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34 of 37 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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by Diana L. Paxson
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
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