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valkryorOr, The Review of Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane.
First off, I'm going to say this: I have no issue with genderbending characters. Nor do I have any issue with Achilles being a trans woman.
The writing is competent, but the content is...rushed, overfull, and internally inconsistent. Okay. I will also admit here that I did not enjoy this and will not recommend it to anyone. Maybe I am the wrong kind of person - too old, too cis, too Classically educated, and yet, if a book that uses the Iliad as a framework does not hook someone who, you know, reads the Iliad for funsies, then that mark was missed by a hell of a lot.
Right. This book.
It's clear from how much has been stuffed in, that it has been meticulously researched. I mean, using Iphianassa, possibly an older variant of Iphigenia, shows the level of detail the author went to. That's also part of the problem. It's too much. What this book really needed was a machete, tighter focus, a more Draconian editor, something to handle the bloat.
And yeah, I remember getting really excited when I was researching various topics for papers and wanting to cram All The Things into it. I've gotten a lot better about that, but I've also got at least twenty years life experience on the author and have a better sense of what to cut and what to keep. She still has that "new adult" smell and it's affected how good this book COULD HAVE BEEN.
Part of what has made me want to tear my hair out (or shave my head again so I couldn't do that) is the naming convention. For the most part, she uses the Hellenic variations on the Classical names: Hektor, Patroklos, Menelaos, which is all fine and dandy until she doesn't. For too many characters, she uses archaic Greek variations of their names, like Aiwas for Aias/Ajax. It's confusing and frustrating and NOT NEEDED. Oh, and when she's NOT doing that? She's happily using the Anglicized versions, like Odysseus and Achilles. *pinches bridge of nose* INTERNAL CONSISTENCY IS A THING.
AND THEN, then, when she names other characters, mostly those of Troy and surrounds, she uses, are you ready, the Hittite, since Troy was Wilusa in the historical setting of this book. Normally, this would be fine, but if you're using a Greek framework, STICK WITH THE GREEK FRAMEWORK. It makes it a lot less confusing for casual readers and a lot less INFURIATING for knowledgeable ones. In using this convention, the author spends too much time saying things like [character], who the Achaians called [Hellenic convention]. It's not necessary. In fact, a good editor would have cut that shit out, but I digress.
Like the Iliad, the gods play their parts, and this is another thing that really burns my water: the complete lack of Greek Myth 101: The Deities.
There are gods missing, gods stuffed into the wrong boxes, Greek gods conflated with their Egyptian/Sumerian/Babylonian/Akkadian/Hittite counterparts, which added to the the naming inconsistencies and a lot of chaff that didn't need to be in there. Because of my degree and because of my life-long love of Greek mythology, I know how the sausage is made and the entire thing left me cold. In the Dramatis Personae, there is a helpful list of gods. As an example of the wrong, I will put the entry for Hera here.
Hera (Aruru, Belet-ili, Damkina, Hathor, Isis, Nikkal, Ninhursag, Rhea, Soma, Tanit): The Queen of Kings, Cow Goddess, adopted daughter of Great Mother, former consort of the Three, inventor of the cities of sacrifice and ally of Athena.
It's too much. WAY TOO MUCH. Last I checked, Isis and Hathor were different goddesses. And Rhea and Hera are mother and daughter, respectively. But all of these aspects have been shoved into one character for reasons, I guess.
Amazons are included, but shoved into a historical context (did I mention this book supposedly takes place around 1250BCE? Because it takes place around 1250BCE), including their names and everything. Andromakhe (remember her? Hektor's wife?) is now Annasu, an Amazon commander. And the slave girl, Briseis, has been reimagined as Brisewos, heavily tattooed Amazon transman (who performed his reassignment surgery himself, it seemed).
I'm certain that someone else would consider these things as nitpicks, and if none of the above bothers you, then fine.
BUT, I haven't gotten to the really ranty parts yet.
First, I'm going to mention that Achilles is a transwoman who miraculously becomes a ciswoman, hips, tits, uterus, the works. She also has her very first period that lasts a handful of hours, then it disappears for a couple of days, to then finish. My very own periods are a bit wonky, and near the end, there's a gap between the main event and the much-shorter return. That gap? A handful of hours. My first period lasted two or three days, when I was 12. There's so much Bad Women's Anatomy in this that I can't.
Achilles, once she's no longer kallai (the word used for transwomen in the book, of which there seems to be a LOT), decides that the first thing she's going to do is swim across a storming sea from her ship to another and seduce Agamemnon. Yep. Agamemnon. A man who has about 15 years on her and should fucking know better, but I digress. There's just so much wrong with the thought of an Agamemnon/Achilles pairing that I'm going to have to rant about other things because it makes me physically ill.
During this swim to seduce a married man, Achilles can, you know, clearly see down to the sea floor. In the Aegean. During a storm. AT NIGHT. This hurts me in ways I can't describe, because NO. Oh, and apparently horses can vomit now. Last I checked, that was physically impossible because they lack the everything needed to vomit. (Oh hey, an article I found in less than a minute on this very topic: https://equusmagazine.com/horse-care/qa-horses-vomit-28006/) But in this book? Boy howdy, seasick horses can just bring it all back up.
