What do you think?
Rate this book
Hellenic Traders #1-4
The Turtledove Historical Collection: Over the Wine-Dark Sea - The Gryphon's Skull - The Sacred Land - Owl to Athens
This box-set contains the following books (full texts):
1. OVER THE WINE-DARK SEA
Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper, the scholarly Sostratos, are sea-traders from the Greek island of Rhodes. Fearless sailors, they will travel any distance to make a profit or to search for rich treasures.
While they trade in fineries such as wine and silk (and even, to the chagrin of many, peacocks), they live in dangerous times with pirates, thieves and barbarians. As if avoiding death by the hands of these miscreants isn’t enough (particularly the barbarians from an obscure town called Rome), they are also caught between the political intrigues of Alexander’s former generals.
2. THE GRYPHON’S SKULL
Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper (and cousin), the scholarly Sostratos, are back in a new adventure.
Soon after their successful return to Rhodes the two cousins find that Greece is a dangerous place after the death of Alexander. Various factions fight and vie for power and the neutrality of Rhodes itself is threatened as opposing forces maneuver for advantage in the eastern Mediterranean.
But Menedemos and Sostratos are determined not to let circumstances stand in the way of a profitable venture…especially since they are now in possession of a rare skull which appears to be from the mythical creature known as the Gryphon.
But can they survive long enough to benefit from their unusual discovery?
3. THE SACRED LAND
Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper (and cousin) the scholarly Sostratos, are back in their third adventure.
This time around the two cousins end up in the Sacred Land, Jerusalem, where they encounter a strange religion. This fascinates Sostratos, who wants to learn as much as he can about the strange monotheists living there.
The more worldly Menedemos looks more toward more common pleasures, particularly those involving pretty women (not letting small inconveniences like their marriage to other men get in the way).
But, as always, trouble follows them. From cargo they can’t sell to bandits and thugs waiting to jump them, they must once again use their quick wits to survive and, hopefully, make a profit from their long journey.
4. OWLS TO ATHENS
After some long and perilous journeys, Menedemos and Sostratos finally head back to Athens just in time for the Dionysia, a bacchanalian festival of plays and celebrations.
Like earlier installments in the series, Owls to Athens has the cousins going through various adventures, trade negotiations and sexual escapades, all set against a finely painted mosaic of Hellenic life in the fourth century BCE.
1. OVER THE WINE-DARK SEA
Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper, the scholarly Sostratos, are sea-traders from the Greek island of Rhodes. Fearless sailors, they will travel any distance to make a profit or to search for rich treasures.
While they trade in fineries such as wine and silk (and even, to the chagrin of many, peacocks), they live in dangerous times with pirates, thieves and barbarians. As if avoiding death by the hands of these miscreants isn’t enough (particularly the barbarians from an obscure town called Rome), they are also caught between the political intrigues of Alexander’s former generals.
2. THE GRYPHON’S SKULL
Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper (and cousin), the scholarly Sostratos, are back in a new adventure.
Soon after their successful return to Rhodes the two cousins find that Greece is a dangerous place after the death of Alexander. Various factions fight and vie for power and the neutrality of Rhodes itself is threatened as opposing forces maneuver for advantage in the eastern Mediterranean.
But Menedemos and Sostratos are determined not to let circumstances stand in the way of a profitable venture…especially since they are now in possession of a rare skull which appears to be from the mythical creature known as the Gryphon.
But can they survive long enough to benefit from their unusual discovery?
3. THE SACRED LAND
Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper (and cousin) the scholarly Sostratos, are back in their third adventure.
This time around the two cousins end up in the Sacred Land, Jerusalem, where they encounter a strange religion. This fascinates Sostratos, who wants to learn as much as he can about the strange monotheists living there.
The more worldly Menedemos looks more toward more common pleasures, particularly those involving pretty women (not letting small inconveniences like their marriage to other men get in the way).
But, as always, trouble follows them. From cargo they can’t sell to bandits and thugs waiting to jump them, they must once again use their quick wits to survive and, hopefully, make a profit from their long journey.
4. OWLS TO ATHENS
After some long and perilous journeys, Menedemos and Sostratos finally head back to Athens just in time for the Dionysia, a bacchanalian festival of plays and celebrations.
Like earlier installments in the series, Owls to Athens has the cousins going through various adventures, trade negotiations and sexual escapades, all set against a finely painted mosaic of Hellenic life in the fourth century BCE.
1405 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 9, 2017
220 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
About the author
Harry Turtledove
564 books1,963 followersDr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.
Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 31, 2018
I love historical fiction and I'm obsessed with Greek history, but this book read more like a badly-presented history lesson than a novel. I got tired of the characters having stilted and fake conversations to tell us about history. In a good book you should show us, not tell us. In this book he insists on telling us...in great detail.
And if I want to read Homer, I'll read Homer - every second page seems to be yet another reference to the Iliad or the Odyssey (and yes I've read both a few times). I was looking forward to this book, but its not for me.
“Nothing else but,” Menedemos agreed. “Unless a pentekonter or a hemiolia can run away, it’s got even less chance against a trireme than we do in the Aphrodite against a pirate ship. But the other side of the coin is, you wouldn’t want to take a trireme up against a bigger war galley these days.”
“By Poseidon the earthshaker, I should hope not,” Diokles said. “Anything from a four on up will have a solid oarbox instead of an outrigger, it’ll have extra timbers at the waterline to make ramming tougher, and it’ll have a deck swarming with marines. I wouldn’t want to fight a big old mean spur-thighed tortoise like that in a trireme, and I don’t know anybody who would, either.”
“When we Hellenes fought Persia—even when Athens fought Sparta less than a hundred years ago—all the warships were triremes,” Sostratos said. “No one knew how to build anything bigger.”
And if I want to read Homer, I'll read Homer - every second page seems to be yet another reference to the Iliad or the Odyssey (and yes I've read both a few times). I was looking forward to this book, but its not for me.
July 10, 2021
I’m in the middle of reading books set in Greece between third and fifth century BC and have just finished most of Mary Renault’s highly literate books. This book appealed for its focus on the maritime trading aspect of Ancient Greece. From Renault’s third Alexander books, Funeral Games, I had a good picture of the political situation immediately following Alexander’s death, so I thought this would be perfect.
It is not perfect, by any means, but it wasn’t horrible. The author is not a particularly good writer. I got what I came for, though…a tale of a trading ships journey across the Inner Sea. I’m satisfied but I won’t be reading the two follow-up books. Which says a lot, because I’m that guy who compulsively reads whole series.
I had hoped for evocative descriptions of ports, markets, sailing and daily life. What I got were bare-bones serviceable descriptions. I got a noticeable amount of unnecessary repetition in these things as well as dialogue, which was often stilted.
The two main, and basically only, characters were fine but very simply drawn with no shading or nuance. Their differences were highlighted again and again and again. Soastratos was, by far, the most interesting and had the most depth. I was moved by his theme of “the thinking man’s isolation in a world of dullards”.
In all, I’m not sorry I read this but I certainly won’t be exploring Turtledoves startling voluminous output of books.
It is not perfect, by any means, but it wasn’t horrible. The author is not a particularly good writer. I got what I came for, though…a tale of a trading ships journey across the Inner Sea. I’m satisfied but I won’t be reading the two follow-up books. Which says a lot, because I’m that guy who compulsively reads whole series.
I had hoped for evocative descriptions of ports, markets, sailing and daily life. What I got were bare-bones serviceable descriptions. I got a noticeable amount of unnecessary repetition in these things as well as dialogue, which was often stilted.
The two main, and basically only, characters were fine but very simply drawn with no shading or nuance. Their differences were highlighted again and again and again. Soastratos was, by far, the most interesting and had the most depth. I was moved by his theme of “the thinking man’s isolation in a world of dullards”.
In all, I’m not sorry I read this but I certainly won’t be exploring Turtledoves startling voluminous output of books.
May 7, 2019
I really liked this series but I felt the ending was left unfinished. Not sure why! I have always loved Harry Turtledove's books since first reading "The two Georges" which I found riveting !!! I learned a lot by reading this series and found myself unable to stop reading when I should have. Thanks !!
January 5, 2020
Great book , I loved it spot it had to come to an end!
I stared reading this book as a distraction to doing work. After I started to read it, I could not pot it down. I read it on the sea days of a 15 day cruise. There were days i did not want to go on shore trips.
Double ten rating!
Harvey Berzon
I stared reading this book as a distraction to doing work. After I started to read it, I could not pot it down. I read it on the sea days of a 15 day cruise. There were days i did not want to go on shore trips.
Double ten rating!
Harvey Berzon
March 12, 2019
Good historical period
I grew to like the characters. They are too one dimensional. The descriptions of the various scenes are too sparse. But what there is is very interesting. I was sorry to see the series end.
I grew to like the characters. They are too one dimensional. The descriptions of the various scenes are too sparse. But what there is is very interesting. I was sorry to see the series end.
May 27, 2019
Loved these 4, relatively short Turtledove books. Historical fiction, set in ancient Greece, with lots of detail and very interesting characters. Inspired me to learn more about the period, and the ships.
May 30, 2019
Turtledove never disappoints
I bought a three book box set, read them straight through and I'm looking for the next in the series. I'll only be disappointed if there aren't more of these
I bought a three book box set, read them straight through and I'm looking for the next in the series. I'll only be disappointed if there aren't more of these
February 6, 2020
I really enjoyed these books, they are well written and exhibit excellent historical scholarship. There is a lot of really graphic sex. The interplay between the personalities of Menedemos and Sostratos is fun to read. There isn't what you'd call a conclusion, though, it just sort of Peters out after their fourth voyage.
September 7, 2017
Wonderful series of historically accurate books that lets readers enjoy everyday life with ordinary folks.
April 29, 2019
Good story teller.
Instead of being the story of one individual as most period histories are Turtledove connects the events of the time.
Instead of being the story of one individual as most period histories are Turtledove connects the events of the time.
September 14, 2020
Well, possibly not the greatest story, at times a little repetitive...but bloody enjoyable. I liked the characters, was interested in the events, so a good read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews