W.I.T.C.H. Part 2: Nerissa's Revenge

Well, I'm totally hooked on these. I have volumes 4-9 on hand and I wouldn't be surprised if I got them all done tomorrow. I'm quite possibly going to finish the Nerissa story arc tonight. I'm writing these volume by volume this time to keep things more fresh in my head. 

So the first three issues of this volume are one story arc that leads into the Nerissa arc, which begins with the fourth issue contained here. 

In the first three issues, the guardians are fighting amongst themselves for no real good reason. Cornelia is depressed over Caleb and obsessively watches over his flower form in her fancy apartment home. Her friends are worried about her, but Irma sticks her foot in her mouth as usual and things go from bad to worse.

Frost the Hunter from Meridien stalks the girls for a short time, something that affects Taranee the most at first. She actually has a great showing in this volume and is way more brave, as well as instrumental in bringing the girls back together.  

Meanwhile, Will finally learns that her mother plans to transfer. Things are so bad between them that she thinks a move is the only answer, but Will fights her on it. I'd be furious, too, if I was 14 and my mom didn't even consult me about moving again. Yeesh. Will's mom is the biggest struggle to like as a parent. Taranee's mom is gaining on her though. 

The girls minus Cornelia go to Will's mother's office to try to steal a document of transfer. Yeah, it's a ridiculous plan. It's made worse by the fact that the girls' powers are weakened by their fighting and Luba, the guardian of their power droplets back in Kandrakar, is actively working against them. She merges the four girls' droplets, stripping them of their powers and creating a changeling out of them. Said changeling hunts Cornelia down and merges with her, so all five powers are within one girl. 

Cornelia's big plan? She feels so strong that she tries to resurrect Caleb. Luba arrives and the two face off. Luna's intervention seems to ruin Cornelia's attempt and Luba brings them all to Kandrakar for judgment. She leaves Cornelia and the partially reformed Caleb alone, where Cornelia's tears are able to return Caleb to human form. They have a cute reunion. Their relationship is based on them dreaming of each other, but weak as that sounds, it still somehow works. I do like them together. 

The other four girls go to rescue Cornelia and find the aftermath of the battle between her and Luba. Their renewed friendship mends their powers and they're able to use the Heart to travel to Kandrakar, where they're officially repowered. Luba had been trying to remove the girls as guardians because she thought they were failures, but the Oracle says what they did proved their worth. Cornelia and Caleb then stand a brief trial. Caleb returns Cornelia's Earth powers to her, something she apparently transferred to him during some point of his resurrection. Caleb also offers to remain in Kandrakar and work for them. The council agrees and the defeated Luba teleports away in a rage. Caleb is tasked with finding her, so he and Cornelia say goodbye again. 

This was a nice lead-up to the main story arc. Irma had the weakest showing of the five, while the other girls were all pretty decent with Cornelia and Taranee being the best. 

Then in the last issue of the volume, the girls are off on vacation with Irma's mom and Irma's little brother. While there, the girls discuss Will and Matt. I haven't said a word about these two. They have an odd relationship. He's drawn to her but also liked an older girl briefly, which Will didn't take well. Her astral drop also made a mess of things for a while. (I really dislike the astral drops.) Will and Matt have a lot of communication issues, though they seem to be doing better during this issue. 

While napping on the beach, Will has a dream that leaves a mark burned onto her wrist. The five are off to Kandrakar for answers, which they get from Yan Lin. Have I mentioned Yan Lin? I really didn't cover the first volumes very well. Alas. Yan Lin was Hay's grandmother. She died early in the first story arc, but as a former guardian, she lives (afterlives?) in Kandrakar now, so Hay still gets to see her. I really like Yan Lin. Anyway, she explains that the symbol on Will is the mark of Nerissa and removes it from Will. Nerissa was one of the former guardians in the same group as Yan. She lists their names: herself, Nerissa, Halinor, Kadma and Cassidy. Nerissa was the keeper of the Heart like Will until she went rogue and was banished. She was trapped in a place called Thanos (ah, Marvel), but could resurrect if the five elements ever combined. Yep, that's what the three previous issues were about. Their main purposes were to bring Caleb back and to activate Nerissa's return. 

