I found this book a bit of a mixed bag. There are so many characters... each getting a chapter or more, each getting a perspective on the Trojan war - it's an interesting concept, but with only 350 pages or so to cover them all, inevitably quite a few of them feel a bit empty and not quite finished. The idea that she focuses on female voices about the Trojan war because they are not usually heard is laughable when you think of the number of authors who used these women as main characters in plays and epic poems.
The writing was... nice. Quite detached which means you don't feel much of a connection ti most characters.
Overall it was a book I still enjoyed, but as often with books that cover so many characters, you end up liking some chapters a lot (Cassandra's were very good) and skimming through a few others.

Natalie Haynes’s reframing of The Iliad and The Odyssey from the female perspective is an original and educational read. The chapters from different characters illuminate the backstory to these amazing stories and I enjoyed recollecting these amazing stories that have truly stood the test of time. My personal favourite is the letters Penelope writes to her husband Odysseus which are woven throughout the novel.
I would recommend this as accessible to new readers, but also to readers who enjoyed Madeline Miller’s Circe and The Song of Achilles, which also revisit Greek myths from an alternative viewpoint

When I first started this book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like I to be honest. I do enjoy retellings and in particular ones that involve women. This book is really compelling and gave me all the emotions. It felt thoroughly researched and parts were amusing. Definitely give it a go.

I really enjoyed this! A Thousand Ships did for me what The Silence of the Girls sadly didn’t, which is always a bonus. In particular, I loved the stories of Clytemnestra and of Chryseis and Briseis. The only issue I had was that it was rather choppy. It felt a little too much like individual snapshots of stories whereas I would have liked a bit more linearity and flow to the stories. I’m not overly familiar with Greek mythology so I’m not entirely sure if there was any chronology to the way the stories were presented, but the linearity was my only issue. Otherwise, I respect Haynes for being able to include so much on a topic that gives so much margin for historical error!

I really enjoyed the recently published re-working of Ancient World stories by Pat Barker and Madeleine Miller, not least because of their female perspectives. However, whilst Natalie Haynes has done something similar in ‘A Thousand Ships’, the structure and style of the many vignettes which make up this novel does not encourage the fully immersive experience that is afforded in ‘Circe’ and ‘The Silence of the Girls’.
Haynes is clearly a very knowledgeable academic and broadcaster and in ‘A Thousand Ships’ we are certainly educated in the possible lives of many peripheral women from the original stories. Her ability to weave social, architectural and cultural details into the stories is very successful – all done with the light touch of someone who is entirely at home in the period. However, the novel does lack the in-depth characterisation or the narrative drive of other recent successful re-tellings of The Iliad and The Odyssey. In general, the storytelling is over-reliant on ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’.
Warning: anyone reading an electronic copy of this novel may well approach it with a sinking heart after digesting the character list provided at the outset. Whilst I’m sure that it’s meant to be helpful, this sort of information only really servers the reader well if it’s as easy to revisit by the easy flicking back of a page!
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

This was such a fascinating and compelling read which shines a powerful light on all of the forgotten women of the Trojan War, including Cassandra, Penelope, Andromache and many others. Each chapter focuses on a different woman, which made for a slightly choppy structure and which took me a little bit to get used to. However, once I did, I was completely entranced by these stories. Haynes does a fantastic job of giving agency to these women and makes them vital, which I really appreciated. I particularly enjoyed Penelope's letters to Odysseus, which were pitch perfect in tone and often made me smile in what was primarily a pretty depressing book. These women were not well treated, which makes for uncomfortable reading, but necessary as it gives another much needed side to the story. The writing is beautiful and evocative and I really enjoyed the way in which each woman had her own unique voice. Overall, I found this to be a really interesting book that I would highly recommend to anyone with an interest in Ancient Greece.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was not a fan of this book at all. I found it extremely hard to follow and it left me very confused.
Unfortunately I DNFed this book

Wow! This is truly an epic tale that I will be highly recommending to all of my friends. Those who have recently read and enjoyed (or loved, as I did!) The Silence of the Girls or Circe will adore this. The novel brings mythology and history to life in a visceral and exciting way. The fact that the tales are each told from a female perspective and that the epic novel is a page-turner are added bonuses.
Haynes proves that a modern literary novel about the ancient world doesn’t have to be dry - it can be utterly thrilling and familiar stories can seem totally new in the right hands.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Natalie Haynes for this remarkable read.

