Book Review: A Sea of Sorrow by David Blixt, Amalia Carosella, Libbie Hawker, Scott Oden, Vicky Alvear Shecter, and Russell Whitfield

A Sea of Sorrow by David Blixt, Amalia Carosella, Libbie Hawker, Scott Oden, Vicky Alvear Shecter, and Russell Whitfield
ARC, e-Book, 524 pages
Knight Media, LLC
October 17, 2017
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Short Story

Source: Received for review with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

Odysseus, infamous trickster of Troy, vaunted hero of the Greeks, left behind a wake of chaos and despair during his decade long journey home to Ithaca. Lovers and enemies, witches and monsters—no one who tangled with Odysseus emerged unscathed. Some prayed for his return, others, for his destruction. These are their stories…

A beleaguered queen’s gambit for maintaining power unravels as a son plots vengeance.

A tormented siren battles a goddess’s curse and the forces of nature to survive.

An exiled sorceress defies a lustful captain and his greedy crew.

A blinded shepherd swears revenge on the pirate-king who mutilated him.

A beautiful empress binds a shipwrecked sailor to servitude, only to wonder who is serving whom.

A young suitor dreams of love while a returned king conceives a savage retribution.

Six authors bring to life the epic tale of The Odyssey seen through the eyes of its shattered victims—the monsters, witches, lovers, and warriors whose lives were upended by the antics of the “man of many faces.” You may never look upon this timeless epic—and its iconic ancient hero—in quite the same way again.

Having thoroughly enjoyed A Song of War, the prior release from the H Team, I was super excited to see that they were taking on the epic story of The Odyssey. Growing up I had always inhaled the tale of Odysseus and his adventures returning home to his waiting family after ten years of war. I first want to address my thoughts on the individual stories before getting into my overall thoughts.

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Song of Sorrow by Vicky Alvear Shecter

It makes complete sense that the collection begins with the story of Penelope and Telemachus and how they deal with the suitors for her hand. Without this story you do not have the emotional reunion when Odysseus does eventually come home. Unfortunately for me, this was always the most boring part of the tale, and not a favorite story here either. Shecter did a great job of giving Penelope and Telemachus depth of character, which did make me care about their evolution at the end. The problem here is that nothing happens in this story and as it is the first in the collection, not grabbing my attention is really an issue.

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Xenia in the Court of the Winds by Scott Oden

Wow, can I just say that I missed a lot in this story – namely that Xenia is not a character, which is what I thought the narrators name was for quite some time (for the record, his name is Glaukos and xenia is like the right of offering fellowship to a visitor). So that might have made a tiny bit of difference in my appreciation of this story. I appreciated that Polyphemus comes to this land to tell the story of what Odysseus and his men did, but I wasn’t a fan of the way the tale was told. Glaukos is telling the tale to his grandchild of when he was a little boy and Polyphemus came to his land, in that tale Polyphemus tells the story to Glaukos and the villagers of when Odysseus came to his land. I felt so far removed from these characters because of the way the story was told that I didn’t make any connections to them to care how they were affected. I waited and waited for something to happen, only for it to happen in the last few moments of the story before it ended. It didn’t feel like enough of a payoff to have waited that long for. I loved that Polyphemus has a backstory of being from Egypt and how Oden built the myth of the Kyklops.

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Hekate’s Daughter by Libbie Hawker

This story (and the next 3) were where my enjoyment was really situated. Hawker fantastically built a believable story of how a woman could have been believed to be a witch based on circumstances way beyond her control. Circe didn’t want to be married to the man she was wed to by her father. When that inevitably fails and she is sent away to an exile, she finds who she truly is. Once Odysseus and his men showed up on the island I felt like the pacing slowed down and I again lost some interest in the story…until he set sail again.

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The Siren’s Song by Amalia Carosella

Easily my FAVORITE story in the collection! What is funny to me is that this is the part of the tale, of those included in this collection, that Odysseus has the least interaction with – actually never directly engaging with the Sirens. This gave Carosella so much latitude to work with, but also really required her to build these shell characters into someone the reader could care about, as if they had read the Odyssey they wouldn’t have already had indepth knowledge of them. This was also the first story that I felt had forward momentum the whole way through with events transpiring throughout. I felt that life or death struggle these women were facing and really cared about their outcome. Excellent contribution to the collection.

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Calypso’s Vow by David Blixt

Odysseus easily spends the most time with Calypso of all the people who he encounters in his travels home. I think this story should have had the longest page count because there is so much to tell here. Odysseus really finds himself here. He changes throughout each of his encounters with the people on his journey, but this one really gets him to a place where he feels like he is finally the man to return home to Penelope. I liked that Calypso has a heart and doesn’t want Odysseus to leave, but knows she is not the woman for him and that eventually he must return home. Watching the evolution of the two characters throughout this story was breathtaking.

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The King in Waiting by Russell Whitfield

This is where the real action happens and where we get to see Odysseus return home to deal with everything that has happened in his absence. Whitfield has to pull together this Odysseus who has been handled in some way or another by 5 other authors before him and make him one man. He has to bring to the reader than man that you can finally get behind, because Odysseus is really not all that likable when seen through the eyes of the people he has hurt, even here too. While David Blixt began the redemption of Odysseus in the previous story, Whitfield brings it full circle. The scene where the suitors were dealt with was very satisfying, and gruesome.

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Epilogue by Vicky Alvear Shecter

Shecter brings us full circle at the end with Penelope trying to understand and take in all that has happened, how Odysseus has changed, and how does she accept a man who has been gone for almost 20 years. It was a very satisfying and sweet closure to the collection.

