A review by eupomene
The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley

3.0

Contains a lot of the typical Bradley tropes -- warrior women, gender wars, etc etc, but remains a fairly well done retelling of the battle of Troy. My one beef is that she leaves out the Trojan horse. The Achaeans start building it, yes, but it never gets used the way the legend has it. I know she wanted to write it her way, not Homer's, but the Trojan horse -- with all those Greeks hidden inside it -- and the Trojans' greed in bringing it into the city is such a big part of the story to have it be missing. The characterization is somewhat inconsistent, also. Oh well - certainly the best version of this story would be Homer's anyway. Read this if you are an MZB fan, but don't miss the original. Fagles or Lattimore translations suggested! Unless, of course, you know your Homeric Greek.