Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow, by David Gemmell

Lord of the Silver Bow is the first book in David Gemmell's Troy trilogy. The events in the book take place some time before the Trojan war, which we are all familiar with. Rather than giving the story any mythical sense, Gemmell has taken the sources we have and immagined how things could have been in reality, though admittedly with a fairly heroic bent. Many familiar characters make an appearance - King Priam of Troy, Hector, Paris, Odysseus, and many others. The main character is the less familiar Aeneas (also called Helikaon). As far as I can tell, Gemmell has used the historical sources we have as a framework or basis, but has not limitted himself to these "facts" - he seems to feel free to change elements for the purpose of his story, which makes it stand very well on its own. It's nice not to know exactly where things are going all the time.

The story is a little grim at times. As a result the book lacks some of the fun quality of some of Gemmell's other work. Still the characters are vivid and real, the plot exciting, and the action great, if sometimes brutal (as you'd expect from Gemmell). This is not my favorite of his, but it's solid enough.

I'll give it 7 out of 10.