Nerissa transforms a dog into a beastly warrior she names Khor and she sends him after the guardians, particularly Hay. The girls are able to defeat him, but this is clearly just the beginning. 

Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay, Will, Taranee, Irma.

The first issue begins with the end of the guardians' week vacation together. As they go their mostly separate ways, Nerissa talks to Khor, telling him that it's thanks to Caleb that she's resurrected. It wasn't the five powers in Cornelia that did it, but when she transferred copies of them to Caleb during his own resurrection. She creates three more Knights of Vengeance to aid Khor. 

Back at home, Cornelia isn't pleased to meet an old friend of her mother's, who's coming along with them to a spa. This issue definitely cemented Cornelia's dad as my favorite of the parents. He's hilarious. 

At Will's, Caleb surprises her, saying Cornelia's in danger because the old friend of her mother's is actually Luba in disguise. Will leaves her astral drop behind while she and Caleb head for the spa where Cornelia will be. There are some nice bonding moments between Will and Caleb. This is about the most we've seen of his character yet. The two find Cornelia just in time for Luba to attack Caleb, but she in turn is struck down by two of Nerissa's knights. Embers is a volcanic rock woman and Tridart is an ice man. Taranee, Hay and Irma run into problems reaching the spa, so Will uses a new power she learned from Caleb (having those copies of the girls' powers in him) and teleports the three to where she, Caleb and Cornelia are in the middle of a battle. Shagon, the fourth knight, then arrives. He used to be human and he owned the dog that Nerissa turned into Khor. Shagon is hate, so any attack fueled by hatred strengthens him. The three knights teleport away with Caleb, leaving Cornelia devastated. The guardians take a regretful Luba to Kandrakar for judgment. 

The next issue starts with the girls back at school, which is odd because it was just the beginning of summer. Hay Lin has met a boy named Eric. I love Eric. But it's clear the guardians aren't thinking of Caleb or Nerissa or anything but their own lives. 

Why? Because the friggin' Oracle erased all those memories! His excuse was that the girls weren't ready to face Nerissa, but this is still fucked up. 

Meanwhile, Nerissa has Caleb trapped. 

And back to school drama life. Matt sees Eric and thinks he's with Will, so he's rude to her and she takes it badly. She's a wreck. Then Eric happens to bond with Martin, Nigel and Matt, and reveals he likes Hay and he thinks "Will has a thing for guitarists." 

Then back to Nerissa, who finally decides the time has come to be fully reborn. She takes the copies of the guardians' powers from Caleb and a piece of the life she gave to each knight. She's returned to her younger form. Caleb escapes and is found by Luba, who protects him. While they're fighting, the guardians suddenly remember everything and rush to Kandrakar to yell at the Oracle, but he sends them to help Caleb and Luba. Luba takes on Nerissa herself and makes the guardians leave with Caleb. Nerissa of course kills her, but her sacrifice evens out all the wrong she's done. I actually liked Luba as a character so I was sad to see her go instead of get better redemption, but it's still pretty good. 

The third issue has the guardians all exhausted from Nerissa's constant attacks on their dreams. Everyone is trying to figure out what to do. Hay finds a letter in her grandmother's things signed with a K, so she and Will embark on a trip to meet Kadma, one of the old guardians from Yan Lin's team. 

I love the designs for the old guardians. You sadly barely get to see them, but there's one illustration with full-body poses for Kadma, Yan, Cassidy and Halinor. I particularly love the outfits for Yan and Halinor. 

Will and Hay teleport to Fadden Hills, where Will used to live and coincidentally Kadma still does. Kadma runs a foundation called Rising Star that helps orphans. Will happens to know some of those orphans as one of her teachers and a swimming coach. These people all were put into place to guide her gently and they all reported back...to Halinor. Kadma says they started Rising Star together but now she's alone, so presumably she's the only living ex-guardian aside from Nerissa. Kadma gives Will Halinor's diary, which she wanted Will to have. Kadma says it's the only reason she let them in. She's very cold and says she was once the earth guardian, so Hay compares her to Cornelia. Hay happens to whistle a tune that's been running through her head and it causes Kadma to collapse. Kadma says a former guardian composed the tune and called it Nerissa's Song. She adds that it's an alarm siren that Nerissa is after revenge. Kadma explains that she was trying to forget her past. She says the Oracle knew Nerissa couldn't hold the Heart of Kandrakar anymore and offered it to Cassidy, which led to Nerissa killing Cassidy. (Nerissa has a great guardian outfit.) Devastated by Cassidy's murder, Halinor and Kadma confronted the Oracle and blamed her death on him. That's why they're not allowed in Kandrakar. 

