Title: FirebrandAuthor: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Pages: 605
Genre: Historical Fiction
Series: None
Synopsis: Blending archaeological fact and legend, the myths of the gods and the feats of heroes, Marion Zimmer Bradley breathes new life into the classic tale of the Trojan War - reinventing larger-than-life figures as living people engaged in a desperate struggle that dooms both the victors and the vanquished, their fate seen through the eyes of Kassandra - priestess, princess, and passionate woman with the spirit of a warrior.
Review: Ms. Bradley is at her best in a novel like this one. From King Priam to Helen of Troy, from Agamemnon to Odysseus, all of the characters are so life-like and so realistic. It's like you are there in Troy when the Gods and men brought down the greatest city of the time.
Akhilles is no hero. He is a spoiled, rotten, horrible person. Helen of Troy is a women whose fate had been decreed by the Gods. She is their pawn in the great game to destroy Troy. Kassandra, the main character, has had visions of blood, fire and death from the time she was a very young girl. Her 'gift of sight' was tempered with a curse -- no one who heard her prophecies would believe them.
The novel does not end in Troy. It continues on into Mycenae and beyond, following Kassandra and her story.
Exciting and enchanting, with plenty of gory war scenes, this book is nearly impossible to put down. In the author's postscript, she mentions that The Iliad makes no mention of Kassandra's fate. She goes on to say:
"However, tablet #803 in the Archaeological Museum in Athens reads as follows:
ZEUS OF DODONA, GIVE HEED TO THIS GIFT
I SEND YOU FROM ME AND MY FAMILY -
AGATHON SON OF EKHEPHYLOS,
THE ZAKYNTHIAN FAMILY,
CONSULS OF THE MOLOSSIANS AND THEIR ALLIES,
DESCENDED FOR 30 GENERATIONS
FROM KASSANDRA OF TROY"
I do not know if the tablet actually exists or not. After reading this novel, I hope that Kassandra did indeed survive to have a family after the fall of Troy.
Rating: 10 / 10
Rating: 10 / 10
I've read this, but many years ago. I preferred Kerry Greenwood's "Cassandra". It's an Australian novel, which was out of print for some time. It has been reprinted by a small press, Clan Destine Press. In it, Cassandra does survive, and she appears again in the novel "Electra". Like Marion Zimmer Bradley, Kerry G does a feminist take on the story. Unlike MZB, she doesn't do a "poor me, a woman in a man's world!"
ReplyDeleteThat said, I did like The Firebrand better than Mists Of Avalon, which annoyed the hell out of me with what she did to my beloved Arthur! He was such a WIMP!
I have to say, I loved the Mists of Avalon and the books that followed it. I didn't love Arthur in the books, I agree, but I did like the stories =)
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