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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
"She Speaks of Nothing but Ruin and Death for Troy...", November 28, 2007
I'm not a huge fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but the Trojan War is one of my favourite subjects, and I was curious to see how it could be told from a singular, feminine point of view - in this case, Princess Kassandra of Troy, tragically famous for her accurate predictions of doom that no one believed. "The Firebrand" is told with Bradley's trademark style; a strong feminist streak (that can become a little too heavy-handed at times), and her fresh spin on an ancient legend, a technique that brought Bradley into the public eye with her best known novel The Mists of Avalon.
"The Firebrand" follows the life of Kassandra of Troy from childhood to the fall of her city at the hands of the Akhaians, and the details of her life in-between, significantly her relationships with her family members and her struggles with her gift/curse of prophesy. Oddly enough, Bradley does not instigate the Trojan War into the story until nearly halfway through the book, filling the pages instead with Kassandra's growth into a young woman, her tutelage under the Amazon Penthesilea, various love affairs (of the wanted and unwanted variety) and the rituals of a priestess's life. Amongst all this, the war seems almost arbitrary, and several of the most important aspects (such as the deaths in the royal family) are glossed over with little to no emotional resonance. This may be disappointing to some, so be warned: "The Firebrand" is mainly interested in the life and times of Kassandra - even though the title directly refers to Paris, here portrayed as Kassandra's twin brother.
Kassandra is a well-drawn character, willful yet sensible, passionate yet contained, and in a clever twist Bradley makes it clear that it is not just her prophecies that make her somewhat of a pariah amongst her family, but her modernist streak as well. She certainly comes across as a woman living outside of her own time, and yet she never feels anything but entirely natural in her attitudes and relationships - even though some of these relationships are established early on in the text, only to be ignored later on. Other characters are less convincing than Kassandra, (such as Andromache, whose personality seems to change with each appearance), or ultimately inconsequential, such as Bradley's original characters Khryse and Chryseis, who are introduced only to serve no real purpose in the overarching plot.
Other times, the storytelling is often just plain sloppy: Kassandra periodically has visions of her brother Paris, but we are told at the end of chapter six that: "Paris was gone, this time beyond any recall at her command. She did not see him again for a long time." The following chapter picks up a few weeks later, in which Kassandra is once again engaged in watching her brother from afar.
As usual, Bradley's greatest weakness is her feminist streak, which can get so overwrought at times that it becomes an irritating strain on the credibility of the story's integrity. The key to any strong female protagonist is *not* to surround her with thuggish, block-headed caricatures of men, but to have her hold her own against men that are just as worthy of respect in their own right. Bradley clearly does not grasp this theory, as practically every male in the book is foolish, lecherous, arrogant or all three. Strengthening female characters by vilifying all the male ones, is in itself a weak way to portray convincing characters - not to mention robbing any sense of poignancy or emotion from the fates of Paris, Hector, Priam and Akhilles. The way Bradley writes it, we should be glad they all meet with tragedy.
Likewise, Kassandra (and though her Bradley) holds a hefty amount of distain to any woman who displays devotion to her spouse. From insisting that children belong to their mothers instead of their fathers (it seems to have escaped her notice that children could belong to *both* parents), mocking any woman who is content with being a wife and mother, and insinuating that the Trojan War would have never started had they all lived in a matriarchal society, Bradley pushes her feminist agenda so far that even this liberal female gender-studies student got tired of it.
This is unfortunately not my only grievance. What begins as an interesting insight in the gods and how they interact with mankind (beginning with the conception of Helen between Zeus and Leda) eventually becomes a muddled portrayal of gods and their influence over mankind. With Bradley attempting to rationalize some aspects of Greek legend, such as the Kentaurs and the snake-hair of Medusa, it seems odd that the gods would appear at all. However, at various points in the text, Kassandra communicates and witnesses various gods at work. Although Bradley opens up an interesting commentary on how the gods *might* work, their arbitrary appearances and her awkward insertion of a "goddess-mother" (who bears no resemblance to any god in the Greek pantheon) renders the portrayal confusing. Whatever her point was, it is lost in the contradictions and omissions in the text.
