Lord of the Silver Bow: Troy, Book 1

Cover to cover I enjoyed this book. I figured I would, the Praise For David Gemmell page included a comment from Anne McCaffery who said, “He’s several rungs above the good-right into the fabulous.” I completely agree with her after reading this book. There are many things I could gush about Gemmell doing in this book-but I’ll stick with the three things I liked the most.1) Characters, I don’t think there was a character presented I was not drawn to know more about or invested in and was cheering on. Ladi-dadi-everybody Gemmel had me meet I wanted to know more about. Even the Egyptian Eunuch who made garments for trade. Reading his chapter I was laughing to myself thinking, “I even like this guy. Gemmel you are a freaking genius!” You learn about the character you are following while also learning about the characters they are interacting with.Gemmel divvied up chapters into scenes where you follow one of his various characters. The story moves forward, but you view it from the different character points of views. A brave risk, and thankfully taken up by an experienced author. This style of writing can loose the interest of the reader due to lack of empathy for certain characters, or the failure of the author to move the story forward. Readers will skip over scenes involving the characters they don’t like, or put the book down all together. I never once felt the urge to do either of these.We get to view the protagonist through many character points of view and all of them have different opinions of the man and his actions. Just like in real life, I loved being able to form my own opinion of Helikaon. Born with a natural leadership talent we get to see how he was nurtured out of it, and then developed back into it. We get to see the mentors who influenced the young prince, and watch the drama of them confronting Helikaon over different actions he took in the book. These chapters offered some beautiful conversations about grief, how a monarch influences his people, and how we recover from haunting sorrows of the past.When he introduced Andromache I was holding my breath. Can he do this, will he do this? Can he pull off a strong female without making her a non-relatable psychopath, whore, or worse someone we might believe to be strong-but never get to see in action? Oh he pulled it off-and I’d say he knocked the strong female character right out of the park. She was defiant, brave, and a woman who knew her own mind, and limitations. She also displayed heart and compassion.I loved how Gemmell portrayed Odysseus. Brilliant-especially how he brought to life the theory that Odysseus was most likely a form of early drama and not just an example of oral history.2. I enjoyed how Gemmell created a solid balance of non-fiction elements into the story. The Greco-Roman world came to life, but we were not subjected to pages upon pages describing buildings, clothing, furniture and food. It was relevant and aided the action and drama.3. Gemmell knows how to write a battle scene. He’s not afraid to take on the task of writing the horrors of battle. In my opinion there are many fiction authors to chicken to try. They skim over the battles-because its hard to write them and you can easily fail trying for a laundry list of reasons. Kudos to an author who cares enough to get the details right, but not douse us in each sword stroke of every soldier on the field. The weapons were right, the use of the weapons was right, the strategies were correct-and as someone who cares about these historical realities it was blissful to read. The battles were awesome. My favorite scenes being Blue Owl Bay, and then the culminating battle at the end. “Death is coming!”I ended the book wondering where Gemmell’s books have been all my life and looking forward to discovering his other works.

If you're a fan of David Gemmell and enjoy reading about his epic heroes, then you'll love this book, too. Keep in mind that this book contains some of the characters from the Iliad, but not all of them. It mostly focuses on the Trojans.StoryThe story and pacing are the book's weakest point. At times, it skips around and seems disjointed. It mainly focuses on Helikaon (Aeneas) and how he grew from a traumatized child to a powerful merchant and warrior under the tutelage of Odysseus. Although the story skips around quite a bit, it is made up of unforgettable scenes of friendship, loyalty, and honor.CharactersThe characters are a strong point of Lord of the Silver Bow.Helikaon's transformation is inspirational and he faces many challenges.Andromache is a strong female character with courage, skill, and wit, who is sent to marry Trojan Hero Hector, but falls in love with someone else.Argurious is an honorable Mykene warrior set to avenge his former king by killing Helikaon.Odysseus is a wise mentor that guides the characters along their journey.King Priam is a ruthless king at war trying to defend Troy against its enemies.Gershom, an Egyptian who flees his country, and seeks refuge with Helikaon.WorldAlthough, David Gemmell is known for his fantasy and his books have featured demons, astral projection, and spirits, this is more of a historic book. There is nothing supernatural. The gods like Zeus, Poseidon, and Aphrodite are mentioned, but they are not characters.ActionAs you can expect, the book is action packed. There are brawls, skirmishes, assassinations, tactical battles, and naval combat. The battles are exciting and they have dire consequences.MaturityThere's violence, death, torture, some sexual scenes. It's similar to a rated R movie, but doesn't go over the top.Overall 4.5 StarsThe disjointed story prevents this from being a page turner, but so many of the scenes are full of strong themes of honor, loyalty, respect, honor, it wins you over. In the end, Lord of the Silver Bow is very exciting and inspirational. It's definitely one of David Gemmell's better books.If you enjoyed this book, check out The Lion of Macedon, also written by David Gemmell. If you enjoy his style of writing, you're sure to enjoy Blood Song by Anthony Ryan as well.