Back in Heatherfield, the girls all discuss what's happened. Then Hay gets a letter from Kadma saying Nerissa lives in nightmares and that's her strength but also her weakness. The five decide to have a sleepover and take on Nerissa together. Hay and Will take Halinor's diary to Eric's grandfather, who's an astronomer. He says it will take time to decipher. Then it's time for the sleepover. The plan seems to work fine. The girls fight Nerissa in the dreamworld, she gets trapped in the Heart and it appears that she destroys herself, but when they wake up, Hay insists she can still hear Nerissa's Song. 

In the fourth issue, Ms. Rudolph is retiring and the school is throwing her a party. The stress of everything has made Will paranoid, jealous and rather mean. Shagon takes possession of Ms. Rudolph, and uses the teacher to drive the girls into a confrontation. Will sees how horrible she's been and runs off, trapping the others in a room and preventing them from following her. Once outside, she runs into Matt...and tells him everything. She even shows him the Heart and he asks if he can hold it. She lets him and he collapses as an image of Nerissa rises from him. Nerissa takes the Heart and everyone is okay. The girls' bond is restored, though Will seriously needs more of a talking to than she's getting here.

Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay, Taranee, Irma/Will. 

Yeah, these issues were not good for Will except the first one. It's only that issue that's keeping her tied with Irma for the bottom spot and not fully on the bottom. I don't even dislike Irma. It's just that she rarely does anything. Taranee's continuing to improve, but she's still nowhere near Hay and Cornelia.

Will is moping because she lost the Heart while Nerissa is moving on Kandrakar. Eric's uncle says he finally finished translating the diary, but it must be a joke, because there is no star where the diary says. He also mentions the star is named Cassidy. The girls break into the observatory at night and learn that only Will can see Cassidy's star. Khor attacks them there while Will has a meeting with Cassidy herself. Cassidy basically gives Will a big pep talk and then produces a new Heart for her. She explains that every custodian of the Heart keeps a piece of it inside her, so she gives Will her piece. Will is then able to transform herself and the other girls to defeat Khor, who flees at Shagon's call against Nerissa's wishes. 

The guardians head to Kandrakar, where Cornelia and Caleb are reunited. Cornelia begins to question how Caleb would be part of her life on Earth. She reveals her true younger self to him and he doesn't take it well. Nerissa appears and it's time for the final battle. 

In the second issue, Cassidy's Heart creates an eternal shield around the guardians and Caleb, while Nerissa and her knights are also surrounded by one. Nerissa breaks the Heart and a black sludge oozes out that slowly engulfs all of Kandrakar. 

Then we're back on Earth. A huge section goes by with the girls just living their daily life with all the crush drama and without their powers. Cornelia is the only one who suspects something. She sees a magpie and makes her way to Kadma who's visiting Heatherfield. Cornelia tells her about the girls' lost powers and Kadma says Kandrakar must be gone. Cornelia then meets with the girls who don't remember anything about Kandrakar. In a panic, she struggles her way home and finds Elyon's old drawing of Caleb. That shatters the illusion and she wakes inside the eternal shield back in Kandrakar. Nerissa transferred the girls' minds into their astral drops so everything they experienced actually happened. 

Outside the shields now, both sides face off, but the two Hearts have another idea. They meld together. Nerissa and Will face off to prove which one truly has the Heart and it comes to Will. Nerissa steals the life energy from Embers and Tridart, then tries to do the same with Khor and Shagon but Shagon fights her. As an injured Nerissa crawls away, Khor and Shagon return to a dog and a human. Nerissa flies off, but the guardians pursue her and combine their powers to finally kill her. 

Kandrakar returns to its pristine self. Khor and Shagon are returned to their home. The issue ends with Cornelia and Caleb about to have a talk. 

The third issue opens with Cornelia and Caleb hashing it out. They haven't spent much time together but I did like what I saw of them. Caleb, however, completely ruins this. He's so upset that Cornelia is actually a 14-year-old girl that he breaks up with her. He feels the one he loves doesn't actually exist and the true Cornelia is someone else. It's not fair to her, because dude, you're a construct. You're likely not going to age ever. So why not wait for Cornelia to grow up? She's 14 already. It's not like she won't look like that in just a handful of years. Caleb comes across as super shallow and an asshole. Now if his true reasoning was that he couldn't live on Earth and she couldn't live in Meridian, then I'd get it. That's part of it, but he's putting definite emphasis on her actually being younger instead of something more logical. 

So Caleb and Ms. Rudolph are going back to Meridian to live. Cornelia volunteers to get Ms. Rudolph and send her to Kandrakar, but then stay on Earth and not go to Meridian. There's a brief confrontation between Will and the Oracle that basically resolves nothing but does earn the guardians the respect of several council members. Cornelia returns to Earth and send Ms. Rudolph to Kandrakar, then the rest of the guardians travel to Meridian with her and Caleb. It's nice seeing Elyon again. I really do love her. 

The issue ends with the girls returning to Earth and Will coming home to find her mother freaking out. Apparently, her astral drop ran away during the night and her mom called the cops. Will figures it was because she created the drop with less magic than usual and the others will have had the same problem. Will gets massively grounded and is even more confused the next morning when she learns no one else had an issue. Their drops were normal. So then the other girls go around Heathefield looking for Will's drop. They finally find her and she explains that she's in love with Matt. She doesn't want to go back to being nothing. But then she saw him hugging another girl and she's upset, so she's willing to go back to rejoin Will. There's a rather horrible scene of her just sitting somewhere in the dark, staring at nothing, so it's clear the astral drops are actual separate beings. Hay arrives at the end with her new braces that she had designed with the W.I.T.C.H. runes on each piece.

The fourth issue has Will and Matt still fighting. Will's mom is upset about something, too. Matt brings a girl to Will's swimming practice and basically tells Will they should be friends. She and the girl, not she and Matt. Will realizes this is the girl he was hugging and of course she's upset. He's completely lost. Matt is like super dense. So Will and Mandy are doing the same trial and Will uses magic to win. 

Meanwhile, Hay, Taranee, Nigel and Eric are working on a school project, but go to the restaurant they're reviewing on the one day it's closed. Good research, guys. They get into it with Uriah and the gang, only to all end up being hauled off by the cops. Must be a slow night in Heatherfield to bring in a bunch of teens. Taranee's asshole of a mother slaps her and that gets Taranee going on a rebellious streak. This officially makes her the worst parent. 

Except maybe Will's dad, who's shown up in Heatherfield unannounced. This is what Will's mom was upset about. He refuses to sign divorce papers and tries to win her and Will over. He buys presents for Will and supports her during swimming stuff, where she's still cheating to beat Mandy. Mandy and Will end up bonding before the big race. Mandy's struggling with a divorce and Will can understand that. She also learns that Mandy and Matt did go out...in kindergarten. They really are just very close friends. Mandy beats Will in the race, but Will is happy for a new friend. 

The issue ends with Taranee, who's been stuck in her mom's office to study with no distractions, finding legal documents of a case Will's dad is filing against Will's mom...for custody. Taranee photocopies the whole thing and rushes off to tell Will.

I do love the Nerissa story arc, but mostly because I love the old guardians. I wish we learned more about them. The story arc itself, now that I'm reading it again after all these years, is pretty weak. It's constantly being interrupted by other drama and if you put only the Nerissa bits together, it would only make up maybe half of the total pages. So it isn't as good as I remember. 

Order of Favorite Guardians: Cornelia, Hay, Taranee, Will, Irma. 

Will scootched herself back ahead of Irma again. She has a strong showing in this volume, especially during her talk with Cassidy and when she stood up to the Oracle. I loved those moments. I don't like her behavior with Mandy, but I do understand it and she ends up doing the right thing. 

Cornelia remains my fave. Her maturity in the face of heartbreak is something we should all strive for. She also shone when she was the only one who realized things weren't right while Nerissa was trying to spell them into submission while in the eternal shield. Cornelia saved all their lives. 

