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TALES OF TROY

The tale of the Trojan War has passed through countless permutations, inspiring countless artists, from its origin in Homer’s epic poem THE ILIAD to today’s novels and blockbuster movies...

TROY: SHIELD OF THUNDER by David Gemmell As the war of Troy looms, the kings of the Great Green gather with dark plans of conquest and plunder. A sequel to Lord of the Silver Bow.

HELEN, QUEEN OF SPARTA by John H. Pollard Menelaus’ steward spins a cloak-and-dagger tale of deceit, bride substitution, divine jealousy, and ritual death.

THE WAR AT TROY by Lindsay Clarke brings new life to the heroes of Homer’s Iliad. Clarke’s sequel, THE RETURN FROM TROY, recounts the very different fates awaiting Odysseus and King Agamemnon after the war.

THE SONG OF TROY by Colleen McCullough A stirring retelling of the Trojan tale by the bestselling author.

THE SIEGE OF TROY by Greg Tobin A new retelling of Homer’s Iliad recounts the epic conflict of the Greeks and Trojans and their champions Achilles and Hector.

HEROES by Valerio Massimo Manfredi recounts the misfortunes of the famous heroes of the Trojan War, after their return to Greece.

ODYSSEUS: A LIFE by Charles Rowan Beye The warrior and wanderer recounts his adventures and the quest to find a way home after the Trojan War.

TROJAN DIALOGUES by Lenny Cavallaro The tale of Troy retold as the memoirs of Diomedes, one of the few Greek leaders to return safely home.

THE SONGS OF THE KINGS by Barry Unsworth When the war-mongering Greeks head off to battle Troy, must Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter to placate the gods?

ACHILLES by Elizabeth Cook retells the story of Homer’s ill-fated hero with lyrical language and moving imagery.

DAUGHTER OF TROY by Sarah B. Franklin Conquered by Agamemnon, the seeress-queen Briseis is given as a prize to Achilles — but can’t foresee the fate that awaits her when Troy falls.

CASSANDRA, PRINCESS OF TROY by Hillary Bailey The veteran novelist re-invents the Trojan War by viewing it thorough the eyes of the seeress Cassandra, daughter of King Priam and sister-in-law of Helen.

PYRRHUS by Mark Merlis Post-modern historical novel retells the Trojan War in modern dress — or undress, since Achilles’s son Phyrrhus is a gay go-go boy!

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HELEN OF TROY by John Erskine 1925 classic retells the life of Helen, and her fate after the Trojan War. “Apart from her divine beauty and entire frankness, she was a conventional woman.”

ILIUM by Dan Simmons This epic genre-bender melds Greek myth with far-flung science fiction, as superhuman “gods” recreate the Trojan War.

SHADES OF MEMNON by Brother G In 1200 B.C., a young Kushite becomes a hero of the Trojan War. The African warrior’s adventures continue in RA FORCE RISING.






































ROMAN BRITAIN

The Roman invasion of Britain...the revolt of Boudica, the Warrior Queen...frontier intrigues along Hadrian’s Wall...the flowering of Roman culture in Londinium — the fascination of Roman Britain is endless!

ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF’s The Eagle of the Ninth, about the quest of Marcus Aquila to recover a lost eagle standard, has now been made into the movie The Eagle. The trilogy of novels featuring Aquila (The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, and The Lantern Bearers) are collected in the omnibus edition The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles.

Sutcliff’s other stories set in Roman Britain include Frontier Wolf, about a young commander who takes charge of a motley band of legionaries • The Outcast, about a Roman boy brought up by a British tribe • Sword at Sunset, about the Roman-British cavalryman whose deeds gave rise to the legend of King Arthur.

THE CAMULOD CHRONICLES by Jack Whyte • The tale of King Arthur unfolds as Roman legions vie against native Celts in 5th century Britain. I. The Skystone, II. The Singing Sword, III. The Saxon Shore, IV. The Eagle’s Brood, V. The Fort at River’s Bend, VI. The Sorceror: Metamorphosis, VII: Uther, VIII: The Lance Thrower, & the final volume, IX: The Eagle

BOUDICA AND THE LOST ROMAN by Mike Ripley A reluctant Roman spy finds himself on the wrong side when Boudica and the Iceni go on the warpath.