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Overall

I did have some struggles with this collection, which were definitely from personal experience with the source material. When you read The Odyssey, it is obviously a heroic tale of a great man, so to see him in a negative light from the majority of the character narrators here is jarring and difficult to acclimate to. I think that these authors did a fantastic job of seeing the story from the other perspective and getting past that veil of heroism. Odysseus and his men either directly or indirectly caused harm to so many people on their journey home. Having come off of previously reading A Song of War, and a FANTASTIC Odysseus crafted by Shecter in that collection, I was primed to see him as this great man. I also was so looking forward to seeing Shecter’s Odysseus again, although Whitfield did do an excellent job with him as well. Unlike in the other collections where many of the characters often have direct interactions with each other, for most of the narrators the only connection is Odysseus. This is why I was very exited to see the Circe and Sirens stories intertwined; I think this was a fabulous choice and an excellent way to flesh out the story of the Sirens as well. These authors were able to take characters who are traditionally imbued with magic or some otherworldly element and make them into real human beings with flaws or other characteristcs that might lead them to be mislabeled. The magical elements are removed from the story, which could make some of the elements of these tales difficult to root in the real world, but they did it. Whether it was through falsehoods spun on purpose to create fear, not understanding someone who is different in culture, or just the way someone tells a tale to make themselves look better, everything made sense in a real world way. The first two tales were a little boring for me and failed to pull me in, but the collection as a whole was well done.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Flashlight Commentary
• What Cathy Read Next

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Also by The H Team:

The H Team is a loose collection of historical fiction authors that unite to write short story collections. Some of the authors previously collaborated for the following books:

A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
By Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, and Vicky Alvear Shecter
[My Review]

A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica’s Rebellion
By Ruth Downie, Stephanie Dray, E. Knight, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, S.J.A. Turney, and Russell Whitfield
[My Review]

A Song of War by Kate Quinn, Christian Cameron, Libbie Hawker, Vicky Alvear Shecter, Russell Whitfield, Stephanie Thornton, and S.J.A Turney
[My Review]

Find The H Team: Facebook

Tour Wide Giveaway!

As part of the tour, a paperback copy of A Sea of Sorrow is up for grabs.  Please enter via the Gleam form below.  Please note, if you have questions to contact the HFVBT coordinator as I am not involved with this giveaway.

• Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on November 17th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
• Giveaway is open to US & Canada residents only.
• Only one entry per household.
• All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
• Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

A Sea of Sorrow

Follow the Tour!

On the HFVBT Webpage or on Twitter: #ASeaofSorrowBlogTour

Tuesday, October 17
Review at A Book Drunkard

Wednesday, October 18
Feature at A Holland Reads

Thursday, October 19
Feature at View From the Birdhouse

Friday, October 20
Review at Pursuing Stacie

Monday, October 23
Review at The Maiden’s Court

Tuesday, October 24
Feature at The Reading Queen

Wednesday, October 25
Review at A Bookish Affair

Thursday, October 26
Review at What Cathy Read Next

Friday, October 27
Feature at So Many Books, So Little Time

Monday, October 30
Review at Creating Herstory

Tuesday, October 31
Review at Historical Fiction Reviews

Wednesday, November 1
Review at Back Porchervations

Thursday, November 2
Feature at The Writing Desk

Friday, November 3
Review at 100 Pages a Day

Monday, November 6
Review at Broken Teepee

Tuesday, November 7
Feature at A Literary Vacation

Wednesday, November 8
Feature at Passages to the Past

Friday, November 10
Review at Locks, Hooks and Books

Monday, November 13
Review at Unabridged Chick
Feature at CelticLady’s Reviews

Tuesday, November 14
Review at Bookramblings
Feature at Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots

Thursday, November 16
Feature at I Heart Reading

Friday, November 17
Review at A Book Geek
Review at The True Book Addict

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: A Song of War by Kate Quinn, Christian Cameron, Libbie Hawker, Vicky Alvear Shecter, Russell Whitfield, Stephanie Thornton, and S.J.A. Turney

A Song of War: A Novel of Troy
by Kate Quinn, Christian Cameron, Libbie Hawker, Vicky Alvear Shecter, Russell Whitfield, Stephanie Thornton, and S.J.A. Turney
ARC, e-book & paperback, 428 pages
Knight Media, LLC
October 18, 2016
★★★★ ½☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Short Stories

Source: Received for review with HF Virtual Book Tours

Troy: city of gold, gatekeeper of the east, haven of the god-born and the lucky, a city destined to last a thousand years. But the Fates have other plans—the Fates, and a woman named Helen. In the shadow of Troy's gates, all must be reborn in the greatest war of the ancient world: slaves and queens, heroes and cowards, seers and kings . . . and these are their stories.

A young princess and an embittered prince join forces to prevent a fatal elopement.

A tormented seeress challenges the gods themselves to save her city from the impending disaster.

A tragedy-haunted king battles private demons and envious rivals as the siege grinds on.

A captured slave girl seizes the reins of her future as two mighty heroes meet in an epic duel.

Grizzled archer and a desperate Amazon risk their lives to avenge their dead.

A trickster conceives the greatest trick of all.
A goddess' son battles to save the spirit of Troy even as the walls are breached in fire and blood.

Seven authors bring to life the epic tale of the Trojan War: its heroes, its villains, its survivors, its dead. Who will lie forgotten in the embers, and who will rise to shape the bloody dawn of a new age?

