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shaand's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
anisha_inkspill's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Low ceiling. Sticky air.
Our stillness like the stillness in
Atlantis when the big wave came,
The brim-full basins of abandoned docks,
Our stillness like the stillness in
Atlantis when the big wave came,
The brim-full basins of abandoned docks,
This is wonderful imagery. Low ceiling, like the sky is on top of you. Sticky air, makes the air feel thick and uncomfortable. Two lines, four words, and I’m already feeling the tension.
These few lines are from the section Kings from Chritopher Logue’s War Music: an Account of Homer’s Iliad. Kings loosely follows the action of the first two books of Homer’s Iliad (where Achilles steps out of the war when he falls out with Agamemnon).
This unfinished work is wonderful to read when the drama is vivid and jumps off the page.
Where I stumbled the most was in the section All Day Permeant Red, here it was very bloody red, and I mean very bloody with much death, I thought more so than Homer’s epic.
Some of my favourite moments are passages of breathtaking descriptions, like the lines above, or the unfolding drama, like:
- Paris and his one-on-one combat with Menelaus
- or Agamemnon’s long waffle, which is the closest Achilles will have for an apology (but really it’s not an apology).
And if you like Homer’s Iliad, or are familiar with it, and you also don’t mind reading parts of a story then I would recommend this to you. Maybe it’s possible to enjoy this with no knowledge, but like the original this too has a lot of characters.
I’ve also noticed there are different editions where the content varies. This one War Music (Christopher Logue) on kindle has all the sections that have been previously published, along with fragments (previously unpublished), and editorial notes by Christopher Reid.
These few lines are from the section Kings from Chritopher Logue’s War Music: an Account of Homer’s Iliad. Kings loosely follows the action of the first two books of Homer’s Iliad (where Achilles steps out of the war when he falls out with Agamemnon).
This unfinished work is wonderful to read when the drama is vivid and jumps off the page.
Where I stumbled the most was in the section All Day Permeant Red, here it was very bloody red, and I mean very bloody with much death, I thought more so than Homer’s epic.
Some of my favourite moments are passages of breathtaking descriptions, like the lines above, or the unfolding drama, like:
- Paris and his one-on-one combat with Menelaus
- or Agamemnon’s long waffle, which is the closest Achilles will have for an apology (but really it’s not an apology).
And if you like Homer’s Iliad, or are familiar with it, and you also don’t mind reading parts of a story then I would recommend this to you. Maybe it’s possible to enjoy this with no knowledge, but like the original this too has a lot of characters.
I’ve also noticed there are different editions where the content varies. This one War Music (Christopher Logue) on kindle has all the sections that have been previously published, along with fragments (previously unpublished), and editorial notes by Christopher Reid.
moscar31's review against another edition
5.0
The greatest achievement in epic poetry since the actual Iliad. God didn't let Logue finish it just so that he didn't overshadow Homer.
jnkay01's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
a brilliant reinvention of a classic, and it's humanity's loss that Logue didn't live long enough to finish his epic project
circularcubes's review against another edition
3.0
This was interesting, but I'm afraid I couldn't recommend it whole-heartedly, as I am very much not a poetry person. I read this as a companion piece of sorts to the original Iliad, which I finished reading earlier this year (not original as in the original Greek, of course, but a translation). Although I found the character motivations clearer in this version of the story, I can't quite tell if it's because I found Logue's language a little easier to understand, or if it's just because I'm more familiar with the story after having finished the original.
kiramke's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic retelling; incisive, poetic, thoughtful, and I think faithful.
ktrain3900's review against another edition
3.0
At the same time both unputdownable, yet still made me feel like "aren't there other things you should be reading?" if that makes sense. The Iliad has been done to death (as The Inferno has, as another example) yet there's plenty of image and action here to make this a worthy read. If you're looking for examples of how to incorporate movement into your writing, look no further.
jasonfurman's review against another edition
5.0
What an amazing, stunning, beautiful, mesmerizing, spellbinding, thrilling, epic poem. The subtitle says War Music is "An Account" of Homer's Iliad. I don't know exactly what an account is but might as well use it because certainly none of the other words one might use make sense. It follows the story and trajectory of the Iliad but is not a "translation" with a direct mapping of lines or groups of lines. A "retelling" would belittle something that really does a lot more than just tell the story. It is certainly not a "modernization" even though the language is deliberately modern and anachronistic in some places.
I read this on and off slowly over nearly four weeks, probably longer than I've spent on the Iliad itself. But it was really worth a slow and careful reading--even if it was all so fluent that it never felt difficult.
Christopher Logue wrote this and published parts on and off over the course of his life. Sadly he did not finish it, it includes and "account" of Books 1 through 9 and then of Books 16-19 (Patroclus entering the action, getting killed, and Achilles mourning his death and vowing vengeance). I would love nothing more than to have Logue's "account" of the rest of the Iliad, especially the death of Hector and the ransoming of his body. Sadly, it is not be. But what we do have is extraordinary.
I read this on and off slowly over nearly four weeks, probably longer than I've spent on the Iliad itself. But it was really worth a slow and careful reading--even if it was all so fluent that it never felt difficult.
Christopher Logue wrote this and published parts on and off over the course of his life. Sadly he did not finish it, it includes and "account" of Books 1 through 9 and then of Books 16-19 (Patroclus entering the action, getting killed, and Achilles mourning his death and vowing vengeance). I would love nothing more than to have Logue's "account" of the rest of the Iliad, especially the death of Hector and the ransoming of his body. Sadly, it is not be. But what we do have is extraordinary.
daximus's review against another edition
5.0
He's a genius, and I'm ashamed by how stylistically similar to his my writing had become to his before ever reading this. Back to the drawing board.
Almost certainly the best modern rendition of Homer, in my opinion War Music ought to take precedence over Fagles, Lattimore, or Pope in any course that wishes to maintain the Iliad's spirit.
Almost certainly the best modern rendition of Homer, in my opinion War Music ought to take precedence over Fagles, Lattimore, or Pope in any course that wishes to maintain the Iliad's spirit.