Ok, I must be dumb, because I didn't realize Troy wasn't a real place until I read the afterward. I knew all the stories and such were made up, but I figured the place was real. According to the afterward - nope. And Helen never existed, either. I figured she was a real person, but they just made up all the stories. That's what old, dead poets do, right?

Anyway....I really enjoyed the book. Helen, Zues's only daughter, is the most beautiful women in the world. But she apparently has a cheating gene like her mother and ditches her husband for Paris and runs off to Troy with him. At that point, her husband get's PO'd and goes after her. Never mind that her husband's brother was already in the mood to start a war anyway. This just gives him a reason. And a really, really long war. And yes, the Trojan horse makes an appearance as well.

It ends up being a story of love, crazy people who talk to their gods, even crazier people who continue to fight because their gods tell them to (familiar?), revenge, betrayal, and a whole bunch of crazy twist 'em ups that always happen in classical stories.

I really liked the book, but I'm still not sure why Paris was such hot stuff. He seemed like a whiny little shrimp to me. Perhaps Aphrodite lent Helen her beer goggles?