When I heard that the H Team was going to be coming out with a collection about the Trojan War as best known from The Illiad, I was ecstatic. The first two collections that they released, A Day of Fire and A Year of Ravens, were top reads for me in their respective years – so I knew this one would be good. Secondly, while I haven’t read The Illiad, I LOVE The Odyssey and looked forward to reading more related to this storyline. And finally, I loved seeing that Stephanie Thornton was taking part this time as I have enjoyed all of her novels set in the ancient world.

First I want to talk a little about each story before discussing the collection as a whole.

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The Apple by Kate Quinn

Kate Quinn had potentially one of the most difficult sections of this greater story arc; not only does her story set the scene and tone for the rest of the book, but there also isn’t a lot of action here as the whole thing is just beginning. For the most part, I think she did an admirable job. We meet the majority of the characters that will be fleshed out later in the book, particularly the significant sons of Priam, King of Troy. I quickly disliked Paris and found Hector to be among my favorite characters throughout. There was a complete story arc present here and there was a pretty great confrontation scene toward the end. I appreciated the dual narrators of Andromache and Hellenus because they gave us both the male and female insight into the wedding activities of Odysseus and Penelope and all of the behind the scenes drama that ensued. This story also takes place in the Achaean lands and we are introduced to the life in Sparta, which contrasts starkly with the life in Troy.

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The Prophecy by Stephanie Thornton

Stephanie Thornton brings us into the world of Troy, however from a somewhat limited perspective of Cassandra. Seeing as she has visions of the future, you might wonder why I say she is limited – this is due to the fact that no one listens to her and she leads a very lonely existence within the palace at Troy. Cassandra is often viewed as a mad-woman, but her presentation here really makes you question whether she is mad or the world around her is. Cassandra is dark and tormented and such a different character than the majority that we will see in this book. This chapter, even more than the first, made me really dislike Helen; she is not some woman who just sits around and lets things happen to her, she causes havoc on her own.

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The Sacrifice by Russell Whitfield

Russell Whitfield bounces the reader back to the Achaean camp and presents us with an Agamemnon that I felt a little sorry for. As we are seeing his life and this war through his own eyes it helps to humanize him a little bit as he makes sense of what he is doing. One of the things that helped me like him a little bit was how he was presented against Achilles. The two of them are very different people, present themselves in different ways, and approach war from entirely opposing perspectives. Whitfield makes us feel with Agamemnon for all the stress of being the high king in a war full of heroes. While I didn’t like him, I understood him better.

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The Duel by Christian Cameron

This was a section of the story that made me quite sad as it is the duel between Achilles and Hector. This is so full of passion and action. I disliked Achilles, he is so full of pride, but he has been hurt to the core during this war too. On the other hand, I loved Hector; he was even-keeled, disliked Helen and Paris for bringing all this destruction with them, but is a powerful warrior. The battle between these two iconic men of their respective sides was a scene I couldn’t tear my eyes from. Despite this being a vastly masculine story element, it is seen from the eyes of a female perspective of Briseis – someone who was once a Trojan but has come to love Achilles, which gives her an interesting perspective. A powerful, powerful story.

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The Bow by Libbie Hawker

This is another scene told from a dual perspective spanning the two camps: Penthesilea of the Amazons and Philoctetes. Philoctetes was another one of the characters that I loved in this novel, while Penthesilea was one that I wasn’t a huge fan of. With Penthesilea I didn’t feel like I really knew much about her at all. She wasn’t a character that I had been introduced to previously in this book and she just shows up full of grief. I think I would have liked to have known more about what her life was like prior to arriving at Troy; we see glimpses of it, but I felt a little cheated in getting to know her, unlike the other characters. I didn’t care about the choices she made or what would happen to her, but her battle with Achilles was powerful and a game changer for his character. Speaking of Achilles, Philoctetes influenced him in a different way and vice versa. He was a friend and fellow hero, and he loved Achilles even when it didn’t appear to have been reciprocated. He was extremely refreshing, especially contrasting with Penthesilea who I did not enjoy as much.

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The Horse by Vicky Alvear Shecter

I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved the character of Odysseus as written here by Vicky Alvear Shecter! He showed up in several of the chapters in just small doses and I enjoyed each of those moments for the wit of his character and his wiles in the face of the other heroes who were all about direct battle. In his own chapter I was treated to even more of the fun of this man. His manner of speech was oftentimes hilarious and I loved his interactions with Diomedes. Based on her writing of this character I would LOVE to see her take on an interpretation of The Odyssey as I think I would really enjoy her presentation of him taking on all of his epic struggles to get home. In this story, Odysseus brings us closer to the ultimate fall of Troy, and while I found myself identifying with the Trojans more, I couldn’t help but cheer every time Odysseus succeeded where many expected him to fail. Best story of the collection in my opinion, hands down.

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The Fall by S.J.A. Turney

As with the opener, Turney has one of the difficult sections in that everything needs to be tied together, and I think that was accomplished here. Aeneas is one of the last of the Trojans and he has been in and out of chapters since the first one so I was happy to have a face closing it out that I knew and actually liked. I think it had to be a truly likable character here because you needed to feel the pain of the fall of Troy. Aeneas exemplifies that not only in what he loses but also because he tries so hard to keep the inevitable from happening, even when he knows it will happen anyway. It leaves the reader with some hope, a slight positive note in a serious chapter. Many of the characters we have gotten to know throughout the novel (those still alive anyway) make some recurrences here and everything felt in place.

