Highly Recommended Reading: 'Black Ships' by Jo Graham

Filed by: Darren Turpin on March 1, 2008 at 10:55
Filed under: Books

Black Ships, which will be published by Orbit Books in the US in March and in the UK in July, is author Jo Graham's debut novel; although this is something I found increasingly hard to believe the more I read of this stirring, gripping, excellently-written and thoroughly engrossing tale of the last Prince of Troy and the remnants of his once-proud people.

The story is told from the point of view of Pythia - once called Gull - a young priestess of the Goddess of Death. We first learn of her early life as daughter of a Trojan woman captured into slavery by the Achaeans and her initiation into the Dark Lady's Mysteries. The character then truly bursts into life when she becomes one of the pivotal points of the narrative as the Sybil and Oracle to Aeneas, the Trojan Prince who comes to the lands of her captors to seek a newly-enslaved group of his people, before setting sail for the mighty kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean.

The emphasis of the book is placed very firmly on three principle characters: Pythia herself, who is an extremely well-rounded individual and, as both narrator and narrative instrument, someone who is incredibly easy to empathise with, and the two great loves of her life - Aeneas and Xandros - who are equally human and three-dimensional in their presentation. The inter-relationship between these three is the framework on which the tapestry of the novel's events is woven, and is explored in a manner that's thoroughly accessible, yet feels equally well-rooted in the customs and traditions of the time.

I also found the setting and background detail particularly fascinating. Jo Graham must surely have read some of the same tomes of historical investigation that I was once almost completely hooked on. She presents a subtly altered version of accepted historical events; one that draws on some of the more intriguing alternative theories of Bronze Age history surrounding the 'Hyksos', or 'Sea-Peoples', that have been published over the last twenty years or so. Of course, her book is still a work of fiction - she's not attempting to re-write history herself - but it's interesting to see some of these twists on the accepted timeline given a context and detail that makes them seem tantalisingly feasible.

All in all, it's an incredibly well-told, incredibly compelling story, narrated in the sort of epic mode employed by the likes of Steven Pressfield, and (I assume, although I've not read as many as I'd have liked) other re-tellers of the sagas of the Bronze Age heroes. Jo Graham consistently maintains an appropriately archaic tone and cadence to her writing, but without making it sound pompously Epic to the point of being unreadable. She also takes pains to avoid jarring modernisms and the rhythm of her writing style is one that flows easily and naturally, making this an extremely pleasurable read, one I practically flew through. Cliché time: Black Ships is a definite page-turner, one I honestly was loathe to put down.

And as I said earlier, such was the strength of her writing that I found it extremely difficult to believe that this was genuinely the work of a debut author; surely some sneaky pseudonym instead? But the author's notes at the end of this proof copy of the book convinced me otherwise. In which case, I have no hesitation in declaring this to be a debut of rare quality and surely the first step on the road to a highly successful career. And based on Hollywood's seemingly insatiable demand for re-telling the epics, a movie deal can be only just around the corner?

Speaking of the author's notes, I also learned from them that Black Ships is actually a re-telling of Virgil's Aeneid, the National Epic of the Roman Empire. Those with a clearly superior Classical education to mine will no doubt have spotted that from my introductory papragraph (and may sneer at will...) but I wasn't aware of the fact until I'd read the author's notes at the back of the book.

I really don't think that knowing this ahead of time would have spoiled my enjoyment of this excellent novel, although it might have given me an irrational urge to read the source materail before I read the modern-day version. That, I think, would have been a major mistake, because knowing the state of my reading schedule I'd have never gotten round to it and then might have missed out on what must surely be an early contender for one of my novels of the year.

Highly recommended, to anyone who enjoys the epic sweep of the Bronze Age sagas and to fans of historical semi-fantasy everywhere; most definitely.

Comments

4 Responses to 'Highly Recommended Reading: 'Black Ships' by Jo Graham'

Ed on March 2nd, 2008 12:36 am

Penguin have a very nice edition of The Aeneid, translated by Robert Fagles (regarded as one of the defintive versions) in hardback, to be had for a mere Â£9 from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aeneid.....mp;sr=1-10
Darren on March 3rd, 2008 9:38 am

Cheers Ed, I'll track that one down sometime. Probably be able to pick up a second-hand copy to stick on the shelf and pretend I'm going to get around to reading one day...
bah on March 20th, 2008 12:19 am

Hah, even I knew it was the Aeneid and i haven't even read it. (I did read the First Man of Rome series that gave me that knowledge)
Darren on March 20th, 2008 9:44 am

Well, clearly I must bow to your superior classical knowledge... ;)