I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
A.D. Rhine is a pseudonym for Ashlee Cowles and Danielle Stinson, the co-authors of the Troy duology that began with Horses of Fire and culminated with Daughters of Bronze. I did not know this when I picked up Daughters of Bronze, and I have already ordered the first book in the series, because I MUST have the first part of the ladies’ story. However, whether you’ve read The Iliad or not, you can read Daughters of Bronze as a standalone; there’s plenty of backstory woven in to get the reader up to speed without feeling like you’ve missed anything.
Daughters of Bronze opens in the end of the Trojan war, when the Achaeans (the Greeks) have had Troy under siege for a decade. But all the traditional focus of the male warfare machine is background in this novel, which focuses instead on Andromache, Helen, Cassandra, and Rhea, in their respective stories, influences, and quests that both drive outcomes in the war and get swept along by forces they can’t control.
Andromache, far from the meek wife of Hector presented in The Iliad, is the fierce Amazon tactician working in concert with her husband to protect the city. Not a native Trojan, Andromache battles the council’s attitudes toward her “unnatural” proclivities toward war while she tries to save the city from a traitor, and her newborn son from Cassandra’s dire vision.
Helen is a midwife in hiding from her abusive kidnapper, Paris, and struggles to follow her calling and talents to heal while valued only for her beauty, all the while deeply mourning the daughter she was forced to abandon.
It wasn’t the god Apollo who abused Cassandra and drove her mad, tainting her psychic abilities and convincing her own mother to dismiss her, but someone much more corporeal. Now she bravely fights her inner demons to help save her brother and her nephew.
Rhea, a beloved servant of Andromache and Hector, is part of a wide net of women slaves in the Achaean camp spying for the Trojans. They are able to gather valuable intel and pass it to Andromache, who then strategizes with Hector on how best to use it to their advantage, because women are ignored as anything but nurses and sex slaves by the Achaeans. Rhea’s loyalties are tested as she grows closer to Ajax, one of the greatest Achaean warriors.
These interwoven stories are utterly compelling and provide an entirely different view into the Trojan War, one that is realistic and unromanticized, by asking questions a male author would never ask. Why would a woman ever leave her child behind for lust? What would drive a teenage girl into madness? Who would be the best choices for spies in an enemy camp?
I loved this book. The writing is vivid and evocative, the scenes are heartbreaking (I mean, it’s the Trojan War. There is plenty of heartbreak to go around.) and the end was far more satisfying than I anticipated, having read The Iliad. The women are all smart, motivated, capable people doing exactly what anyone would do in a war: trying to keep themselves and their city alive. There are no damsels in distress here, thank all the gods. Daughters of Bronze is the story of Troy I always wanted, and both books in this duology need to be in my library.
No Pithy Phrase 