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Overview
The Trojan War springs to life once more in this award-winning graphic novel. The famous names of legend breathe anew as human nature displays itself in all its glory and all its degradation. Odysseus decides to use runaway Helen's beauty as an incentive to gather the army and keep it focused on war with Troy. But this clever idea ties Odysseus closer to the war, ensuring that long years must pass before he can return to the home and family he longs for. When the warrior prince Achilles leaps onto the beach and throws his spear, it's the opening of a battle with ramifications reaching far beyond the end of the fight. Achilles finds himself compelled to choose between his son's mother and the man he loves. Then a ragged stranger forces his way through the gates of Mycenae to threaten High King Agamemnon's infant son Orestes. Instead of uniting Agamemnon with his wife Klytemnestra, this menace only increases the tension between them, tension that grows even sharper when Agamemnon is required by the gods to make a heart-searing sacrifice.In Sacrifice, Eric Shanower combines the legend of Troy -- perhaps the greatest story ever told -- with recent archaeological evidence of the Late Bronze Age to create a detailed new vision of the first major conflict between east and west. In February 1991, Eric Shanower conceived the idea to tell the story of the Trojan War in the comics medium by combining the myriad versions of the Greek myth with the archaeological record to dramatically and visually present the complete story in authentic historical detail. That idea became Age of Bronze, for which Mr. Shanower has won several awards. His past comic book work includes his Oz graphic novel series and An Accidental Death, written by Ed Brubaker. His illustrations have appeared in many comics throughout the USA and Europe and in magazines, in books, and on television. He is the author of two prose books.
Synopsis
While Trojan prince Paris returns to Troy with Helen, the Achaean fleet mistakenly attacks Mysia, then is scattered by a storm. High King Agamemnon gathers the army again, but for the fleet to sail, the gods require the life of Agamemnon's eldest daughter, Iphigenia.
The Washington Post - Douglas Wolk
Shanower's sureness of the tiniest details feeds Age of Bronze's barreling momentum. His Trojan War is a conflict of people more than of nations, and the cast is dizzyingly huge, but he juggles them deftly, selecting images that say what words can't.
Editorials
Douglas Wolk
Shanower's sureness of the tiniest details feeds Age of Bronze's barreling momentum. His Trojan War is a conflict of people more than of nations, and the cast is dizzyingly huge, but he juggles them deftly, selecting images that say what words can't.— The Washington Post
VOYA
Volume two of the seven-volume Age of Bronze series continues the story of the Trojan War. Beginning with the arrival of Helen and Paris in Troy, the epic continues as the Achaeans fight a disastrous battle in a land mistaken for Troy. Morale devastated, they return to Mycenae and stay until the spring. This installment ends with Agamemnon's sacrifice of his first daughter to a goddess. All the major players of the war are present and Shanower skillfully handles each of their stories and melds them together to form this epic. Taken from many different sources, this epic is told through the eyes of the humans. The gods and goddesses are not present, but their influences are detailed through rituals, sacrifices, dreams, and those characters that are blessed and cursed with visions. With the focus away from the deities, the human drama unfolds beautifully. The black-and-white art is wondrously detailed and was researched by Shanower to be historically accurate. Shanower adds little details to the art that makes it excel: The wind continually blows until Iphigenia is taken to be sacrificed. Shanower shows it not through action lines in the background, but a continual "SH" underneath every panel. His panels are filled to the brim with details of this past culture: from the costumes to the settings and the expressions on the characters. This graphic novel is for mythology fans who will appreciate the beauty of this war epic. VOYA CODES: 4Q 2P S A/YA G (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult-marketed book recommended for Young Adults; Graphic Novel Format). 2004, Image Comics, 224p.,Ages 15 to Adult.—Kristen Fletcher-Spear