Customer Reviews

Daughter of Troy

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was immensely entertaining. It's a retelling of Homer's classic epic "The Iliad", through the eyes of Achilles' slave/concubine, Briseis. The story is the same enduring tale that has become a classic over the years. However, it sometimes reads like a cheesy romance novel. In my opinion, there were too many sex scenes that were really not related to the plot. I like a good sex scene as much as anyone, but it's a bit too much in this book, which is the reason it only gets three stars from me.

If you are interested in this book, I would recommend that you instead check out Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Firebrand", which is a similar novel in that it's a retelling of the Iliad through the eyes of a minor character - Kassandra (Cassandra), Hector's sister - only the writing is much better.

I picked this one up w/some trepidation as the blurb on the back and a quick scan of the pages within suggested a bodice-ripper built on the foundation stones of that most revered of all things Greek -- The Iliad. I was pleased to see I was wrong. This is a tale of the Trojan War from a woman's perspective, particularly from the point of view of Briseis, the slave girl and victory prize of Achilles, over whom all the sturm und drang of that marvelous tale is raised. And it's a good one.

For those who don't know the tale, it essentially recounts what happens to the Greek and Trojan armies in the final year of the bitter Trojan siege, when the Greek over-king, Agamemnon, forced to give up his own victory prize, the girl Chryseis because of a god's anger, seizes the slave girl of his greatest hero and war-leader, Achilles, as a consolation prize. The resultant pique of the proud Achilles leaves the Greeks without a champion and gives the Trojans a chance to reclaim the initiative on the battlefield. Not promising for a tale told entirely from a woman's perspective. And yet, the use of Briseis as witness and recounter of events is inspired. In fact, the author has succeeded admirably. The prose is brilliantly evocative of the times and ancient tale it has to tell, without being stale or hackneyed. Never once are we troubled with the "wine-dark sea" (an Homeric catch phrase, much overused these days), although the prose still manages to conjure up the land and climate of the country in which this all presumably occurred...as well as the culture of the people among whom the tale is set.

The "voice" is mostly right, too. A woman's voice, begun as an old crone recounting her life to a wandering stranger, shifting quickly to a flashback of the seminal event of the tale beneath the Trojan walls, shifting again to this woman's emergence into young womanhood in her home city of Lyrnessos, a minor town within the Trojan orbit, only to take us back to the events under Troy's walls . . . the story we hear moves quickly and does not, for the most part, prove jarring or inconsistent with the times and events it has to tell of. The story of the Iliad is here portrayed as an almost conventional love story between Briseis and the mighty Achilles, but it works, as well, on the level of the original tale, the tragic encounter with violence and death which bring all men, as well as women, down in the end to the place of destruction and dissolution.

There are a few weak moments unfortunately: when Chryseis, in the early part of the tale, observing Briseis in one of those Cretan gowns which exposes a woman's breasts, remarks that "you seem to be bursting out of your dress, darling" -- I thought I'd strayed into a Beverly Hills dinner party, or something worse. But for the most part, these odd moments do not detract overmuch from the tale.

If I had one real complaint it is that the first half of the book is really much better than the second, perhaps because the slave-girl's perspective necessarily excludes Briseis from so much of the action, causing the events of the war to be told, in large part, via second hand accounts. The best parts of the book are certainly when we see Briseis' life through her own first hand experiences and encounter the world of the eastern Mediterranean as retold in the first half of the book, all so freshly brought to life via this author's vivid and poetic prose.

Perhaps another reason for the weakening of the book in its second half is the large role Briseis' sexual adventures seem to play in the tale. Rather explicity recounted and certainly interesting, I came to conclude, in the second half, that too much of Briseis' recollections revolved around the copulations she recalls and the men who "have entered" her. It may have been likely that a slave girl and war prize would have had these sorts of experiences as a central part of her world, rather than the great battles beneath the besieged city's walls or the deliberations of the men who were prosecuting the dreadful war, but it seemed, ultimately, to trivialize the tale, making the great events mere reflections of the greater sex Briseis has with her hero Achilles, who killed her husband (a rather unpleasant fellow, by the way), her beloved brothers, and sacked and detroyed her native city. One would have thought that Briseis had reason to dwell on other things besides the size of Achilles' back and arms and other appurtenances, in light of the losses she has suffered. And Achillles sometimes seems to be nothing more than a Fabio look-alike, some woman's idea of the ideal sex object -- able to go on all night, providing both mount and rider, on demand, to his discriminating and lustful female partner, depending on her preferences and mood.

