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A review by loveinpanels
Age of Bronze Volume 1: A Thousand Ships (New Edition) by Eric Shanower
3.0
If you read this as a faithful graphic retelling of the first bit of The Iliad, you'll be satisfied. I think this book could be a helpful complement for teens reading the epic. It's illustrated in what I've come to think of as "classic comics" style, with vivid colors and not much nuance.
However, this adaptation is, like the classic, focused almost entirely on the male experience. We see the rape of Phthia, complete with tears and screaming, then suddenly she's defending Achilles to her father and begging him not to leave. And then she's gone, because she's served her purpose for the narrative and Pyrrhus can pop up again in a later volume of this series, I assume. The book was originally released in 2001, so I guess it's perhaps a product of its time, but as a female reader on my third telling of The Iliad this year, I'm tired of reading the ways the women were raped and sold and given as property.
After all, the war wasn't fought over a woman. It was fought over the pride of one man and the greed of another.
The book is fine, it's not spectacular, but as a faithful retelling, it's adequate. I don't need to continue with the series.
However, this adaptation is, like the classic, focused almost entirely on the male experience. We see the rape of Phthia, complete with tears and screaming, then suddenly she's defending Achilles to her father and begging him not to leave. And then she's gone, because she's served her purpose for the narrative and Pyrrhus can pop up again in a later volume of this series, I assume. The book was originally released in 2001, so I guess it's perhaps a product of its time, but as a female reader on my third telling of The Iliad this year, I'm tired of reading the ways the women were raped and sold and given as property.
After all, the war wasn't fought over a woman. It was fought over the pride of one man and the greed of another.
The book is fine, it's not spectacular, but as a faithful retelling, it's adequate. I don't need to continue with the series.