Tenía pendiente esta autora hace mucho tiempo, pero ha sido gracias al club de novela histórica que por fin la he descubierto, sólo me arrepiento de no haberlo hecho antes, una obra maestra, la recomiendo a todo aquel que disfrute de la novela histórica.

Aprecio muito esta escritora; li Pássaros Feridos e Tim e dei 5 e 4 estrelas respectivamente.

Segundo consta, quem está a iniciar leituras sobre a Grécia Antiga fica encantado com esta história, escrita com competência e muita dinâmica e foram exactamente essas as razões por a ter escolhido.

Achei muito curiosa esta narrativa que é feita a partir de tantas vozes abrangendo assim tantos ponto de vista; conectamo-nos com cada um, com o que lhes vai na alma e o que os move.

Esta época é verdadeiramente fascinante muito por culpa dos Deuses e da sua enorme influência.

"Os meus olhos ergueram-se para os diáfanos e majestosos picos do distante Ida e perguntei-me se os deuses não teriam abandonado o Olimpo para se sentarem nas alturas do Ida a fim de assistirem à batalha. Aquela era uma guerra digna do seu interesse(…)Apolo, Afrodite, Ártemis e outros eram adeptos fervorosos de Tróia, ao passo que Zeus, Poseidon, Hera e Palas Antena eram a favor da Grécia. Ninguém sabia ao certo de que lado estava Ares, o Senhor da Guerra, pois embora os Gregos fossem o povo que mais havia espalhado o seu culto, a verdade é que Afrodite, a secreta amante de Ares, apoiava Tróia. Hefaísto, o marido de Afrodite, era muito naturalmente, favorável à Grécia." Pág. 305

A narrativa vai fluindo com uma intensificação e uma magnitude que nos vai deixando pregados ao chão (mesmo conhecendo o desfecho).

Deslumbra-me esta têmpera destemida destes homens. Desta lealdade a toda à prova, seja a um juramento, a uma causa, a um (ou mais) companheiro de luta.

Vislumbramos actos de coragem que se transformam em verdadeiros actos heróicos.

Personagens que são extraordinários estrategas, vestindo a pele que lhes convém a cada momento e com muita argúcia levam a água ao seu moinho. Subversivos e esquivos ou altivos e poderosos, submetem a sua vontade a fim de conquistar a vitória.

"A sua mente era uma entidade prodigiosa; num ápice, era capaz de captar a mais intrincada das verdades." Pág. 168
"Ulisses era um homem verdadeiramente notável." Pág. 201
"- Que espécie de homem és tu Ulisses, para conseguires congeminar tão profunda desordem? É um plano hediondo – e assombroso!" Pág. 278
"Os homens que não conheciam Ulisses, a Raposa de Ítaca, tinham tendência a subestima-lo devido às estranhas proporções do seu corpo e ao aspecto imundo, quase que ignóbil, que ele cultivava sempre que achava adequado." Pág. 308

Colleen MCCullough reúne tantas e tão maravilhosas e intricadas personagens numa não menos poderosa história que só poderia criar este efeito impactante: 5 estrelas!

The Song of Troy is a retelling of the Trojan War by one of the giants of historical fiction, Collen McCullough. It traces the origins of the war, the initial assaults on Troy and the conclusion of the war through alternating points of view from various figures in the story.

This is the first time I've read Colleen McCullough and the Trojan War is not a topic I know a lot about, though one I am interested by. That said, The Song of Troy was a disappointment for me.

I enjoyed McCullough's use of the multiple POV chapters. It's a stylistic choice that I've believed can work really well with historical fiction, especially with stories set around infamous or controversial events, as it can provide a range of "sides" to these events. However, McCullough's use of it wasn't perfect – I felt the Trojan POV was neglected, and the "voice" of each POV felt too similar to one another. McCullough's writing style also didn't work for me, as it felt borderline campy in its effort to sound historical.

The characterisations of all major figures felt superficial – none of the characters felt likeable or even sympathetic. It didn't help that after reading Caroline Alexander's The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War, I wanted something that explored the themes Alexander raised, and instead of a thoughtful consideration of war, McCullough's focus is on the glorification of Achilles the Warrior.