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Overall

Most of these stories worked well and I loved seeing some fan favorites but also some characters that were new to me as well; it helped keep a very old story new and fresh. I had always identified with the Greeks in retellings of this story, but here I found myself favoring the Trojans – it’s amazing what a gifted writer can do with your emotions! I loved digging into some of the deeper history around this time too, much more than you get from Homer and I thought that leaning Troy more toward the way of the Near East was more realistic than toward the Greeks and it helped to create a little line of friction between the two sides. As I stated before, Odysseus in the hands of Shecter blew me away and I find it hard to believe that she struggled to write him as he appears flawless.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Unabridged Chick
• Flashlight Commentary

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by the H Team:

The H Team is a loose collection of historical fiction authors that unite to write short story collections. Some of the authors previously collaborated for the following books:

A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
By Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, and Vicky Alvear Shecter
[My Review]

A Year of Ravens: A Novel of Boudica’s Rebellion
By Ruth Downie, Stephanie Dray, E. Knight, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, S.J.A. Turney, and Russell Whitfield
[My Review]

Find The H Team: Facebook

Follow the Tour!

HFVBT Website
On Twitter: # ASongofWarBlogTour #HTeam

Tour Wide Giveaway!

To win a paperback copy of A Song of War: A Novel of Troy by the H Team, please enter via the Gleam form below.  Please note, if you have questions to contact the HFVBT coordinator as I am not involved with this giveaway.

Rules

• Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on November 12th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
• Giveaway is open to US & Canada residents only.
• Only one entry per household.
• All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
• Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

Good luck!

A Song of War

Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Wish List 5: Ancient Lands

Once a month I am planning on sharing with you all 5 of my biggest wish list books broken up by theme. I know that you all need more on your TBR!!! This month I’m featuring those set in ancient lands!

Healer of Carthage by Lynne Gentry

A twenty-first-century doctor. A third-century plague. A love out of time.

First-year resident Dr. Lisbeth Hastings is too busy to take her father’s bizarre summons seriously. But when a tragic mistake puts her career in jeopardy, answering her father’s call seems her only hope of redeeming the devastating failure that her life has become.

While exploring the haunting cave at her father’s archaeological dig, Lisbeth falls through a hidden hole, awakening to find herself the object of a slave auction and the ruins of Roman Carthage inexplicably restored to a thriving metropolis. Is it possible that she’s traveled back in time, and, if so, how can she find her way back home?

Cyprian Thascius believes God called him to rescue the mysterious woman from the slave trader’s cell. What he doesn’t understand is why saving the church of his newfound faith requires him to love a woman whose peculiar ways could get him killed. But who is he to question God?

As their different worlds collide, it sparks an intense attraction that unites Lisbeth and Cyprian in a battle against a deadly epidemic. Even as they confront persecution, uncover buried secrets, and ignite the beginnings of a medical revolution, Roman wrath threatens to separate them forever. Can they find their way to each other through all these obstacles? Or are the eighteen hundred years between them too far of a leap?

The Queen of Sparta by T.S. Chaudhry

Xerxes, the Great King of Persia invades Greece in 480 B.C. at the head of over a million barbarians. 300 Spartan’s led by King Leonidas die heroically blocking the Persian advance at the pass of Thermopylae. The Persians are poised to conquer all of Greece.

The only one standing in their way is a woman – Gorgo, Queen of Sparta. Though history has relegated her role to an interested bystander, what if she played a central part at the heart of the Greek resistance to the Persian invasion. What if she kept her true role a secret in order to play it more effectively? What if she was hiding other secrets too – dark secrets of murder and vengeance? What if the only person who truly appreciated her genius was an enemy prisoner? What if after their victory, the Greeks start to turn on each other? What if, eventually, Gorgo has to choose between the security of Sparta and safety of her son? And what if the only one who could find a way out is the same prisoner whom she has vowed to kill?

The Wedding Shroud by Elizabeth Storrs

In 406 BC, to seal a tenuous truce, the young Roman Caecilia is wedded to Vel Mastarna, an Etruscan nobleman from Veii. Leaving her militaristic homeland, Caecilia is determined to remain true to Roman virtues while living among the sinful Etruscans. But, despite her best intentions, she is seduced by a culture that offers women education, independence, sexual freedom, and an empowering religion.

Enchanted by Veii but terrified of losing ties to Rome, Caecilia performs rites to delay becoming a mother, thereby postponing true entanglement. Yet as she develops an unexpected love for Mastarna, she’s torn between her birthplace and the city in which she now lives. As war looms, Caecilia discovers Fate is not so easy to control, and she must choose where her allegiance lies.

The Wedding Shroud is the first book in the series A Tale of Ancient Rome. Subsequent books in the series include The Golden Dice and Call to Juno.

I Am Livia by Phillis T. Smith

Her life would be marked by scandal and suspicion, worship and adoration…

At the tender age of fourteen, Livia Drusilla overhears her father and fellow aristocrats plotting the assassination of Julius Caesar. Proving herself an astute confidante, she becomes her father’s chief political asset—and reluctantly enters into an advantageous marriage to a prominent military officer. Her mother tells her, “It is possible for a woman to influence public affairs,” reminding Livia that—while she possesses a keen sense for the machinations of the Roman senate—she must also remain patient and practical.

But patience and practicality disappear from Livia’s mind when she meets Caesar’s heir, Octavianus. At only eighteen, he displays both power and modesty. A young wife by that point, Livia finds herself drawn to the golden-haired boy. In time, his fortunes will rise as Livia’s family faces terrible danger. But her sharp intellect—and her heart—will lead Livia to make an unbelievable choice: one that will give her greater sway over Rome than she could have ever foreseen.

So Shines the Night by Tracy L. Higley

Daria's new home in Ephesus with Lucas both beguiles and confounds her, until she meets followers of The Way.

Her past has taught her that evil is real, that it can consume a person. She saw it happen with her husband, before he took his own life. Widowed, with no family, Daria becomes a tutor to Lucas, a rich traveling merchant from Ephesus. There she discovers evil has a strong foothold and that Lucas himself seems drawn to evil and sorcery.

As her relationship with her employer grows, she fears that she will be unable to pull him from demonic influence. Tension in the city is about to erupt, as a new sect called The Way continues to draw followers. A man called Paul leads the movement against the economic and political strength of the city, found in its goddess cult.

When she learns more of the ways of the Christians and their ability to defeat evil, she begins to have hope. But then Lucas is arrested and jailed for a brutal crime, and it seems not even the Christians can help.

Tensions escalate in the city until thousands are pouring into the arena to protest the influence of the Christians, and a plot to kill Paul is underway. When Lucas's execution is scheduled, Daria must find a way to prove his innocence, save his life, and help her new friends before everyone she loves is destroyed.
 


Have you read any of these? Any other novels set in ancient lands you would add to this list?


Looking for some books set in ancient lands I have read and reviewed?  Give these a try!

Daughters of Rome              Penelope's Daughter            Written in the Ashes
★★★★★                   ★★★★☆                   ★★★★½☆

Here are some of the wishlists from a few of my friends this month:

• Magdalena @ A Bookaholic Swede - HF based on real historical figures
• Holly @ 2 Kids and Tired Books - Books set in Paris
• Colleen @ A Literary Vacation - Books on real-life artists - writers and painters
• Erin @ Flashlight Commentary - Books featuring photographers on the cover
• Stephanie @ Layered Pages - Thrillers

Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: The Conqueror's Wife by Stephanie Thornton

The Conqueror’s Wife by Stephanie Thornton
ARC, Paperback, 496 pages
NAL
December 1, 2015
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Received for review as part of HFVBT tour

330s, B.C.E., Greece: Alexander, a handsome young warrior of Macedon, begins his quest to conquer the ancient world. But he cannot ascend to power, and keep it, without the women who help to shape his destiny.

His spirited younger half-sister, Thessalonike, yearns to join her brother and see the world. Instead, it is Alexander's boyhood companion who rides with him into war while Thessalonike remains behind. Far away, crafty princess Drypetis will not stand idly by as Alexander topples her father from Persia's throne. And after Alexander conquers her tiny kingdom, Roxana, the beautiful and cunning daughter of a minor noble, wins Alexander’s heart…and will commit any crime to secure her place at his side.

Within a few short years, Alexander controls an empire more vast than the civilized world has ever known. But his victories are tarnished by losses on the battlefield and treachery among his inner circle. And long after Alexander is gone, the women who are his champions, wives, and enemies will fight to claim his legacy…

Is it just me or did anyone else really dislike Alexander in this book? The only time I found him likable was from the perspective of his little sister – even his best friend/sometimes lover disliked his actions fairly often. We see the story of Alexander from those who revolved around him: his friend, his sister, his lover, his enemy – and honestly I found their stories vastly more interesting than the man himself. I found myself anxious for Hephestion to come back on the page (a tiny bit of a crush on him, haha) and I loved Roxana (she really surprised me with how she got her own way!). Drypetis I found a little bit annoying. She was a great viewpoint to see the Macedonians from another perspective and I did love her hatred of and shared scenes with Hephestion, but she sometimes made me weary. And Thessalonike had her moments. As much as this was a story of Alexander, it was a story of all of those around him too.

Thornton writes some great dialogue. As mentioned above, I loved the scenes between Drypetis and Hephestion especially because of the dialogue. There is witty banter, hidden meaning, and snark and spitfire at every turn. At the same time, Thornton had a wide age range of people she needed to represent their thoughts/feelings/and manner of speech. Thessalonike is young and naïve at the beginning of the novel, but you have her in scenes with those a little older, like Hephestion, as well as those who would be her parents age, like Olympia – and Thornton keeps these characters and their mannerisms well defined.

As usual, Thornton carries off an excellent novel of the ancient world that truly brings the people and places to life. I didn’t race through the pages quite as quickly as I have some of her prior novels (I’m looking at you The Secret History!) but I still loved the novel and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in this time period.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• A Bookish Affair
• A Literary Vacation

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Stephanie Thornton:

The Secret History
[My Review]

The Daughter of the Gods
[My Review]

The Tiger Queen’s
[My Review]

Find Stephanie Thornton: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Follow the Tour!

On Twitter: #TheConquerorsWifeBlogTour   #AlexandertheGreat

On HFVBT Webpage

 

Copyright © 2015 by The Maiden’s Court

Interview with Amalia Carosella & Giveaway

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Amalia Carosella to The Maiden's Court as a stop on her blog tour.  I have a lovely interview with her to post today to help you get to know her better as well as her book, Helen of Sparta.  Stay tuned at the bottom of this post for a tour-wide giveaway.  Welcome Amalia!

Heather: Everyone knows of Helen of Troy – why choose to write of her days in Sparta?

Amalia Carosella: Everyone does know Helen of Troy. Fewer people know who she was before she became infamous as Helen of Troy. I wanted her to have a chance to define herself and forge her own identity, separate from Paris and Troy, and not only that, but also to tell a story that not everyone already knew. Her abduction by Theseus is so often overlooked, but it’s these small footnotes in myth that I love to explore!

