I thought The Silence of the Girls was Barker's best work since the Regeneration Trilogy. Good news - The Women of Troy maintains the standard. This covers a period of the Trojan story I am more familiar with, having spent a lot of time and thought on Euripides' play of the same name. Troy has fallen, its princes have been killed; the men have either been massacred or enslaved and sent back to Greece as farm labourers. This, self-evidently, is about the surviving women who have been portioned out as prizes to the Greek leaders.
Briseis is Barker's principal character in both books. She was claimed by both Agamemnon and Achilles and caused a feud between them. Achilles won out and she is now pregnant with his child. Achilles, of course, is dead. On his deathbed he gave Briseis to his lieutenant Alcimus, who has given her the best status and security by marrying her. Other women are not so fortunate. Cassandra has been given to Agamemnon, Hecuba to Odysseus. Andromache, widow of Hector, has been granted to Pyrrhus, the sixteen year-old son of Achilles, who hacked down Priam and murdered Andromache's son. Brilliantly, Barker makes him, not Andromache, the other main character of her novel. Pyrrhus is haunted by the memory of the father he never really knew. He is as strong as his father but he has no wisdom, and knows it. The Myrmidons adore him but Pyrrhus the boy-man only loves his horses, in particular Ebony, one half of his chariot team.
I devoured this book. If anything I found it even more enjoyable than Silence of the Girls. Next up, apparently, is The Voyage Home. Definitely a must-read for me.
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