Taranee keeps moving ahead, too. She's almost as mature as Cornelia, though she's way more impetuous. I hate how her mother is treating her, though rebelling as she is isn't the best idea. 

And we're 24 issues in and Irma still hasn't done much of anything ever. She's great as comic relief, but she needs a storyline. This is too long to let one of your main five characters just be the human equivalent of filler. 

W.I.T.C.H. Part 1: The Twelve Portals

This is a journey I've been meaning to embark on for a few years. I think I started rereading my old W.I.T.C.H. comics back when I still lived in Florida, but they were one of the things that didn't survive the hurricane. I was happy when I discovered the current graphic novel line, which finally brings the entire series to English. I only just started buying them in sets of whatever number gets me the entire story arc. I hope to have all 22 that are out right now pretty soon and do reviews for each arc. 

W.I.T.C.H. and Winx Club were the two major "girl" properties in the early 2000s. Disney Fairies came along a bit later and man, did I love all three of these. At one point, I believe I was running Livejournal communities for each one, as well as writing fanfic solo and as a group effort. 

A lot of people were either Team Winx or Team W.I.T.C.H. but I loved them both. Winx was definitely more accessible in the US though. I didn't get to see much of the W.I.T.C.H. show and I had to import the comics for ages. I also go many, many more dolls of the Winx cast, though I do have both Disney Store and Italian W.I.T.C.H. dolls and love them all. 

So what is W.I.T.C.H.? Well, it should be pretty clear that it's a magical girl series. The magical girl element and the fact that the core team is made up of five girls are literally the only similarities between W.I.T.C.H. and Winx. And Winx did away with that beginning with Season 2's addition of Aisha/Layla. 

The girls of W.I.T.C.H. are the Guardians of Kandrakar, which is like a mythical place that maintains order in the universe. Each girl is given a variety of random powers that it's kind of hard to keep track of as well as one main power. A lot of them have the same powers, like invisibility, shapeshifting, and the ability to create a duplicate called an astral drop.

The name W.I.T.C.H. derives from the girls' first initials, not from any association with witches. They don't consider themselves witches at all, though there are jokes and I think it's Hay Lin who most frequently refers to the group by that term. 

Will Vandom (the redhead) is the holder of the Heart of Kandrakar. She's the team leader and basically the heart of their group. She'll summon the Heart for transformation time, but the girls can each transform any time they want to. Will was the first one to master invisibility, though her primary random power is...the ability to communicate with electronic devices. It's incredibly specific and definitely the most random of their skills. Will is an interesting character, but she's very turbulent. She's just moved to Heatherfield and fights constantly with her single mother. Though honestly, her mom picks most of those fights. I hate their bickering and want to shake them both and make them communicate properly. Will is loveable, but she's not my favorite in this arc. I'd say she's loveable but not the easiest to love. 

Irma Lair is the comic relief. She's the curvy brunette. The four guardians who aren't will each have an elemental power and Irma's is water. She doesn't have a clear random power, although she does seem able to control oral quizzes in school. She'll think about the one thing she knows and the teacher will ask her about that when called on. I can't remember if this power grows into anything else later, but it's basically light mind control. Irma doesn't get much time to shine in the first story arc. She's pretty much just shown as the comic relief. 

Taranee Cook is the bespectacled black girl. She's only slightly less new to Heatherfield than Will. Her power is fire and her random power is telepathy. Taranee is a character I tend to vacillate on. Sometimes I like her, but sometimes she can be a bit of a coward, especially early in the series. I think she judges people too quickly, too. She doesn't have a horrible showing in the first arc, but I still feel we don't get to know her very well. 

Cornelia Hale is the well to do, willowy blonde. I assume her family has money anyway because they live in the nicest place. Cornelia's element is earth and like it, she's very grounded. She's rational to the point of coming across as cold. Cornelia is also telekinetic, though I think they all are to some degree. I'm kind of blanking on this now. But it's definitely one of Cornelia's strong suits. Cornelia gets the best showing in this first arc, I think. She's the one that remains hopeful that her best friend Elyon is still in there and she hasn't completely turned into an enemy. She's logical but also holds on to her hope, which makes me like her a lot. She can be skeptical, too, which is part of her logical side, though she tends to let it out in more negative ways. It's safe to say she's the bitchy one, but I love her for it. She's also got a great range to her powers and uses them very well. I used to get annoyed with Flora from Winx for always using vines when Cornelia was controlling the entire ground and boulders and every earth thing imaginable. 

Hay Lin is the adorable Chinese girl. I love her big ears. Hay is an artist and she's obsessed with aliens. She comes across as a little flighty, which fits her power of air. She has an odd random ability, which is to hear memories connected to certain objects. Hay Lin is her full name, which she's frequently called by, instead of just Hay. But she's also called Hay and Hay-Hay. She's my second fave after Cornelia, because she's a sweet, goofy character and I loved her Four Dragons story. 

One thing I loved about this is that all the girls aren't the same age. Will, Cornelia and Elyon are 14, while Taranee, Irma and Hay are 13. That's different than your typical magical girl set up.

So there's your main cast. There are parents, siblings, teachers, antagonists, and love interests all over the place, too. The most interesting pairing is Cornelia and Caleb, who I'll get into more in another story arc. 

The first story arc is about the guardians' discovery of their powers and them trying to figure out their purpose while also trying to close portals that keep appearing between their world and another called Metamoor. 

Elyon, Cornelia's best friend, is shown with the girls at the beginning, but then she disappears and joins the bad guys. This first arc is actually hers more than any of the guardians'. It tells how she's the rightful ruler of the city of Meridien in Metamoor and she was hidden on Earth to protect her from her evil older brother Phobos. Elyon spends several issues being a villain only to turn back to the side of good with a lot of help from Cornelia. They win the day in the end and Elyon takes her place as queen even though she's only 14. 

The action jumps all over the place with random tasks, like sidequests almost, and problems in their daily lives. I think the storyline stays pretty tight though. Some of the plotlines feel like filler, but then typically they end up having a part in the main narrative. W.I.T.C.H. tends to be a bit more mature-feeling than a lot of other magical girl stuff and I've always enjoyed that. 

I feel like I'm rambling at this point and it's almost 3, so I'm going to wrap up and save future commentary for the next arcs. 

Circe

Ah, the final installment in my ancient Greek historical fiction run. 

For now. 

Circe tells the tale of the famous witch. In this version, she's the immortal daughter of Helios, the Titan sun god, and Perse, an oceanid. 

Circe is despised because she's not as pretty as the rest of her family and they mock her voice a lot. (It's Hermes who tells her later on that she has "a mortal's voice.") 

As the story moves forward, Circe and all her siblings learn that they are witches. Each one has a different specialty. She's sister to Aeëtes (ruler of Colchis, father of Medea), Perses (usurped Colchis from his brother, was killed by Medea), and Pasiphaë (famous for screwing a bull and birthing the minotaur). 

After falling in love with Glaucus the sailor and transforming him into an ocean deity, Circe is hurt when he doesn't return her love. Instead he favors Scylla, who's a rather nasty nymph. Circe prepares a potion that will turn Scylla into her truest self, pours it in a pool where the nymph likes to bathe, and creates Scylla the man-eating monster. For this, Circe is banished to the island of Aeaea, where she hones her witchcraft. 

She's visited by Hermes and the two become lovers. Then she's summoned by her sister to aid in the birth of the minotaur. Still an unrelenting bitch, her sister shows Circe no gratitude. Circe finds solace in the arms of Daedalus, though for a sad short time. (I liked that pairing far better than her with Odysseus.) Then it's back to her island, which sailors begin to find. She treats them well, but her kindness is returned with rape, so that's when she begins her habit of turning lost men into pigs. If they turn on her, she changes them. If they don't, they go free. Guess which most of them do. 

Then there's a whole big chunk of chapters devoted to her time with Odysseus. At the end of this, she stops taking her birth control brew and becomes pregnant, unbeknownst to him. The chapters dedicated to her pregnancy and the younger years of her son were the most dull to me. I just kept thinking "get to the point." And so, they do. Her son Telegonus travels in search of his father, only to end up accidentally killing him. Or rather, Odysseus kills himself while they struggle over Telegonus' poisoned spear. So he returns to Aeaea with Penelope and Telemachus. There's some tumult, but eventually, the four get along well. 