H: I can honestly say that I am one of those that falls into the category of not knowing of her abduction of Theseus!

H: In writing this novel, what inspiration/sources did you work from?  How much history/mythology is there about this pre-Troy time period to build off of?

AC: There’s a perfect amount of history for writing, in my opinion! Most of what we know about the political and cultural elements of Bronze Age Greece comes from the Linear B tablets found at a few Mycenaean sites, and the general archaeological record. We know there were incredibly large palaces, and that society was highly organized in regard to trade and production of goods (both because the tablets reveal careful inventories and because we find evidence of widespread trade of goods in the region). We have a pretty good idea of what foods they were eating as staples and what livestock they husbanded.  We even know which “nation” had the best medicine and maybe more interestingly, we know that they  knew where to send for the best physicians! Basically, we have a lot of broad strokes, which provide a really fantastic foundation, without getting in the way of a good story, if that makes sense.

As far as the mythology goes, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are the most significant and the earliest narrative sources. They were written probably 400-500 years after the fact, but we know from the language and the technology  described in the epics that their oral roots stretch back into the bronze age. There are also several familiar gods and goddesses referenced in the Linear B tablets – Poseidon Earth-Shaker, Zeus, and Hera, to name a few. I drew from Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Pseudo-Apollodorus, Plutarch, and Ovid, among others, in order to piece together a coherent narrative of Helen’s early life and Theseus’s later years. A lot of the earliest sources for the epic cycle surrounding the Trojan War have sadly been lost, so we have to rely on the later sources (who quote them or summarize them) to fill in some of the background!

H: Helen is depicted in various ways in mythology – as a wayward woman driven by her desires; a sorrowful and regretful woman; a treacherous and devious woman.  What is your version of Helen like?

AC: My Helen is still young. She’s only just reached marriageable age, and is still struggling to figure out what it means to be a daughter of Zeus and face the blessing/curse of her beauty. She knows what’s coming – this terrible war, fought over her – and she’s desperate to find a way to subvert it. She wants to have some control of her life and her fate, rather than just remaining the pawn of her father/family or the gods.

H: This is not your first novel, or mythology based novel for that matter.  What is different about this novel from those that you have written previously under the name Amalia Dillin? 

AC: Helen of Sparta is very firmly grounded in the historical Bronze Age, and so is her story. My Fate of the Gods books are more focused on the gods as characters – Thor, and Adam, and Eve are all working beyond the perception of the everyday person – while Helen’s story is much more human. She’s working within the world, rather than acting as a puppet-master outside of it. My Fate of the Gods books also hopscotch through thousands of years from the mythical Creation to the future, rather than exploring just one time in history – so there are some pretty big differences which mark my Amalia Dillin works as Fantasy, and my Amalia Carosella title(s) as Historical!

H: I have read that Helen of Sparta is designed to stand alone, but that there is also more story to tell.  Are you working on a continuation or sequel?  Are you working on something else?

AC: Helen of Sparta encapsulates a small piece of Helen’s mythology – particularly, the lesser known myth of her abduction by Theseus, the king of Athens and the son of Poseidon – in that respect, it’s complete within itself as an exploration of that myth. However, it certainly does not encompass all of Helen’s journey through the whole of her mythology, leaving a lot more of her life to retell! I’m currently working on writing another book, continuing her story, and I’d love to share more of not just her story, but also the stories of the other heroes and heroines who surround and weave through her mythology, and Theseus’s!

Amalia Carosella graduated from the University of North Dakota with a bachelors degree in Classical Studies and English. An avid reader and former bookseller, she writes about old heroes and older gods. She lives with her husband in upstate New York and dreams of the day she will own goats (and maybe even a horse, too).  She also writes fantasy and paranormal romance as Amalia Dillin.

Find Amalia Carosella: Website | Facebook | Twitter: Amalia Carosella | Twitter: Amalia Dillin | Goodreads

Book Blurb:

Long before she ran away with Paris to Troy, Helen of Sparta was haunted by nightmares of a burning city under siege. These dreams foretold impending war—a war that only Helen has the power to avert. To do so, she must defy her family and betray her betrothed by fleeing the palace in the dead of night. In need of protection, she finds shelter and comfort in the arms of Theseus, son of Poseidon. With Theseus at her side, she believes she can escape her destiny. But at every turn, new dangers—violence, betrayal, extortion, threat of war—thwart Helen’s plans and bar her path. Still, she refuses to bend to the will of the gods.

A new take on an ancient myth, Helen of Sparta is the story of one woman determined to decide her own fate.

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Follow the Tour!!!

On Twitter: #HelenofSpartaBlogTour    #HistoricalFiction

On HFVBT Tour Page

Tour-Wide Giveaway

I am happy to share with you this tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win a $40 Amazon Gift Card!  Please note, as this giveaway is tour-wide, I am not in control of anything to do with this giveaway.

• Giveaway starts on April 1st at 12:01am EST and ends at 11:59pm EST on April 22nd.
• Giveaway is open to residents in the US only and you must be 18 or older to enter.
• Winners will be chosen via GLEAM on April 23rd and notified via email.
• Winners have 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.
• Please email Amy @ hfvirtualbooktours@gmail.com with any questions.

Entries are made through the GLEAM application below.  Good luck!

Helen of Sparta

 

Copyright © 2015 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Alcestis by Katherine Beutner

Alcestis by Katherine Beutner

Unabridged, 10 hr. 36 min.

