missed drawing this lil guy with his season 1 swag

hii. this one is for the "top 5" ask thing. top 5 book series or single books??? (no Tolkien or grrm pls) would love some recommendations

I have to admit that when you said no Tolkien or GRRM, it took me a moment to think of some books/book series lol. I’m too obsessed with those two and need to actually read something else. (My reading has dropped significantly in the last few years, honestly; life is so busy and I miss the days where I could spend hours at a time with a book.) 

In addition to these books, I also recommend the series that I mentioned in this post, although I didn’t include any of them in this list because I saw that you already reblogged that one, and I don’t want to be giving you the same recommendations over and over again. 

*In no particular order, because I suck at choosing :P

1. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

This book was heartbreaking, and I enjoyed it absolutely (I love suffering, what else is new >:D). In essence, the book is a retelling of the Trojan War in Greek mythology told from the eyes of Patroclus, with its main focus being the romantic relationship between him and Achilles, and in my opinion, executed this quite well while remaining mostly faithful to the original myth. I liked Miller’s Achilles for the most part, even though he was a prideful, insensitive, selfish prick who could honestly be somewhat horrifying without Patroclus’ betterment, and loved her versions of Patroclus, Achilles' closest friend and in most cases, lover, and Briseis, a woman who was taken as a captive by the Greeks and given to Achilles as a war prize. As you might predict, they are the major characters of the story, and their dynamics with each other were beautiful. Naturally, it’s not perfect, and I had my gripes, but I would still highly recommend it. 

2. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Another book based on The Iliad, I particularly loved this one because it gave a woman of the war a voice. In this book, the main character is Briseis, who provides us a window into the lives of all the raped and enslaved women whose lives were affected by the Trojan War. Briseis’ relationship with Achilles is much more antagonistic in this one as compared to The Song of Achilles, as The Silence of the Girls writes her as Achilles’ concubine. Achilles is also a POV character, and although we never get to know him quite as intimately as we do Briseis, Barker still creates a very fascinating figure who marks a stark contrast between ruthlessness and civility. All in all, I think this book was a very good depiction of the women of the Trojan War, who, in the original Iliad, seem to have been created solely for the advancing of the men’s arcs. 

3. The Witcher by Andrej Sapkowski

Not a series that I’ve actually read, but I’ve heard so many wonderful things about it, and I’m greatly looking forward to being able to read it when I get my hands on it. It was recommended to me by @marta-elentari, who says it’s like a perfect mix of LOTR and ASOIAF. The main characters are Geralt of Rivia, a man who makes a living by hunting monsters, Yennefer of Vengerberg, a sorceress, and Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, a princess whose blood gives her the power to cross space and time. I’m told that the plot includes dwarves, elves, war, Celtic and Slavic mythology, and political intrigue.

4. Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir

As you can tell by the title, this story follows the second of King Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn, who is also my personal favorite among his queens. (By the way, Alison Weir is writing a series called Six Tudor Queens, obviously one book per queen, and this one is part of it.) I believe Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession did quite well in capturing Anne’s spirited and passionate personality; the personality that attracted Henry VIII as a mistress, but was considered distasteful for the wife of a king. I also loved its depiction of Anne’s dignity and courage during her final days, and even up until the moment that she died. Unfortunately, it can also get pretty repetitive with the constant Henry attempting to woo Anne, and Anne staving him off, and I didn’t dig Weir’s portrayal of Henry too much. He just seemed too … lovesick and lacking the complexity and charisma of the historical figure.

5. For the Most Beautiful by Emily Hauser

Yet another retelling of the Trojan War. XD I’m sorry, Greek myths are one of my favorite things to read about, especially since I first read about The Iliad and The Odyssey when I was a child, so I kind of grew up on them. (What I did not read were the poems themselves; that would have been way above my comprehension level at that age.) This one focuses on Briseis and Chryseis. You already know the former, whom I also mentioned in recommendations 1 and 2, and Chryseis was also a war prize who was given to Agamemnon, the king of all the Greeks (who was also an absolute pig in this book, he can burn in hell). The book does a good job in fleshing them out and giving them backstories, motivations, and personalities, as well as some of the agency that was stripped of them in the original Iliad. 

I have two personal complaints: Chryseis was implied to have been raped by Agamemnon, and Hauser seems to fail to capture the traumatic effect of this on her psyche. The other complaint is that the complexity in Achilles and Briseis’ relationship is rather nonexistent, and I honestly found it off-putting to see it treated like a love story; in that regard, The Silence of the Girls did it best. Overall, the reason I recommend this book has less to do with the relationship between characters and much more to do with the fact that I liked seeing these two women fleshed out and humanized.