Tros of Samothrace

by Talbot Mundy

Tros of Samothrace features the following 4 swashbuckling adventures:

Tros (Wolves of the Tiber)
When his ship is taken and his crew slaughtered Tros of Samothrace is captured by Imperial Rome. Whilst his father is held hostage, Tros is coerced by Julius Caesar into helping find the best route for his assault on Britain. Tros must play a double game—he must try to save his father and encourage the British chieftains’ resistance to thwart Rome and its legions—who are ready in Gaul to make the crossing to occupy their lands. Treachery, intrigue and assassination plots threaten, before Tros must accompany Caesar in his amphibious landing and its pitched battle in the surf.

Helma (Dragons of the North)
Tros of Samothrace burns for vengeance and has declared himself the implacable enemy of Rome. Caesar has vowed to hunt Tros down and crucify him after Tros humiliates him by sinking his fleet. With his new allies, under King Caswallan, Tros must face the new threat of raiding Nosemen in their longships. After a pitched battle, his vanquished foes—Olaf Sigurdsen and his beautiful sister Helma—form an alliance with Tros and together they command a crew of fierce Norsemen in a quest to save Lunden and embark on new adventures against Rome and rebel Britons.

Liafail (Serpent of the Waves)
Following their last clash, Tros, his allies and the forces of Rome have drawn apart to prepare for the conflict to come. King Caswallan of the Trinobantes is determined to resist any incursion, but the other British tribal leaders do not unanimously support him. Tros must suffer plots and revolts as he struggles to prepare his ship—the serpent prowed Liafail—for sea, but he needs more seamen and must lure Caesar into battle to win them. With the crew in place Tros pursues a desperate gamble! He will sail to Rome itself to stir Caesar’s enemies against him!

Helene (City of the Eagle)
As Tros of Samothrace continues in his attempts to confound Caesar’s plans for the invasion of Britain, he journeys to the Eternal City to seek the aid of its great leaders—and Caesar’s opponents—Cato, Pompey and the Vestal Virgins themselves! While in Rome, Tros bizarrely finds himself serving Caesar’s interests as well as his own and those of his allies. Then his crew is captured. As intrigue follows intrigue Tros becomes embroiled in the Circus Maximus—with its chariot races and sudden death in the gladiatorial arena.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Pulp, Science Fiction Fantasy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon) was an English-born American writer of adventure fiction. Based for most of his life in the United States, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Walter Galt. Best known as the author of King of the Khyber Rifles and the Jimgrim series, much of his work was published in pulp magazines.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was somewhat disappointed, though perhaps I shouldn't have been. The book was written before Robert E. Howard began writing Conan but when the Conan boom hit in the 1960s and 70s, many older books were repackaged to suggest a similarity with Conan. This was one of those, and even had the label: "Heroic fantasy in the tradition of Robert E. Howard" on the cover. If anything, of course, Howard was in the Mundy tradition. The book, which is first in a series, features Tros, a prince of Samothrace who goes adventuring in old Britain and faces Caesar among other foes. The character is interesting but very different from Conan in most ways.

Although the setting is similar to some of Howard's historical tales featuring Cormac Mac Art, there is much less action than in REH's work. The pace of this is almost leisurely. It's interesting but would have been better at a shorter length and with the action ramped up. Not bad but it didn't give me anything like the Howard fix I was craving.

[Amy Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to confess, I LOVED this book as a kid! Just a fast, action-packed adventure story that reminds me of Robert E. Howard's Conan. Would actually like to reread now!

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, after almost 25 years I've got a chance to re-read Tros. Unfortunately, I lost books 2 and 4 of the Avon edition years ago and it wasn't until I came across a new Kindle edition that I decided to re-read this masterpiece of historical adventure. Now, my first inclination was to read it in a couple of days but instead I savored it over almost two weeks time. I will say this about Tros, the books certainly holds well and is just as enthralling and entertaining as it was when I first read it at age 21. Maybe even more so now that I've learned more about the history of Rome in ensueing years. Thank goodness for the advent of e-books which makes it so much easier to find some of the gems from the past. By the way I bought the sequel, "The Purple Pirate", at the same time so I'll be re-reading that one soon.

[Hallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid adventure story, cool fights, the Vikings are sweet, and the history is abysmal. I would consider reading the sequel for more Vikings and less griping about Caesar.

[Bob Jarcik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the very first LONG book I'd ever read - back in 7th grade. Thought it was good then, still think it's good. A good read if you don't want Harry Potter.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is shameful that Talbot Mundy remains such a forgotten literary figure, his works consigned often contemptuously to the category of pulp adventure stories. To be sure, Mundy worked in the pulp environment, which itself, I'd say, is grossly underrated. In fact, it's overwhelming just seeing how much published material Mundy generated for adventure magazines, short story magazines, and edge book publishers. But that shouldn't mean Mundy was some sort of assembly line word generator. He's certainly nothing like the corporate writers of the late twentieth century, such as James A. Michener, who had a staff to research his novels, and Wilbur Smith, who simply provided story outlines and gave the work over to "co-authors." No, Mundy's ideas and the detail within his stories came from his own experiences and background.

All of which makes Tros such an exceptional work. For what Mundy does, here, is provide highly detailed and mostly accurate descriptions of Druidic Britain before the Roman invasion, the Mystery Cults that proliferated within the Roman Empire at the time, naval warfare and architecture just before the Christian era, and historical sketches of figures such as Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, Cato the Younger, and even Crassus. While it does default towards the genre of historical fiction, Tros has little to do with fantasy, and its philosophical reading of Theosophy back through Druid society, means he is working with ideas at a level above most people writing in this genre. To even compare Tros with the likes of Conan the Barbarian is absurd and insulting to readers.

For what Mundy does in this novel is work at deconstructing the mythology of Rome as it had taken hold during the last half of the nineteenth century and the first few decades of the twentieth. Mundy in fact drew a large amount of criticism from not only general readers but historians who lived and worked in the 1920s. He did so for such things as faulting Rome for its colonialism, its brutal slavery and destruction of conquered peoples, as well as the empire's and especially the city's degradation, corruption, and degeneracy. For example, as Tros and his crew of Northmen and British sailors are marching towards Rome, it is not the grandeur of the city that first causes them wonder. It's the smell of the garbage pits and crucified dead along the Via Appia that assaults their smell. Within Rome, dirt and filth are never far away, and decrepit outer street walls serve to hide the wealth and excess of courtyards and houses belonging to the elite. Mundy in his last chapter, the climax that describes vicious chariot races and public executions alongside gladiatorial death matches, also brings out some detail that I though had only been recognized in the past three or so decades. That is, Mundy mentions the awnings of Rome's Colosseum, the sail like apparatus that was designed to bring shade to the structure's audiences as the sun moved across the sky.

These sort of observations are not far away from a reorientation of the grand in history towards the everyday. In other words, Mundy is just touching on the origins of twentieth century social history that eschewed the great man for the more complex movements of social classes. In fact, Mundy also brings a good number of historical footnotes and annotations to his work. (And if you download the version available at Roy Glashan's Library, you'll find an edition with additional remarks and notes from Glashan.) The novel is impressive. The almost 1000 pages are a monument to the sort of well researched historical fiction that exists out there.

[Pulpist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talbot Mundy brings the ancient times to life in a way few writers can. The accurate descriptions of daily life, conflicts between Romans and Britons and the wisdom of the Druids captivates you and makes you want to know how the plot will progress. Tros is a complex character who is torn between peace and war. In the end he chooses war, but not before evolving psychologically through several ordeals. You go with him to war and you feel for him when disaster strikes because Tros is a compelling character with a deep sense of honour ingrained in him.