Series · Three novels
Gemmell's Troy trilogy
Gemmell's last series retells the Trojan War as Bronze Age history. There are oracles and prophecies, but no gods take the field, and the war is driven by trade, wealth and ambition: Agamemnon of Mykene wants Troy's riches to pay for his armies, and Helen is a minor figure. The hero is Helikaon, the man later legend calls Aeneas, a Dardanian prince and sea-trader. Beside him are Andromache, the priestess sent to marry Hektor, and Odysseus, recast as an ugly king famous for his tall stories.
Lord of the Silver Bow (2005) sets up the cast and the pressures before the war. Shield of Thunder (2006) brings the kings of the Aegean to Troy for Hektor's wedding and ends with the war under way. Fall of Kings (2007) is the siege. Gemmell died in July 2006 with about 70,000 words of the third book written; his wife Stella, who had researched and edited the series with him, finished it from his chapter plan.
Read them in order; each depends on the one before. Readers who know Homer will enjoy spotting what Gemmell keeps, what he moves and how he explains the parts of the legend that sound impossible. Readers who have never read fantasy can start here, since nothing in the trilogy assumes the genre.
The books carry Gemmell's constants into a new setting: a soldier's code, loyalty tested against self-interest, and heroes who are good at killing and troubled by it. They are also more patient than most of his work, with bigger casts, more women at the centre and more attention to how a city and its economy work. Spellings follow the Greek (Hektor, Mykene, Ithaka) rather than the familiar Latin forms.
Reading order
Read in order. Each book assumes the one before.
- 1Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow (2005)Years before the siege, a Dardanian prince, a Theran priestess and a Mykene hero are drawn to Troy as Agamemnon plans a war.
- 2Troy: Shield of Thunder (2006)The kings of the Great Green gather at Troy for Hektor's wedding, while Agamemnon's long-planned war moves from threat to fact.
- 3Troy: Fall of Kings (2007)Finished by Stella Gemmell after her husband's death, the last Troy novel follows the war to its end as Agamemnon's armies close on the city.