Thursday, November 12, 2015

Lord of the Silver Bow

Lord of the Silver BowLord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lord of The Silver Bow is book one in a reimagining of the Trojan War. It revolves around a man known by many names. Those familiar with the Trojan War know him as Aeneas, but in this book he's also known as Helikaon and The Golden One. The man himself is one fit for the era. Helikaon is strong, brave, and brutal. His brutality has earned him no friends among his enemies, but then who has friends among their enemies.

I went into this book really not having a clear idea of what to expect. I think the author wanted it that way because there was no true continuous storyline other than Helikaon is a lost man trying to fight his demons to find his way and that Agamemnon wants to conquer all.

In many ways this story seemed quite true to life. David Gemmell hit many different areas such as duty, honor, pride, shame, love, and lust. He displays some truly human qualities in the characters which made me feel their emotions right along with them.

There were only two things I found I didn't enjoy about Lord of the Silver Bow. The first thing was that the story skips to some truly random point of view characters that seemed unnecessary. The second thing is that the middle fluctuated from interesting to boring so often that I wasn't sure if I could finish this book. The author ended the book quite well though so I must say I was more than satisfied.

One last positive to mention is that Odyseuss, in all his tall tale glory, appears in this book. He's quite the character and absolutely left me smiling.

After finishing book one, I know I'll be heading back to David Gemmell's Troy to finish this interesting series.

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