Troy: Shield of Thunder


It took awhile for me to get to this book, and not because I was uninterested or anything. Every time I went to a Barnes & Noble, they would be sold out of the second book. Which is why I ended up rereading the Dark Tower series. Fortunately, the State College B&N finally got a copy of Shield of Thunder and I could continue David Gemmell’s story of Troy.

As everyone told me, the series gets much better. The first book was good, but this one was great. The story revolves mainly around Banokles and Kalliades, two Mykene warriors we met in the first book towards the end. They have been branded outlaws after the failed attack on Troy.

The majority of the book sets up the reason for the gigantic war of Troy. Without going into too much detail, let me just say that it is a very cool set up. I made some predictions after the last post and most of them were a little off-base.

-Obviously Halysia’s baby does not grow up to be Achilles. My favorite moment of the book is the boxing match between Achilles and Hektor. Gemmell does an awesome job of making Achilles unlikeable and Hektor so damn perfect. I also love how everyone seems to think Hektor is such a great guy, but then when he goes into battle he is like a deadly lion.

-It is pretty obvious that Gershom is Moses. The promise to the old guy who cured Helikaon from his stab wounds will be about leading some desert folks out of Egypt. Also, the young assistant to the old guy, his name is Yeshua (Hebrew version of Joshua, the chief lieutenant of Moses) or maybe the Prophet is Moses, but it cannot be coincidence that Ahmose is a prince of Egypt who will go with the desert people, who follow One God…it all makes sense in my head.

-The Xander storyline did not resolve, nor did the girl from the first book, something tells me they will or this could be the unfortunate plot line that is forgotten since Gemmell died during the writing of the third book. I wonder if it was meant as a trilogy, or if he was going to go further…I guess we will never know.

-Interesting thing about Hektor’s son, Astyanax. His name in Greek means high king of the city. In some versions of the myth, he is killed by Achilles’ son (Neoptolemus). Neoptolemus tosses the kid off the walls. I had one teacher say that it was a Greek pun, “high king” “thrown off a wall”. I guess it was one of the ways an orator would remember his death…just something to ponder. Thank you Professor Wheeler at Penn State.

I cannot wait to read the final book and see how everything plays out.

Author: Ngewo

1 thought on “Troy: Shield of Thunder

  1. despite the final book being written by gammels wife, I thought it tied all your questions up pretty well at the end. I wasnt a fan of the ending, or epilogue, which ever way you want to look at it, but that is just my opinion.

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