Trojan Women: The Fall of Troy

Trojan Trilogy #2

by Byrne R.S. Fone

When men make war, it is women who suffer. Trojan Women is a gripping re-imaging of one of the greatest stories in western literature, the epic clash of cultures we call the Trojan War. As Homer tells it in the Iliad, men fight, suffer, and die. There men tell the tale. But the Trojan women, whose lives are at the center of Homer's tale, and who are the prizes to be won, are silent. Trojan Women gives these women a voice. In the novel six legendary women a Chryseis, captured and taken as a slave to the bed of Agamemnon, bravely and resourcefully confronts the horrors of war and the brutality of men. Captured with her and saved from death by her, Briseis stands with Chryseis when death threatens them. Slaves and playthings of the Greeks, the two women are at the moral and emotional center of the drama and tell a story that even Homer never knew. From within the besieged city of Troy, Queen Hecabe, and her daughters Andromache and Kassandra, look from the walls at the vast Greek army camped below, and bravely face the terrors that confront for Hecabe the loss of a crown and kingdom, for Andromache the loss of husband and child, for Kassandra the loss of sanity itself. Once desired and now despised, Helen, the prize over whom Greeks and Trojans fight, has lost everything and now can only wait to learn if she will live or die. Trojan Women renews for our times an epic story, yet one also intimate and passionate that remains, after two thousand years, perhaps the greatest story ever told. Trojan Women is a revised excerpt from the longer novel Ilios, a reimagining of the Trojan War.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Greek Mythology, Mythology

195 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2010

Reviews

[Jeanie V.]

Amazing!

Insightful. Beautifully told. This book is a MUST read! After reading Achilles (which I loved), I immediately started this book and once I started, could not put down til I finished. I really enjoyed this book, which gave voices to the women of Troy, who otherwise were forgotten and left out. Just a really, really great read.

[Kristin Walcott]

Did not finish

[Merissa (Archaeolibrarian)]

A novel which retells the story of the fall of Troy but with a seldom heard from perspective - that of the women of Troy. This book pulls no punches, it tells of brutality and rape but without glorifying it. It is told from the perspective of a priestess of Apollo, a "noblewoman" of no real distinction apart from that, and of princesses, queens and of course, Helen of Troy. The descriptions are rich and lyrical and the characters are persuasive, potent and powerful.

A book full of content and character, a pleasure to read. Recommended to anyone with an interest in history.

[Alicia]

I enjoyed this particular take on the fall of Troy. Reading things from the perspective of various female characters was quite well done. I wish it had been fleshed out more, with fewer gaps and more on the individual characters perspectives.

My main peeve with the Kindle edition was poor editing. I found more than a handful of editing mistakes that could easily have been corrected.

[João Rodrigues]

Interesting enough if you like the thematic, I guess.