Black Ships

by Jo Graham

The World is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling: to earthquakes, to flood and to raiders - on both land and sea.

In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle, a mouthpiece of the gods. Daughter of a slave plundered from fallen Troy, she was chosen as a child to serve the Lady of the Dead, and it is her fate to counsel kings.

When nine black ships appear as foretold in her dreams, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must make her choice. She must decide between her sacred calling and the most perilous adventure - joining her mother's people in their desperate flight from slavery. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest. And only she can dare the gates of the Underworld itself to lead him to his destiny.

In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story.

• ISBN10: 0316068004
• ISBN13: 9780316068000
• Publish Date: 19 March 2008 (first published 1 January 2008)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 January 2011
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Jo Graham takes Virgil's Aeneid and does a retelling of it from the point of view of the Pythia. She begins the story as Gull, a slave born of rape but still loved by her mother. When her ankle is broken she is apprenticed to the Pythia of the dark goddess Persephone, Lady of the dead, and she becomes Linnea before losing her name to her role when the previous priestess dies. She posesses a gift and burden of prophecy and is occasionally driven by the goddess to do things that she doesn't always understand at first but that make sense over time.

It's the story of the Wilusians or Trojans, the survival of a few and the recovery of some enslaved tribe members, adventures in the Middle East, Egypt and Italy and a hope for a future.

I found it an interesting read, it made me want to revisit the Aeneid. However I didn't find the characters all that compelling, there were moments where I engaged but the engagement slipped, still I was pulled through the tale and enjoyed the read.