Seventeen years ago, King Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the isle of Ithaca. 'The greatest power we women can own is that which we take in secret.' But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women - and their goddesses - that will change the course of the world. Beyond Ithaca's shores, the whims of gods dictate the wars of men. This is t he story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before.

***A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Year*** 'Claire North brings a powerful, fresh and unflinching voice to ancient myth - darkly fascinating, raw and breathtaking' Jennifer Saint, author of Sunday Times bestseller Ariadne It's time for the women of Ithaca to tell their tale. Nebula award-winning Moon excels at depicting an independent leader of men and women who is open to doubt and soul-searching.Įric Brown’s latest novel, Murder Take Three, is published by Severn House.From the multi award-winning and award-nominated Claire North comes a gorgeous and fiercely feminist retelling of the classic Greek myth of Penelope. What follows is a tensely told story of survival against the odds, as Vatta battles against the natural elements, a quarry that wants her dead and a traitor in her midst. Instead, her shuttle is sabotaged and she and her peacekeeping force are stranded in the icy wastes of the planet’s north pole.

Now a victorious admiral of the interstellar Space Defence Force, she returns to her homeworld of Slotter Key expecting a hero’s welcome. Despite some unconvincing character motivation, The Apartment is afast-paced, page-turning chiller that gallops towards its ambiguous climax.Įlizabeth Moon’s Cold Welcome (Orbit, £8.99) marks the start of a new series following the gutsy and resourceful Ky Vatta, protagonist of the previous Vatta’s War books. The story is told in first-person chapters alternating between Mark and Stephanie, allowing the authors to play with narrator reliability and to examine the fracture lines in the husband and wife relationship. The apartment turns out to be not quite the chic pad they’d hoped for – it’s more of a squat in a decrepit building inhabited by one other resident, a mad artist. In The Apartment (Pan, £7.99), SL Grey – the pseudonym of Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg – sets up an interesting premise and introduces, little by little, elements of inevitable horror. After suffering a break-in at their Cape Town apartment, Mark and Stephanie decide to house-swap with a couple in Paris as a way of getting away from it all and, in Mark’s case, fleeing the horrors of his past.

Catherine webb ithaca