It has always irritated me that the narrative of the final days of Troy wasn't actually in the Iliad or the Odyssey. I was a mass-market-mythology lover who didn't want to take that extra step of taking classics courses or learning Greek or Latin. Due to the loss of several Trojan Cycle manuscripts (the Little Iliad, Aithiopis, etc.), audiences never got to see Helen and Menelaos reconcile. The death of Achilles? The death of Paris? The wooden horse? Nope. And champions like Memnon, Penthesilea, and Neoptolemos were relegated to a couple of paragraphs here and there in English-language collections of the myths. (Hat tip to Robert Graves' "The Greek Myths," Gustav Schwab's "Gods and Heroes," and David Kravitz's "Who's Who In Greek and Roman Mythology," which were all excellent starting points and found in superstores during my early adulthood.)

Wait no more. Quintus of Smyrna, who lived several centuries later than Homer and his contemporaries, put together an epic poem based on who-knows-what manuscripts that have not survived. Alan James and the Johns Hopkins University Press have published a sweet volume with the text of the epic, and a lengthy commentary section that proves quite useful. Quintus has a habit of using epithets of characters rather than their given names, so if you aren't sure which goddess "Tritogenia" is, it's possible to refer to the commentary as if it were endnotes and figure out the majority of references. (Tritogenia, "thrice-born," is Athena.)

So what do we get as the content of the epic? A battle-axe-wielding Amazon. An Ethiopian demigod born of the rosy Dawn. The madness of Great Ajax. Heracles' son killing scores of Greeks (including their doctor!) before facing Achilles' son who has come to avenge his father. Philoctetes, Heracles' ally, wounding Paris with an arrow dipped in the blood of the Hydra, and Paris's attempt to reconcile with his former lover Oenone before the poison works. The horse gambit (complete with a bizarre appearance by two sea serpents that roam right into town to eat Laocoon's kids… really, they couldn't have done that on the beach?). Lastly, it's got the sack of Troy and Aeneas's escape before one final word from Athena to Lesser Ajax, communicated via thunderbolt.

So for content, this volume delivers. The only story I can think of from this period of the war that the Posthomerica doesn't have in detail is the theft of the Palladium. Obviously, that's no fault of the translator. As for whether the poetics carry the same heft as Homer… probably not. There's only fourteen books, not twenty-four, and one can feel the difference. Deaths are more sudden; stories of heroic angst less rich in detail. Deiphobos claiming Helen just before the fall of the city is barely a footnote. But in keeping with the spirit of the subject matter, I suggest the mythology buffs fall upon this book as wolves fall upon the sheep-fold, their jaws drawing blood while the shepherd, tired from day-long toil, sleeps in his bed, unaware of the violent work that…

...uh, sorry. Got carried away. But if you don't mind a lot of extended similes like that, the Posthomerica is the volume for you.

3.5

 

Today we are having a cover reveal for STARDUST DESTINY by Nazarea Andrews. This book will release January 18th. Stardust Destiny is an adult contemporary, and erotic retelling of Helen of Troy and the epic love that started a war.

 

Click here to add STARDUST DESTINY to Goodreads

STARDUST DESTINY Blurb:

 

The face that launched a thousand ships...

 

I grew up knowing my destiny. Daddy pounded it in my head, my brother repeated it every day of my life. I was the only daughter of the Orsi crime syndicate, the pretty prize that would bring peace. My one job was to marry Callum Sheehan, the vicious head of the Irish mob in Chicago. I never questioned my future–until I saw him.

 

The man who was never meant to love her…

 

I wasn’t going to the wedding. It’s shit that my brother does, things our father requires of the heir of the Sosa cartel. Not me. I’m the black sheep, the one Mama spoiled, and my father loves, but without the pressure of expectation. But Sheehan is too big a deal for me to blow off.

 

And then I see her.

 

The love that started a war…

 

She isn’t mine. She will never be mine. I watch her fall apart when she thinks no one is watching. I watch her marry another man. I watch her bravery. And I don’t care who she belongs to or that it will start a war between our families.

 

I will damn us both to possess her, and burn down the world to keep her.

 

A modern erotic retelling of Helen of Troy, and the epic love that brought an empire to its knees.

 

 

Exclusive Excerpt:

 

I step onto the roof, and pull out a cigarette. The sun has dropped, and the wind is ripping along, and even in the middle of summer, it’s cold.

 

“Fuck,” I mutter, trying to light the damn cigarette.

 

A dainty hand reaches out and lifts a lit cherry to my cigarette and I pull on it, smiling my thanks when it catches and nicotine and smoke flood my lungs.

 

I grin down at her, and freeze.

 

The girl in front of me is gorgeous.

 

Not the typical beauty that I fall into bed with so often. She’s small, almost a head shorter than me, with delectable curves, and sun-warm skin that begs to be touched. Long golden brown hair tumbles to the middle of her back, loose, wind tousled curls.

