Customer Reviews

Over the Wine-Dark Sea

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

 

 

During the first third of this book, I kept checking to make sure it was written by the same author that wrote the sophisticated and dramatic "Justinian", a book that I loved. The two cousins, Sostratos and Menedemos, who are sent on a trading journey across the Aegean Sea seem very immature, continually arguing about insignificant matters, when it seems more realistic that they'd be concerned about guiding their ship and managing their crew. I was amazed that so much of the story focused on trading their cargo of peacocks, which the cousins continually argued and worried about as the peacocks ran around deck and bit the crew.

What I particularly noticed during the first third of the book was the author's unsophisticated writing style in his method of conveying the historical setting. In most historical fiction, you absorb the history through the action, but the two cousins were constantly discussing the ancient writers, describing the different ships, clothing and places, supposedly instructing one another, but it was obvious that their dialogue was meant to instruct the reader. It was an unskillful and unsubtle writing technique.

In spite of these annoyances, the story was entertaining enough to keep me reading as they confronted pirates, got into messes with merchants' wives in places they traded, skirmished with a sword-brandishing mercenary, and had other amusing adventures. There were no intensely violent scenarios, and they always escaped, mostly unscathed, so the mood of the book is pretty lighthearted. In spite of the immature bickering of the cousins, I enjoyed their adventures and was able to form a mental image of the the culture and sights of this early Greek period.

When he first began writing fiction a couple of decades ago, Harry Turtledove (who is Turteltaub in his everyday suit) was quite good. A Byzantine scholar, he showed a knack for straight historicals (especially the excellent _Justinian_) as well as alternate history yarns with an eastern Mediterranean setting. Then he hit the big time with _Guns of the South,_ and now he has way too many interminable series going at once, and his talent -- while considerable -- has turned out to be a finite quantity that's stretched too thin, the result being that he's now cranking out a great deal of very forgettable verbiage. This story of two young cousins in 310 B.C. on a trading voyage from Rhodes to the Greek colonies in Italy is a separate book (though it now appears to have spawned its own series, unfortunately), so I had hopes for it. And there's a lot of interesting sightseeing, but there sure isn't much narrative tension, and hardly any point to it all. This is Turtledove in "history teacher" mode: "See, the Dorics indicated assent by dipping the head rather than by nodding and dissent by tossing the head rather than shaking it, so I'll be sure to tell you every single time someone dips or tosses." He also insists on rendering place names in phonetic Greek-ified English, which makes the reader uncertain what ports the guys are stopping to trade at -- ignoring the fact that this book is, in fact, written in English, so why bother with that? The main characters also spend a lot of time explaining routine points of everyday life and ship operations to each other for the benefit of the reader -- an annoying device any creative writing student learns to avoid in his first semester. Maybe I'll just go back and reread some of his earlier books.

Reading 'Over The Wine Dark Sea' was, to me, like whetting my appetite for a good ancient-Greece adventure story...the story is plotted out well, as far as pacing and continuity go, but overall I was left relatively flat by this tale.

Menedemos and Sostratos, like the 'Publisher's Weekly' review here on Amazon says, never rise above their station as opposites of one another before the tale concludes. Time and again, the author reminds the reader of the strengths and weaknesses of both, but fails to explore the reasons for the former, nor to deliver any real progression for the characters to overcome the latter.

While the author has obviously done significant research on the time period, and on the trade business of the classical Greeks, one would think that an author such as H.N. Turteltaub (also Harry Turteldove), with such a catalogue of works already generated would produce something a bit more indepth in making a genre-jump from his usual fare.

I found the business about the 'peafowl' to be far too dragged out overall, though it is the crown jewel of their trade voyage, and found myself rolling my eyes and skimming pages each time they were brought up again...as comic relief they work briefly, but the author relies on the squawking birds to 'entertain'a bit too often. There are also several references to a possible attack of pirates, and considering the solution employed by the cousins,...it's lively the first time, but when used more than once...it's simply repetitious.

For a reader looking for adventure-lite in the lives of the ancient Greeks...this will serve it's purpose...but for those wishing for more enlightenment and exploration into the era the story is set in, I would recommend other authors, such as Mary Renault, and Steven Pressfield.

However, I have also picked up 'The Gryphon's Skull', the next of the author's 'Hellenistic Seafaring Adventures' and have high hopes that perhaps like a fine wine...the tales improve with age.

