Tag: historical fiction

Blog Tour: A Sea of Sorrow

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I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for A Sea of Sorrow by the team of writers known as the H Team. They have come together to create stories that provide a different perspective on the tale of Odysseus recounted in The Odyssey.

Check out the tour schedule here.  WinFrom the tour page you can also enter the giveaway (US only) with a chance to win a paperback copy of A Sea of Sorrow: A Novel of Odysseus.

The giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on November 17th 2017.

 

ASeaofSorrowAbout the Book

Odysseus, infamous trickster of Troy, vaunted hero of the Greeks, left behind a wake of chaos and despair during his decade long journey home to Ithaca. Lovers and enemies, witches and monsters – no one who tangled with Odysseus emerged unscathed. Some prayed for his return, others, for his destruction. These are their stories…

A beleaguered queen’s gambit for maintaining power unravels as a son plots vengeance.
A tormented siren battles a goddess’s curse and the forces of nature to survive.
An exiled sorceress defies a lustful captain and his greedy crew.
A blinded shepherd swears revenge on the pirate-king who mutilated him.
A beautiful empress binds a shipwrecked sailor to servitude, only to wonder who is serving whom.
A young suitor dreams of love while a returned king conceives a savage retribution.

Six authors bring to life the epic tale of The Odyssey seen through the eyes of its shattered victims – the monsters, witches, lovers, and warriors whose lives were upended by the antics of the “man of many faces.” You may never look upon this timeless epic – and its iconic ancient hero – in quite the same way again.

Format: eBook, paperback (524 pp.)           Publisher: Knight Media, LLC
Published: 17th October 2017                        Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find A Sea of Sorrow: A Novel of Odysseus on Goodreads

My Review

A Sea of Sorrow: A Novel of Odysseus is a collaborative work by six authors who style themselves The H Team: David Blixt, Amalia Carosella, Libbie Hawker, Scott Oden, Vicky Alvear Shecter, Russell Whitfield and Gary Corby (Introduction). Each story focuses on one of six “supporting” characters in The Odyssey.

The individual stories are united by a number of common themes and all present the stories in a realistic, prosaic way, shorn of the mythological element of Homer’s version. Here the gods do not intervene in human affairs, although the characters retain their belief in the gods. There are no monsters, just men made monstrous. There is a real life explanation for all the events and the motivations are all too human.

One theme running through all the stories is the concept of xenia or guest-friendship.  It is clearly illustrated in one of the tales I particularly enjoyed, Xenia in the Court of the Winds, which focuses on Polyphemus, the monstrous Cyclops of Homer’s The Odyssey. However in Scott Oden’s story, Polyphemus is no monster but re-cast as a sympathetic, human figure who has suffered cruelly at the hands of Odysseus and now finds himself a helpless refugee dependent on others (surely a theme of contemporary relevance). Arriving on the island of Aeolia, Polyphemus is greeted with anger and suspicion by the islanders and it is only a boy, Glaukos, who responds in the true spirit of xenia to Polyphemus. As Glaukos explains, ‘Xenia…is the duty one man owes to another: that he offer the hospitality of his oikos, his household, to a stranger in need.’ When Polyphemus recounts his tale, it becomes clear that one of Odysseus’s crimes was to abuse the guest-friendship offered to him.

Another story I really liked was Penelope’s story, Song of Survival by Vicky Alvear Shecter. Deserted by her husband, we see Penelope’s cleverness and everyday practicality as she deals with the issues facing the kingdom of Ithaca. Penelope has a refreshingly no-nonsense view of her husband’s character and comes pretty close to the mark as she wonders how he will account for his absence should he return.  “Will you blame a god for what was surely your decision – and probably on a whim – to pursue more glory? Will you spin fantastical accounts that absolve you of the consequences from the choices you made? Of goddesses who seduced? Monsters who attacked? Beasts who betrayed?”

Odysseus’s reputation as a ‘trickster’ is another theme of the stories. The amiable teller of riddles is revealed as a deceiver and liar. ‘His tales were as smooth as a fine wine. But always there was a hint of something just under the surface – something sour, but too subtle to the palate to call it a bald-faced lie.’

The most sympathetic rendition of Odysseus is in the story, Calypso’s Vow by David Blixt. Here we see Odysseus racked by guilt at the death of comrades, his betrayal of Circe, his failure to assist the Sirens and his hubris (another theme of the stories). Recognising himself as a habitual oath-breaker, Odysseus’s time on Calypso’s isle becomes a self-imposed test of his ability to be true to an oath. For once, his skills and experience are used in the service of others.

I really enjoyed reading this collection of imaginative stories which, although the product of different writers, share a common style that gives a feeling of continuity. I think readers familiar with The Odyssey will enjoy the new perspectives the stories provide on established characters.   Equally, I believe they will encourage readers not familiar with The Odyssey to seek out Homer’s original.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy HF Virtual Book Tours in return for an honest review.

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In three words: Imaginative, intriguing, retelling

Try something similar…A Song of War by The H Team

About the Authors

Amalia Carosella graduated from the University of North Dakota with a Bachelors degree in Classical Studies and English. An avid reader and former bookseller, she writes about old heroes and older gods. She lives with her husband in upstate New York and dreams of the day she will own goats (and maybe even a horse, too). Amalia’s novels include Tamer of Horses, Helen of Sparta, By Helen’s Hand, and Daughter of a Thousand Years.

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David Blixt‘s work is consistently described as “intricate,” “taut,” and “breathtaking.” A writer of Historical Fiction, his novels span the early Roman Empire (the COLOSSUS series, his play EVE OF IDES) to early Renaissance Italy (the STAR-CROSS’D series) up through the Elizabethan era (his delightful espionage comedy HER MAJESTY’S WILL, starring Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe as inept spies). His novels combine a love of the theatre with a deep respect for the quirks and passions of history. Living in Chicago with his wife and two children, he describes himself as “actor, author, father, husband. In reverse order.”

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Libbie Hawker writes historical and literary fiction featuring complex characters and rich details of time and place. Libbie’s recent novels include Daughter of Sand and Stone, Mercer Girls, A Song of War, White Lotus and Persian Rose. She lives in the San Juan Islands of Washington State.

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Russell Whitfield was born in Shepherds Bush in 1971. An only child, he was raised in Hounslow, West London, but has since escaped to Ham in Surrey. Gladiatrix was Russ’s first novel, published in 2008 by Myrmidon Books. The sequel, Roma Victrix, continues the adventures of Lysandra, the Spartan gladiatrix, and a third book, Imperatrix, sees Lysandra stepping out of the arena and onto the field of battle.

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Scott Oden was born in Indiana, but has spent most of his life shuffling between his home in rural North Alabama, a Hobbit hole in Middle-earth, and some sketchy tavern in the Hyborian Age. He is an avid reader of fantasy and ancient history, a collector of swords, and a player of tabletop role-playing games. When not writing, he can be found walking his two dogs or doting over his lovely wife, Shannon. Oden’s previous works include the historical fantasy, The Lion of Cairo, and two historical novels, Men of Bronze and Memnon. He is currently working on his next novel.

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Vicky Alvear Shecter is the author of multiple books set in the ancient world, including the YA novels, CLEOPATRA’S MOON, based on the life of Cleopatra’s only daughter, and CURSES AND SMOKE: A NOVEL OF POMPEII and the adult historical collaborations, A SONG OF WAR, A YEAR OF RAVENS, and A DAY OF FIRE. She has written a mid-grade series on mythology (ANUBIS SPEAKS, HADES SPEAKS, and THOR SPEAKS) as well as two award-winning biographies for kids. She is a docent at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Antiquities at Emory University in Atlanta.

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H Team Amalia CarosellaH Team David BlixtH Team Libbie HawkerH Team Russell WhitfieldH Team Scott OdenH Team vickyalvearshecter1

 

Book Review: Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore

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BirdcageWalkAbout the Book

It is 1792 and Europe is seized by political turmoil and violence. Lizzie Fawkes has grown up in Radical circles where each step of the French Revolution is followed with eager idealism. But she has recently married John Diner Tredevant, a property developer who is heavily invested in Bristol’s housing boom, and he has everything to lose from social upheaval and the prospect of war. Soon his plans for a magnificent terrace built above the two-hundred-foot drop of the Gorge come under threat. Diner believes that Lizzie’s independent, questioning spirit must be coerced and subdued. She belongs to him: law and custom confirm it, and she must live as he wants. In a tense drama of public and private violence, resistance and terror, Diner’s passion for Lizzie darkens until she finds herself dangerously alone.

Format: eBook, paperback (416 pp.)     Publisher: Hutchinson
Published: 2nd March 2017                    Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Birdcage Walk on Goodreads

My Review

Set in a period of political upheaval in Europe, Birdcage Walk is a multi-layered novel that provides an intimate and, at times, troubling picture of a marriage seen through the eyes of Lizzie Tredevant. Lizzie’s motivation for marriage to John Diner Tredevant is complicated: part passion and, seemingly, part desire for a place of her own following her mother’s remarriage. However, her mother, Julia, remains an influential figure in Lizzie’s life.