Iambik Literary

Diane Havens (Narrator)

April 13, 2011

★★★☆☆

Genre: Historical fiction, Mythology

Source: Received for review from publisher as part of Audiobook Jukebox Solid Gold Reviewer Program

“In Greek myth, Alcestis is known as the ideal good wife; she loved her husband so much that she died to save his life and was sent to the underworld in his place. In this poetic and vividly-imagined debut, Katharine Beutner gives voice to the woman behind the ideal, bringing to life the world of Mycenaean Greece, a world peopled by capricious gods, where royal women are confined to the palace grounds and passed as possessions from father to husband. Alcestis tells of a childhood spent with her sisters in the bedchamber where her mother died giving birth to her and of her marriage at the age of fifteen to Admetus, the young king of Pherae, a man she barely knows, who is kind but whose heart belongs to a god. She also tells the part of the story that's never been told: What happened to Alcestis in the three days she spent in the underworld before being rescued by Heracles? In the realm of the dead, Alcestis falls in love with the goddess Persephone and discovers the true horror and beauty of death.”

This book was hit and miss for me and I had been dying to read it for so long that it was a little disappointing to me. I love reading Greek mythology – all of the interfering Gods and Goddesses, Heroes etc. I also have enjoyed reading novelized treatments of these myths as the world is fleshed out for us and we get to know more about the characters themselves.

Where this book was its strongest was with the depictions of Greek culture and mythology. We are treated to the requisite interfering Gods and the rites and sacrifices that were a daily concern. We get an accurate picture of how women were treated in Greek life. Alcestis was characterized as a decent daughter and wife who continued to feel the loss of her sister years earlier to an illness. The first half of the book was enjoyable – and this is the portion that is based on the myth.

Where the story let go for me was the part that was entirely the creation of the author – when she descends into the underworld. The character of Alcestis seemed to have an abrupt shift of personality. She still longed to find her sister (which felt in character) however it was made quite clear that she was unhappy in her life – which had not really been hinted at during the entire first half of the book. While in the underworld, Alcestis falls in love with the Goddess Persephone – which felt very out of character for her and there was an awkward love scene – because it came out of nowhere and didn’t feel right to the character that had been established thus far. I did enjoy how the underworld was described and how we were treated to what life was like for those who had passed on. The world itself was very well crafted; however the abrupt character shift was lost on me.

Included at the end of the novel was a very good historical note about what is known to us from the Alcestis myth and what we know about her descendants and who they were and what role they played in mythology.

If there was more consistency to the character of Alcestis I would have been much more happy with the novel and it probably would have improved by a whole star.

★★★☆☆

I also did not like the narrator for this book. Her voice annoyed me and there were many times where she tried to be dramatic, but this failed. It just didn’t come off well.

If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book?

You can listen to the author reading the prologue here.

You can also listen to the narrator reading a few of her samples below, the excerpt from Alcestis is first:

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• On A Pale Star
• ForeWord Reviews

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Find Katharine Beutner: Website | Twitter |

Copyright © 2012 by The Maiden’s Court

Audiobook Review: Perseus by Geraldine McCaughrean

Perseus by Geraldine McCaughrean
Book 2 of The Heroes series

Unabridged, 3 hr. 28 min.

Full Cast Audio

Cynthia Bishop & Full Cast (Narrators)

September 12, 2011
★★★★☆

Genre: Greek Mythology, YA

Source: Received from publisher as part of Audiobook Jukebox Solid Gold Reviewer Program

“In this second of four books in Geraldine McCaughrean's Heroes series, following the acclaimed Odysseus, readers follow Perseus as he lives the fate the oracles have declared, an impossible quest to kill the hideous, snake-haired Medusa to save his mother from marriage to an evil king. A power struggle among the gods both hinders and helps him along the way, and Perseus manages to find true love when he rescues the breathtakingly beautiful Princess Andromeda from the horrors of a bloodthirsty sea monster in this entrancing retelling of the classic myth”.

First I should point out that this is not a novelization of the classic myth of Perseus but rather a retelling. We do not really get into the thoughts of anyone but instead follow the story of Perseus as he slays Medusa, takes down Atlas, fights various kings, saves a princess, and kills a sea monster (not necessarily in that order). This book really helped to flesh out my knowledge of Perseus – all I knew came from a video game that I had played where he was one of the heroes you requested to slay Medusa. As this is a retelling of a myth, I’m not going to critique the character or plot development. At 160 pages (the paperback version) I think that this is a pretty sufficient retelling – you don’t feel like you are losing out on anything.

There is one thing that irritated me throughout the story – all of the pantheon of gods were referred to by their Greek names (like Zeus, Hera, and Artemis) with the exception of one – Hades was constantly referred to as Pluto, his Roman equivalent. This broke the continuity for me and was frustrating. I think to stick with the Greek names would have made the most sense as the story is taking place in Greece.

While McCaughrean’s books are intended for a YA audience, Amazon suggests 4th – 8th grade, this was still the enjoyable read for an adult. It didn’t feel like the story had been watered down for youths.

I certainly am interested in checking out the other Heroes that she has written about.

★★★★★

This was one of the best audiobook productions I have listened to in awhile. As the name of the publisher suggests, this is a full cast production. You have a different actor for each character – even the minor ones. This really helps to flesh out the characters even more and gives a good feel for their personalities – especially the gods. The storytelling was well paced and dramatic. There were tiny musical interludes between chapters – it reminded me of harp and drum music. This just helped to break up the chapters and didn’t take away from the story – they were approximately 5 – 10 second clips. I would certainly listen to one of their productions again.

