by Richard Purtill. Daw Books, 1979. 160 p.
Purtill is a Catholic philosopher and Tolkien scholar, and The Golden Gryphon Feather was his first published novel. It is the story of a girl named Chryseis, who is sent as tribute to M’nos of Kaphtu, along with 13 other young Athenians.
Blending mythology with what is known of Minoan civilization, Purtill spins a tale of the gods and heroes of the ancient world which is reminiscent of Lewis’ Till We Have Faces or Wolfe’s Soldier of the Mist. One exciting theme involves the acrobatic bull-leaping dance which the Minoans depicted in their art.
As with many first novels, the writing here is a little uneven. It’s the characters all tend to speak in a similarly crisp, matter-of-fact fashion which can make them a little hard to distinguish from one another. The main character is an interesting and competent girl, but she’s sometimes a little too competent. Exotic threats and life-threatening problems seem rather humdrum when Chryseis, Ariadne, and their friends are on the case.
The thought-world of the Greeks comes to life in a respectful and vivid manner. Purtill constructs an intriguing history and genealogy of the many pagan gods, demigods and monsters which is consistent with a belief in one supreme God, along the lines of Tolkien’s Silmarillion or Wolfe’s The Wizard Knight.
The Golden Gryphon Feather is the first book of a trilogy which continues in The Stolen Goddess and The Mirror of Helen.
3 out of 5
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