I reverted back to the audio version for the third book in Stephen Fry's series on Greek mythology, and I think I was right to do so; there is just something about his narration that brings whatever he is reading to life in a totally unique way. 

As the name suggests, this instalment retells the story of the Trojan War; a subject I don't know much more than the basics about - aside from the obvious, the only real grounding I have is the book 'The Song of Achilles', so I was interested to understand more! As usual, the author starts at the very beginning, giving you all of the backstory you need to understand who the main players are, why they are important and how they fit together. As there are quite a few characters in this tale, this does take about a third of the book to get to grips with. While it is certainly interesting and worthy of study, it does feel a little bogged down with detail in a few places. 

The military manoeuvres are also a little too detailed for my tastes - in some places I felt like I was perhaps seeing more of a battle plan than a coherent narrative. Although I appreciate this is a huge part of the story of Troy, I would have preferred to learn more about the people involved in the war. Not that the author skimps on this either... I just want more!

I was surprised by the quite sudden ending, but I assume the aftermath will be laid out in his next book, 'Odyssey'. But I don't think that's out until next year...

It does surprise me that the only real action takes place in the last few weeks of the ninth year. There is a reference in this book to the fact that Troy is too big to lay siege to, and yet that seems to be what the first years are all about. Although the author does specifically give a couple of descriptions of moments within those years, just like in other books I've read set during this event, nine years are seemingly just glossed over. I know the story us taken from Homer's 'Iliad' and so it's not a criticism of this book specifically; its just something that confuses me!

The story of Helen is dealt with well; the author manages to walk a tightrope of accepting multiple points of view about whether she was kidnapped or went with Paris willingly; whether she loved him or loathed him etc. Again though, she doesn't feature quite as much as I would have expected - it does seem to me that the menfolk used her as a 'legitimate' excuse to go to war, but very quickly she was forgotten and it became all about glory and riches. But this brings me back to the sudden ending. We are yet to hear about the resolution of Helen's marriage to Menaleus... 

Overall, I'd say this one was better than 'Heroes', but 'Mythos' still rules Olympus for me.