You can listen to a short sample of the audiobook below (links to Audible):

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Geraldine McCaughrean:

The other books in this series include:

Odysseus

Theseus

Hercules

Find Geraldine McCaughrean: Website | Twitter | Facebook

 
Copyright © 2011 by The Maiden’s Court

Interview with Laurel Corona

After reading the wonderful Penelope's Daughter by Laurel Corona there were a couple burning questions that I just knew I had to ask. Below you will find the lovely interview with the author where she enlightens us with how she researched for her book as well as what is coming up next. Please welcome, Laurel Corona.

You are currently a professor at San Diego City College, how do you find time to research and write your books? Do you have a set routine?

I am fortunate in that many of the things I research are of use in my humanities classes, and in fact, the inspiration for all my fiction has come from the subjects I teach. One of the best things about being a community college professor is that we get long vacations but we aren’t under the obligation to “publish or perish,” as many academicians are. I don’t have to spend my time away from school producing scholarly work, which leaves me free to write whatever I want (or not to write at all) in my free time. I manage to write year-round though, because I am one of those obnoxious people who wakes up alert and ready to go by 6AM, so with my afternoon schedule of classes, I can put in a half day of writing before I have to think about getting ready for class. I try to have a good balance between writing and other activities (particularly exercise), and I find that really there is plenty of time in a day as long as none is wasted. I very rarely waste a minute.

We are told in The Odyssey that Odysseus and Penelope had a son, Telemachus. How did you come up with the story behind Penelope’s Daughter?

I decided I wanted to write a novel about The Odyssey from a female-centered point of view, but I didn’t like the character of Penelope. All she did in Homer, it seemed to me, was weave and weep. There was no way she was going to be my heroine, I was sure of that. I came up with the idea of a daughter as a way of being able to invent the heroine I wanted. As the story evolved, Penelope became very much a heroine in my eyes also, when I imagined how she really would have acted in that difficult and threatening situation. Interestingly, well into writing the book, I uncovered a story from another source contemporaneous with Homer, in which Odysseus and Penelope have another child, a second boy. I decided right then that I was completely vindicated in adding the daughter because Homer hadn’t included everything either.

You stayed very true to the story of The Odyssey, what was the most difficult part of the writing process? How did you balance what we already knew from Homer’s work with the story you wanted to tell?

I try in all my historical fiction to stay as close to the truth as I can, deviating only in details I consider so minor as to be irrelevant. I don’t want to misinform people and I want people to rely on what I say. So little information exists about the era of the Iliad and the Odyssey, that Homer became my best source for the story. I read and reread the Odyssey, and listened to it over and over in my car during the year or so I was writing the book. I thought about what the best parts were, and I knew they could only be in the book if I made Xanthe, the daughter, part of them. I tried to imagine for myself the things Homer wasn’t very interested in, such as the daily lives of women, and I used my research on Bronze Age Greece to add details to that. This book was actually less difficult to write than my other fiction so far, precisely because the available research is pretty scanty. It’s funny, sometimes when I ask a scholar a question and they say no one knows the answer, they apologize for not having been able to help. I always tell them that they were a great help, because when something is unknown, I am free to invent without worrying about being proven wrong.

I most enjoyed the segment of the story focusing on the time Xanthe spent with Helen of Troy. What made you decide to use Helen as a vehicle for Xanthe’s growth into a woman?

Many people tell me that is their favorite part of the book. I really loved writing it! As I read the Odyssey, I started doing the math on all the characters’ ages (Homer doesn’t seem to do this) and realized that when Odysseus’ son Telemachus comes to Sparta in search of information about his father, the youngest Helen could be was forty--and that would be if she had her daughter, Hermione, when she was thirteen (very possible in that time). I know that the legend says that Helen was Zeus’ child and therefore might have special qualities such as the ability not to age and therefore lose her great physical beauty, but since she is a mortal, that seems unlikely. At any rate, forty is quite old by the standards of the time.

I wondered what a woman who had lived such a tumultuous and interesting life would be like. As we all know, being a beautiful young woman is not enough to base a full life upon. I read a fabulous book, Helen of Troy, by historian Bettany Hughes, and learned that Helen was thought to have picked up great powers to cast spells and speak to (and for) the gods. Helen began to grow in my imagination into this absolutely marvelous woman, confident in herself, and loving her sexuality and her close connection to the goddess Orthia. With Xanthe spending her teens there, I decided her life would be guided by what Helen thought was right for any young woman--an introduction into sensual goddess worship and a sexual awakening.

Your next book, Finding Emilie, comes out in early 2011. What can you tell us about this next book?

It’s based on the real-life story of a brilliant mathematician and physicist, Emilie du Châtelet, who live in the era just before the French Revolution. She was quite a libertine in many respects, flaunting societal expectations for an aristocratic, married woman. One of the ways she defied expectations was her truly brilliant scientific work, and another was her tendency to have rather public love affairs, including a long one with her live-in lover, the philosopher, satirist and playwright Voltaire. At age forty-three she died a few days after giving birth to the child of yet another lover. The book imagines the life of that child, named Stanislas-Adélaïde but nicknamed Lili in my book, as she goes though life unaware of her mother’s story but desperately in need of that knowledge if she is to escape the terrible constraints on women in her society, and fulfill the destiny of living an equally passionate, intellectual, and fulfilling life. This is truly the most complex story I’ve written and also in many respects, the most exciting and dynamic. Look for it in May 2011, from Simon and Schuster/Gallery Books!

Thank you so much Laurel for answering these questions and we hope to see you again with Finding Emilie!

Copyright © 2010 by The Maiden’s Court