 

But it’s her little smirk, and her eyes. Ancient and wide, the deep blue of the ocean when the water is getting deep and dangerous and just as secretive, as she grins at me, and lifts that half smoked cigarette. Her lips hold it in place as she pulls her hair back in a loose, messy pony tail and I want to feel them. Taste her lips.

 

“Didn’t think anyone else was stupid enough to come up here. It’s called the windy city for a reason,” she says, and I blink at her.

 

“You’re out here.” I point out. She shrugs and makes a tiny face, all wrinkled nose and scrunched eyes. It’s not the kind of calculated sexy pout so many girls practice. It’s too goofy to be anything but real, and I’m fascinated that any girl could be so fucking goofy without worrying about the effect it has on her chances of landing in my bed.

 

“I’m crazy. Obviously,” she says, deadpan, and I laugh, a startled noise. She grins and turns away, lifting her cigarette again. I watch her sidelong as we smoke and she stares out at the other buildings.

 

“You know it’s creeper behavior to stare, right?” she says, a smile in her voice.

 

I grin, “Maybe. But when you run into a crazy girl on the roof with a lighter, she deserves a few extra glances.”

 

Her gaze turns severe. “Don’t flirt, smoker boy. Just smoke your cigarette and be good company like a nice boy.”

 

“Ah, but that’s your mistake.” I say, smiling and prowling closer to her.

 

"What is?”

 

“You think I’m a nice boy.” I murmur and her breath hitches. Her eyes are wide as I drop my cigarette and put it out with my shoe, and I can see the frantic pound of her pulse in the hollow of her throat. She’s leaning against the half wall that surrounds the roof, and I have the insane urge to press her into it, lean her over it and kiss her senseless.

 

I blink, and step back. “Why are you here?” I ask.

 

She lets out a breath I didn’t realize she was holding and wilts with disappointment. She takes the final drag of her cigarette and tosses it over the side of the roof. “Family business,” she says tightly and gives me one more devastating smile before she slides past me and pushes open the door. She glances back at me, and there it is. The coy smile. The one that is all sex and promises. “Stay out of trouble, nice boy.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

 

Nazarea Andrews (N to almost everyone) is an avid reader and tends to write the stories she wants to read. Which means she writes everything from zombies and dystopia to contemporary love stories.

 

When not writing, she can most often be found driving her kids to practice and burning dinner while she reads, or binging watching TV shows on Netflix. N loves chocolate, wine, and coffee almost as much as she loves books, but not quite as much as she loves her kids.

 

She lives in south Georgia with her husband, daughters, spoiled cat and overgrown dog. She is the author of World Without End series, Neverland Found, Edge of the Falls, and The University of Branton Series. Stop by her twitter (@NazareaAndrews) and tell her what fantastic book she should read next.

 

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Street Team

 

 

 

If you think you know the story of Helen of Troy, think again. Loved Cavallaro's insightful look at the legendary Helen. Turns out, there's more to Helen than her beauty. A young historian visits the beautiful Queen of Sparta to set the record straight. Well done!!

Welcome to the modern world! Here, we have the United States as we know it now, complete with kitschy roadside attractions, cell phones, the National Questing Bureau, and Enchanted Americans like Helen, a seven-foot tall Minotaur. So, yeah. "The modern world."

In Helen & Troy's Epic Road Quest, Martinez takes us on a zany road story along something similar to Route 66. Both have been conscripted by an ancient god who took his form from a pile of old hamburger to complete a quest. Neither of them know what the quest is about, but Troy's wholesome, perfect attitude toward the whole thing convinces Helen, who is more cautious, to come along with him. Aside from the fact that if they don't go on the quest, they'll die, she's reluctant to do a petty god's bidding.

As usual, Martinez creates a fun, engaging story, and populates them with a cast of characters who are silly and serious at the same time. The orcs, for example, are no longer the bloodthirsty killing machines; they're accountants and real estate agents and computer programmers, but they spend their weekends in a motorcycle club in an effort to capture their roots. But once their own gods tell them to pursue and eliminate Helen and Troy, they're not too hesitant to get a little violent (sorta). The threat of real death looms over the cast of characters.

I'm also impressed with how well Martinez adds gravity to his stories by touching on real issues. Helen struggles with her enchantedness and how other people perceive it, and Martinez takes that opportunity to examine stereotypes and expected behavior. Like Terry Pratchett, Martinez isn't satisfied with just writing a silly story; he wants to write a serious story about silly things and maybe get you to think about something along the way.

As I've said before, Martinez writes goofy novels that are just fun to read. Anyone going in looking for the next To Kill a Mockingbird might be disappointed, but anyone looking for a fun, light read is in for a real treat with his books. This novel is a great blend of a 1950s road movie, Looney Tunes, and The Odyssey.