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The War At Troy

by Lindsey Clarke

Reviewed by Coral


To briefly summarize the myth: Helen is the most beautiful woman in the world. The man who marries her gets to be king of Sparta. All men in Greece wanted her. Odysseus made all her suitors swear that they would all support the man who married her. Menelaus became her husband. Paris came to Sparta and whisked her away to Troy. Greek world goes to war with Troy.

The - I won't say problem - thing about this book is that it feels like too much of a re-telling of the myths of Troy. There wasn't much of an original feel to it, no spark.

That and there was something off about Helen's characterization. The way she was written in the earlier chapters made her running off with Paris seem very unbelievable and out of character. I actually wish the author had spent more time delving into the relationship between the two of them, building it up, so that Helen's running off made even a little bit of sense in the context of this book. As it was, besides being out of character, it was also too rushed.

It's not that the book is bad, it's just that I've read better books. I can see that the author wanted to write it so that no one was portrayed as the "bad guy" or the "good guy", but I didn't really feel that there was enough depth in her writting. I know I bring him up a lot - he is my favorite author - but David Gemmell's Lord of the Silver Bow did a better job with it. And, when comparing the two, I can't help but saying that this book pales in comparison.

Grade: C