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adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Genocide, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
as dense as a overbaked fruit cake but if you are willing to take the trudge, it has a lot of very poignant themes, Achilles being chronically very angry, so many different ways people get killed by spears, genuinely very impressive, and if you choice to listen to it, even the very very long lists of who killed who and who's son they were become very rhythmic almost like a drumbeat march of the dead. also if you're tired of men in media not showing emotion you best believe these murder hobos clad in bronze cry for their fallen friends. also it might even make you laugh a few times like there is actually two ajaxes and they are by in large referred to as ajax and ajax , also my favorite quote is, "ajax, you are excellent at quarreling and terrible at thinking" an absolutely marvelous insult you might not like it if you are really put off about women literally being treated as objects, it was written a few thousand years before the suffragettes made that unpopular. (if you want the same vibes but with women with more agency check out the odyssey, women hold more power in that one and aren't traded like baseball cards)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault
it's very bloody and unforgiving, nobody is spared the suffering, but it's written in a way that distances you because it is so matter of fact about these things, a "this is how things are, no point dwelling on them unnecessarily" attitude.
Too slow. I think I’d prefer an audiobook version.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Misogyny
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, War
Moderate: Violence, Blood, Murder
Minor: Sexual assault
adventurous
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall, I did enjoy this story, and I will accredit that to the translator. As a lover of the Classical world, it's obvious I read the Iliad, following my reading of the Odyssey and Metamorphoses last year (both in translation). Whilst this has not overtaken Metamorphoses as my favourite of the epics, it was still great.
The translation was witty and funny which helped balance the gritty violence of the war ongoing in the poem. Of course there are sectios which are just lists of names, but in this story, I needed the reminders of who was who because there was such a large amount of characters. I loved the dialoue in this, the humour was great and it captured the emotions of characters so well.
What confused me about this is it doesn't tell the story of the whole Trojan War. It stops after Hector's death which confused me because, whilst this is a crucial emotional moment, the war continued after this and the story feels unfinished. It does feel like an abrupt end which is confusing after you have read hundreds of pages of action. Despite it consisting almost entirely of battle scenes, it doesn't feel too repetitive and the different points of view help keep the story moving and interesting.
The translation was witty and funny which helped balance the gritty violence of the war ongoing in the poem. Of course there are sectios which are just lists of names, but in this story, I needed the reminders of who was who because there was such a large amount of characters. I loved the dialoue in this, the humour was great and it captured the emotions of characters so well.
What confused me about this is it doesn't tell the story of the whole Trojan War.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Blood
Minor: Animal death, Rape, Slavery
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was not a book I ever really expected to read, but Emily Wilson's translation was so engaging and accessible that I surprisingly really enjoyed it. I love Wilson's whole premise that an English translation of Ancient Greek should be as readable to modern readers as the original would have been for ancient Greeks.
This is nothing to do with Wilson's translation, but I was really surprised that the end came without Achilles' death, considering that that was the explicitly stated conclusion to his character arc. It certainly doesn't function as anything like a modern story arc; unlike the Odyssey, there is basically no conclusion to the story, except for Hector's funeral. The war isn't over, Achilles isn't dead, and we as readers have no sense of how that will occur.
Very fun to wrap it up on the last day of the year, and now on to Wilson's Odyssey!
This is nothing to do with Wilson's translation, but I was really surprised that the end came without Achilles' death, considering that that was the explicitly stated conclusion to his character arc. It certainly doesn't function as anything like a modern story arc; unlike the Odyssey, there is basically no conclusion to the story, except for Hector's funeral. The war isn't over, Achilles isn't dead, and we as readers have no sense of how that will occur.
Very fun to wrap it up on the last day of the year, and now on to Wilson's Odyssey!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, War
Moderate: Misogyny, Slavery
challenging
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Slavery, Violence, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder