ESTHER FRIESNER PRINCESSES OF MYTH 3

As Friesner herself compares in her afterword, among the Princesses of Myth, Maeve is most like Helen. Nefertiti and Himiko were historical figures, but Helen and Maeve are in the realm of myth and legend. 

Deception's Princess is a wild ride of constant changes. Set around 1st Century Ireland, Maeve is the sixth daughter of the man who becomes the high king shortly after the book begins when she's only five. Her father offers her and her sisters five cows apiece if they'll get along while he's gone on a cattle raid. Maeve decides to choose her own cows, then determines to have her father's prize black bull. She does end up marking the bull by cutting off part of its tail hair and is almost killed while fleeing the enraged animal, but is saved by luck and her removed dress untying itself from around her neck and flying into the bull's face. Thus, Maeve becomes her father's favorite. Though she never does get the bull.

As she grows older, Maeve's sisters leave for fostering, which is some bizarre practice where other royal households raise your kids and you raise theirs. Yeah, I don't get it. Maeve's father keeps her at home though and she comes to realize it's because she's his prize. As she calls it, she's the true "hero's portion," the biggest reward her father will give someone in the future because she comes tied to the kingdom of Connacht. 

There are several plotlines that take place over the course of the book. I'll highlight the main ones.

Young Maeve wants one of her father's men to train her in fighting. During a gathering, a wolfhound belonging to one of the high-ranked men attacks a hound's puppies and the pregnant girlfriend of Maeve's fight trainer. Maeve steps in to save the girlfriend (she's a maid of some kind) and wards off the dog until one of her father's men arrives and kills it. Naturally, there's undeserved punishment going on because it's never the highborn asshole's fault. Maeve's fight trainer ends up having to reveal himself and shortly after ends up dead in what was basically a duel. His girlfriend and their child don't survive childbirth. Maeve is heartbroken by all this. 

Then a druid and his son arrive. Maeve is drawn to the son, who enjoys rehabilitating wild animals more than learning to be a druid. (I almost typing "learning druidity." Just gonna make up words.) Maeve is unhappy to see the level of power the druid wields over her father and the growing relationship between Maeve and the son leads to a huge conflict. This culminates in the asshole druid following the pair to the area they've set up as a rehab and he just kills animals in cold blood, including the pet fox his son had for years. And the repercussions? Zero. Because Maeve's father is a huge pussy. I actually dreaded rereading this book because of that animal slaughter scene. It's not graphic but it is terrible to read. I'm still hoping she somehow gets revenge on that fucker, but I have a feeling she won't. Sigh. Points off for killing animals as a plotline, Friesner. It's always weak. So Maeve's faith in her father is seriously shaken, the druid and his son leave, and Maeve is lost. 

Her mother is pregnant and then gives birth to triplets. Therefore Maeve realizes she's no longer the hero's portion. Stupid incidents lead to her being sung about badly in bards' songs and the friend of the family bard goes off to the kingdom of the guy who started the worst of the rumors in an attempt to squash them. He ends up being taken prisoner and a messenger comes to Maeve's father saying he wants to take her in fosterage in exchange for the bard's life. This guy's been working against her father for a bit now and Maeve's seen through him the entire time, so she's off on her own to team up with three of her father's men and use trickery to capture the bad guy, rescue the bard, and save the day. And she totally pulls it off in a fairly realistic manner. However, one of the men is the guy who killed her fight trainer way back when and she's never forgiven him, but she sees how tortured he is by what he'd done all those years ago. She gets him to tell her the whole story. Basically, her father was so angry that her fight trainer agreed to train her which gave her skills that would put her in danger that he forced this man to set the fight trainer up in a duel and kill him. So here's yet another way her father now looks horrible to Maeve. Once she meets up with him again, he offers her a reward for saving the day and she chooses fosterage. 

One of the animals she and the druid's son helped rehab was a kestrel that she was particularly fond of. She had thought the druid killed her, but she learned from her bard that people train birds of prey and that in one realm, there was a kestrel with a bracelet made of red hair around its ankle. A bracelet made of Maeve's own hair, she realized. So Maeve requests to be fostered in that kingdom so she can find her beloved Ea once again. It helps that the kingdom is run by her mother's best friend's cousin. So that's what the second book is going to be about. 

This is the only book in the series I hadn't ever read before. I got about half through then took a few weeks' break, but now I've finished it tonight. 

Maeve's life in her new fosterage position isn't great. She's got to get used to being around girls her age and having less freedom, but she handles that rather well at the beginning. She also sneaks off to visit Ea and ends up befriending Kian, the "prince" of her new home. 

The new cast of characters ends up being mostly unpleasant. One of the three other fosterlings is an overweight, weak-willed follower of a girl. The other two are a haughty bitch who thinks she's better than everyone and the palace slut. Honestly, I'm not typically a slut-shamer, but in the olden days when you're looking for a husband, it probably doesn't help to be so desperate to find one that you screw half the warriors in the place. Things start out somewhat well with these girls, but when the fourth one comes back home, things go sour. She's the nasty ringleader who gets mad if anyone else gets a compliment. Worse, she's the sister of Maeve's childhood fight trainer. Their relationship is rocky at the start because this mean girl likes the prince who likes Maeve, but when the mean girl finds out Maeve is the one who got her brother killed, no matter how inadvertently, she uses her mean girl powers to make the others join her in making Maeve's life a physically and emotionally abusive living hell. It was really hard to read how these little bitches all ganged up on Maeve and then how the lady of the ringfort did jack shit about it. The only good characters in this place were an older lady and the prince himself. He's not the greatest, being kind of a stereotypical dumb guy, but he was better than the others. 

Maeve naturally ends up being pursued by both Kian, the prince, and perhaps more surprisingly by Conchobar, the son of the man Maeve's father killed at the end of the first book. She ends up with neither, as she's still focused on Odran, her first love. When Odran's father, the asshole who killed their animals in the first book, visits Maeve's new home, he begs for her forgiveness, though it's more because he feels a goddess is punishing him for what he did than for any real remorse. Maeve learns that Odran is sick and makes a spur of the moment decision to travel by herself on foot with the falcon to go see him. Not her best idea. She does make it there and has some solid alone time with Odran, but then Friesner goes all Louisa May Alcott and just makes them...not love each other. You'd think after all the time they spent together in the first book and how heated their reunion was that they'd end up together, but no. There's really zero explanation for it. They try to use sex to continue to be together, but both of them realize they're not each other's person. Again, really weird and out of nowhere. I mean, it's like that sometimes, but there's usually a reason that's explained. Maeve decides to return home, which upsets Odran, even though he knows they have no hope. They end up journeying back with his father and Odran takes sick on the way. They get him to the nearest kingdom for aid...which happens to be Conchobar's. 

Then Maeve...just now...starts freaking out that she should have sent word to her father and her fostering father that she was alive. She goes to a big meeting with Conchobar and ends up foiling a plot against her father by making up a tall tale to save everyone's ass. And everyone buys it. Maeve's father decides she deserves her own realm to rule, so she goes back to get her things from her fosterage and tell the little bitches off. But it's not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. She takes the high road too often. 

So Odran returns to learn to be a healer and that romance is over. Maeve sets her falcon free and realizes she's free herself and she got there by her own hand. 

These weren't awful, but I'd say they're by far the least interesting of the series. Lots of elements in them that I didn't care for. 

ESTHER FRIESNER PRINCESSES OF MYTH 2

 
I'm finalizing the book and doll arrangement for one of my historical fiction bookcases, so I'm working my way through some rereads (and a few first reads). I just finished My Story, so now I'm on to the Esther Friesner Princesses of Myth series. I tackled Helen of Troy months ago and then reread Sphinx's Princess here, but only just finished the sequel tonight. 

We know very, very little about the historical Nefertiti, so pretty much all of these two books is fiction. It was a fun read though. 

Sphinx's Princess begins with Nefertiti, who is very beautiful, leading her regular life. Her father is the brother of Pharaoh's Great Royal Wife, Tiye, and she sends for Nefertiti to become the wife to her son, Thutmose. 

Most of this series is palace intrigue. Nefertiti founds herself trapped in it. She and Thutmose don't really care for each other. Nefertiti's main friends are Henenu, the palace scribe who is a friend of her father's and became her writing instructor, and Nava, a young Hebrew (Habiru) slave. Nava's older sister saved Nefertiti from drowning but was killed for it by her master, so Nava ends up in Nefertiti's care. Eventually, Nefertiti and Sitamun, one of Amenhotep and Tiye's daughters, become friends. And then also Amenophis joins their little group. Amenophis is actually Amenhotep IV, who would become Akhenaten. 

The drama comes to a head near the end when Thutmose schemes to kill Nefertiti. She escapes with help from her friends.