Although I enjoyed the character of Kassandra, and the unique twists that Bradley inserts into the original legend of Troy (such as an interesting portrayal of Odysseus and a different figure responsible for the death of Akhilles), there is something missing from this retelling: a clear sense of the context in which Kassandra's personal journey takes place. Although she remains consistent, the lack of interest in the war itself and the inconsistency in both the portrayal of the gods and those closest to Kassandra mean that the story feels...incomplete. It's almost like we've only seen a tiny portion of the experiences that shape who this woman really is. Despite several positive aspects, I'd recommend giving this Trojan retelling a miss and trying Goddess of Yesterday, another look at how a young woman is shaped by her experience both as a woman and a participant of the Trojan War.
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40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful and Surprisingly Human Re-Imaging!!!, April 6, 2002
As far as I'm concerned, Marion Zimmer Bradley is the master of injecting new life into old stories. Her retelling of the Arthur legend, The Mists of Avalon, is a phenomenal book (as anyone who has read it will tell you, if they have any sense!). In The Firebrand, Marion Zimmer Bradley takes on the Iliad of Homer. The story is told mostly from the point of view of Kassandra, prophetess of Troy and sister to Paris, son of Priam who spirited Helen away from Sparta and became the catalyst for the 10-year-long Trojan War. Many wonderful details make the characters, like the Amazons or the Kentaurs, amazingly human and real. Ms. Bradley has an enviable gift that makes her readers care about each and every one of her characters. At the center of the story lies a conflict, embodied in Kassandra herself, between the Earth Goddess and the newer Greek gods, like Apollo and Athena. As in the Iliad, the gods seem to meddle in everything, fathering children or bringing down plagues. I really enjoyed this book because it puts a new spin on the old story and gives the female characters attention that they well deserve. Kassandra is a strong, consistent character, struggling with her vows of chastity to the free-worker Apollo and the Sight given to her by the Earth Goddess. For angering Apollo, Kassandra is cursed with seeing terrible things and having no one believe her. Helen, the wife Paris stole from the Spartan king Menaleus(sp?), is also well-developed as a character. She does, however, remind me strikingly of Gwenhyfar from The Mists of Avalon. Besides having the face that launched a thousand ships, Helen has the sort of strength that inspires admiration even in the unwilling. She, too, like Kassandra, is a pawn of the gods. Other strong women, like the Amazon Queen and Andromache, prove that the war was not fought by the soldiers alone. Surprisingly scary, Akhilles(spelled scarily, too!) along with Agamemnon are Troy's, and Kassandra's, greatest enemies. Aeneas, the future founder of Rome,is a rather unlikely, but extremely likable, romantic hero. Pretty much the only nice man in the book...where Kassandra is concerned, anyway! I will say that the plot really seemed to fragment toward the end. I liked the writing, but I felt that the storyline lacked the strength of the previous parts of the book. There are, however, a few delectable and - for readers familiar with the Iliad and the Odyssey - unexpected surprises in store. As a sort of halting scholar of the Ancient Greek language wrestling with my first attempts at translating Homer, The Firebrand provided me with inspiration and gave me a more personal attachment to the characters, for which I am extremely grateful. It's obvious to me that Ms. Bradley is an extremely well-researched writer, who has a wonderful creative vision that makes the Iliad her own, while at the same time it remains the same wonderful story. Anyone who likes these sort of legend retellings should read this book! And then recommend it to a friend!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
better than The Mists of Avalon, August 24, 2001
I began reading Marion Zimmer Bradley my sophomore year of high school when my english teacher (surprisingly) assigned the book at summer reading. Now I know a lot of people have read The Mists of Avalon, especially because of the tv movie, but if you are able to get a hold on this book, I strongly suggest it. It is almost the same as The Mists of Avalon, but set in mythical Troy instead of Camelot. We see through Kassandra's eyes, the prophetess cursed by the god Apollo. Just The Mists of Avalon, this book is also a feminist view in a male-dominated world. We see Hector, Achilles, Priam, Agamemnon, Paris and Menalaus, but they are not the heroes of the war. Intead, Bradley makes the women Kassandra, Hecuba, Andromache, Helen and the warrior Amazons the heroes. I really liked this book more than The Mists of Avalon, and it got me interested in Ancient Greece. If you like The Mists of Avalon and can find a copy of this book (because it is unfortunately out of print), I would suggest that you try this one. :)
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