At the risk of turning a good review bad, however, let me stress that the story is well-told although it weakens substantially at the end for the reasons I've cited. But this is a tough one to tell, given that Homer and the other ancient Greek bards have all done it so well before. I think the author has here done a better job than some "contemporaries", certainly vividly and realistically capturing the feel of the ancient cults of the old proto-Greeks (better than Mary Renault, it seems to me, in The King Must Die, and nearly as good as Robert Graves did it in Hercules, My Shipmate) . . . and offered a highly literate and compelling modern narrative window into the great story of The Iliad, besides. If the sex seemed a bit much, well, perhaps that is a necessary concession to draw in today's reader (or at least to convince a publisher that this will occur) -- though I'd have been a bit more conservative in that regard if I'd have had the skill and inspiration to pen such a well-told tale myself.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

I agree with other reviewers who say there is too much irrelevant sex in _Daughter or Troy_. That said, on to the good stuff.

You might remember this book's heroine, Briseis, from the Iliad--Achilles's concubine, stolen away by King Agamemnon. But in _Daughter of Troy_, Briseis is so much more than a bimbo... She's an outspoken, brave, sardonic, intelligent princess, gifted with powers of prophecy. These powers break her heart, though, because knowing the future does not necessarily mean you can change it...

We read about Briseis's childhood at the court of the small kingdom of Lyrnessos, her adolescence in which she discovered sex and learned about the ruling of a kingdom, and her young adulthood as a prize of the invading Greeks. I truly liked Briseis and enjoyed spending time reading about her; kudos to the author for writing a compelling, strong female character without loading her down in modern-day political correctness.

I also liked the dark look at the ancient deities. It is always refreshing to read historical novels where the ancient pagans aren't practicing modern Wicca. The gods are scary in this book, appropriate given that they were thought to require constant sacrifice and to interfere often in the lives of mortals.

Gripes: I wanted to know more about Briseis's life after Achilles's death. Franklin shows her as an old woman, but she only tells her story up until about age seventeen, when the war ends. It is truly sad to imagine that nothing much of interest happened to her after that, especially with so many years ahead of her. Perhaps I can hold out hope for a sequel. Second, people believed Cassandra too often! LOL!

The title of this book is confusing, having read what lies underneath it. The narrator of the story, Briseis, is a daughter of Lyrnessos, a city that lay to the south of Troy. The rightful queen of that city by birth, Briseus begins her tale by telling it to another, and recounts first her rapturous affair as the slave of Achilles, then returning to her youth, and what led to her enslavement, and finally with the powerplay between Achilles and King Agamemnon.

I am a lover of historical fiction that deals with Ancient Greece. And while I have found better, this one is highly entertaining, as a retelling of the Iliad.

Briseis from very early on is gifted with augury, the power to prophesy events from omens she witnesses. The fight of two eagles tells her of the coming battle in Lyrnessos which will lead to its downfall, and the death of her family. Her brothers stand valiantly to defend their home, even as Briseis warns them of impending doom for them all. As she grows from girl to young woman, her powers of insight grow, as well as her ability to attract and seduce men. Sampling many of the 50 sons of Priam, she develops a liking for male flesh, and grows hungry for a hero of her own. But as fate would have it, she is married to a a man she grows to hate, and prays for his early demise, as her visions have foretold, and the arrival of a hero.

Her prayers are answered in the form of Achilles, the great love of her life. After Lyrnessos is taken, Briseis is reduced from Queen to slave, a role she takes on willingly to share the bed of her beloved warrior hero. Their passion grows, even as the battle of the city of Troy looms like a dark cloud over both their heads, where Briseis has foretold much death and destruction. Briseis is then lost to Agamemnon, and becomes slave and lover to a man she despises, once again, wanting desperately to return to the arms of Achilles.

Many figures of classical history grace the pages of the text, Patroclus, the best friend and companion of Achilles, Cassandra, the visionary daughter of Agamemnon, Hector, the bravest and most favored of all sons of Priam, and many others. It is a tale rich with Greek history and detail.

But where the book falls short is the forays it takes into romance novel territory. While not exactly a war-story fan, I found the endless recounts of Briseis's adventures with young men in the bed chambers to be a bit arduous after a while. Man after man finds his way into the embrace of this girl, and the reader is given far more detail than is warranted or necessary in each. Here the author strays toward a bodice-ripper, and images of half-dressed Greek warriors with flowing hair and large bosomed maidens scantily clad in torn dresses fill the mind, which does not lend to the story at all.