Sphinx's Queen picks up with Amenophis, Nefertiti and Nava on the run. They're on their way to Thebes to get help from Amenhotep. So the first part of this book is adventure and rather fast-paced. The second half is right back into the land of palace intrigue. It drags on a bit too much. Amenophis and Nefertiti are in love, but Tiye still wants her to marry Thutmose, even though his multiple plans to kill Nefertiti have all failed. So Tiye schemes to keep everyone apart. Nefertiti eventually befriends Thutmose, though it isn't easy, and she, he and Amenophis end up as friends. Sadly, this doesn't last. Thutmose dies and it is only then that Tiye becomes human again. She wants Amenophis and Nefertiti to marry and even brings Nefertiti's family to finally see her after blocking their communication for ages. The book ends with Nefertiti and Amenophis happily married. Amenhotep is still alive, but Amenophis has plans for his eventual rule. There were hints throughout the book about the corruption of the priests and Nefertiti's constantly questioning religion. 

I enjoyed both of these and really loved the characters. Even Thutmose ends up decent, though the standouts to me are Sitamun, Amenophis, Nava, and Nefertiti herself. I do wish the plot had been a bit better in the second one though. I think they could have done more talking about Amenophis's plans and the corruption of the priests. Things that would have made it more clear that he planned major changes for Egypt. That would have been more interesting than endless palace intrigue. And it wouldn't have taken but a couple pages to make that improvement. 

ESTHER FRIESNER PRINCESSES OF MYTH 1

Continuing with my Greek theme for another post. There will be one more after this and then I'm switching locations. 

I read almost all of Esther Friesner's Princesses of Myth series before. The only one I never finished was the last one she wrote and I'll get to that this time. 

The series is in pairs of books, each about a mythical/historical female figure. The first pair set chronologically is about Nefertiti, but I decided to skip her in my reread and go right to the second pair of books, which is about Helen. I will get back to Nefertiti after I finish reading one more Greek book. 

Friesner takes an odd approach to Helen, who's of course most often associated with her great beauty and not so great loyalty. She turns Helen into a beautiful child but then an awkward young girl who only grows more beautiful again as she goes through puberty throughout both books. Helen's twin Clytemnestra is the more typical female princess character, while Helen is turned into a tomboy, who wants to learn sword-fighting and such like her older brothers. 

Helen gets into the habit early of dressing as a boy to get away with what she wants to do. She is allowed to learn sword-fighting and other warrior practices. Leda, her mother, tells her how she was a huntress while growing up in Calydon. 

Clytemnestra is betrothed to a prince of Mycenae and Helen travels there along with her sister and two brothers. From there, Helen and her brothers are off to Calydon to take part in the Calydonian boar hunt. Helen meets Atalanta there, who helps her learn to ride horses. 

On their return home, Helen and her brothers stop in Delphi, where the twin boys end up joining Jason on his quest for the golden fleece. Helen doesn't want to be left behind and comes up with a plot that allows her to go along on the quest, unknown to her brothers and once again in male disguise. Helen is assisted by the Pythia of Delphi, who was one of my favorite characters in both books, and Milo, a slave boy freed by Helen in Calydon. 

The second book spends a lot of time following the trials of the Argonauts. Helen remains in her male disguise for a good chunk of the book, but is finally betrayed when she gets her period for the first time. She then claims to be Atalanta, which a lot of the sailors know isn't true but they go along with it for the prestige it will add to the quest. 

When they arrive in Colchis, Helen has a new problem: Medea. The young girl is crazed with love for Jason...but she's also just plain off her rocker and portrayed as a rather demented, obsessive poisoner. 

To escape Medea's attempts on her life, Helen dons her male disguise once more and heads for home alongside Milo. However, there's trouble in Athens and Helen soon finds herself in Theseus' clutches. Theseus has never been shown as a good character in either of these books, which is nice to see, considering he's one of those "hero" types. Helen eventually escapes and finally makes her way home. 

The thing I like best about these two books is how Friesner creates realistic things that could have inspired the myths. She puts "Atalanta" in the Argonauts without using the actual Atalanta. The hydra was a knot of swamp snakes. The harpies were female warriors. Orpheus is one of the Argonauts and he says often how the truth doesn't make for the best story. 

I did like these, but I find Helen an odd choice for this tomboy warrior princess. I suppose it works. I would have preferred to read about Atalanta though. My main problem is that Friesner turns Helen into a smart, cunning, strong woman who doesn't seem like she would turn into a complete idiot around Paris, run off and start a war. Helen loses her head over Hylas for a time on the Argo, but not to the extent that it's believable that she would so willingly abandon her husband and daughter in Sparta to run off with Paris. So yeah, my main criticism is that Helen became too strong a character for you to believe the future that would be hers.