The Princess of Prophecy: Heroes of the Trojan War, Vol. II
The beautiful Helen and her Trojan rescuer, Paris, have escaped the abuses of Mycenae and, in this second volume of a series, veer off course to the Nile. Court intrigue involving Nefertiti and a mercenary (“sell-sword”), hired by Clytemnestra to reclaim her sister, pursue them. Of course, several myths give the lovers a pre-Troy stay in Egypt. Euripides holds that she spent the whole ten years’ war in that balmy climate and that only a statue took her place on the besieged walls to taunt the uneasily unified Greeks. Happily ever after.
Sadly, this recreation animates idol-like characters all around. The romance is the two-dimensional affair so often recreated in the shallowest Harlequin paperback. Belief, whether Egyptian or Greek, has the same rigor of hipsters dabbling in yoga studios. Prophecy is at the level of knowing that the local McDonald’s will be serving burgers today; the “princess” may appear at the next Disney viewing. Unfortunate for an author with the credentials in underwater archaeology as this one.