Where the strengths lie are this: The author obviously did her research before writing the novel, as many recounts of the Trojan war are displayed here, with great homage paid to the tales of old. The recreation of daily life in Ancient Greece is fascinating, as well as the authors unwaivering attention paid to the impartiality of the Greeks with their bedmates, as far as gender is concerned, or even familial connection. Sarah Franklin does not gloss over the desire that Briseis's warrior brothers have for young men, and makes it a secondary part of their nature, by saying "Take a boy for pleasure, but not for love." Nor does she shy away from a confrontation between Briseis and a visiting Queen as she makes mention of the affair between the queen and her stepson...Briseis is a smart girl, who knows how to use all of her attributes to great advantage.

In taking these 'taboo' subjects by today's standards and making them seem all too ordinary with the Greeks, Sarah Franklin has created a far more realistic portrait of Ancient Greece than others who have strived to accomplish the same task.

Some of the language strays from what would appear to be authentic, certain phrases and colloquialisms used, but overall the book is genuine in its endeavor to recreate the time of the Trojan War in Greece.

I bought this thinking that a novel told from the POV of Briseis would be an interesting read. I was half right. Franklin did a fantastic job of transporting her reader back in time, but her characters tend to fall short of being likeable.

As another reviewer pointed out, Briseis spent most of the book preoccupied with sex to the point where I was expecting her to crawl into bed with her brothers next. And she was preoccupied with her own beauty. I seem to recall thinking to myself, "If she mentions how perfect her breasts are one more time ..."

Then there's Achilles. Woah boy. What can I say about Franklin's Achilles. Larger than life in every way possible, including anatomically. I believe at one point the heroine suggests that women ran screaming from the room when he took off his clothes. Another scene involves comparisons to a cucumber. So Achilles has self-esteem problems because of this and--you guessed it--Briseis is the only one who can make Achilles feel like a man. I rolled my eyes through their entire affair.

You had the added annoyance of Briseis imposing herself in all the action. For instance, she was the one who arranged the meeting between Achilles and Priam to return Hector's body, a mighty tall order for a slave between masters.

In conclusion this isn't the best adaptation I've read. It was like Jackie Collins based in the ancient world. But if you're like me and you'll take on any adaptation of classical literature, then give it a try.

I was very intrigued at first when I came across this book. Compared to the movie "Troy", this book is more consistent with Homer's "Iliad", although however, one needs to distinguish fact from fiction. Nonetheless, one gets a glimpse of life in ancient Greece. We experience death rituals, wedding ceremonies, and the daily worshipping rituals of gods and goddesses. The battle of Troy comes to life through the voice of Briseis, as she relates the events and people who played their parts in it. This book is a "must" for anyone who is true fan of historical fiction.

I expected better.The title should not be Daughter of Troy, as the character is in Troy only once, and not a Trojan. All this story is Briseis going from one man's bed to another and how she likes or dislikes it. To say this is a story of any character in the Trojan War, or the tale of Troy,is wrong and although Briseis is nothing more than a war prize, the character portrayed here is quite arrogant, slutty and fond of herself, thinking every man wants to take her home. I would think the characters of Homers legend had more to think about than her. Read it if you want a sad, trashy romance novel, not if you are interested in the Trojan War or good literature.

I enjoyed reading this book. I think its a really good story and it shows another side of the Issues between Achilles and Agamemmnon. However, i thought this book would be mostly about Briseis and Achilles, but most of the book is about Briseis's childhood. I still enjoyed the book, i just thought it would be different.

I love this book its one of my favorite book as a matter of a fact I think it is my favorite book. I am a little ashamed to admit it but I cried many times reading this book. I've must of read it four or five times already and still I feel like if I can somehow change the ending by praying my brains out. My heart cried out loud reading this. I thank Sarah for writting this book.

I loved this book. It was very enthralling and magnificent. I would recommend it to anyone who has not read Homer's Illiad. This may not convince you to go and pick up the Illiad, but it does give you enough background to feel confident whenever you discover yourself in a situation where you have to discuss the Trojan War or the Illiad. Brisies is a marvelous woman, one which knows her mistakes although she doesn't neccessarily learn from them in time. Achilles has become the lover I desire in my dreams. And the rest of the cast of the Trojan War fill in the gaps that Achilles and Brisies leave blank (which isn't many).