The book ends with Circe winning her freedom from the island and sailing the world with Telemachus, who's now her lover. She relinquishes her immortality to live a mortal life to match her mortal's voice. 

I thought this was quite well-written, though it did slow down too much for me in certain places. What it does very well though is depict immortals in a harsh way that feels more accurate. I recommend it for Greek myth fans.

And now off to Egypt!

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.

Whom the Gods Would Destroy

Oh, this book. 

Whom the Gods Would Destroy was written in 1970. I first encountered it in my high school mythology class in the mid-90s. 

I'm sure our dozens of copies originally had that dust jacket. 

However, this is how I think of it. Plain green and awesome. 

I adored this book when I read it in school. I wanted to keep it. But it would be years before I got a copy. I can't remember when I first bought it. A long time ago now, I think, and sadly, I think right now is the first time I've read it all the way through since high school, despite truly loving the book. I've started it several times and gotten distracted. But this time, I committed and even finished it in only three days. It's a solid book. 374 pages of decently small print. 

So the book covers the entire time period of the Trojan War, from a little before to right after. It is my favorite book on the war, hands down, and would cement Odysseus as my favorite Greek male and Hector as my favorite Trojan male for the rest of my life. 

The book is written from the point of view of Helios, who was raised by two Trojan workers. His foster mother works in the kitchens and his foster father is a horse trainer. Helios' mother was a young slave who died in childbirth and his father? Well, that's a mystery. Helios himself believes it's King Priam, though there are some that think it was a Cretan slave who ran away after doing some paintings in the throne room. 

Helios' life is extraordinarily action-packed. He's not fully claimed by Priam, makes an enemy of Paris (that asshole), and a friend of Cassandra. Cassandra has probably her best showing in any historical fiction in this book. She's calm, intelligent and likeable. Hector takes a liking to him, so he was my first favorite adult in the book, but he's quickly supplanted by Odysseus. During the first battle, Helios watches his foster father killed by Achilles and ends up being captured. Achilles keeps him alive as a companion to his son, Neoptolemus, with the understanding that at some point in the future, the two boys will fight to the death as Achaean vs. Trojan. Odysseus trains Helios in combat, becoming the closest thing to a father Helios ever had. 

As time passes, Helios learns more useful skills and becomes a young man. He and Neo become strong friends, to the point that when Neo realizes how long Helios has been hiding his actual sword skills, Neo sets him free and lets him return to Troy rather than have to fight him. Helios is not particularly trusted in Troy, so he's "banished" to become the horse trainer for Aeneas, who he becomes close with. As much as I said I liked Hector, Aeneas is actually given a better portrayal than Hector, so upon finishing this now, I think I put him in second place to Odysseus as favorite adult. Hector was honestly in this far less than I remember. And I'm not sure why I love Andromache so much. I thought it was this book, but she was barely in it. 

Helios goes back to the Achaean camp as a spy and spends the latter part of the book going back and forth between Troy and Achaean. He's always a Trojan, but he does have a strict loyalty to Odysseus. 

I'm sure I'm making this sound way more dull than it deserves. If you like historical fiction and the Trojan War, I could not give a higher recommendation than I would give this book. It's a standout for sure. It's appropriate for high school age kids. It's not dulled down for younger kids but it's not as firmly adult as The Silence of the Girls was. There is sex, but it's mostly offscreen or written about in more hinted at ways than obvious ones. And there's definitely violence, but it's not that graphic. It's just good. It's so, so good. I get so wrapped up in it that I don't want to put it down for anything. 

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going next with my Greek run. I'm considering skipping Circe for now and going to Nobody's Princess and Nobody's Prize from Esther Friesner's series. However, jumping to them means skipping over a reread of Nefertiti's two books, which come first in the series. That messes with my orderly mind, but I think I'm going to do it, then come back to Nefertiti and the rest of that series after I'm done with Greece. I have those two rereads plus Circe to go. I do have another book on the Trojan War, but it's nonfic, so I won't be reviewing it and I can work on that whenever. And I've got one about biblical Esther, which I may tackle after Greece. I don't think I've ever read anything from the Persian empire before.