Black Ships, by Jo Graham

This book is quite out of left field for me, as it was set as reading by the book club. I read it because I wanted to have a go at reading at loeast one of the set reading texts just to see what it was like.

Ordinarily I don't read books by female authors. This is not mysogyny, I just find that female books infuriate me and this was no exception. This book is a retelling of Virgil's The Aenid through the eyes of a slave girl, Gull, who becomes a priestess. Herein lies the problem. Everything simply happens TO Gull, not BECAUSE of Gull. All the decisions about where to sail the fleet, what to do etc. are decided outside of her control, and she is simply swept along with events. For me, a retelling of the Aenid should give me an insight into why Prince Aeneas decided to do what he did. I didn't get that from this book. This concept of simply being a passenger to the whims of fate is the impression I get from the great majority of female authors. Like everything else this feeling does not hold 100% true, but it holds true enough that I rarely get interested to read more than the blurb on the back of most female author's novels.

The novel seems historically accurate but Ms Graham has small lapses of attention which devalue the action. For example, the fleet of ships docks at the free port of Millewanda to buy back some Trojan slaves that were sold there. To do this they agree to escort a merchant convoy to Byblos because no ship has been able to make the voyage for several years without being attacked by pirates. This gives them the ability to buy the slaves and the motive to go to Byblos, as per the Aenid. But once this modus operandi is established, the threat of pirates is forgotten and they simply cruise to Byblos and never mention it again!

Ultimately I did enjoy this book. It didn't grate on me or slow me down, but it could have been better. A lot better.