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Summary
Summary
From Mount Olympus, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, yawned. Even perfection can be tedious."My Lord," she called to Apollo, "Sun God and brother. Let us play a game with mortals--my power against yours."And so Cassandra, the goldenhaired princess cursed with the gift of prophecy, and Diomenes, the Achaean with the healing hands, become puppets of the gods. Their passions are thwarted, their loves betrayed, their gifts rendered useless for the sake of a wager between the immortals.Doomed, magnificent Troy is the stage, and Cassandra and Diomenes the leading players in this compelling story of the city's fall. Both have found love before, and lost it.Will they find each other in the light of the burning city? And, if they do, can their love survive the machinations of malicious gods and men?
Author Notes
The prolific Kerry Greenwood was born in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, and holds degrees in English and Law. Wellknown in the US as the author of the Phryne Fisher and Corrina Chapman mysteries, she here sets aside her delightful humor to investigate one of the most dramatic and troubling stories in all of history. Cassandra is the second of three historical novels in her Delphic Women Series set in ancient Greece.
Reviews (3)
Kirkus Review
The fall of Troy as viewed by participants in the horrors. Cassandra and her twin brother, Eleni, the children of King Priam and Queen Hecube of Troy, are a priestess and priest of Apollo the sun god. When a bored Aphrodite makes a wager with Apollo for a golden apple, the lives of Cassandra and Achaean healer Diomenes, called Chryse, are forever changed as they become pawns of the gods. Cassandra is cursed with the gift of prophecy. She cannot tell what she knows about the future of Troy. While Cassandra is growing and learning in Troy, Chryse is becoming a gifted healer whose life is forever changed when he is called upon to treat his first love, Elene of Sparta, the most beautiful woman in the world. Though she's married to Menelaus, Elene is nevertheless sought by many powerful men, and a war will soon be fought over her. When Elene runs off to Egypt with Cassandra's arrogant brother Pariki, the Achaeans have the perfect excuse to declare war on Troy even though they know that the Trojans would gladly have given her up had she not remained in Egypt. Under the excellent leadership of Cassandra's brother Hector, the Trojans withstand a long siege while the Achaeans are picked off by disease and useless forays. Cassandra and Chryse meet when he rescues her twin and returns him to Troy. What the Achaeans cannot achieve by battle, they achieve by following a plan conceived by the clever Odysseus. The second in Greenwood's Delphic Women series (Medea, 2013) offers a far different premise on a familiar story, crammed with well-researched detail, fascinating characters and erotic scenes.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The first of Greenwood's trio of Delphic Women novels, originally published in Australia in 1995, appears here as the follow-up to Medea (2013), but it was originally the third book in the series. It's easy to see why the American publisher might have chosen to reverse the original order of publication: Medea is a very strong book, while Cassandra is less so. It follows the same model Greenwood takes someone from Greek mythology and tells her story as though it really happened but Cassandra, cursed by Apollo (whose advances she spurned) with the ability to prophesy future events, isn't quite as compelling a lead or as tragic a heroine as Medea, who allegedly was betrayed by her husband, the explorer Jason, and murdered her own children. Greenwood uses the destruction of Troy as the backdrop for Cassandra's story, which is redrawn as the saga of a woman who has been misunderstood and miscast by history. The writing here is sluggish, compared to the sharp prose of Medea, but readers interested in Greek mythology or enamored of earlier book will want to check this one out, too.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Aphrodite and Apollo are bored up on Mount Olympus, so they devise a test to see if mortal love is stronger than death and loss. It is on this conceit that Greenwood's second book in her Delphic Woman trilogy (after Medea) is based. Told in the parallel voices of Cassandra, Trojan princess and prophetess, and Diomenes, Achaean peasant and healer, this story follows both characters' lives leading up to the Trojan War. Diomenes is particularly fascinating, as he meets many famous mythological figures and also studies medicine. Greenwood deftly portrays her protagonists' growth as they face loss, pain, and death. VERDICT Originally published in 1995 in Australia, this is an intriguing take on Greek myth, particularly when looking at the culture of the ancient Greeks. But mythology purists may be disappointed with some of Greenwood's departures. An extremely violent, highly sexualized depiction of ancient Greece, this novel is at its best when describing cultural and historical details including medicine and festivals. Definitely a change of pace from Greenwood's delightfully cozy "Phryne Fisher" mysteries, it may appeal to readers who enjoyed Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles.-Katie Lawrence, Chicago (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
