Pat Barker's The Voyage Home Book Review

 The Voyage Home 

(Women of Troy #3)

By Pat Barker 

Published Year: 2024 

Page Count: 320 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle Scribe 

Genre : Historical Fiction, Mythology, 2025-read, Ancient Greece, Women Empowered, Murder, Vengeance. 

Rating : 4.8/5

The main story - Agamemnon comes home,flaunting his ego, after ten years of war at Troy, destroying Troy and taking his share of war spoils. Before setting out for Troy, he callously murders his daughter Ipigenia, offering her as a sacrifice for the Gods, for fair weather. His wife hasn't forgotten this, despite the time that has passed. Agamemon's father, Atreus, has murdered and offered his brother's children as edible meat to his brother, to show off his power. Someone doesn't forget this either. Cassandra, his new concubine, doesn't forget the blood that flowed in Troy and all the children that are slaughtered by Agamemnon or under his direction. Its all about and about all these children and doing them justice. A truly memorable read!! 

Ritsa is a herb gatherer and healer, taken as a servant and slave to Cassandra, daughter of Priam of Troy, after the fall of Troy at the hands of invading Greeks. (More than half of the narration is by Ritsa in first person and the remaining is by the author as narrator.)Agamemnon,the lord of Greeks, chooses Cassandra for his concubine and they set back home, to Mycenae, with a small group of soldiers and aides. All the Trojan women are taken as prisoners by someone or the other and are bent with grief over the loss of their kith and kin, over the brutal, barbaric killing of their children. Cassandra is no different from them in wanting justice and vengeance. While on board the ship Medusa, there is a storm raging on the waters outside. But there is also a great disturbance and guilt raking the mind of Agamemnon. He imagines he sees his daughter,Ipigenia's spirit haunting him. Cassandra predicts that they would reach their home safe despite the turbulent weather. She also predicts, in private, to Ritsa, that she and Agamemnon would both get murdered once they reach the Greek nation of Mycenae. Both her prophecies come true. Why would they be killed and who would accomplish this task of ending the barbaric brute, Agamemnon? This story is not new. It is the author's version of what might have happened. All the facts of the story are known to readers before .. because this story is told widely and even if not the full version, few tidbits here and there are atleast common lore. 

I thought the world building and character development are good. Women taking power back from men and killing a brute who had no guilt in whatever he had done, in his craze for power, felt immensely liberating and empowering. A lot of the scenes and dialogues are moving and have a visceral quality. I thought Agamemon's character is softened and the author has portrayed him in a humane spirit and in some scenes, I couldn't reconcile the war lord of Troy to this one. Especially him cherishing his relationship with Cassandra and her unborn child, his soft veneration of his queen Clytemnestra. How he even walked into his own death trap with diminished intellect and powers of judgment. I also thought it odd that he so quickly forgot about Ipigenia while he was so haunted by her memory on board ship Medusa. Other than these few blaring and overtly obvious flaws, the book felt superb to me. Eerie and electric. It transported me to the times of ancient Greece when gods played the game called 'life' with men and didn't bother plucking one soul here or another there. Barker's flow of intellect and great prose is also very riveting! 

Do check out!