BOUDICA, QUEEN OF THE ICENI by Joseph E. Roesch Trusting in ancient prophecy, Boudica raises the Britons in a bloody revolt againt the merciless legions of Nero.

THE LITTLE EMPERORS by Alfred Duggan As chaos overtakes Rome, Britain enters the Dark Ages. In Duggan’s CONSCIENCE OF THE KING, the third son of a petty tyrant becomes the ancestor of all subsequent British monarchs.

RUSO & THE DEMENTED DOCTOR by R.S. Downie A physician solves crimes in Roman Britain in the age of Hadrian. A sequel to Ruso & the Disappearing Dancing Girls..

THE THIRD PRINCESS by Philip Boast Nero sends Septimus Severus Quistus, solver of crimes, on a dangerous and delicate mission to Britain.

WARRIOR QUEEN by Alan Gold Queen Boudica challenges the vicious rule of the Romans in Britain.

Simon Scarrow’s military adventures follow centurion Macro and his protege Cato as they contend with ferocious Britons and deadly imperial intrigues. In order: Under the Eagle, The Eagle’s Conquest, When the Eagle Hunts, The Eagle and the Wolves, The Eagle’s Prey, and The Eagle’s Prophecy. The newest, Eagle in the Sand, takes Cato to Rome’s eastern provinces.

BOUDICA: Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott begins an epic series about the great Iron-Age warrior queen who defied the Roman invasion of Britain. The tale continues in Dreaming the Bull, Dreaming the Hound and Dreaming the Serpent Spear.

IMPERIAL GOVERNOR by George Shipway A stirring novel of Queen Boudicca’s revolt, centering on the Roman governor in Londinium, Suetonius Paulinus.

THE WHITE MARE by Jules Watson begins The Dalriada Trilogy, set in ancient Alba (Scotland); followed by THE DAWN STAG and THE BOAR STONE.

THE DREAMING STONES by Sarah Harrison Two love stories, one in ancient Roman Britain and the other in the present, are strangely linked by a wild and beautiful place.

PATRICK by Stephen Lawhead Succat, son of a powerful Roman family, becomes a slave, a soldier, and finally a saint under the Celtic name Patrick. By the author of Byzantium.

HADRIAN’S WALL by William Dietrich A young bride unleashes jealousy in the Roman ranks as the Celtic chieftain Caratacus plots to drive the invaders out of Britain.

THE EMPEROR’S BABE by Bernardine Evaristo A novel in verse about Zuleika, daughter of Sudanese immigrants in Londinium in 211 A.D.

ISLAND OF GHOSTS by Gillian Bradshaw A tale of frontier intrigue, as soldiers patrol Hadrian’s Wall on the “Island of Ghosts” — foggy, barbaric Britannia.

ROMAN WOMAN by Lindsay Allason-Jones follows the day-to-day concerns of Senovara, wife of a soldier in bustling York in the last years of Hadrian’s reign.

GET OUT OR DIE by Jane Finnis Britain, 91 A.D.: Are the savage murders at a roadside inn the work of a secret society trying to drive out all Romans?

THE LIBERTUS MYSTERIES by Rosemary Rowe The crime-solving exploits of Libertus or Glevum (Gloucester) begin in The Germanicus Mosaic and continue in A Pattern of Blood, Murder in the Forum, The Chariots of Calyx, The Legatus Mystery, The Ghosts of Glevum, Enemies of the Empire, A Roman Ransom, A Coin for the Ferryman, Death at Pompeia’s Wedding, and Requiem for a Slave.

BERIC THE BRITON by G.A. Henty A boy-chief is captured by invading Romans and taken to Nero’s Rome.























ENDURING CLASSICS

Robert Graves’s landmarks in historical fiction, I, Claudius and its sequel, Claudius the God, relate the mind-blowing scandals of Rome’s first imperial family. Both books were adapted to create the BBC series starring Derek Jacobi as the bookish, stuttering member of the imperial clan who finds himself the reluctant ruler of the world. Less famous are Graves’s other fine novels of the ancient world, King Jesus, Count Belisarius, Homer’s Daughter, and The Golden Fleece.
NOVELS ABOUT SPARTACUS • Howard Fast’s worldwide bestseller Spartacus became the basis for the famous Hollywood epic. Two previous novels offer outstanding fictional treatments of the great slave revolt that shook the Roman world: Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Spartacus was published in 1933 but still resonates with power; Arthur Koestler’s The Gladiators (1939) was the first novel by the author who later wrote the classic Darkness at Noon.

THREE BLASTS FROM THE ANCIENT PAST Three novels have been unparalleled in shaping popular perceptions of ancient Rome. Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur set the standard with its panoramic storytelling. Bulwer-Lytton’s The Last Days of Pompeii incorporated archaeological discoveries into a ripping yarn. Quo Vadis, by Nobel winner Henryk Sienkiewicz, delivers a powerful portrayal of Nero’s court as seen through the eyes of Petronius the Arbiter.
CAESAR DIES by Talbot Mundy Antioch is wracked by intrigue, poisonings, and blood-thirsty gladiatorial games when the emperor Commodus disguises himself as a gladiator. ANTONINA, or THE FALL OF ROME by Wilkie Collins 408 A.D.: The Goths descend on Rome in this epic by the author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone.
MARIUS THE EPICUREAN by Walter Pater Classic novel of ideas set in the age of Marcus Aurelius, with philosophical meditations in the vein of Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian. SALAMMBO by Gustave Flaubert This towering novel of Carthage by the author of Madame Bovary stands the test of time. As bizarre, intoxicating and voluptuous today as it was when it was first published in 1862.
THE EGYPTIAN by Mika Waltari The towering classic returns to print, with a foreward by Lynda S. Robinson. Also by Waltari: The Roman and The Etruscan. CLODIA by Robert DeMaria A novel of the poet Catullus and his lover Clodia (celebrated in his poems as the elusive Lesbia). First published in 1965, finally available again.
DOMINIC by Kathleen Robinson An orphaned Gaulish dwarf trains as an acrobat and tours the ancient world with a Greek circus troupe; a tale of unlikely heroism. THE BOAT OF FATE by Keith Roberts Panoramic novel of the disintegrating Roman Empire follows a young adventurer from Rome to Hispania to Gaul and Britannia .

THE LEGATE’S DAUGHTER by Wallace Breem A disgraced centurion goes on a mission to rescue a kidnapped woman in North Africa.

EAGLE IN THE SNOW by Wallace Breem In 406 A.D., the genreral Maximus and his soldiers make a stand against barbarians on the Rhine.

THE DEATH OF VIRGIL by Hermann Broch In the last hours of life, the poet Virgil contemplates destroying his masterpiece, The Aeneid. “Extraordinary and profound” (Thomas Mann).

THE DOUBLE TONGUE by William Golding The Nobel winner’s final novel. Under the tutelage of the Delphic high priest, the mystically gifted Arieka becomes the Pythia, the earthly voice of the god Apollo.

AUGUSTUS by John Williams This novel in the form of letters received critical raves when first published in the U.S. in 1972 and won the National Book Award for fiction.

MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN by Marguerite Yourcenar A meditation on life and death as seen through the eyes of one of Rome’s greatest emperors. One of the most acclaimed historical novels of the last century.

CREATION by Gore Vidal A panoramic look at the remarkable 5th Century B.C., which gave the world the Golden Age of Athens, the wisdom of Buddha and Confucius, and the teachings of Zoroaster. See Steven’s review.

JULIAN by Gore Vidal One of Vidal’s most ambitious novels takes a fascinating look at the last pagan emperor of Rome, Julian the Apostate, who struggled to turn the tide of Christianity and restore the worship of Rome’s ancient gods.


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