A fantastic retelling of the Iliad from multiple female POVs. As a classics graduate this was just amazing to read, I utterly adored it. So many favourite characters - Penelope, Cassandra, Iphigenia (cried at her bit), Clytemnestra - just so good to hear from them.

The iliad itself is not a pacy read - mainly because it was never intended to be read, it's oral story telling - but this retelling was gripping and enthralling and a strong reminder of how difficult life is - and was - for women.

This book reframes the narrative by which the ancient world shows "achievements" - and for women later in history and even in the present day - where just to survive, to remain alive inspite of the very real dangers both external (slavery/rape/war/illness) and internal (pregnancy/birth) - we and they faced.

It's time to reframe the narrative around achievements and stop just telling history but telling herstory and women's achievements despite the barriers.

I adored this book. An all female retelling of th Trojan War, it gives you a perspective on history that we are often not shown. I would recommend this highly to fans of Madeleine Miller.

I love listening to Natalie Haynes in interviews and discussions. Her energy, humour and clear expertise bring the classical world to life - she always makes me want to delve more into the classical period. Unfortunately, for me at least, her vivacity does not carry over to the pages of this novel. I found it to be enjoyable, but not particularly impactful. It is often a problem when one has high expectations of a book - a high bar is set before one even starts. I know that many other people have really enjoyed this book, so perhaps my reaction says more about me than it. Overall, I am pleased to have had the opportunity to read this and am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.

Natalie Haynes really knows her stuff, and tells a story extremely well. I was pulled in immediately by the voices of the women of the Trojan war - a story we've all heard told in different ways. Haynes tells it from an all female perspective, using unexpected voices alongside the better known ones. The impact of war on women is different to the impact on men, and there are universal experiences of loss and trauma here, but Haynes gives them a particularity. I would thoroughly recommend this book. Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read - and re-read it.

I love Greek Mythology retellings and I loved this retelling of the Trojan War from an all female perspective, Natalie Haynes is a must read for all mythology fans and I can't see wait to see what she does next.

I’m addicted to modern retellings of ancient myths (Mary Renault, Pat Barker, Madeleine Miller et al) and I really enjoyed Natalie Haynes’s ‘The Children of Jocasta’, her reworking of the Oedipus and Antigone stories from the perspective of the female characters. So I snapped up the chance to read her new novel when promoted on the NetGalley review site.

It doesn’t have the traditional, linear plot of ‘The Children of Jocasta’; rather it reads more like a who’s who of the Trojan War, distaff side.

While this approach is interesting and certainly introduced me to characters I knew little about, such as the nymph Oenone and the Amazon Penthisilea, it is a two-edged sword: a series of vignettes of often minor characters doesn’t make for a satisfying read. I wondered where we were going to leap to next.

And, as other readers have found, some of these characters were more compelling than others. Hecabe’s vertiginous drop in status. Polyxena’s grief for her brother Polydorus. These worked well and moved me, as did the fall of Troy when, like Cassandra, one wants to shout out a warning to the Trojans.

These stories have lasted over millennia because we can still relate to them; their themes are universal. Authors like Natalie Haynes do a great job of redressing the imbalance of perspective in putting the female characters centre stage. But the modern versions have to stand as a work of fiction in their own right.

Recently, I noticed that Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Olive Kitteridge’ has been rebranded as ‘a novel in stories’. I wonder if ‘A Thousand Ships’ could similarly be described: ‘an epic in stories’ perhaps? Perhaps I should reread it with this descriptor in mind.

I really struggled with this book to begin with because of the way it’s written - short chapters where I was just beginning to understand what was happening then it would be another story. I did nearly give up a few times but I kept going and once I got to 60% of the way through it became much easier to read. The chapters seemed longer and revealed more of the story.
Its very cleverly written and definitely worth persevering!

