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smemmott's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
jain's review
3.0
Three unconnected short stories; I love one, am largely unimpressed by another, and don't know quite what to make of the third.
"A Crown of Wild Olive" (alternate title: "The Truce of the Games") is set during the Peloponnesian War. Two young competitors at the Olympic Games--an Athenian and a Spartan--strike up a friendship despite the enmity between their city-states. It's easy to guess the basic outline of the plot early on, but that's fine. What makes this story so awesome isn't its plot but the characterizations of the two boys, their simultaneously sweet and poignant interrelationship, and the depiction of the terrible and almost unreal cost of civil war for certain of its soldiers.
"The Chief's Daughter," set in pre-Roman Wales, has some decent characters and concepts, but they're not given sufficient attention. The plot is painfully predictable; unfortunately, unlike "A Crown of Wild Olive," the plot is pretty much all there is. Most of the interesting background is told-not-shown, and the action serves primarily to deliver a plot "twist" that isn't at all twisty.
"A Circlet of Oak Leaves," set in Roman Britain, is intriguing yet frustrating. It's about a retired soldier and a defining moment in his life. It's beautifully and subtly written, and I love the protagonist, but, at the risk of sounding insensitive, I don't think the defining moment in question deserves to be that defining. It just feels psychologically implausible to me, which in turn makes it feel a bit like cheap angst, and I'm left liking and resenting the story in equal measure.
"A Crown of Wild Olive" (alternate title: "The Truce of the Games") is set during the Peloponnesian War. Two young competitors at the Olympic Games--an Athenian and a Spartan--strike up a friendship despite the enmity between their city-states. It's easy to guess the basic outline of the plot early on, but that's fine. What makes this story so awesome isn't its plot but the characterizations of the two boys, their simultaneously sweet and poignant interrelationship, and the depiction of the terrible and almost unreal cost of civil war for certain of its soldiers.
"The Chief's Daughter," set in pre-Roman Wales, has some decent characters and concepts, but they're not given sufficient attention. The plot is painfully predictable; unfortunately, unlike "A Crown of Wild Olive," the plot is pretty much all there is. Most of the interesting background is told-not-shown, and the action serves primarily to deliver a plot "twist" that isn't at all twisty.
"A Circlet of Oak Leaves," set in Roman Britain, is intriguing yet frustrating. It's about a retired soldier and a defining moment in his life. It's beautifully and subtly written, and I love the protagonist, but, at the risk of sounding insensitive, I don't think the defining moment in question deserves to be that defining. It just feels psychologically implausible to me, which in turn makes it feel a bit like cheap angst, and I'm left liking and resenting the story in equal measure.
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