Most of the time, I was appalled by how the few women in this story appeared: greedy and power-hungry, vapid nymphomaniacs, shrill "why must you do the brave thing" nags, and women whose entire lives are defined by their man. Ugh. There were hints of depth in their characterisation and struggles, but most of the time it's that shallow. I also didn't enjoy how McCullough treated Patrokles, turning him from Achilles' devoted friend, cousin and lover to a jealous harpy.

Although there are some strengths in this retelling, it left me cold.

Para no ser tan negativa, voy a poner alguna nota buena, empezando por libros que he leido y sí me han gustado sobre la mitica guerra de Troya.
Muy bien escrita, contada y desarrollada, tanto la historia como los personajes. Un autentico ejercicio de desarrollo de personajes sin caer en el maniqueismo. Incluso saber de algunos que en otros textos, no sabriamos nada de ellos como le ocurre a Briseida, la esclava favorita de Aquiles. Tal vez se tome ciertas licencias pero como el resultado no altera el producto, y deja la esencia casi intacta, todo eso se agardece.
Aqui ya no tenemos al bruto Aquiles que solo piensa en matar sin distincion. ni a un Agamenon tan perverso ni ambicioso, ni un Diomedes tan brutal ni salvaje, ni una Helena victima del destino por su belleza, si no que más bien, frivola y egoista, y a consecuencia de ese egoismo, y por aburrimiento es capaz de abandonar a un buen hombre que tiene por marido y marcharse con el frivolo e igualmente egoista Paris. ¿Quiero decir que estos personajes no tienen defectos? porr supuesto, muchos, muchisimos, pero esto es el factor humano y la escritora acierta casi de pleno.
Se nota que Aquiles es el centro de la historia pero para mí el personaje mejor desarrollado, sin ninguna duda, es Ulises, el verdadero genio de esta guerra.

Tal vez una pequeña pega es que exagera el caracter marcial de Hector. Sí, Hector es el paradigma de todo lo que es honorable en la guerra, la otra cara de la misma moneda que Aquiles, pero al contrario que aquel, Hector lucha por su patria y su familia y no tanto para su propia gloria. El está luchando en una guerra que el no ha provocado ni deseado pero que debe combatir para que su mundo no se destruya.

Por lo demás, muy recomendable.

Colleen McCullough gives us a modern retelling of the ancient story, which on the surface is about war but really is about what makes us human – valor, love, loyalty, pride, leadership and deceit.

McCullough’s pacing is great; the action moves along so quickly it’s hard to find a place to put the book down. She starts off 30 years before the war to set up the story and characters. This is in my opinion the strongest part of the book, perhaps because the author’s strengths seem to be historical research and plot construction, rather than character development or beautiful prose. McCullough includes arguably all the important events, embellishing them as she sees fit, and even manages to insert a major plot twist. But by the time she gets to the final chapters - the part most readers know play by play - it feels like she is struggling a bit to dress up the story with new ideas.

The Iliad and other accounts involve the Greek gods as active characters – if you are hoping to see Apollo, Zeus and Athena sitting on the walls of Troy and intervening for their favorites you will be disappointed here. The gods are present only as mortals see a divine hand in events, and McCullough’s mortals tend toward atheism.

Yes, there are too many Greeks to keep straight; McCullough addresses this somewhat by having different characters narrate the chapters. It works, although, with the possible exception of Helen, everyone sounds like Colleen McCullough.

She makes a good effort to include the voices of women in a story where mortal woman’s role has been passive object. All the female characters are intelligent and strong, and they all see things the men miss. If other reviewers have seen McCullough’s Helen as “a sex kitten,” I would argue that vision is in the eye of the beholder. McCullough’s story keeps sex and even romance mostly at arm’s length – especially the relationship between Achilles and Patrokles is strangely devoid of sensuality.

If you like Bernard Cornwell, Margaret George, Mary Renault or James Clavell, or if you like Greek mythology or even ancient history in general, you will likely enjoy The Song of Troy.

I am a big fan of McCullough's series set in Ancient Rome, so I was looking forward to diving into her version of the Trojan war. Unfortunately, it was a big let down for me.

At first it was all right. McCullough is a good storyteller, and I liked that the story was told through different point of views; this is one of my favourite types of narration because it gives a complete view of the story and allows the reader to know many characters intimately.

