"Arrow through the Axes concludes the "Odyssey of a Slave" trilogy that began with the Red Maple–nominated Torn from Troy, retelling Homer's Odyssey. The slave Alexi, now free of his Greek captors, infiltrates the Greek strongholds of the Bronze Age in search of his sister. In so doing he participates in the stories of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, as he seeks revenge for his father's murder, and of Telemachus, son of Odysseus, who lands on Ithaca, the home island of Odysseus, just in time to witness the arrival of a mysterious stranger. As Alexi comes to understand the damage that the Trojan War has visited upon its victors, both he and the reader are forced to confront an unpleasant truth, while Alexi must decide where his allegiance really lies. Re-casting the Odyssey as a YA adventure, this trilogy brings ancient mythology to life in a way that traditional retellings cannot. We see what life would have been like for Bronze-Age warriors as Bowman interweaves adventure, ritual and historical detail into a realistic and compelling narrative. Readers who have experienced pop mythology, and now want to dive deeper, will find Arrow through the Axes especially satisfying, but all readers will enjoy this powerful excursion into the classic mythology that shaped western culture."
"The second volume in the "Odyssey of a Slave" trilogy continues the retelling of Homer's epic, The Odyssey. Alexi, a young Trojan boy captured by Odysseus after the fall of Troy, is forced to accompany the hated Greeks on their sea journey home to Ithaca. Cursed by the Sea God retells many of The Odyssey's most iconic adventures, including the encounter with the keeper of the winds, the descent into Hades, the fateful visit to the cannibal Laestrygonians, encounters with Circe the sorceress and the songs of the Sirens, as well as the deadly passage between the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Having earned the respect of his captors, Alexi loses it all though mischance and is given away to the most brutal soldier on the ship. It will take all of Alexi's skill and determination just to stay alive."
"Two-and-a half millennia after it was created, Homer's Odyssey remains one of humanity's most memorable adventure stories. In this re-creation of Homer's classic as a young adult novel, we see the aftermath of the Trojan War through the eyes of Alexi, a fifteen-year-old Trojan boy. Orphaned by the war and enslaved by Odysseus himself, Alexi has a very different view of the conquering heroes of legend. Despite a simmering anger towards his captors, Alexi gradually develops a grudging respect for them. As the Greeks fight off the angry Cicones, weather a storm that pushes them far beyond charted waters, and nearly succumb to the blandishments of the bewitching Lotus-eaters, he realizes that they are not the demons they were said to be, but people like himself."
