Book Review: ‘A Thousand Ships’ by Natalie Haynes

A Thousand Ships is a historical Greek retelling by Natalie Haynes. Focusing on the fall of Troy, the story is told entirely from the perspectives of female characters.

Drawing inspiration from multiple historical sources, Haynes weaves together a narrative that features multiple sides to the ancient conflict: from the defeated Trojan royal family, to insights into the Greek camp from the women they captured, to the wives left behind by Greek warriors, to the Goddesses whose interference put everything into motion.

At first I thought I wasn’t going to warm to A Thousand Ships. Expecting a traditional linear story I was confused as to why the narrative kept jumping around between time and short lived characters. Then I realised how Haynes had structured her novel. Rather than a story told in chronological order, A Thousand Ships is more akin to a collection of short stories with each chapter focusing on a different character.

The story is framed around the muse Calliope who is attempting to inspire an unnamed poet/bard into telling, essentially, the book we are about to read. The Trojan woman (namely Queen Hecabe, and the Princesses Polyxena, Cassandra, and Andromache) act as the anchor point within the story, as they wait outside the ruins of Troy to learn their individual fates. We often return to this group as their tales are gradually told. From them we also learn about other characters as the women either recount or wonder about what happened to the people they knew. Finally, interspersed between these chapter-long perspectives, we get letters written by Persephone as she gets increasing frustrated by her husband Odyssues’ ten year delay in returning home to her and their son.

From these may favourite chapters were the ones that featured Cassandra. Cursed by Apollo to always speak truthful prophecies but to never be believed, she is a mythological character who has long-fascinated me yet often only appears briefly in other people’s stories; with her madness acting as an inconvenience for others. I love that Haynes gave Cassandra her own voice in the novel and we got to see her as far more then just a mad priestess.

The end result of all this is that A Thousand Ships is a brilliant tapestry of female voices. There was a mix of characters I’d already heard of and others whose stories I’d never encountered before. The book also does an excellent job of showing that, in any war, there are far more people affected than just the warriors/soldiers and people they’ve come to conquer. Rather the tendrils of war change the lives of innumerable people both before the fighting begins and long afterwards.

I’m pleased I didn’t give up on this novel and its unusual format as it is a story I enjoyed more the longer I read.

---

Related Posts:

If you liked this review you made also like these reviews: