Mini Review | Troy by Stephen Fry

Format: Audiobook (BorrowBox)

Read: July

So after the disaster of just hating The Song of Achilles I saw Troy was finally available on audio in my library app and thought why not! I wanted to get into the “real” story to see if I might have missed anything exciting by giving up on Achilles.. and I don’t think I did!

This definitely benefits from the audio format, especially read by Stephen Fry who is always engaging. You can feel his enthusiasm for this subject, and he puts his own tongue in cheek spin on it. He finds the humour is what is really a very brutal and tragic tale.

Each chapter is a neat summary for what is going on with the various players in the story as it builds towards the main conflict at Troy. Since there is that main narrative thread I found it easier to get into than I when I tried to read Heroes (which would have been better on audio I think!).

Almost all the Heroes and Gods are dicks (especially Achilles, and Paris), but I guess that’s Greek Mythology. There are no “good” sides, most characters are emotional toddlers and there are rarely any winners in the end. That makes it hard to find anyone I want to root for!

It’s fun, I enjoyed it while I was gardening and cleaning!