Another quibble? Well, okay, more than a quibble, but getting this worked up over a bad book isn't good for my stress levels. Patroklos. Dear, lovely Patroklos, given to Achilles when they were both children to be a bosom companion, widely acknowledged by scholars to have been lovers. Patroklos is married. To an Egyptian princess named Meryapi.
Meryapi is so extra. She's the ultimate Manic Pixie Dream Girl: super educated, polyglot, endlessly kind and compassionate, a super wicked awesome sorceress. I just...*feels a migraine coming on* *sighs* She's not needed, extraneous, and, again, too much crammed in.
Plus, it kills that whole Achilles/Patroklos pairing that's expected and missing. Patroklos is supposed to humanize the hero, keep her from flying into rages or jolly her out of sulks. Instead, that goes to Meryapi, and one of the pillars of the Iliad is left out for incomprehensible reasons.
Chapter six is an entire rewriting of mythology to make the book work (because otherwise the entire thing would just fall apart). It completely ignores Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and every other writer/recorder of Greek myth. HARD PASS.
Oh, I should mention that this book also indulges in the pregnancy trope. Yep. Achilles and Agamemnon have enough sex to conceive and she spends a good portion of the book pregnant. Pardon me while I try not to yark all over my keyboard (and not over the pregnancy, but the pairing - ew).
When she hits the beats of the Iliad, the story isn't terrible. I found the combat scenes reasonably well written and I could follow the action. There isn't enough combat.
Look, a book where a trans Achilles exists is an interesting concept and there's a lot that could be done. This book isn't it. If she had, I dunno, used the Iliad as a loose framework, but filed off the serial numbers (renamed everyone and the locations) and turned it into a sword-and-sandals fantasy, I think it would have been much better for it.
Below is a snippet from my Discord rantings about this thing:
I've read three chapters and I've had to restrain myself from throwing the book MULTIPLE TIMES already.
It makes me so very angry.
I'm currently wondering what amount of witchcraft fuckery got this thing published. Because...wow, it is a book, that I am reading, while wondering why the hell this got past anyone with a lick of sense. So far, the musings of the poets on Helen's half-divine breasts (Apples of the Sun. FUCKING REALLY?!) really set the tone of this horror.
THAT WAS ON PAGE 18. GOD'S BALLS THIS BOOK.
TLDR; don't read this. It's homophobic and weirdly hetero-normative and rage-inducing. 0/10, would not recommend for anything that isn't fire-starter.
First off, I'm going to say this: I have no issue with genderbending characters. Nor do I have any issue with Achilles being a trans woman.
The writing is competent, but the content is...rushed, overfull, and internally inconsistent. Okay. I will also admit here that I did not enjoy this and will not recommend it to anyone. Maybe I am the wrong kind of person - too old, too cis, too Classically educated, and yet, if a book that uses the Iliad as a framework does not hook someone who, you know, reads the Iliad for funsies, then that mark was missed by a hell of a lot.
Right. This book.
It's clear from how much has been stuffed in, that it has been meticulously researched. I mean, using Iphianassa, possibly an older variant of Iphigenia, shows the level of detail the author went to. That's also part of the problem. It's too much. What this book really needed was a machete, tighter focus, a more Draconian editor, something to handle the bloat.
And yeah, I remember getting really excited when I was researching various topics for papers and wanting to cram All The Things into it. I've gotten a lot better about that, but I've also got at least twenty years life experience on the author and have a better sense of what to cut and what to keep. She still has that "new adult" smell and it's affected how good this book COULD HAVE BEEN.
Part of what has made me want to tear my hair out (or shave my head again so I couldn't do that) is the naming convention. For the most part, she uses the Hellenic variations on the Classical names: Hektor, Patroklos, Menelaos, which is all fine and dandy until she doesn't. For too many characters, she uses archaic Greek variations of their names, like Aiwas for Aias/Ajax. It's confusing and frustrating and NOT NEEDED. Oh, and when she's NOT doing that? She's happily using the Anglicized versions, like Odysseus and Achilles. *pinches bridge of nose* INTERNAL CONSISTENCY IS A THING.
AND THEN, then, when she names other characters, mostly those of Troy and surrounds, she uses, are you ready, the Hittite, since Troy was Wilusa in the historical setting of this book. Normally, this would be fine, but if you're using a Greek framework, STICK WITH THE GREEK FRAMEWORK. It makes it a lot less confusing for casual readers and a lot less INFURIATING for knowledgeable ones. In using this convention, the author spends too much time saying things like [character], who the Achaians called [Hellenic convention]. It's not necessary. In fact, a good editor would have cut that shit out, but I digress.
Like the Iliad, the gods play their parts, and this is another thing that really burns my water: the complete lack of Greek Myth 101: The Deities.
There are gods missing, gods stuffed into the wrong boxes, Greek gods conflated with their Egyptian/Sumerian/Babylonian/Akkadian/Hittite counterparts, which added to the the naming inconsistencies and a lot of chaff that didn't need to be in there. Because of my degree and because of my life-long love of Greek mythology, I know how the sausage is made and the entire thing left me cold. In the Dramatis Personae, there is a helpful list of gods. As an example of the wrong, I will put the entry for Hera here.
Hera (Aruru, Belet-ili, Damkina, Hathor, Isis, Nikkal, Ninhursag, Rhea, Soma, Tanit): The Queen of Kings, Cow Goddess, adopted daughter of Great Mother, former consort of the Three, inventor of the cities of sacrifice and ally of Athena.
It's too much. WAY TOO MUCH. Last I checked, Isis and Hathor were different goddesses. And Rhea and Hera are mother and daughter, respectively. But all of these aspects have been shoved into one character for reasons, I guess.
Amazons are included, but shoved into a historical context (did I mention this book supposedly takes place around 1250BCE? Because it takes place around 1250BCE), including their names and everything. Andromakhe (remember her? Hektor's wife?) is now Annasu, an Amazon commander. And the slave girl, Briseis, has been reimagined as Brisewos, heavily tattooed Amazon transman (who performed his reassignment surgery himself, it seemed).
I'm certain that someone else would consider these things as nitpicks, and if none of the above bothers you, then fine.
BUT, I haven't gotten to the really ranty parts yet.
First, I'm going to mention that Achilles is a transwoman who miraculously becomes a ciswoman, hips, tits, uterus, the works. She also has her very first period that lasts a handful of hours, then it disappears for a couple of days, to then finish. My very own periods are a bit wonky, and near the end, there's a gap between the main event and the much-shorter return. That gap? A handful of hours. My first period lasted two or three days, when I was 12. There's so much Bad Women's Anatomy in this that I can't.
Achilles, once she's no longer kallai (the word used for transwomen in the book, of which there seems to be a LOT), decides that the first thing she's going to do is swim across a storming sea from her ship to another and seduce Agamemnon. Yep. Agamemnon. A man who has about 15 years on her and should fucking know better, but I digress. There's just so much wrong with the thought of an Agamemnon/Achilles pairing that I'm going to have to rant about other things because it makes me physically ill.
During this swim to seduce a married man, Achilles can, you know, clearly see down to the sea floor. In the Aegean. During a storm. AT NIGHT. This hurts me in ways I can't describe, because NO. Oh, and apparently horses can vomit now. Last I checked, that was physically impossible because they lack the everything needed to vomit. (Oh hey, an article I found in less than a minute on this very topic: https://equusmagazine.com/horse-care/qa-horses-vomit-28006/) But in this book? Boy howdy, seasick horses can just bring it all back up.
Another quibble? Well, okay, more than a quibble, but getting this worked up over a bad book isn't good for my stress levels. Patroklos. Dear, lovely Patroklos, given to Achilles when they were both children to be a bosom companion, widely acknowledged by scholars to have been lovers. Patroklos is married. To an Egyptian princess named Meryapi.
Meryapi is so extra. She's the ultimate Manic Pixie Dream Girl: super educated, polyglot, endlessly kind and compassionate, a super wicked awesome sorceress. I just...*feels a migraine coming on* *sighs* She's not needed, extraneous, and, again, too much crammed in.
Plus, it kills that whole Achilles/Patroklos pairing that's expected and missing. Patroklos is supposed to humanize the hero, keep her from flying into rages or jolly her out of sulks. Instead, that goes to Meryapi, and one of the pillars of the Iliad is left out for incomprehensible reasons.
Chapter six is an entire rewriting of mythology to make the book work (because otherwise the entire thing would just fall apart). It completely ignores Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and every other writer/recorder of Greek myth. HARD PASS.
Oh, I should mention that this book also indulges in the pregnancy trope. Yep. Achilles and Agamemnon have enough sex to conceive and she spends a good portion of the book pregnant. Pardon me while I try not to yark all over my keyboard (and not over the pregnancy, but the pairing - ew).
When she hits the beats of the Iliad, the story isn't terrible. I found the combat scenes reasonably well written and I could follow the action. There isn't enough combat.
Look, a book where a trans Achilles exists is an interesting concept and there's a lot that could be done. This book isn't it. If she had, I dunno, used the Iliad as a loose framework, but filed off the serial numbers (renamed everyone and the locations) and turned it into a sword-and-sandals fantasy, I think it would have been much better for it.
Below is a snippet from my Discord rantings about this thing:
I've read three chapters and I've had to restrain myself from throwing the book MULTIPLE TIMES already.
It makes me so very angry.
I'm currently wondering what amount of witchcraft fuckery got this thing published. Because...wow, it is a book, that I am reading, while wondering why the hell this got past anyone with a lick of sense. So far, the musings of the poets on Helen's half-divine breasts (Apples of the Sun. FUCKING REALLY?!) really set the tone of this horror.
THAT WAS ON PAGE 18. GOD'S BALLS THIS BOOK.
TLDR; don't read this. It's homophobic and weirdly hetero-normative and rage-inducing. 0/10, would not recommend for anything that isn't fire-starter.
