Customer Reviews

The Gryphon's Skull

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I like Harry Turtledove's books (Turteltaub is a pen name), they are enjoyable to read. This one was as well but, unlike many of his novels, there does not seem to be much point to it. It is a simple narrative describing the exploits of a pair of cousins in the ancient Hellenic world. There is very little sense of excitement or accomplishment. Instead, it is a mildly pleasant meandering.

Mendemos and Sostratos are cousins who work together in the trade in luxury goods. They come from Rhodes and sail the Mediterranean hoping to make a profit. In the course of their journey, they have a few mild adventures and run into some interesting people. That's about all that does happen.

The title come from a fossil skull of a dinosaur procured by one the cousins. To both of them, it seems to suggest the mythical gryphon. The more philosophical of the two boys wants to take it to Athens to see what the scholars there make of it. The more adventurous one thinks that will be a waste of time (and investment capital) but agrees merely to keep peace within the family. The skull figures in the drives of the characters but has little other significance than to help demonstrate the differing outlooks each has.

Menedemos is the captain of the vessel and is the more hot headed of the two. His twin motivations are profit and the seduction of other men's wives. Sostratos is the more contemplative one who is a thinker. He serves as the supercargo and is no less interested in profit but to him, this includes profit of the mind as well.

The bothers wander around on their trading journey. Some things go better than hoped for, some go worse. Their exploits, however, do not seem to be the point. Instead, they are just the vehicle to introduce readers to a very different culure which did significantly influence our own. For me, this was interesting; others may find it less so.

Turtledove is eminently qualified to write on these matters. He is a Greek scholar although I do believe his area of specialization is significantly later in history. It was Byzantine, if I remember correctly. I like his science fiction and alternate history books much more; I can hardly put those down. I have no regrets in reading this one though.

Don't expect a rousing adventure. If you want a slice of Hellenistic culture from shortly after Alexander the Great, this might be a good choice.

About three centuries BC, the merchants Menedemos and Sostratos sail the Aphrodite across the Aegean Sea from Rhodes to deliver cargo in Athens. Menedemos captains the vessel while his cousin Sostratos handles more of the scholarly side of the business. Of course the two bicker over everything with Sostratos being a back seat driver and Menedemos a pseudo intellect.

On this particular journey, the argumentative duo obtains the skull of a strange looking bird that Sostratos believes is a gryphon, which proves the existence of the mythical beast. Menedemos dreams of receiving plenty of loot at an auction as he figures the philosophy schools will compete to buy the gryphon skull. As the relatives argue, fuss, and fight over the bird, they must also deal with the typical hazards of the open sea ranging from pirates to warring countries to spoiled aristocratic relatives, but mostly they contend with one another.

THE GRYPHON'S SKULL is a delightful ancient historical novel that brings to life Greece through the eyes of a strong cast, especially the delightful lead characters. The story line is action-packed, filled with real tidbits and persona, but also contains much amusement especially when the cousins bicker, banter, and bother one another. Fans will relish this trek and want to read the combatant cousin's first novel, OVER THE WINE DARK SEA.

Harriet Klausner

I liked this book. This series is a refreshing change from a lot of historical/fantasy novels that seem to replay the same plot lines, the same heroes, the same tropes over and over again. The two main characters are extremely likeable and the setting is evocative enough for you to get a feel for the world they live in without your (my) own ignorance of the period being frustrating. That was my biggest gripe with the first book. It read so much like a history text book at times that I found myself skimming whole pages for the story parts.

The author has done a much better job this time around, although he still needs to disguise his expositional dialogue a bit better. There were several times one cousin said something aloud that should have been common knowledge to the other, which meant he was really saying it for our (the reader's) benefit. The quotation marks could easily have been dropped, making it internal dialgue rather than external. But, all in all, I really like this series. We'll see about the next two books.

Pete

PS - As a side note to something another reviewer mentioned, the anachronistic dialogue fits fairly seamlessly. Sure, I doubt a Hellene ever said 'you've got a bargain, pal' using those words, but I'm quite sure they said the equivalent using their own. Accurately recreating period slang and informal speech would leave most people saying "huh?" Just look at Shakespeare, and that's written in English. The way HNT wrote it is a lot simpler for the casual reader. I know I don't want to have to stop and think about the meaning of every conversation. I just want to read the story.

The last time I engaged in a negative review of a book written by an author still living...he wrote to me himself to encourage me to read on with the trilogy I had begun. Nevertheless, I am going to plow ahead and give a negative review to this book as well...

Earlier in the fall of 2004, I wrote a review of H.N. Turteltaub's 'Over the Wine Dark Sea' which I *enjoyed* but didn't love....I criticized the over-use of the 'peafowl' as humerous interjection....and the repetition of solution to pirate attacks by the dual protagonists, Menedemos and Sostratos.

Here....I have a few more bones to pick...

First off....the horribly, horribly anachronisitic dialogue in this book had me rolling my eyes from about page 7....and while I was of course not alive in the 300 BC era, I doubt phrases like 'you've got a bargain, pal' were commonplace. True, the dialogue is accessible in THIS day and age, but back then? Come on....if you are going to write an historical novel...and fill it with period detail, like the author has...then why such modern coloquialisms? I expected the two main-character cousins to be calling each other 'dude' by the time the story ended, and advertising the emeralds they have for sale on this voyage as bling-bling.

Secondly....while the author made good use of a myriad of facts about the sea trade and time period of Classical Greece...it is delivered in the same 'pedestrian' writing style that I loathe in modern literature...choppy, stinted dialogue, just to throw in a fact or two...that has nothing to do with story-propulsion, pacing, plot, etc...it's just to stick in a 'guess what I know?' piece....and to make a comparison to Mary Renault on the dust-jacket....I dare to say she spun in her grave when that was done. Mary Renault knew how to weave in her vast knowledge of Classical history to the story in such a way as it never appeared 'out of place' to the storyline. The author could take lessons from that ability if he intends to continue on with more than four books in this genre.

I am not a Classical Scholar...I am an average person with a passing interest in Greek history and mythology...and a great love of historical novels dealing with the subject matter. But this...was less than enjoyable...it's much the same as the first novel in the series, where the bickering cousins leave the island of Rhodes for their annual merchant trade season, and along the way encounter the same types of foes, the same married women who appeal to Menedemos, and the same dialogues between the cousins and the crew, and those they encounter along the way. Its basically the same plot as the first book, but with the skull of the mythical gryphon substituted for the peafowl of book one...virtually everything else is the same here...

I finished the book in the hopes that it would improve, and because I really hate to put a book down once I am involved in it....but I hesitate to say that I will investigate novels 3 and 4 in this series....I may as well save my money and just read the first one over and over again....