However, after a while I started to lose interest in the story, and towards the end I had to skip pages to finish the book. My main problem were the characters themselves: they were all extremely unlikeable but not in a compelling way. Even those who seemed interesting, like Briseis, turn out to be very one-dimensional as the story goes on: Briseis hates Achilles and the other greeks and then suddenly she is madly in love with him? The only positive figure was Achilles who, on the other hand, was too good to be true. The narratives voices also sounded the same, it was quite hard to distinguish them (except maybe the ones who were particularly annoying, like Helen).

One thing I really liked was how McCullough explained and portrayed the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles, it was very clever. However, it was only a good point in an overall disappointing read.

A brief version tying together the various fragments of the Trojan story. Given it's such a large story this relatively short book flies through major events. There isn't much gravity given to -- well anything so the final fall of Troy itself seems like something to just get over with, rather than the devastating destruction of the noble Trojans.

The decision to make Achilles' famous sulk an Odysseus hatched plan which he had secretly agreed to didn't sit at all well with me. Achilles is now a savvy schemer? I think the more petulant version of Achilles makes a lot more sense.

Still waiting for Stephen Fry's version which I hope will be the definitive book of Troy.

I had to order this from Amazon UK as it has not been published in the US; it was worth every penny & after reading the paperback I ordered the hardback version so I could loan the paperback. This is more approachable than the Odyssey and Iliad, bringing to life the stories of Greek heroes & villains other than just Achilles & Hector, Odysseus & Agamemnon, and fleshes out the the women as well: Helen, Iphigenia, Clytemnestra, Cassandra and more. I would recommend this to anyone who appreciates stories that span generations with intrigue, passions, revenge, honor & foolishness. The fact that the story has been told for centuries and yet still feels new is a testament to McCullough's ability to re-tell the tale.

La canción de Troya, escrita por la recién fallecida Colleen McCullough narra la historia de la guerra de Troya y los acontecimientos previos a esta. Esta es una lectura obligada para los amantes de la historia y la mitología, este libro mezcla perfectamente los textos Homéricos como La Ilíada y la Odisea con la Eneida de Virgilio, entre otros importantes textos antiguos. La belleza de este libro es que la pluma de la autora es liviana, ágil y hermosa, relata cada episodio del libro desde la perspectiva de sus protagonistas, empezando con Príamo, Paris, Héctor, Helena, Aquiles, Odiseo, Agamenón entre otros y terminando con Neoptólemo el hijo de Aquiles. Gracias a ello, podemos seguir la historia desde el punto de vista de cada personaje.
Sin duda alguna, este libro es uno de los mejores que he leído en mi vida, fácilmente a la altura de los de Santiago Posteguillo. Que hermosa y gratificante lectura. Gracias Colleen,por regalarnos este libro, que estés en paz en donde quieras que te encuentres.

Expected more from this.
Entertaining enough amalgam of pretty much every ancient source even vaguely related to the Trojan war, which was fun...spot the source.
Told from many view points, but little to difference in the tone/flavour of each chapter, may as well have all been from one POV.

As versões da guerra de Troia multiplicam-se tantas vezes quantas é contada.
Esta não foi das minhas favoritas; não gostei muito do tratamento dado à maior parte dos acontecimentos, e ainda menos das características atribuídas a cada personagem.
Colleen McCullough escreveu dois dos meus livros favoritos da vida e, malgrado alguma decepção, também neste encontrei o nível de ação, intriga e suspense esperados. O problema esteve mesmo na comparação com outras histórias troianas.
Apesar de tudo, considero uma boa aposta para quem não conheça a história e queira iniciar-se neste género de temática.

This book was just...not great. The format had potential. I enjoyed the idea of various POVs for different stages of the war. However, beyond that, it fell flat. Characters were wildly inconsistent and just terribly written.

The worst offender was Helen. She was written as a terrible caricature of a 'loose woman', with no emotional depth or nuance that was present in the original Iliad. She was presented as a selfish, vapid, sex-obsessed and cruel. She did not grow or change at all over the course of the book, unlike in the Iliad, and this iteration certainly did her no justice.

Everyone else was also written in varying levels of terrible and just outright shameful, when compared to their classic counterparts. Patroclus is written as a 'creepy gay stalker' trope, who is obsessed with Achilles. Achilles, on the other hand, is written as emotionally vacant and distant, a complete departure from his proud and sensitive self, from the Homeric texts.

I could go on, but this book was just awful. If you have any basic knowledge of the classical texts, or you just enjoy characters who aren't horribly written, then avoid this book. If you like to read about slut shaming and misogyny, then maybe you'll like this book.