Chris' Fish Place

Disclaimer: The publisher of this audio book gave me a free copy in return for a fair and honest review.

                I suppose I should note, in all fairness that since the book starts with a quote from Michael Wood’s In Search of the Trojan War I knew I was going to like it.  I should also note I was reading the second volume in this series before being given this, the first, volume.  It is quite easy to read them out of order and not get confused.

                Black Ships is one of those books that are going to set some people’s teeth on edge.  If you are a purist when it comes to Virgil’s Aeneid or Homer’s Iliad, the chances of you enjoying this book are low.  If you don’t mind changes, not only in perspective but in plot sequence, you should enjoy it.

                Graham starts her story with the daughter of one of the Trojan women taken by King Nestor at the end of the Trojan War.  Gull starts life as the daughter of newly made slave, eventually becoming a priestess in training.  Her life radically changes when what remains of her mother’s people come to rescue their women.  From there, the story is that of Aeneas’ and the founding of the Roman race.  This journey takes the small group across the Mediterranean.

                Graham’s changes to Virgil and Homer make sense in terms of history, though perhaps not the Romans for Carthage does not make an appearance.  Graham explains the reason for this in her afterword and her adaptation of Dido and Carthage into an Egyptian sequence does work very well.  Graham does seem aware that she is pushing Gull’s role a bit too much to the forefront, and there are varying reactions from male characters to showcase that Gull is different (and Gull is not an early feminist by any means). It would have been nice if one of Gull’s close friends had been another woman, at least in the latter half of the book, for once Gull joins her people, all her equals are men.  Still Gull makes for interesting center to the story.  Graham’s use of Gull as a Sybil allows her to bring in fantasy elements, but with a light touch.  Additionally, these elements allow Graham to explore the different faiths that were swirling around – and it makes for rather interesting and apt references. 

A quick word about Gigi Shane as the narrator.  At first, I thought she sounded too much like Siri, but as the book went along I realize that her inflection was intentional to try and capture Gull.  It actually worked quite well and upon reflection, seems to be close to that of an actual oracle.