Stan on Guard
In this second book of the series, 3200-year-old Hittite Ishtanu (you can call him Stan) passes his immortal life in present-day Toronto as a similarly ancient enemy, the Trojan princess Tróán, hunts him down. Stan’s best defense is her thinking that she has already killed him, decades ago in Berlin. But unfortunately for Stan, K. R. Wilson exists as an author in this world, and Tróán has read the first book. She knows Stan is alive, and she would like to change that.
As the two ancients approach a final confrontation, each recounts tales from their long, long lives. These vignettes are charming, stand-alone stories on their own, and account for nearly the entire book—the “main” plot of Tróán trying to find Stan and kill him is almost an afterthought. I especially loved Tróán’s recounting of the true story of Odysseus, as she seeks revenge on him and on Greeks in general for their destruction of her home. She also spends a delicious time in Paris amidst overlapping seductions involving Auguste Rodin, Isadora Duncan, and sewing machine heiress Winnaretta Singer. Stan’s reminiscences are as poignant as Tróán’s are sexy: his struggles with eternal ennui, his time with fellow patient Nietzsche at a psychiatric clinic, and as a soldier on both sides of the Great War.
What makes these stories so compelling is the millennia-spanning perspective of the immortals telling them. Each one reveals juicy historical secrets in a tone that rings true, like a friend telling you about a really crazy night at the club last week. If the present-day plot is nothing more than a contrivance to present an anthology of fun stories, then so be it.
