[b:Chasing Odysseus|10330834|Chasing Odysseus (Hero Trilogy, #1)|Sulari Gentill|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1308275128s/10330834.jpg|15233359] by [a:Sulari Gentill|3856582|Sulari Gentill|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1308765518p2/3856582.jpg] (the first book of the Hero trilogy) is an action and adventure packed retelling of [a:Homer|903|Homer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1390672749p2/903.jpg]'s [b:The Odyssey|1381|The Odyssey|Homer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390173285s/1381.jpg|3356006], told from a new perspective.

This book begins at the end of the Trojan war. After ten years, the Trojans find their beach below seemingly vacated by the Greeks, but in their place they notice a huge wooden horse. Assuming the horse was a parting gift of sorts, the Trojans work together to bring it inside their walls, unknowingly falling into the Greeks' trap.

While the Trojans celebrated what they thought was their good fortune, King Odysseus and his men sneak out of the hollow wooden horse to open the gates and let in the rest of their army. With the element of surprise on their side, the Greek king and his army ruthlessly sack Troy, destroying the once beautiful city and leaving death and ruin in its wake. Odysseus then spreads a rumor to the remaining Trojan survivers, claiming that their herdsmen aided his army in their scheme to invade and conquer Troy.

Distraught and desperate for answers, the Trojans turn to Agelaus, the head of the herdsman and punish him and two of his sons as traitors, resulting in his death. When his other two children realize what happened, they rescue their siblings from the people who have turned on them and after burying their beloved father they begin planning out their next steps.

Told from a third person perspective, we follow the children of Agelaus on their quest to prove their murdered father's honor and discover the truth of how the Greeks breached their walls to clear the names of the innocent. With the help of Pan, the god of Herdsmen, Hero and her three brothers, Machaon, Cadmus and Lychon set out on a desperate chase across the seas in pursuit of King Odysseus.

Along the way these four daring young siblings encounter tons of danger and get into all sorts of hard to escape situations. Between being poisoned by lotus fruit, cursed by witches, having to travel past sirens and other mythical sea creatures, being injured, and even being captured by the Greek's a couple of times, they don't have an easy time getting Odysseus to admit the truth. Thankfully though, their magical ship and the gods are on their side and they manage to befriend all sorts of creatures like cyclopes and the Phaeacian princess, Nausicaa.

Chasing Odysseus is a great book for teens/ young adults and adults alike, who have a love for Greek mythology. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Homer's The Odyssey and even to fans of [a:Rick Riordan|15872|Rick Riordan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1383677264p2/15872.jpg] (especially ones who enjoy his Percy Jackson series). This book will take you on an action packed adventure full of war, monsters, danger, magic, humor and four great heroic protagonists. This book sucked me in from the first chapter and I'm excited to see how the Hero Trilogy continues!


**** I received an eBook copy of this title via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. *** ( )

Reviewed for Netgalley. Thought this book was short listed but think I have it muddled up with another. Interesting style of book in that it is told in sentence structure like the ancient tomes BUT what is said between the three brothers and the sister Hero is very modern...e.g. They all shorten their names to nicknames and there is a fair amount of sarcasm and friendly sibling sparing.
Basically the story is the adopted offspring of the herdsman who supply food to the beseiged city of Troy, set out to track Odysseus after he attributes his victory over the city to the herdsman letting them into the secret tunnels andnot to his Trojan Horse! The family want to set the record straight and avenge their father's death, so they follow Odysseus and somehow have a hand in all his endeavours...e.g escaping from sirens and the cyclops, etc etc.
Engaging enough story through Hero seems a bit of a wuss compared to her brothers and there is a lot of talk about "taking to her bed" and even some sibling marriage on one island that means it isfor older readers just for the cringe factor. ( )

* From publisher for review *

Chasing Odysseus by S.D. Gentill is essentially a modern reader's introduction to Greek mythology in an adventure and action packed plot beginning with the siege of Troy and soon after the famed Trojan war.

We follow the tale through the eyes of strong young female protagonist Hero and her brothers, as they chase Odysseus (Greek King of Ithaca) over sea and land, seeking answers for how their beloved city of Troy was breached and subsequently destroyed by the Greeks.

Chasing Odysseus introduced me to Greek myths and legends in a gentle and extremely accessible way and is suitable for adult or YA readers alike.

If you're interested in Greek mythology but are too afraid to read Homer's Iliad or the Odyssey, then this is a fabulous contemporary place to start. Chasing Odysseus is the first in a three part series referred to as the Hero Trilogy published by Pantera Press and written by Sulari Gentill, otherwise known as S.D. Gentill in this series. ( )

What do you do when your city is sacked and your father is blamed for it?

Sulari Gentill, an up and coming Australian author, takes her readers on a poignant, fascinating, exciting journey in Chasing Odysseus.

Every now and then, a book comes along that truly catches my imagination and sparks a real relationship between my mind, emotions, and the story and its characters.

Chasing Odysseus is one of these rare finds.

I was fortunate to stumble across this book shortly after it was published and being "Greek-mad," as in obsessively interested in stories about ancient Greece, I wanted to see what it was about. The title itself, Chasing Odysseus, immediately intrigued me as it created mental images of high adventure and intense emotion.

The Herdsmen, led by gentle Agelaus, have been providing Troy with food for ten years through hidden tunnels. So that's how the Trojans avoided starving to death! What an intriguing idea. Though the Greeks know of the Herdsmen, they don't know about this secret assistance going to their enemies, and Agelaus deftly keeps it that way.

Dawn blooms on the last day, the day the Greeks have vanished, leaving a gigantic wooden horse on the beach. Everyone knows what happens. The Trojans take the horse through the gates and into the city. Night falls; everyone expects to feast and celebrate the end of this tiresome, endless war.

Agelaus, his four beloved foster children, and other Herdsmen prepare to move food and supplies through the tunnels and take part in the festivities.

Imagine their shock and horror as they climb out of the tunnels to see Trojans being slaughtered before their eyes.

Chasing Odysseus is a young adult novel. I didn't expect there to be a realistic rendering of the sack of Troy. In this I was wrong. It is brutal. The few Trojan survivors, most notably Scamandrious, are brought to safety through the tunnels. Almost immediately this man turns on his rescuers. I was impressed at this point by how everything ties together so believably and poignantly. As much as I hated the loyal Herdsmen being maliciously and far too quickly sacrificed to the terror and rage of the moment, labeled as traitors, used as convenient scapegoats, it made perfect sense. How else could the Greeks have gotten in? The truth about the horse was not yet known. It was just a lifeless wooden statue in the minds of the Trojans. So the Herdsmen fell under suspicion as the long time guardians of the secret tunnels. How easy it would have been for them to show the Greeks the way in.

The heartbreaking culmination of these accusations is the murder of Agelaus and the near-murder of his son.

Which brings me to the children. Three boys and one girl, all dropped off, so to speak, by the Amazons, to be raised by the Herdsmen. They are: Machaon, Lycon, Cadmus, and Hero, the lone girl. These four young people not surprisingly become extremely close, and live an idyllic life, for the most part, in the hills around Troy, as the Greeks think of them as unimportant and leave them in peace.

The four protagonists are beautifully drawn, completely realistic, true to their times, and likeable. Their personalities run the gamut. I could see them in my mind's eye clearly. Hero's life is particularly sheltered as her devoted brothers, loving father, and the whole tribe watch over her, since she suffers a rather serious physical disability with her sight. She could be whiny and spoiled but she isn't. She is, very believably, in awe and trepidation of the gods, of their vindictiveness, of their swift anger and power and need for vengeance. In her short life, she has already been abandoned by her mother and witnessed this relentless, seemingly endless war with Mycenae and its supporters. Hero, watched over by her family and wanting to return what she could of their devotion, does her best to give them the only protections she can think of: a softening of the gods' fickle feelings. She conducts formal sacrifices and offers sincere prayers, all designed to build a bulwark of safety around those she loves.

Now, however, she must face the fact that all she has done is for nothing. She is forced to endure the death of her father, the horrible torture of her brother, and the absolute condemnation of her people.

This will not stand. And so we come to the decision that changes the lives of these children forever. After consulting with Pan, the Herdsmen's special god, they determine there is only one living person who can clear their names.

Odysseus.

Pan gives them his magical Phaeacian ship and the foursome set out to find the Greek strategist, drag him back to Troy, and force him to tell the truth.

Many adventures are experienced on their quest, for the wily Odysseus manages to keep one step ahead.

Gentill's vision here is flawless. The story moves swiftly and draws in the reader with its plausibility. The four children of Agelaus show their true characters in their determination to clear their father's name and the reputation of their people. As one can imagine, they chase Odysseus and partake in all of that hero's adventures as he tries to make his way home. We visit the islands Odysseus visits. We meet the Cyclops Polyphemus, Circe, and the terrifying Scylla. We suffer through the turmoil of Charybdis and come to the floating island of Aeolia. We sail through the straits where the Sirens sing and engage with Calypso. In my favorite scene, we accompany the siblings to Hades, where a conversation takes place with the dead Achilles and a confession is made I hardly dared hope to see. He says: "I have met Hector, Odysseus. Hector, whose body I dragged around the walls of Troy behind my chariot, in view of his parents, his people...I have met Pentheselia, whose body I used as it lay dead and bloodied beneath me."

In Hades, the four siblings are even reunited briefly with their father. Finally, they come to Scherie, land of the Phaeacians, the birthplace of their wondrous vessel. Each of these places brings danger, daring, adventure, and hope. In every one of these places the reader wonders how the young people will escape, how they will achieve their goal.

As to my feelings about the famous characters from Homer's Odyssey? I've read a lot over the years about ancient Greek heroes and I've discovered, as anyone can who cares to dig deep enough, that these larger-than-life men have come down through history with auras of false divinity surrounding them while the less than heroic actions they took have been largely forgotten. Hercules, Theseus, Achilles, (Achilles especially) have darker sides and I have come to look upon these shallow accounts, which depict them as perfect men, with suspicion. So I appreciated Gentill's more realistic (and rare) depiction of Odysseus. When it comes to Greek myths, one can have all childhood notions shattered by reading a little deeper.

To be thoroughly happy with a story, I need a little romance. I am happy to report that this requirement, too, was fulfilled and we are left knowing there is more to come on that score.

The book is beautifully illustrated with the author's own art.

Trying War, the second book in this series, will be available soon. ( )