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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Iliad--in English, June 2, 2001
The Iliad is enjoyable as a great work of ancient literature, but oft-neglected due to the fact that it's written in a distant and often difficult style. This book gives us a good insight into how people would have felt and seen things. The war between Greece and Troy has been lasting years, and Troy is beginning to crumble under relentless pressure to win back the beautiful Helen. The characters we know already, Paris and Helen and Hector and so forth, are shown from the viewpoints of servant girls, who have a tangle of loves and infatuations worthy of a high school soap. Marpessa is Helen's servant, and her sister Xanthe is Hector's son's nurse. Their anguishes and loves spin their courses as Troy collapses ever further, a situation including the famed wooden horse. The gods appear, as they do in myth and legend, but only in brief spurts -- the humans are the ones we wish to see here. And it is these unknowns, the invented people that interest us for anyone with a passing knowledge of the Iliad will know the conclusion for Troy, for Paris, for Helen. But we don't know what will happen to Marpessa and Xanthe, and thus we care a great deal. Marpessa and Xanthe are interesting characters, but I often felt that the focus shifted a little too far off them. That, and I got bored easily by the kitchen gossip — it was entertaining for a bit but got a little older later on. I also tended to get a little lost in the tangle of who-loves-who, where A loved B who is secretly in love with C, who got A pregnant. One inevitable thing is that the writing style will be a bit off when one adapts a novel from an ancient poem. Often it seemed to sag or to lose something that could have made a scene sparkle. It was fairly sprightly throughout most of the book, but I felt that it was a bit "off" when the major events of the legend came together at the finale. Overall, an enjoyable adaptation with a few awkward spots, but a nice read.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Troy: Giving Teenagers a Bad Name, May 8, 2006
This review is from: Troy (Paperback)
Contrary to popular belief, most people buy books about Troy to read (no kidding!) about Troy! Never would have guessed, would you?
This book (a bestseller ENTITLED Troy), however, is determined to add something more:
TEENAGERS AND THEIR SORDID LOVE LIVES!
While the battle rages outside Troy's walls, the two protagonists, sisters Marpessa and Xanthe, obsess, cry, yell, and catfight over a boy (beautiful Alastor who spent all of five seconds in battle before getting wounded)!
Instead of a fierce ten-year battleground, the city of Troy becomes an attractive backdrop for a teenage soap opera. And instead of the epic this tale should have been, readers are left with girl fights, premarital sex, and (of course) unwanted pregnancies!
Might as well watch it on TV!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Overall Book, April 3, 2003
A Kid's Review
Although this book is good and interesting, some of the things could have been better First of all, even though the book is set in Troy and tells the basic story, it is mainly about the feautered sisters and thier love life. Also, the ending is rather vauge. I would still get this book, but I would recomend Inside The Walls of Troy instead. It is much more about Troy and its story.
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