The Odyssey of Phoebe Quilliam

Using Greek myth as a background to a contemporary adventure story runs the risk that anything modern will still look tame by comparison. And so it is with this author’s brave attempt to take readers on a new journey around these classics. Young Phoebe, grieving for her recently senile grandmother, somehow finds herself transported on a quest to defeat the Morpheia, an evil spirit who lives in a nest made up of sailors’ bones. This ancient witch is served by Klepts, flying bird assassins looking for shipwrecked crews to supply her next meal. But now she wants to feast off others’ memories to make up for her solitary dark tower existence. Can Phoebe thwart her and in doing so help restore her grandmother to better health?

She is aided by handsome young Meander, himself in search of a lost father who was once a shipbuilder to King Odysseus. Many adventure follow, with the Cyclops, Charybdis and Circe all making yet another guest appearance. But the link between Phoebe’s past life and present fantasy world never really works, with too many mini-encounters reducing any real tension when it comes to the final show-down on Morpheia’s gloomy island.

The author has previously written lively stories set in the Roman Empire, and her knowledge of those times and classical mythology is impressive. Yet this present story is neither one thing nor the other, written in prose that hovers uneasily between references to a ‘wine-dark sea’ mixing with descriptions of a dog’s tail ‘wagging like a windscreen wiper.’ In fact Phoebe’s story works better before the fantasy element takes over. On this basis, this hard-working author clearly has much to offer, but not quite yet in this present story.