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When I was in London a few months ago, sixpences, izilen and I got into a conversation about how much we love consistent, thorough culture-building in novels that led to both of them enthusiastically recommending me Jo Graham's Black Ships. I am not one to ignore two such excellent ladies and I can now tell you all six months later that it is a relevant recommendation! The strength of Black Ships really is the culture-building and the creation of a thoughtful, complex historical world.
The book is a retelling of the Aeneid through the eyes of Gull, daughter of a Trojan woman carried off as a slave during the sack of Troy ('Wilusa' in this book), who grows up to become a priestess of the goddess of the dead. When Aeneas and his ships of Trojan survivors come around to raid her city, she negotiates peace and then hitches a ride as designated god-avatar on the trip to wherever they end up (in this case, a exciting tour of the Bronze Age Mediterranean!)
Really the book reminded me more than anything else of Jo Walton's take on Arthuriana in The King's Name and The King's Peace - all the dramatic events of the legend are recognizably there, but stripped of glamor and treated with a quiet matter-of-factness. Sometimes actually it almost hit me as too matter-of-fact; narrator Gull seems awfully detached at times, to the point where it can be hard to pin down her personality. It also took me at least a third of the way through the book to be able to distinguish between her two love interests (one is Aeneas, the other is his second-in-command Xandros, although it's pleasingly different from the standard triangle in that Xandros is textually in love with Aeneas and Aeneas spends much of the book not noticing that anybody is interested.) I also have to admit that I am seriously disappointed that THEY NEVER ACTUALLY WORKED OUT THEIR THREESOME. All signs were leading that way! Everyone would explicitly have been cool with it! I can only hope for successful threesome culmination in one of the reincarnation books. I was also sad that Xandros' trans girlfriend died. :(
Even when I had a hard time connecting with Gull, though, I always had a good time following along with the narrative - Jo Graham's done her research, and it shows. I am curious about the others in the series; apparently there is one either written or planned where they're all reincarnated during the FRENCH REVOLUTION? Would read!
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/255500.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
The book is a retelling of the Aeneid through the eyes of Gull, daughter of a Trojan woman carried off as a slave during the sack of Troy ('Wilusa' in this book), who grows up to become a priestess of the goddess of the dead. When Aeneas and his ships of Trojan survivors come around to raid her city, she negotiates peace and then hitches a ride as designated god-avatar on the trip to wherever they end up (in this case, a exciting tour of the Bronze Age Mediterranean!)
Really the book reminded me more than anything else of Jo Walton's take on Arthuriana in The King's Name and The King's Peace - all the dramatic events of the legend are recognizably there, but stripped of glamor and treated with a quiet matter-of-factness. Sometimes actually it almost hit me as too matter-of-fact; narrator Gull seems awfully detached at times, to the point where it can be hard to pin down her personality. It also took me at least a third of the way through the book to be able to distinguish between her two love interests (one is Aeneas, the other is his second-in-command Xandros, although it's pleasingly different from the standard triangle in that Xandros is textually in love with Aeneas and Aeneas spends much of the book not noticing that anybody is interested.) I also have to admit that I am seriously disappointed that THEY NEVER ACTUALLY WORKED OUT THEIR THREESOME. All signs were leading that way! Everyone would explicitly have been cool with it! I can only hope for successful threesome culmination in one of the reincarnation books. I was also sad that Xandros' trans girlfriend died. :(
Even when I had a hard time connecting with Gull, though, I always had a good time following along with the narrative - Jo Graham's done her research, and it shows. I am curious about the others in the series; apparently there is one either written or planned where they're all reincarnated during the FRENCH REVOLUTION? Would read!
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/255500.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.