A retelling of a period in history from a woman’s perspective. The experiences and fate of Trojan women caught up in warfare a fitting conclusion to a remarkable trilogy if somewhat suffering by unfortunate comparison with the 5* previous two books. Emphasising women’s strengths and weaknesses during a period of repression, hardship and deprivation whilst highlighting their grief and revenge demonstrating the highs and lows women are driven to live through and forced to endure experience during history with nothing changing throughout history. Many thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

he Voyage Home, Pat Barker’s follow-up to The Women of Troy, continues her masterful reimagining of the Trojan myths, this time centring on Cassandra, the doomed prophetess. Barker breathes new life into the ancient tale, exploring Cassandra’s psychological complexity and the harrowing fate of the captured Trojan women as they journey to Mycenae. The book is both visceral and haunting, vividly portraying the tension and violence that unfolds upon Agamemnon’s return. Barker’s sharp, modern perspective on these well-worn myths offers a powerful and unflinching examination of war, power, and female agency. A gripping and thought-provoking addition to her retelling of the Trojan stories.

Read more at The Secret Bookreview.

The Voyage Home is a tender and introspective read, delicately exploring themes of grief, connection, and the landscapes that shape us. The writing is as vivid and immersive as you can expect with Pat Baker’s work, with a lyrical quality that beautifully captures both the external and internal journeys of its characters. The story of Agamemnons murder has been told again and again. But watching it unfold through the duel perspectives of Ritsa and Clytemnestra grounded the narrative giving the myth a refreshing sense of realism. I particularly enjoyed Ritsa's ever evolving feelings of Cassandra- her desire to believe her dangerous ramblings, and her inability to do so due to the curse.

Electra is one of the most captivating elements of The Voyage Home. Her characterisation carries an almost feral intensity, her emotions raw and untamed as she grapples with her grief and longing. Her wildness, however, is tinged with a childish vulnerability that makes her all the more compelling, as her impulsive reactions and unfiltered emotions reveal a deep refusal—or inability—to fully grow past her pain. Her close relationship with her brother amplifies this tension, fraught with love and secrecy, and layered with secrets that I hope are brought to light in another installment.

This is a book for those who enjoy character-driven stories that linger in the mind long after the final page, offering a quiet yet searing exploration of the cost of a human life.

I received an advance review copy for free via NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily 📚.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for my copy, 3/5.

Pat Barker continues the story of the women of Troy with this instalment which follows Cassandra and her maid/slave Ritsa as they journey to Greece with King Agamemnon.

Cassandra daughter of Priam has been gifted with prophecy, and, for the crime of turning down Apollo’s advances, cursed with having no-one believe her. However, she knows Agamemnon must die for his crimes against the sons of Troy; she knows she must die too; and she comes to know his wife, Clytemnestra must be the one to do it.

Barker is a great writer, and she brings the ancient world to life again, but I just can’t help thinking that no more of these stories need retelling. Meh.

Thank you, Netgalley and Penguin UK, for sending me the e-ARC in return for an honest review.

Let me start by saying, I love a classical retelling. This style of book takes up a quarter of the space on my book shelves.

Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. There were some incredible aspects to it, such as the ghost children haunting the halls or Clytemnestra's fury. I love that Cassandra got to actually be a key character who gets her story told for once, rather than a retelling of Clytemnestra or Agamemnon's children where Cassandra is a casulty in the crossfire. But when compared to the first book of the series...

I think what else ruined it for me was the modern phrases and their modern thoughts that don't reflect the time period of the book. It completely pulls me out of the immersion I slip into and feels quite jarring at times.

The end was very rushed. And anti-climatic. The build up wasn't subtle, it was a slap in the face every chapter. I also wanted to know what happened to Ritsa (although I know for most women in history we never get to find out what happened to them) and to give her a true end to her story. It didn't feel like a fresh take on the story, and didn't do the characters justice.

I first read Pat Barker back in 1983 when someone gave me a copy of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists of which she was one. In the intervening 40 years I have have spent many happy hours curled up reading her books. The Voyage Home by Pat Barker is the latest in her retelling of the Trajan wars. After 10 years Troy has fallen and the Greeks have filled their war ships with plunder. Agamemnon is heading home with Cassandra, Princess of Troy and his war booty. Ritsa, Cassandra’s maid is on the ship too and it is she who tells us the story. Meanwhile back home Clytemnestra awaits her husband and murderer of their child. Epic, page turning stuff.

Following on from the previous books Cassandra travels with King Agamemnon back to his Queen Clytemnestra. With her prophecies always to be ignored, only Ritsa her slave, sort of believes Cassandra's assertion that she and Agamemnon will be murdered the first night in the palace.

As with the previous books we dance around the famous myths from the point of view of a slave. Ritsa isn't quite the narrator that Briseis was, she is more frustrated with Cassandra, more inclined to hate her. There are some really brilliant elements of the book - the ghostly children at the palace, Cassandra and Agamemnon's fate, Electra's character development. If you've read the previous novels then this is obviously the next step, but for me I preferred the others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK for this ARC. The final book in Pat Barker’s spectacular Women of Troy series, The Voyage Home blends together the myths of Cassandra and Clytemnestra to tell a compelling story of the way that war and trauma echo throughout the lives of everyone it touches for years after the last spear has been laid down. Cassandra is a Trojan princess, cursed to see the future but never be believed. She is being brought back to Greece as a concubine for Agamemnon, a Greek general and the architect of all of her family’s despair. She is carrying his child and her only solace is her visions of Agamemnon’s imminent death. The fact that her death seems to be inextricably linked to his feels like a small price to pay to avenge her people. Meanwhile Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra, waits in Mycenae, still nursing her rage after Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter to the gods for a fair wind to get them to Troy. After ten years of plotting her revenge, she’s ready to give Agamemnon exactly the homecoming he deserves. Barker has grounded these ancient myths in gritty, earthy and psychologically realistic narration, making these women feel alive and real and breathing new life into this ancient but still poignant story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the e-ARC.

This adventurous mythological retelling is set after the battle of Troy and follows newly enslaved Ritsa and Cassandra as they travel to their new home.

My first impressions were that the modernity of the prose felt jarring given the context. This truly is a modern take on the tale, with dialogue that feels more 60s East End than anything. I haven't read Pat Barker's work before so this took me by surprise and I can't say I got used to it by the end. Occasionally I would read a line and it would pull me out of immersion.

The story itself feels quite slow and anticlimactic, building towards reaching their home and Agamemnon's demise, which takes place fairly late in the book. Ritsa's ending felt rushed to me, and I was left thinking, 'oh, was that it?'. I think I really struggled to connect to the characters in any meaningful way and so the climax just didn't impress me.

That said, I did like the writing style apart from the odd modern slang in dialogue, and there were certainly moments that made me want to continue on to finish. But, if you enjoyed Madeline Miller's work, you might have similar impressions to me.

Pat Barker is one of my favourite writers - her wit, imagery and creative interpretation of the classics still gives the Voyage Home its own charm. Centring the perspective of someone who has always been a slave/subservient to someone is an innovative twist and gives a fresh perspective that contrasts Briseis,

However, I felt a little let down by this one - especially after how much I enjoyed the first two books. Clytemnestra felt a bit too one-dimensional and the incestuous twist felt too reminiscent of the first book. It was interesting to see Ritsa find herself and old friends during the voyage, but I found myself really missing Briseis’ discerning voice. The third person perspective into the male characters’ POV was jarring and the slow build up to the big finale of Cassandra/Agamemnon’s murder didn’t feel as impactful as some of the punches to the gut from the last two books (eg: Achilles’ “f*ck her until her back breaks” line.

Utterly flawless retelling of the 'realities' of the aftermath of war for Cassandra, Ritsa and Clytemnestra, once again placing the fate of women front and centre. Simply a masterpiece. Loved it.

Another masterful piece of storytelling from Pat Barker. This is the third title in the series and Ritsa seamlessly picks up the baton as narrator of this story.

Even though you know the ending of her mistress, Cassandra, and her lover, Agamemnon, this is a story which is so cleverly woven, that their deaths are still a surprise. I was totally captivated by Ritsa's voice and her dedication to her mistress in the face of all adversity. There are times when Ritsa could look after herself, but always looks to please her mistress.

The description of the various settings: ship, palace, and the triumphant return home by the warriors are all beautifully described and I was totally swept along by the drama of this narrative.

Don't miss reading this book - but do read the other two titles in the series first. Each is a standalone tale, but they are also interwoven - don't miss the full banquet of this collection.

The third and last in the trilogy, this book was a fitting ending to the epic tale of the Trojan War. The war is over, Troy has fallen, and Agamemnon is on his way home to the wife who has been plotting her revenge since he ordered the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia 10 years earlier. These tales have been told and retold innumerable times over the centuries, and continue to fascinate us even though we know that the characters cannot escape their fate. Pat Barker is yet again on top form here.
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

Review time:

The previous two books in this series followed Brieses during the Trojan war, telling the events from the perspective of the Trojan women who were taken as prizes by the Grecian army and forced into slavery after watching the horrors of watching their friends and family brutally murdered (these books did not shy away from showing the monstrousness and brutal killing of children either.) I loved the first two and the exploration of both sides of the story.

The voyage home changes to the perspectives of Cassandra, Clytemnestra and Ritsa with a sprinkling of third person depicting the actions of the men. Whilst I enjoyed this book as much as the others there were moments that took me out of it like the use of the ‘orange and lemons’ song to create horror in a book based in Ancient Greece. It was interesting getting Ritsa’s perspective as it showed a human side of how people would react to Cassandra’s prophecies. Clytemnestra in a few ways felt diminished in this book which made the moment she took back her power all the more chef’s kiss.

Book three of the Women of Troy trilogy
It deals with the journey home after the Greek victory against the Trojans
It focuses on the perspective of three female characters - Cassandra, a high priestess of Apollo and King Priam’s daughter and her slave maid Ritsa who are taken away from Troy by the victorious Greeks as King Agamemnon’s concubine and Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife and grieving mother of Iphigenia
I loved the rich writing style, capturing Greek mythology in an easy accessible way, especially the forgotten women, their anger, resentment, betrayal and grief
All are powerless in their own way, who together, come to take revenge on the horrors inflicted on them - the powerless will have their revenge
Non-one’s actions are excused and no-one is totally blameless, especially Agamemnon - he has won the war but at what cost
“You can’t cherry-pick a prophecy. It’s fulfilled in it’s entirety or not at all”
Thanks #patbarker @penguinukbooks & @netgalley for the powerful read

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Penguin/Viking for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

TW: rape, abuse, slavery, sexual assault, death, grief, murder, child death, PTSD

The third part of Pat Barker’s incredible retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of the women of Troy, ‘The Voyage Home’ continues where the second book left off with a new narrator group of narrators: Cassandra, Ritsa and Clytemnestra. Troy has been destroyed, many of the heroes are dead and the Greeks are sailing home with slaves and riches. This time it focuses on Cassandra, the Trojan princess and prophet who is cursed never to be believed, and Cassandra’s new maid Ritsa, the healer taken as a slave in the first two books. Cassandra has been taken as a bed slave by Agamemnon, knowing that their return to Mycenae will lead to their deaths. At the same time Clytemnestra, who has waited a decade for Agamemnon to return home, vows to avenge the daughter he murdered in exchange for a fair wind before the war. Brought together by inevitable fate and bloodshed over two countries and a decade of war, Ritsa is trapped in the story of the cursed palace of Mycenae as Clytemnestra seeks to destroy her husband- and by association, Cassandra as well.

This volume is more of a standalone but as beautifully tragic as the other two books. It tells the stories of women who rarely get a line in other texts. Pat Barker mixes modern language and the ancient world together so smoothly, her versions of the characters from Greek mythology are traumatised, morally grey, and often deeply awful. I’ve always loved the story of Clytemnestra and here I found a version of her that is so angry, violently grieving and determined for revenge as Agamemnon returns home. The depiction of Agamemnon as haunted by the ghost of Iphigenia was so well written. The scenes where Clytemnestra lures him into the palace and the bath were my favourites, they’re such famous moments and I loved the level of tension and atmosphere that built up the second he stepped into the palace. Cassandra, seen by Ritsa as simply insane rather than divinely blessed, knows that her fate will match Agamemnon’s and marches loudly to her death without being believed; I found her moving and powerful in the moments we spent in her perspective. I loved how we got to meet Agamemnon’s surviving children, Orestes and Electra, and I so hope there’s another book featuring them and the rest of the story shown in the ‘Oresteia’ because I know Pat Barker would write it with incredible depth and the starkness of the other books.

Another excellent episode of Pat Barker's trilogy. Still as fresh and immediate as the first two parts, although a little more subdued and restrained. The pace is still fairly brisk, leading to the inevitable prediction of Cassandra, and this casts a shadow across the whole book. However, the characters are well drawn and credible and carry the plot to its conclusion. Not sure whether Ritsa can manage another adventure or two, but I'd love another novel in this series. Highly enjoyable!

As always with Pat Baker books, this was a much needed tale from the female perspective. The tense journey to her new “home” for Cassandra, alongside her maid, to meet the fate of Clytemnestra, full of revenge. The descriptions are always so vivid in these books, I felt like I was in that dingy cabin on the ship! One to recommend for all the mythology lovers out there!

I did not find this as engaging as the first two novels in this series. It did pick up towards the end, when they started to plot against Agamemnon, but for me, it lacked something.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I'm not sure whether it's because I have recently read an excellent retelling of this same story (Elektra by Jennifer Saint) or if I find the character of Cassandra frustrating as a lead, but I didn't connect with this in the same way as Barker's previous two Troy novels. Having a non-royal woman tell the majority of the story was a good technique to allow the reader to identify more with the story, and it does allow a more grounded exploration of what life might have been like for a normal Trojan woman taken by the Greeks. I liked Ritsa and was glad she got a (sort-of) happy ending. But there was something about this novel that did fall flat for me, which is a little disappointing after the first two were so good.