Sara Douglass, Hades’ Daughter: Book One of The Troy Game

(Tor Books, 2003)
Review by Allie McKnight

The power of the labyrinth, traps all evil and seals it in; the labyrinth defends its home city. The Game, controlled by the Mistress of the Game and the Kingman, is the dance of power that contains evil and entraps Asterion, the Minotaur.

In the opening volley of a battle to span the ages, Theseus slays Asterion with Ariadne’s help then casts Ariadne aside for her younger sister. Ariadne, dying in childbirth, makes a bargain with the Death Crone and Asterion. For the darkcraft to destroy Theseus and the Aegean world, Ariadne promises to destroy the Game and make Asterion her lord.

Ariadne lies.

She destroys most of the Game, but leaves one labyrinth in Mesopotama, hidden from Asterion and flees to Llangarlia. She becomes the MagaLlan, avatar of the mother goddess Mag, and through her, five generations of darkwitches plot the reweaving of the Troy Game.

Asterion waits, but he is not powerless. Not by half. He will destroy Ariadne’s kin and the Game. Once for all.

In Llangarlia, the power of Mag is waning and that of Og, the white stag, father-protector of Llangarlia, has been split between Loth and his father Aherne by the machinations of Herron Darkwitch, through her blameless daughter Blangan. Genvissa Darkwitch, Blangan’s sister, becomes the MagaLlan.

Finally, the Game will be joined.

Genvissa mystically calls to Brutus, the last Kingman and heir of Troy. He and his Trojans will come to Llangarlia, build Troia Nova. Together Genvissa and Brutus will initiate the Troy Game and oust Mag and Og from Llangarlia forever.

But Mag will not to be outdone. She has her own unwitting protectress in naïve, victimized Cornelia, Brutus’ spoils-of-war wife.

Flash forward to 1939. The players are all assembled again. Asterion has called them to end the Game once for all and destroy London.

The knowledge that neither Asterion nor Mag nor the Darkwitches succeed in the Late Bronze Age overshadows the entire book. Somewhat like watching and waiting for a train wreck you know will happen. Yet it’s interesting how they get there; the steps of the dance are powerfully intriguing.

Though Brutus is the focal point, it is Cornelia for whom we have sympathy, Cornelia’s plight that we share. Her love and hatred for Brutus are all the hope that the world has. Douglass’ decision to relate Cornelia’s portion of the story in the first person contributes to our identity with her. At the same time, it leaves us privy to Cornelia’s every petty and distracting thought. Sometimes, she isn’t very likable.

Brutus and Cornelia, Genvissa and Asterion fascinate, compel, attract, and repulse—even the “good guys” have horrendously off-putting moments. Sometimes, too, they are overshadowed by the more compelling, less fundamentally flawed characters who also have parts to play: Corineus, Coel, Loth, Blangan, Erith. Their goodness makes them easier to parse, their minds more comfortable to share.

While I enjoyed this book immensely, and now eagerly await the next installment, I found it less absorbing, less delightful, than Douglass’s Wayfarer Redemption series. Perhaps it is that the characters in Hades’ Daughter are so very deeply flawed, or perhaps it is the temporal and geographical dislocations that characterize the first half of the book, that kept me from really sinking into it. It may also be the truly tragic overtones. Be warned, Hades’ Daughter is not the beautiful epic fantasy that fans of Douglass and Wayfarer Redemption have come to expect.

Yet do not misunderstand. Neither Douglass’ fans nor new readers will be disappointed. As always Douglass’ prose crackles off the page. Despite the epic scope of the book, the events remain intimate and the characters well-rounded. She continues to eschew tidy endings and forces readers to decide for themselves who are the good guys and who the bad.

In Hades’ Daughter Douglass weaves an extraordinary tale of suspense, betrayals, love and lies. The careful, intricate plotting and challenging characters recommend it highly over the empty palaver that often passes for genre fiction. I predict critics and readers will be talking about this book for years to come. Hades’ Daughter entertains and it provokes—I heartily recommend it.

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