Patroclus narrates the story of his childhood, the early exile that brought him to Achilles's father's house, and the developing friendship and companionship of these two unusual boys. Patroclus is awkward, unskilled in fighting, and uneasy in most company. Achilles is the son of a goddess and a mortal man, faster, stronger, more beautiful, and more confident than anyone else Patroclus has ever known. But they see something in each other that no one else sees. They are given the gift of an extended adolescence under the tutorage Chiron the centaur before they are both called, by oath and prophesy, to the Trojan War. There were pieces of this story I was familiar with from reading other Greek myths but much of it was new to me. I love Miller's writing; I had already fallen in love with her characterizations of the gods and of Odysseus in Circe. Of the two, Circe remains my favorite, but this one was an absolute pleasure to read as well. I speed through the second half of the book in just two days and I think it lives up to the hype!