Sacrifice

Continuing the story of the Trojan War. This volume continues to look at the build-up to the war itself; there are some initial skirmishes and conflicts, and we see how close the war comes to not happening, as the fragile alliance between the different groups of Acheans tries to keep itself together.

What's really interesting here is how Showalter depicts the Greek belief in fate. We're dealing with kings and legendary heroes here - the types of people that you would assume would be strong, commanding people - and they're unable to move, or to come to a consensus, without a sign from the fates that their course of action is right, and without confirmation that the gods will be on their side. Often people writing historical stories write them as a reflection of their own society, but Showalter doesn't do that - he's telling the story from a very classical Greek sensibility, which helps to show how well-thought out and researched this story is.