A different take on the Trojan War and a quite unique one at that. Bova has retold one of the most retold stories in literature and managed to give it fresh view. The main character, Lukka, is a Hittite officer who leads his squad of soldiers in a search for kidnapped and presumably enslaved wife and children. His search takes him to Troy where he plans to ask Priam from help in his search. Instead, he is cut off from the city by the Greek army. He enlists with Odysseus’s troops and fights (and survives) against the Trojan hero, Hector. Odysseus uses Lukka as an ambassador to the Trojans twice. In the city, he meets the beautiful Helen and can’t get her out his mind afterward.
Bova takes the historical figures and give us great character sketches: Achilles, Agamemnon and Menalaos are all portrayed vividly.
There several twists on the usual events that are reputed to take have taken place once the walls were breached, but I’m not going to give them away. I’ve read a number of Trojan War stories and this has to rank up there with the best of them.
Four out of five stars