This is a very clever book that gives the reader a look at another time, over two thousand years ago. While not as good as the author's previous historical novel, "Justanian," "Wine Dark Sea" is a excellent read. You won't find it in most book stores so order it here, you won't be disapointed! ...

Ever wonder, "Why the fuss about Iliad, Odyssee and all that stuff?"

Harry Turtledove, using his Turtletraub pen name, makes a couple of Greeks come alive. Alexander is dead, Rome is still a minor-league bunch of barbarians, and the wine-dark sea is still waiting for Jack Aubrey, Steven Maturin and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.

One cousin quotes Homer, but loves the most off-color bits of Aristophanes. The second would like to write like Thucydides or maybe Socrates, but can never see what the crew of armed oarsman will think or do - until after his cousin has effortlessly made them do it his way.

WARNING - you may find yourself reaching for books you always heard about, but never thought you'd want to read.

I just read this book and found it very enjoyable. A good read on the bus. There are, however, a couple of irritating points that I just have to get of my chest. By the end of the book, I was thinking that if I had to read the phrase "he tossed his head" one more time, I was going to scream! According to the author, this is definitely not the same as nodding one's head and everyone in the book seems to do it all the time. I also found the frequent insertion of unexplained Greek nouns somewhat annoying. As other reviewers have noted, there is no glossary and the context does not always help much. I also found the author's constant focus on the little arguments between the two main characters somewhat tiring. And frankly, the book needs more sex and violence! "Turtletaub" spent so much time writing about peafowl and their chicks that my eyes began to glaze over. Turtledove is nice writer, not a great one, but his books would make great movies and, in spite of my comments, I will probably read the other books in this series because they are pleasant diversions and I am interested in the ancient world

This is a masterly evocation of the ancient world -- with interesting characters who are sympathetic and understandable, but _not_ like modern people stuffed into chitons.

The scholarship is solid but not obtrusive, the action is exciting, and the settings are well-drawn.

I'm particularly impressed by the way the language -- while natural, smoothly written English -- _feels_ like ancient Greek.

When you've read this book, you'll want to read it again for the bits you missed; and you'll know down in your bones that it's a long, dangerous way from Rhodes to Italy.

I have trouble appreciating historical novels, but I was curious as to what Harry Turtledove, author of numerous alternate histories and here writing under a pen name, would do with historical fiction set not too far outside of his formal training in Byzantine history.

Set in 310 BC, it features only two main characters - not several like his alternate history novels - who are cousins going on a trading voyage for their family business. Menedemos is younger but still the alpha male. Smart, but not intellectual, impulsive, charismatic, a natural leader and frequent bedder of other men's wives; he's the captain. The older Sostratos is not as comfortable among others, an intellectual and would-be historian, not at all impulsive and not as physically gifted as his cousin. They bicker about much, not the least the merits of Homer, Aristophanes, and Thucydides.

The novel is a leisurely description of a trading trip through the Mediterranean from Rhodes to Italy and Sicily. This is a workaday novel with no secret messages being carried, no quest for fabled or magical items, no endangered beautiful princesses , no villain to pursue or flee. The most exotic thing is the cousins' attempts to get rid of a load of peacocks. In his afterwords, Turtledove gives his historical sources for some of the events and characters. (It turns out Menedemos is an historical character though Turtledove gives no further details.)

Turtledove keeps his usual tics down to a minimum. In other words, there aren't too many puns, and the author doesn't spend as much time as usual blatantly emphasizing the callousness of our heroes to the moral evils of the novel's world.

If you want a detailed description of the minutia of this world, I suspect this isn't the novel for you. I thought I got enough details without Turtledove trying to show off his research. Whenever I've encountered that sort of historical novel before, I get impatient and think I might as well just read a straight history about the same time period. Neither cousin being a famous historical personage was also a plus for me.

My wife bought this book for me brand new for fifty cents out of a bargain bin, so I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was. The main characters are intelligent and humanly flawed. The plot centers on a sea voyage---no sword and sorcery here, only a fascinating and detailed glimpse into the "mundane" life of a merchant. A bit wordy in some places, it's obviously written by a guy who knows his history, but sometimes has a hard time working it into a story. If you don't mind skimming the unnecessary polis information and dialogue attribution to get to the good story parts, you'll find it a very entertaining read. It's good enough that I'm about to buy the sequel.

Pete