Horses of Fire is a Trojan War retelling from the perspective of three of the women in the city; Andromache, Helen and Rhea.  

I accessed this story in audiobook format and the performance was flawless.  Each point of view had its own narrator who narrated the story in such a powerful and passionate manner.  Their voices were able to convey so much about each character, like Andromaches strength and resolve, Helen’s exasperation and Rhea’s innocence and hero worship of Andromache and Hector.

I think that listening to this book, knowing full well what happens to most of the characters raises the stakes even more.  Each of the characters are written in a manner that illicit emotion from the audience; they are well rounded, complex women who all fill different roles.  Andromaches inner turmoil between being a dutiful wife and the warrior she was raised to be was so authentic.  Rhea’s innocence even after traumatic experiences and her connection with horses was beautiful.  This iteration of Helen was unlike any I had read before, her devotion as a healer and a mother was at the forefront of her characterisation and there was none of the vanity and anarchy in her that I have read in other versions of her.  What it had in common with other fictional retellings was that Hector is the only redeemable male character and Paris is trash.  Utter.  Trash.

While I am quite familiar with the source material, I do not know it backwards and forwards.  As a result, any changes that were made to allow for the flow of the story weren’t overly obvious or grating to me.  The sense of immersion into the ancient world was strong, with rich description on the layout of the city, the food, clothing, weapons and homes painting a clear picture of Troy.  I really liked how the story looked at the geographic location of Troy and the connections to Hittite culture and background, it was something that I have rarely come across in fictional retellings.

I loved this book and I can’t wait for more! Perfect for fans of Ancient History, Greek Mythology and stories about women’s experiences.