Discord's Apple-Carrie Vaughn

Discord's Apple
Carrie Vaughn
Tor, Jul 6 2010, $23.99
ISBN: 9780765325549

With her dad Frank dying, Evie Walker leaves Los Angeles for his home In Hopes Font, Colorado, to take care of her father. She moves in with him, but is stunned by the attitude of the visitors who ignore her and barely greet her dad. They insolently enter the basement and leave with hardly a farewell salutation toting out strange junk. A comic book writer, Evie reflects on how the strangers are stranger than her characters.

In Troy, with the help of Odysseus, Sinon the “Liar” gets in the walled city. He persuades the doubting Trojans that Greeks gave up their siege and left behind a large wooden horse. His ruse enables the Greeks to win the war, but also angers Apollo with the dishonorable deception. He ignores Odysseus holding the Liar culpable. A furious Apollo kidnaps Sinon, forcing the Liar to become his cupbearer.

In Colorado, with the death of her dad, Evie takes over shielding the basement from those who have no business there. Hera orders Evie to give her the golden apple that causes discord and actually began the Trojan War though some say that the affront by Helen’s stepfather to Aphrodite is where it began. Evie fears what the Goddess will do with Discord’s Apple; her prime ally in refusing Hera is a stranger Alex, who conceals his agenda from the mortal he is falling in love with.

This is a wild super Rocky Mountains fantasy as Carrie Vaughn departs from her DJ werewolf novels to tell an intriguing epic adventure that includes a hodgepodge from Camelot, Greek mythology and even someone who claims to have known Jesus in his heyday. The cast is strong including the basement storage facility and the fascinating artifacts as Evie and readers learn that the victors write the mythos of history.

Harriet Klausner