Reviews for Discord's apple [sound recording]
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A fantasy novel that combines modern apocalypse (or close to it), Greek mythology and Roman domestic life...and doesn't work on any level.The apple of the title is The Apple, the one that started the Trojan War. It seems that it's being kept in a basement storehouse in Hopes Fort, Colo., guarded by Frank Walker, whose health hasn't been too good recently. Concerned about his decline, his daughter Evie comes to visit and can't help but notice those strange people who show up to get things out of basement storage. What would they want with a sword, a glass slipper or 12-league boots? The scene shifts abruptly from Colorado to ancient Troy, in the final days of the Trojan War. Odysseus's friend and cousin Sinon (aka The Liar) is inserted into the walled city and persuades the Trojans to accept the gift of the wooden horse, but just as the Greeks begin to celebrate their victory, Sinon is taken prisoner by Apollo, not at all happy with the way events turned out. Apollo forces Sinon to become his servant and cupbearer, and also watches voyeuristically when Sinon has sex with the local nymph. (And it's also hard to imagine Apollo would really say to Sinon, "Make love to me, my Achaean warrior.") Meanwhile, back in Colorado, Hera has shown up and is looking for the apple, for she wants to reintroduce even more discord into the world so it will destroy itself and begin anew. Evie's mysterious companion Alex, who now and then mutters in Greek, turns out to be Sinon in modern dress. In fact, a parade of mythological characters makes their way to Colorado, including Merlin and Arthur, fighting on behalf of Evie, Robin Goodfellow, who's relatively evanescent and wispy until Evie clubs him with a cast-iron frying pan, and the Wanderer, who years ago met Christ and found him a "good preacher."Thin and inane.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Taking a break from the Kitty Norville urban fantasy series, Vaughn melds a near-future world torn by war with the legend of the fall of Troy in this brilliantly structured, beautifully written stand-alone. Evie Walker is a comic book writer who leaves behind a strife-filled Los Angeles to care for her dying father in the smalltown of Hopes Fort, Colo. Evie soon inherits the responsibility of guarding a magical storeroom and its contents as the country becomes hyperdefensive about possible terrorist threats. Intermingled with Evie's story is the tale of Sinon the Liar, who persuaded the Trojans to bring Odysseus's horse inside their walls and wound up cursed with immortality. Vaughn brings together mythology, fairy tales, and very human lives, immersing readers in the stories these complex characters tell themselves to make sense of their war-torn worlds. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Comic book writer Evie Walker bases her stories roughly on the political upheaval occurring around the world. With her father dying, she returns to Hope's Fort, Colorado, where she grew up. She has never really thought much about the storage room in the basement of the Walker family home. Now she does. Taking a page from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Vaughn creates a tale in which the storeroom is a gateway to another realm that contains such fantastical items as Excalibur, Cinderella's glass slippers, and the Apple of Discord that touched off the Trojan war. Set against a backdrop of coming apocalypse, the story jumps from glimpses of the ancient Greek past to Evie's world that is being torn apart by politics and war, then to the history of the Walker family through the ages. Those strands are woven into a tapestry that may satisfy both the reader who enjoys emotional depth in characterization and those fascinated by world mythology and fairy tales.--Gerber, Rebecca Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
When Eve Walker returns to Hope's Fort, CO, to be with her dying father, she discovers that the basement of the family house holds items that her father gives to those who truly need them. She also finds that she possesses an unerring sense of people who may partake of the house's bounty. Yet forces older than history can wreak destruction on the world should they gain access to the Walker storeroom, and Eve's greatest defender may be a stranger in town-a man who wants only to die. The author of the Kitty Norville urban fantasy series (Kitty and the Midnight Hour) weaves Greek myth with a dystopic near-future setting to produce a supernatural thriller laced with romance and mystery. VERDICT Believable and sympathetic central characters anchor a stand-alone novel that leaves the door open for a series and should appeal to fans of Greek myth, Sherrilyn Kenyon's "Dark Hunter" series, and Patricia Brigg's fantasies. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