It’s interesting that the blurb mentions Madeline Miller and Pat Barker. I’ve read The Song of Achilles and Circe (both by Miller) and The Silence of the Girls by Barker. I enjoyed A Thousand Ships more than the Barker but didn’t love it as much as either of Miller’s books.

Barker’s The Silence of the Girls disappointed me because I’d hoped it would retell events from The Iliad from the perspective of the female characters. But halfway through the narrative we switch from the female characters’ viewpoints to Achilles’, and I didn’t think we needed yet another male view on events. Thankfully, Haynes doesn’t do this in A Thousand Ships. Instead, we get an entirely female perspective as we skip between the stories of various characters featured in The Iliad (and, to a lesser extent, The Odyssey), including goddesses.

In this way Haynes’ book applies a great deal of imagination to “recover” the voices of characters who only get brief mentions in the classics. By doing so she is following a tradition going all the way back to Ovid and his Heroides, a series of poems in the form of letters written from the point of view of heroines of Greek and Roman mythology.

I liked that so many different stories were included and the way they were interlinked. The structure is almost a series of short stories skillfully woven together, but then that all seems approriate given how important Penelope’s story and her weaving is.

My favourite voices included Calliope. I thought it was original to give the Muse herself a voice and that she was quite rightly cheesed off at being ordered about by mortal poets.

My other favourite was Penelope. She is often portrayed as the “perfect wife” (mostly by male authors and artists, it has to be said), meaning she is patient, faithful and silent. I always imagined she would actually be incredibly annoyed that Odysseus went off to war for 10 years and then took 10 years to return (entirely his own fault for being a show-off), especially as tales of his escapades and time spent with other women got back to her. Haynes’ Penelope displays quite a bit of this justified irritation and weariness.

The research behind the book is meticulous. In the mining of classical literature, but also in archaeological details, right down to the description of a pair of earrings and the clothing worn by the Amazons.

The classical epics depict heroism as a male act, usually involving fighting and death. But A Thousand Ships puts forward the idea that the women who are left behind and must carry on despite having lost everything are also incredibly brave, even if their everyday heroism and incredible strength hasn’t been seen as worthy of epic poetry.

You don’t have to have previous knowledge of the The Iliad or Greek mythology to read and enjoy A Thousand Ships. However, I’d argue it would increase your enjoyment as, by having prior knowledge of the stories on which Haynes’ is basing her narratives, you’ll find it a more relaxing read.

Overall: a terrific collection of “recovered” female voices which bring to life characters and celebrate a quieter heroism sidelined in epic literature.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

There's been something of a trend for feminist retellings of Greek mythology recently, and Haynes's novel definitely falls into this category. I appreciate what she does here by juxtaposing a multitude of female voices against the traditional male-centred narrative of the Trojan War and its aftermath. I particularly enjoyed the more unfamiliar voices, such as Chryseis and Laodamia. However, telling the stories as snapshots meant we didn't really get to engage with the characters fully. In my opinion, Madeline Miller's Circe is much more effective by exploring one female character and centring her experience as as important as traditional heroes such as Achilles and Odysseus. That being said, Haynes's book is still compelling and important and I'm glad it's receiving accolades such as being shortlisted for the Women's Prize.

This was a good book set around the Trojian war. I'm not a fan of historical books but I found myself enjoying this one and getting sucked into the story. A good book with a great premise.

This is a fantastic book, centred on the story of the Trojan War and told from the perspective of the women that were involved. I have read a couple of other books on the same theme previously but this was without doubt the best. Before reading this one I believed that I had a pretty good knowledge of the stories but I was surprised at how little I knew about many of the characters, and it is some of the lesser known women that have the most interesting, touching stories.

A wonderful read that is heartbreaking at times but also has some light humour. The women are all amazing in their own way, particularly the feisty ones ;)

I absolutely loved this book. I was familiar with the story of Troy in its broad terms and I’m so disappointed in myself for never noticing that it just glosses over the women completely.

This book is a clever, funny and engaging retelling of the familiar story and I was completely engrossed. It’s very clever and I really hope it wins the Women’s Prize this year. I can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t recommend it to.

I’m so grateful for the advance copy. Thank you!