all of the pitfalls show more mentioned above. Graham is obviously not only a fan of Virgil’s work, but of archeological research into the era in which it’s set as well, and Black Ships seamlessly blends the mythological with the factual, making the epic poetry of the original work in modern English prose. By rooting her epic in the larger historical context of its time period, Graham adds valuable context and urgency to her narrative while avoiding having to put long expository passages into the mouths of her characters. While the underpinnings of Black Ships are reminiscent of similar novels that blend history with myth and fantasy, Graham approaches her story in a unique way that neither relies too heavily on the fantastic nor the scientific to explain its pivotal aspects. Indeed, her deft handling of historically troubling aspects of the Aeneid such as Aeneas’ sojourn in Carthage and the rape of the Sabine women combine fact and spirituality in a way that often makes sense of the original while not sacrificing the otherworldly.

Similarly, Graham earns major kudos for returning the real world to the high adventure of the Aeneid. After all, heroic doings come with painful consequences that aren’t as glamorous as the epics makes them seem. The characters of the Aeneid/Black Ships are young. They struggle with love, sexuality, and confusion over competing desires and loyalties; hunger, sickness, and physical insecurity, and their daring deeds are more frequently precipitated by necessity than the desire for valor. Yet although Graham definitely means to impress this point on her readers, she keeps it subtle and believable to the personalities and motivations of her characters. Furthermore, her handling of many aspects that trip up YA and adult authors alike (How do I make romance sensual without being overly crass or precious? How do I handle depictions of violence that stress its horrors without being too graphic?) is quite skillful.

Although I imagined that I would enjoy Black Ships, I wasn’t sure if it could compare to old favorites like Megan Whalen Turner’s Attolia series or Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. Surprisingly, it does—not by slavishly emulating them, but by telling its own story. I cared deeply for all the characters and miss them now that the last page has been turned. show less

I really enjoyed this -- a deep, engrossing read, with wonderful characters and a very satisfying, unique story. I wrote "unique" with some trepidation, since this story has, in fact, been told a gazillion times, broadly the journey the defeated Trojans took after their city's fall and the founding of Rome by Aeneas, the Trojan prince. But the story is told by Aeneas' "oracle," a former slave and child of rape called Gull. Through her eyes, we see one of the (many) great cataclysms of ancient world, the destruction of cities (and knowledge) prompted by sea-faring and the attempt by the Greeks to capitalize on their victory at Troy by taking over the Mediterranean. Graham is excellent at putting us firmly in Gull while at the same time show more panning out to gives us a sense of the overall world (a skill I'm definitely working on). The start is a bit slow and the pace leisurely, but it really pays off at the end. show less

I love historical fiction - especially novels set during classical times. Graham's debut is a fresh take on "The Aeneid." Most readers are familiar with the Illiad and the Odyssey (even if they've never read them) and many authors, and filmmakers, have retold those stories. One of my favorite of these is Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Firebrand" told from the point of view of the Seeress, Kassandra - fated to see the future but cursed that no one would believe her until it was too late. However, I have never read a modern author who has gone beyond the fall of Troy. Finally, one has and it was worth waiting for!

Graham has taken a familiar path – that of a famous story told from the POV of a minor character, often a slave, or servant. The show more story is told mostly from first person by Gull. She is the daughter of slave captured in Troy, and a strong female protagonist. When a chariot hits and cripples her, her mother gives her to the Pythia (a twist on the Delphic Oracle, here given visions by a Goddess instead of Apollo) where she discovers her real gift. Readers of Bradley's work will notice the obvious parallels between the two heroines, but Graham has her own distinct voice. Though the book is truly not fast-paced, it is still a page turner. The Aeneid is more of an adventure tale, a quest even. Gull is reminiscent of Kassandra, but the story will evoke themes in the Odyssey as Gull travels with Prince Aeneas searching for a new home for the exiled Trojans (here called Wilusans). The characters are fully developed, and the author provides details to secondary characters’ lives as well, even when they do not directly impact Gull. This makes the characters seem real.

Though I found the title uninspiring, and the cover almost boring, the writing is excellent; smooth and flowing. I sat down to read a couple of chapters and finished 65 pages without realizing it. Before I started, I learned Graham's next book will center on Cleopatra, as told by one of her handmaids. At first I was skeptical - another Cleopatra book? However, after Black Ships, I can hardly wait to see what she does with the doomed queen. And, the new edition of Black Ships has a much better cover. :-) show less

[LT early reviewer - These comments apply to the advance reading edition (ARC)]
A well constructed opening to this novel of Trojan refugees draws the reader in quickly and never disappoints. This is a wonderfully crafted story which takes place at the end of the age of heroes and the beginning of the story of Rome. Almost hidden behind marvelous storytelling is an excellent conflation of the mythic and heroic tales of the ancient Greek world, and the historic and archeological records related to ancient Greece, the Middle East, ancient Egypt, and pre-Roman Italy.

This is one of those novels whose three dimensional characters grow on the reader to the point that finishing the book is like watching old friends disappearing around the bend. show more Though Black Ships tells of the many adventures these refugees encounter in their wanderings, real excitement comes from watching as the main characters struggle to find their path - sometimes relying on faith in the whispers of gods; sometimes by trusting their own judgement.

Jo Graham tells the story through a significant female character, and the feminine experience is a major theme of the book. However, she has avoided one of my frequent complaints about novels that strive to give a 'new' point of view. She has done a fine job of "fleshing out" both male and female characters, and giving some of the male characters 'real' lives that are not always told only as they impact the main character/narrator/

This is a great read for anyone who enjoys a well crafted adventure story, but, for those with an interest in the history and mythology of the ancient Mediteranean, this is a real treasure.

Os. show less