The story of Troy speaks to all of us – the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against the city of Troy, to which they will lay siege for ten whole years. It is a terrible war with casualties on all sides as well as strained relations between allies, whose consequences become tragedies.
In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, love and loss, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today
Title: Troy | Author: Stephen Fry| Publisher: Michael Joseph| Pub. Date: 29 October 2020 | Pages: 432 | ISBN: 9780241424582| Genre: Fantasy| Language: English | Starred Review: No | Source: libro.fm
Troy Review
I’ll start this review off by saying how much I adore Greek mythology and retellings. With Madeline Miller easily being one of my favourite authors for this genre. I must admit, this is my first of the Greek retellings that I have read by Fry. I attempted to read Mythos previously but had found myself repeatedly drifting off, so it was a bit of a risk me trying again with Troy! That being said, I am really glad that I did.
Having read Miller’s The Song of Achilles, I found it especially interesting to hear accounts of what happened on the lead-up to the War from a different perspective. Snippets from all characters felt as if you were given a really well-rounded portrayal of the time as if it is almost exactly what happened. Romantic birds-eye view segues to transition between characters and times and areas were beautifully told, as if you are really looking down from above on what is happening. I loved all of that, but the thing most missing for me when telling this broad story that really works its way through everyone is the intimacy. The chance to bond well with any one character and feel a sense of connection. It’s definitely more of a tale for learning than it is for anything else.
Troy is written incredibly well, Fry throws in his own humour and nods to us as we go along which is totally new to me in style and was enjoyable to listen too. Fry’s narration was also fantastic, but did have the ability to send me off at times! Oops.
Oh, P.S. I really need to read the copy of The Iliad I have had sitting on my shelves for forever now.
Super enjoyable, and I will definitely get around to reading the rest of the series now I really know what I am in for!
3 trojan horses from me!
You can purchase a copy of this book via your normal retailer, but please consider purchasing it from a local indie bookshop instead. It can be found here at Indiebound or at Bookshop. Please note the Bookshop link is an affiliate link and each purchase you make through it helps to support Sci-Fi & Scary and keep the site running.
Sian joined the Coolthulu crew in March 2019 and reviews horror and science fiction books for the site.
She’s trying hard to play it cool but she’s more excited than Lilyn’s new puppy to be part of the crew. PS we got T-shirts!
Be First to Comment