Review: Lord of the Silver Bow

Superb Historical Fiction

Troy: city of gold and heroes, beloved of the gods, where wealth, privilege and rapacious greed walk hand in hand, and where the greatest of tragedies is about to unfold.

Helikaon, prince of Dardania, sets sail for Troy. On board his ship, the largest in the Aegean Sea, but regarded by many as dangerously unseaworthy, is his trusted friend and sea-captain Zidantas. Also aboard is Argurios, a deadly Mykene warrior, intent on revenge. Their journey to the fabled city will encompass storm and near shipwreck, personal tragedy and a bloody sea-battle whose bloody aftermath will haunt Helikaon and his companions for the rest of their voyage. Helikaon will also meet his old friend and master-storyteller, Odysseus, and fall in love with Andromache a woman as beautiful as a goddess. But when he arrives in Troy — a city riven by the destructive rivalries of King Priam's younger sons —he finds a city ready to implode, and, with nearby enemy kingdoms eyeing the city's riches, he knows a terrible war cannot be long in coming.

This is a great book. It is hard to fit it into a categorie - although David Gemmell is a renowned fantasy author, this book is not a classical fantasy. It could be labeled as historical fiction. The word fiction already implies it is not necessarily entirely acurate. Gemmell took some (great) liberties with the classical Troy mythe and created an excellent start to a trilogy.
Gemmell combines epic and historical fantasy into three novels set in the time of the Trojan Wars. This first book is the set up for events that lead to the war between Troy and Mycanea.
Historical figures as Agamemnon, Aeneas (Helikaon), Odysseus and Hektor and many more are brought to life in an exceptional way.

This is a story of war, romance and legend featuring honor versus treachery with characters that are very human, flawed and neither good nor evil. The pace of the story is terrific, it is totally absorbing and believable with realistic characters. The Greek Gods of the myths are almost not present in this tale, which gives it it's realistic feel. The focus is on the people, the characters are multi dimensional and there is no black and white characterisation. There are the supporting 'bad guys' who are a bit two dimensionally evil (like Agamemnon), but the main characters are beautifully developped. Helikaon has a definitive dark side and the character of Argurios, betrayed by Agamemnon and forced to fight against his own people, is especially well developped. The dialogs, the vibe of this classical era, the (bloody) battles - everything feels and reads just right.

Lord of the Silver Bow is an colourful, exciting and action packed book and highly recommended not only to readers of historical fiction but also to fantasy lovers who don't mind the absence of magic, dragons, elves, dwarfs and trolls.

Great stuff anf highly recommended!

9 / 10