Different but still great
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It's almost possible to see the difference in the pages written by the great man himself - but still a great read and although his wife's contribution is not the same - I'd still rate the book as a classic and streets ahead of anything by other so called "greats" of the genre.
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A Great Book - A Fantastic Trilogy
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Fresh from reading Conn Iggulden's Lords of the Bow. I was handed the first in this trilogy of books.
Having never heard of David Gemmell nor heard of his tragic death before the end of the final novel. I had no idea WHAT a read I was in for!
These books were a roller coaster of emotion. Brilliantly written!
Without revealing to much of the characters stories, I was genuinely crushed and distraught when reading of the fates of some. This is a story about some the greatest Heroes and Heroines of history.
I read an awful lot of historical fiction and have a book case filled with the works of Cornwell, Iggulden, Scarrow, Severin.... These books rate way up there!!
I would recommend anyone who enjoys reading to buy this trilogy without delay!!
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Hats off to Stella Gemmell, but I mourn the loss of the master as a void opens in the climax of his greatest work
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First of all, I must emphasize my respect for what Stella Gemmell set about doing. The task must have been truly immense for a woman and a wife to attempt to complete a novel so delightfully masculine, arrogant and casanova in nature (he re-wrote the Iliad for God's sake, with no regards for one of the greatest epics of all time).
Now such a statement may seem sexist or even chauvinistic, but I need to stress that those who think that must read on (as I do not mean it like that).
Troy's greatest triumph is unarguably its uncanny ability to make the reader truly care deeply for many of its characters and paint their roles in the Trojan war so differently to that of the Iliad (and dare I say it), the recent (shallow to say the least) feature film.
What strikes me upon completing the novel is that, as with the likes of Tolkien in the 'Lord of the Rings', David Gemmell placed an emphasis upon sometimes wholly irrational masculine traits. Even the leading women are basically men, or at the very least, women of the late 20th and 21st centuries. They are fiercely independent, single minded and natural leaders, traits you do not readily associate with women of any era prior to the last century, let alone the Bronze Age Aegean. That is what makes them so attractive to us, because we compare them to the women we most desire today. They possess an ability to make their own decisions, invariably the right ones, placing themselves above the masses and thus increasing their unnatainability for the average chappy. Imagine Andromache (according to David) living today, she would shoot up that career ladder like a bull on speed.
Coming to the point, what truly made me ache was that Stella went about deconstructing these masculine traits so effectively. Firstly, she approaches intensely 'male' characteristics with an obvious incomprehension. Whereas David enlightened us with his wisdom over the sometimes unfathomable actions of us blokes, all I got from Stella was a cynical naivety (the cliched "all men are bastards" approach), battle scenes lacked that killer word or balanced sentence that gave them that 'WOW'-factor and Helikaon's hopeless love for Andromache seems suddenly watered down and, frankly, skull splittingly cheesy. Likewise, Andromache's character lacked any consistency to earlier moments in the story, she quickly seems completely subservient to Helikaon and their relationship goes from that glorious 21st century "let's go dutch" appeal to a dismal moment analogorous to the 1950's where a husband walks through the door to his home and demands his dinner from his wife, who had slaved all day in the kitchen to please him! HOW?? WHY??
Greatest examples: Helikaon actually barks orders at Andromache involving the term "woman", do this "woman" do that "woman" "I am the man, woman, so I am right", surely the Andromache we all knew and came to love would just kick him in the face?! But no, she says "Yes husband", "Yes my love", "don't worry about the bruise my love, I forgive you, you were just angry, I'll just say I fell down the stairs", "what time will you be home for dinner?" ...
I found myself baffled as to how wrong Stella Gemmell got these aspects. Nevertheless I go back to my first statement: to put yourself in the mind of an author so fiercely gifted and masculine (he was a bouncer for a decade for christ's sake, who are all ego-maniacs) and attempt to match him was close to impossible -not unlike Helen attempting to match Achilles' skills in battle- so I found myself taking a deep breath and rocketing through to the conclusion, which after the fascinating, cataclysmic climax petered into a typical hollywood, intolerably cheesy ending; a blasphemy considering the triumphant originality of the earlier novels... I don't believe that that was David's intention for one moment.
Overall, it was a horrid pitty considering I would have given David's part of the novel (the 70,000 or so words) 5 stars without a doubt.
As it is I give it 2 stars, knocked up to 3 for the efforts of Stella. The only party that should be satisfied with this work is the publisher who doubtless made a tidy profit from Stella's admirable, but fruitless efforts.
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A fantastic book / trilogy
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Not being a David Gemmell fan and not knowing he died before finishing the third book, My expectations were not that high. However I can't remember enjoying reading more then when reading these three books. Fall of the king is a fantastic take on the end of the troy myth. The characters have more depth then I was expecting and as a result I was genuinely saddened at any departures.
Having read a lot of historical fiction over the last few years I'd say this is right up there with the best, often surpassing it.
Enjoy the books.
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A fitting conclusion?
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I realise that the last part in this absorbing triolgy had to be finsihed off by Stella Gemmell following David's untimely death. Although other reviewers suggest that this is seemless, I beg to dissagree. The final part of the triolgy is well crafted and brings a touch of refreshing, imagined "realism" to the tale of Troy's downfall. However, the storyline falls flat towards the end. Clearly, David Gemmell had a longer work in mind. Perhaps, even another book or series of books, charting the mythical rise of Rome (the "Seven Hills" of his story) in the manner of the Aeneid, just as the Trojan War triolgy is broadly based on the Iliad. We shall never know and that is a shame because that story is one which would have benefited from a re-telling by someone with David Gemmell's obvious talent.
That notwithstanding, there are a number of other loose ends such as the fate of Moses - yet another series of books which we shall never see. Oh well! Enjoy what we have.
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