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This sword and sandals epic takes place more than a thousand years before Christ walked the earth. It’s a Bronze Age Three Musketeers with heroes undertaking a perilous mission where dangers multiply exponentially as chances of success continually plummet. In the Mediterranean region, long before the Classical Greek period (5th – 4th centuries BC), a young prince is abducted and spirited away. His father, the King of the Achaeans, charges a small team with his rescue and return. The team is made up of the peoples’ greatest warrior, Telemon, plus a soldier, an aging and mysterious Wanderer, and the king’s younger son, Orfeo. Another peculiar Wanderer and his charming female apprentice soon join this tiny but capable contingent. Together, they embark upon a series of adventures that include hazardous travel by sea and on horseback, various forms of hand-to-hand combat, the use of guile and trickery in the courts of potentially dangerous monarchs, the conversion of longtime foes into allies, and the fighting of a great battle—the loss of which could enslave multiple populations.
Eiland fills his tale with vivid imagery of the people and places that occupy its pages. Descriptions of fortified cities such as Pylos, Lakonia, and Kalamatta, teem with sights, sounds, and smells only a novel can bring to ancient history. Characters are imbued with traits, motivations, and behaviors that remind us how little human nature changes while humanity’s habitats seem to be continually in flux. In addition to being a grand quest, Eiland’s novel is also a coming-of-age tale of the younger son, Orfeo—a hero the author promises to continue chronicling in stories to come.