The Shadow of Xeno's Eye

Huddled in the Trojan horse, Xeno's at the breaking point. Smothered in darkness and the stench of frightened men, forced into the coalition for another troop surge, he climbs down and the butchery begins. As the armies rampage through the city, Xeno learns the truth about the war. It's been festering for years, a conflict over resources and failed diplomacy. Troy will be a Greek base on the Dardanelles, controlling access to the Black Sea. Helen was the war's excuse, but not its cause, Antiquity's arsenal of phantom WMDs.
Ethnic violence and suicides rack the armies. The coalition will bring them home and return with a new force, leaving a small garrison to hold Greek Troy. But this garrison is undermanned, mostly with rejects and a small core of good soldiers. Leadership struggles and conflicts between core and rejects plague the garrison. Then re-supply ships bring news: Odysseus was lost at sea; Agamemnon was murdered by his wife. Without the money and vision needed to maintain Greek Troy, the men will be left to die inside the walls.
Former Trojan allies swarm out of the north and seize Troy. Xeno embeds with a local tribe, but he's alienated from any culture's emotional symbols or beliefs. A western superpower invades with shock and awe, but withers in its own deceit. Iconic myths and images aren't what they seem. They never were.

Dettagli