*First reviewed on Goodreads*Dear Sir,Words are powerless to express my gratitude for this amazing piece of work. Amazing, but one that causes so much distress. Every word is like a drop of wine. By the end of it, I was drunk and giddy with fear for the coming war.You were cruel; you stood by and watch me fall deeply in love with Helikaon the Golden One, Andromache, Argurios, and Laodike; only to take them away from me. Argurios said what was in my heart,"I had not realised until then that my life had been lived in the darkness of a perpetual winter night. When I saw her, it was as if the sun had rise."You gave me the perfect love stories, only to shred them into pieces. You gave me courageous and cunning warriors who fought valiantly - till the end. You were ruthless; I was whimpering as I read 'The Swan's Promise'. Did you not know how much it hurt me?Drawing back her hand, she said"May the gods grant you great happiness, my love.""In letting me know you they already have. More than I have deserved"Only Queen Halysia knew the pain you've caused me. But as how Helikaon intend to be her shield, despite his broken heart from losing Andromache, I know you will be my Shield of Thunder. Please promise me that it will get better from here.People talked of broken hearts, but they were wrong. Broken was somehow complete, finished, over. The real sensation was of continual breaking, an everlasting wound, sharp and jagged, like claw of bronze biting into the soft tissue of the heart.Love,twelvejanConclusion: A great book makes you smile, cry, whimper, entranced - LotSB does exactly that. Helikaon King, I love thee.

Great book. All of David Gemmell's book are a good read. This being the first of a trilogy that makes up the Troy trilogy. The others being Shield of Thunder and Fall of Kings. This trilogy would make a great epic.

This was an excellent story based around characters in history. Very enjoyable, highly recommended.

そのものズバリのタイトルどおり、これはトロイア戦争の物語。世界最古の叙事詩に材を取った翻案作品は数多ありますが、本書の主人公はトロイアの同盟国ダルダニアの王子アイネイアス。陥落寸前のトロイアから脱出し、流浪の果てにローマ帝国の始祖となったという伝説の主。作品中では Helikaon と呼ばれ（副題 "Lord of the Silver Bow" も太陽神アポロンに擬えた彼の異名）、敵だけでなく味方からも恐れられる勇猛な戦士、有能な船乗りで実業家、暗い生い立ちのトラウマをオデュッセウスとの親交で克服し、親友ヘクトルの婚約者アンドロマケと恋に落ちる…こういった劇画的な主人公の設定で想像できるように、本作品は元ネタ『イリアス』他トロイア戦争周辺の神話から大きく飛躍し、作者の大胆な創作によって生み出された登場人物たちが、秘密と陰謀、アクション、ロマンスをコテコテに盛り込んだ波瀾万丈の物語を繰り広げます。３部作シリーズの第１作であるためか、前半は作者独自の考察で描写される時代背景や膨大な登場人物の説明が興味深いながらも少々もどかしく、元ネタと乖離したエピソードの数々にはやはり違和感を覚えますが、後半、トロイア戦争の前哨戦ともいえる戦いに向けて盛り上がっていくあたりは、急展開と見せ場の連続。しかし、いきなり王宮の大広間にミュケナイ兵がなだれ込んでの大乱戦ときては、壁の前で10年戦っていた元ネタの立場は…（笑）作者デヴィッド・ゲメルの著書は全て邦訳未刊行ですが、英米のファンタジー愛読者には人気のある作家だそうで、なるほど、ともすれば荒唐無稽になりかねない物語を手練のストーリーテリングが支えています。いよいよトロイア戦争本番の第２作 "Shield of Thunder"、終戦後が描かれるという完結作がとても楽しみです。

It expanded and took Homer's Iliad into the realm of possibility. A Good read. I enjoyed it.I am commenting on the complete trilogy.

Great book, fast paced through out with in depth characters and with a story line that has multiple points of view from each of these characters. A really good lead in story towards the inevitable Trojan War. Immediately made me look up the history of this period and the various landmarks and heroes of the Bronze Age