God's Concubine is the second entrancing novel in Sara Douglass' quartet: The Troy Game. Closely following the events of Hades Daughter, God's Concubine is set two thousand years after Brutus and Genvissa's thwarted attempt to close the Labyrinth and gain the ultimate immortality. It is the first time since their original lives that the malicious Asterion has allowed those bound by the Game to return.God's Concubine is set during the reign of Edward the Confessor and a familiar cast appear in unexpected places. Cornelia, now Caela, is the chaste virginal wife of King Edward, while Genvissa lurks as the beautiful Swanne, wife to Caela's brother Harold Godswine, Coel reborn. Meanwhile, across the waters, William of Normandy plans his invasion, and will once again be crowned King of England as Brutus was two thousand years earlier. Others familiar characters are reborn to aid, or disrupt the Game's progression; Loth returns as Seaweald, royal physician and lover of Judith, Mother Erith reborn; Mother Ecub returns as herself, now the prioress of Saint Margaret (affectionately known as St Mags); and Asterion arrives in all his malevolent glory.Once again Douglass has chosen a significant, and tumultuous, time in history. Spanning the last 15 years of King Edward's reign, and the following year of war, Douglass draws the reader into the true history of our world. Her attention to detail, from sexless marriage of Edward and his wife, to the support of Harold Godswinson for the crown, keeps the reader riveted. Unlike the historical, or rather mythological, details of Hade's Daughter, the Norman invasion of England is an accepted part of history. The reader knows, or can investigate, how events unfold. What makes God's Concubine interesting is how the events unfold within history; how Caela and William interact outside our knowledge of history.Caela (Cornelia reborn) is a much stronger and more mature character than Cornelia ever was. Prior to awakening to her past memories, Caela is strong but too timid to present herself. The mixed memories and strengths of Cornelia and Caela give her a potency that was missing in Hade's Daughter.Genvissa is as spiteful as Swanne, and her lust for William and for power has not faded. However, her own strengths, as MagaLan and as Mistress of the Labyrinth has faded with rebirth. Interestingly, Swanne lacks many of the advantages Genvissa had as a woman and must play wife until William returns to complete the game with her.William is staggeringly different to his Trojan counterpart. Where Brutus was all action, and power, William allows time for thought and emotion. William learns to regret Brutus' brusque and hateful nature and slowly begins understanding more about the Game and it's participants.The secondary, and present day, storyline following Major Jack Skelton and his reborn companies unrolls slowly, preparing the reader for the final book while foreshadowing certain events in the main story.God's Concubine is the thrilling second instalment of the Troy Games; the adventure that began with Hade's Daughter and continue's in Darkwitch Rising.
Gods' Concubine is the second book in Douglass' 'Troy Game' series, and it was definitely more engaging and enjoyable than the first. This time around, a thousand years have passed, and the characters we met in the first book have been reborn into the age of William the Conqueror. In fact, Brutus is William himself and Cornelia is the queen of England, wife to Edward the Confessor. Coel is reborn as Harold Godwinson (Harold II) and in a cruel twist of fate, Genvissa has been reborn as Harold's wife. Other characters from the first book are also reborn and find themselves drawn once again into the struggle for control over the Troy Game, which has itself been lying and waiting for a thousand years.This combination of fantasy and historical fiction is an intriguing way of presenting a time period in history. The reader is left guessing, and possibly researching further, as to which details are real and documented and which are purely the product of the author's vivid imagination.
What do You think about Gods' Concubine (2004)?
Took a while for me to get into this second chapter. Most of the characters from the first book have returned, however, through their own personal identity developments they have lost all of the savage brutality that made them so awesome in the first book. Instead, they were psychologically complex, and at times extremely whiny. Sometimes it felt like reading a soapy. There are some fantastic new characters, and I was glad that despite the setting being from a heavily Christianized time with some very pious characters, the author found time to also include the land and female figure worship that was so amazing in the first book.
—Nano
Trashy covers and ridiculous titles ("God's Concubine"? puhlease) predisposed me to discount these, but their emphasis on character development, and the healthy splashes of almost-realistic history, made me like them despite myself. There *are* some trashy bits--the sex scenes are by and large romance-novel-y, and sometimes the female characters get locked into the "strong, beautiful, and quietly commanding" niche. Regardless, I find myself excited about reading the third and final novel, which promises to answer the question of who has survived through the centuries--and who will triumph.
—Wealhtheow