Lizzie is Diner’s second wife and I found echoes of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca as Lizzie is tormented with curiosity about her predecessor, Lucie, who she is told died in childbirth in her native France.  ‘I wondered if any of the men had known Lucie…They would have seen her. They might have spoke to her. When they saw me, perhaps they compared me to her.’  Like the second Mrs de Winter in Rebecca, Lizzie wonders if she can live up to Lucie’s place in Diner’s memory.  ‘I could not see into his thoughts. I was almost afraid to look into them, in case I found Lucie there. Perhaps he was trying to remake with me the life he had loved so much with her.’

As Lizzie learns more about Lucie, doubts about the circumstances of Diner’s first marriage start to surface – doubts the reader may have shared since the opening of the novel. Though this element of mystery runs throughout the novel, it is only one of a number of ideas the book engages with.

For instance, the novel explores the contrast between those who can be categorised as doers or makers – like Diner – and those whose currency is ideas – like Augustus and Lizzie’s mother, Julia. As Diner says about Augustus: “Can he lay a flagstone floor? No. He depends upon those who can. He is as much a guest in the world as a three-year-old child.”

Lizzie moves between the two worlds, recognising the difference in belief and outlook that separates them. ‘Diner lay in the daylight world of building, land and money. His imagination went into stone.’

Lizzie’s husband, John Diner Tredevant is a wonderfully complex creation – if it’s not too much of a cliché, he’s a real Jekyll and Hyde character. On the one hand he is entrepreneurial, single-minded, astute, a self-made man, appreciative of craft skills.  ‘He was lit up all through those weeks of early summer. He could see the stone curve of the terrace shaping itself according to his vision and he did not care how hard he drove the men’.

On the other, he is moody, prone to jealousy, possessive, secretive, a hard taskmaster, a man with, one senses, pent-up anger lying just below the surface. Although outwardly loving towards Lizzie, his behaviour shares many of the characteristics of what we would now recognise as coercive control. Added to which, of course, the law considers Lizzie a chattel of her husband. As Diner reminds her, “You have nothing of your own. You are my wife. All that you have belongs to me. All that you are belongs to me.”

For Augustus and Julia, and those who share their radical views, the initial events of the French Revolution provide a concrete example of the people exercising their rights.  ‘Human beings really were capable of uniting to defeat tyranny and injustice. A new order could be created, based on the rights of man. And woman too… .Everything they had dreamed of and written about was coming to pass, not two hundred miles from London.’

But as events in France spiral out of control, Augustus and Julia struggle to reconcile their beliefs with the bloodshed and killings. Lizzie gets closer to home than she imagines when she observes to Diner, ‘Once you have taken one life, why not any number? What is to protect you from evil then?…Think of it, Diner. To kill another human being is like crossing a river by a bridge which is then swept away behind you. You can never go back again.’

Diner, with his customary shrewdness, foresees how events in France will create upheaval across Europe and threaten war. Before long, his building scheme and the precarious finances on which it is based, is in jeopardy. “It is this damned uncertainty!” he burst out. “There is no reason in it. It is uncertainty which is killing the market. If there is war with France – no one knows, and so no one will act.” And desperate situations can breed desperate acts as the reader will discover.

Some reviewers have described the novel as ‘slow’, perhaps because the mystery contained with the story takes a long time to play out alongside the other story lines. I would instead categorise the novel’s pace as measured or considered, giving plenty of opportunity to appreciate some of the great writing: ‘My mother was the spinning jenny who span out words to clothe the ideas that burst and bubbled in their brains.’  My one reservation about the novel was the prologue, set in the present day, which seems to serve little purpose.

This is the first novel I’ve read by Helen Dunmore but, on the strength of Birdcage Walk, I will definitely seek out her other books. In her Afterword, the author writes that, ‘The question of what is left behind by a life haunts the novel.’ Helen Dunmore’s untimely death earlier this year sadly means there will be no more books from this talented author but, as far as ‘what is left behind by a life’, in her case it is a legacy of intriguing, thoughtful literature.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Hutchinson, in return for an honest review.

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In three words: Atmospheric, dark, mystery

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Helen DunmoreAbout the Author

Helen Dunmore was born in December 1952, in Yorkshire, the second of four children. She studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society’s Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. She also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol’s Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.

Helen published poetry, short stories and novels before her untimely death in June 2017. Her third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996 and her seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction.