Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder’s Reviews > Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined > Status Update
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 60% done
"And you will do without me!" said Achilles. "Hear me proclaim this, you loathsome turd from the ass of Typhon. From this moment on I declare myself out of your war. The gods themselves could not persuade me to lift one finger to help bring your brother's precious wife out of Troy. She's nothing to me - and you, King of Pigs, are less than nothing to me. The day will come when you will crawl on your knees ..."
— Jun 22, 2026 08:39AM
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Alan (the Lone Librarian)’s Previous Updates
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 80% done
Priam blinks in disbelief and looks again.
There is nothing.
The Greek stockade has been taken down.
The whole encampment, huts, tents, palisades and all, burned.
He sees the strange hulking outline of something, but cannot make it out.
...
"My old eyes can't make it out. What can it be?"
Cassandra comes forward and tugs at her father's robes, crying out, "It is death! Death!"
— Jun 25, 2026 07:55AM
There is nothing.
The Greek stockade has been taken down.
The whole encampment, huts, tents, palisades and all, burned.
He sees the strange hulking outline of something, but cannot make it out.
...
"My old eyes can't make it out. What can it be?"
Cassandra comes forward and tugs at her father's robes, crying out, "It is death! Death!"
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 70% done
Although Achilles wore no armour, the mere sight of him, standing high on the embankment, bathed in an unearthly light and uttering the most piercing and monumental battle-cry was enough to scatter the Trojans. Three times Achilles yelled his terrible war cry. The Trojans and even their horses were filled with fear. In triumph the Achaeans bore the body of Patroclus back to their camp.
— Jun 24, 2026 08:33PM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 50% done
We know how wars that each side believed would soon be decided can stretch out over months and years. The Greeks and Trojans were perhaps the first to discover this unhappy truth. ... For nine years the Trojan War was more plunder than thunder.
— Jun 21, 2026 10:39AM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 40% done
Given the intervention of the gods and other magical and supernatural happenings, I have—as mentioned in the Introduction that you so wisely skipped—thought it best to tell the story of the war and its aftermath without attempting to dot every sequential iota or cross every chronological tau.
— Jun 21, 2026 08:46AM
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 30% done
‘It is a wonderful idea!’ said Priam. ‘... You’re a good boy Paris, and I bless the day you were restored to us.’
But Paris was not a good boy. He had no intention of sailing to Salamis to negotiate the return of some old aunt for whom he cared nothing. What was Hesione to him, or him to Hesione? Aphrodite had whispered his true destination. Sparta and the promised Helen.
No, Paris was not a good boy.
— Jun 20, 2026 03:25PM
But Paris was not a good boy. He had no intention of sailing to Salamis to negotiate the return of some old aunt for whom he cared nothing. What was Hesione to him, or him to Hesione? Aphrodite had whispered his true destination. Sparta and the promised Helen.
No, Paris was not a good boy.
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 20% done
There is a story that Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, besieged the city and threatened them thus: "If I defeat you, we will raze your city to the ground, we will kill every man and boy in the city and take every woman and girl into slavery."
The Spartans sent a one word reply: "If."
This is often thought to be the original laconic reply.
— Jun 19, 2026 06:45AM
The Spartans sent a one word reply: "If."
This is often thought to be the original laconic reply.
Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder
is 10% done
[Slow going, even though it is on audio. An entertaining narration by Stephen Frey but we're an 1 hour in and not even close to the Trojan War yet. Lots of pre-history and family history and family curses, etc.]
— Jun 18, 2026 12:13PM
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Pia G.
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Jun 22, 2026 09:54AM
Did you enjoy the book, Alan?
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Pia G. wrote: "Did you enjoy the book, Alan?"I am not quite finished yet Pia, but it has been excellent, especially with Stephen Fry's own narration in the audiobook. He spent the first half of the book on all the backstories of everyone. It doesn't even get to the actual Iliad sections until the 2nd half ie. the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon that starts book 1 of The Iliad.
Thanks, Alan! That sounds fascinating. I wasn't expecting so much of the background to come before the Iliad itself. I'll be very interested to hear your full thoughts once you've finished it.
