On the isle of Ithaca, Queen Penelope maintains a delicate balance of power. Many years ago, her husband, Odysseus, sailed to war with Troy and never came home. In his absence, Penelope uses all her cunning to keep the peace – but this is shattered by the arrival of Orestes, king of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra.
Orestes’s hands are stained with his mother’s blood. Not so long ago, the son of Agamemnon took Queen Clytemnestra’s life on Ithaca’s sands. Now, racked with guilt, he is slowly losing his mind.
Penelope knows destruction will follow in his wake as surely as the Furies circle him. His uncle, Menelaus, the battle-hungry king of Sparta, longs for Orestes’s throne – and if he can seize it, no one will be safe from his violent whims.
Trapped between two mad kings, Penelope fights to keep war from Ithaca’s shores. Her only allies are Elektra and Helen of Troy, Menelaus’s enigmatic wife. And watching over them all is the goddess Aphrodite, who has plans of her own.
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They came at sunset to my temple door, torches burning.
– CHAPTER 1
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(@orbitbooks, 24 August 2023, hardback, 432 pages, borrowed from @NACLibraries)
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I enjoyed this first book Ithaca so was looking forward to House of Odysseus. I enjoyed this a lot as well. I’ll definitely check out more of the author’s work. This is set a few years after the first book. It’s as vivid, well-writing and engaging as the first book. I really enjoy all of the historical details and how the characters and place really come to life between the book’s pages. I love Greek Mythology and studied it as a final module for my degree and read a lot of it so I’m familiar with a lot of the characters, places and references. This is an engaging read. I’d recommend it.
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