The Firebrand

Book Title: The Firebrand

Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Date Started: October 15th 2022

Date Completed: January 22nd 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

Kassandra has always been my favourite classical figure, and now this is undeniably my favourite retelling of her story. Not only is it a creative, feminist, kickass way to tell it, but it brought new things even to my own knowledge. I genuinely didn't know the inspiration for the ending existed.

You can tell that the book was made with such love for the original myths - and every corner of the Ancient Greek world and beyond we get to visit in its pages. The Firebrand is such a humanising but imaginative way to retell this story that has been told a thousand times over. These characters I know so well are materialised so vividly. Myths are designed to be elevated, spectacular, and slightly other. And yet Bradley makes everything flow so neatly, the relations are built from emotions as well as blood, the places our heroine visits are truly part of a sprawling map rather than fragments of some long forgotten, fantastical landscape.

What really makes this novel click, in a way that many retellings don't quite achieve, is the ability to recentre a seasoned story around a different character than traditionally told through, and the skill to change where the agency of the tale comes from. Especially in the current era of myth retellings we're experiencing, I'm always disappointed when a myth is retold from another character's perspective (very often a woman's) but they are an observer to the classical story, grieving for their lack of power in a history already written (yes, we all understand the meta-narrative, we get it). The Firebrand, despite everything, is Kassandra's story. And she is firmly in charge of it.