So Gelon says to me, “Let’s go down and feed the Athenians. The weather’s perfect for feeding Athenians.”⁣
⁣
It’s 412 BC and after defeating the Athenians, Syracuse is thriving. The prisoners of war are being left to bake in the heat in the quarries outside the city, treated like zoo animals by many locals. Included in this number are Lampo and Gelon, unemployed potters, who take a notion: to put on a performance of Euripides’ 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘢 with a cast of Athenians in the quarry. While Gelon has been introspective and mournful since the death of his son, our narrator Lampo is just a happy-go-lucky lad, but their turn at being directors causes Lampo to question what he really wants in life. ⁣
⁣
This is a book that felt written for me, specifically. Written in the Dublin vernacular and surrounding Euripides’ 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘢 and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯? Sign me up! But this story explores so many themes: the horrors of war and its aftermath, the tragedy of the death of a child, and how art can create purpose and community. What’s amazing is how so many of these themes are in Euripides’ original work, are featured here in the novel and are still relevant and important and largely unchanged 2,500 years later. Similarly, gormless Lampo at the age of thirty suddenly realising he wants more than drinking in the pub every night and living with his ma is a tale as old as time. ⁣
⁣
GLORIOUS EXPLOITS releases on 25th January 2024, just in time to read this short book before launching into House of Flame and Shadow. My deepest thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

A unique take on Ancient Greek historical fiction, Glorious Exploits is funny, dark, sad, and redeeming all in one book. I am not particularly well versed in Greek history and that was not a barrier at all to getting engaged in this story. The efforts of two out of work potters in Syracuse to put on two Euripides plays with a cast of captive Athenians are both ludicrous and heartwarming. The ending is brilliant, without giving anything away it is really a beautiful way to draw this tale to a close.

I feel I ought to start with a warning!
Anyone sensitive to bad language... cover your ears...well eyes in this case! Glorious Exploits is pretty full on with its use of invective, but none of it seems gratuitous, trust me!
This is a romance, a tragedy, a history and maybe even a mystery....oh yes...and a little bit of The Great Escape thrown in for good measure.
Two out of work potters in Syracuse take it into their heads to use the starving captured Athenians in their local quarry as actors in two of the most famous Greek Tragedies. Medea and The Women of Troy.
Of course they intend to have as their audience ( because " a play with no audience is just a rehearsal") the very people who watched their sons and husbands and brothers slaughtered by those same Athenians, befors they, in their turn were defeated and slaughtered and captured.
What could possibly go wrong?.A lot, obviously but this is a book that is seldom if ever obvious and that is what makes it.... well glorious I guess!
It is a book not without fault, but as a debut novel it is has so much going for it that, it can be forgiven those faults it has
Be warned though, Greek tragedies never end well for everyone.....

This might just be the most original book I have read this year - and I loved every word.

Best friends Gelon and Lampo live in a rapidly growing and changing city, jobless after their factory closed, Lampo still living with his mother at thirty, Gelon grieving the loss of his family. Unemployed and with little money, life revolves around visiting the bar and dreaming, all too aware that they are have nots in a world of haves. So far so familiar, only our protagonists live in Syracuse nearly two and a half thousand years ago, a city that, against all odds, fought off the Athenians three years before the book starts - which is why there are several thousand Athenian men imprisoned in their quarries, dying slowly of disease and starvation. Men who are so grateful for few scraps of food they'll recite poetry in return for olives. And Gelon really adores Athenian poetry, especially the work of Euripedes. Which is why he has a brainwave. Why don't they put on a play right here, in the quarry, a Greek Tragedy performed by actual Athenians?

Sure they are broke, their potential actors are despised, hated and dying, they have no theatre experience or scripts, but when the duo find an actual actor and realise that thanks to him, they can put on not just Medea but also Euripedes new play The Trojan Women, a work not yet seen or heard in Syracuse, the dream takes on a life of its own.

Poignant, funny, dark, violent, heartbreaking, tender and eminently readable, you don't need to have read Thucydides or Euripedes, to know anything about Ancient Greece or the Peloponnesian war or Greek tragedy to be instantly absorbed into this vivid and human world. I'm not sure I have ever used tour de force in a review before, but this book deserves the title. A staggering achievement. Highly recommended.

Recommend if you like: well written novels, ancient historical fiction with down to earth dialogue, quarries, greek theatre, creepy patrons, irony, my book taste because I LOVED this one

Normally NetGalley ARCs sit on my virtual shelves gathering dust for a fair few weeks (at least) before getting picked up. But I got approved for this just before we flew to Sicily, where the book is set, albeit a good 2435 years ago. I love nothing more than reading a book whilst being where it is set, therefore Glorious Exploits went straight to the top of my TBR.

With this in mind, I thought the concept was cool, but I was reading the book for a pretty obscure reason that had nothing to do with the genre or plot. So I was very happy when I fell in love with it.

Plot in one line: Two Sicilian potters use captured Athenian soldiers to put on Greek plays

Loved because:
The book was very readable, with relatable dialogue and characters.
The story was super satisfying, with a perfect ending but not in a HEA way which I loved.
The atmosphere was perfect and deeply immersive.

Lil extra reasons I like this book:
I was sat in a Sicilian villa, with Etna in the background, just outside of Centuripe, and the characters travel past Centuripe!
The author got his MA at UEA and now lives in Norwich, I got my MMath from UEA and now live in Norwich!

As a lover of Euripides and the classical playwrights, I thought this book was a fantastic modern tribute to them, highlighting the intersections between politics, war, ethics, and drama in the classical world.

Whilst it is true that there is a lot of “Greek mythology retellings” around at the moment, I would not put Glorious Exploits in this category! Yes, it is a historical novel, and is set in classical Greece, but there are not the magical elements which feature in many of the recent myth retellings - other than as part of the character’s religious belief systems and within the plays mentioned.

Having read other reviews of this book, this seems to be an unpopular opinion but I really loved the use of Irish dialect for the native Syracusan characters. I thought it illustrated the differences between the upper class/educated Athenian prisoners and the free but impoverished Syracusans. Additionally, since most surviving writings from the classical world are (of course) by the educated and literate, I loved that this book gave the perspective of the people that are missed out from those stories - the poor, illiterate, enslaved, and lower class, and the use of vernacular was a poignant reminder of this.

I’ve tried to only discuss the themes of this book in this review, since I don’t want to spoil it, but I will just add that I thought the plot was interesting, well written, and thought-provoking. Being from the UK and having a particular interested in Bronze Age Britain I also loved the inclusion of a character being from the ‘Tin Isles’!

Overall, 5 stars, and will be making it into my favourite books of the year - thanks so much Penguin and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this, and I can’t wait for it to be released so I can talk more about it’s plot/writing in depth.

I found this a tough read at times due to the language use. I like what the writer was trying to do and doing something different with the style but it was hard to get on with at times. I adored the ideas behind this book and as a massive Greek mythology fan, I thought it was incredibly original and I was pleased to recognise (most) of the names! I will be keen to discuss this book closer to publication date on socials!

I was hoping I'd love this book, but it just wasn't for me. The Irish didn't work and often disrupted my reading.

I had to DNF sadly. If you live books on Ancient Greece you might like this, but it fell flat for me.

I didn't actually expect to like this book. I'm a little tired of the of recent Ancient Greece-adjacent novels and I've never been one for stories about brotherhood. I was genuinely surprised when I found myself hooked and rooting for the characters.

Glorious Exploits is set a couple of years after the failed invasion of Syracuse, Sicily by Athens, with the Athenian soldiers being held prisoner in a quarry and slowly starving to death. We follow Lampo and Gelon as they make the frankly ridiculous decision to make the prisoners perform a couple of Euripedes plays in return for being fed through rehearsals. It's daft and borderline sadistic.

There's a lot going on in this book. Lampo and Gelon's relationship is deeply explored and very real: lifelong friends who have some explosive arguments and find themselves drifting back to each other. The treatment of the Athenian prisoners is a theme that we come back to throughout the book. Is their slow starvation in the quarry too inhumane? Or is it too kind to be feeding and working with the men who would gladly have razed and enslaved their city? There's a romantic subplot which was actually quite sweet and I felt Lampo had real chemistry with his lady friend, but it was detached from the rest of the story and I didn't much like the resolution.

The book is written in contemporary Irish dialect, and this was a little jarring at first - I think we tend to expect formal standard English in stories like this - but it quickly became one of my favourite aspects. Dialogue feels authentic and unpretentious and Lampo's narration is infinitely easier to sympathise with.

4/5. I received an ARC of this through NetGalley; many thanks to Penguin!

This was fantastic. Really enjoyed it overall, it was just non stop for me. And when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about read it. Very interesting and well executed historical fiction.

Oh, this is utterly marvellous. Read it. Now. I've been recommending it left right and centre. Very much hope it does as well as it deserves.

Description:
In the aftermath of an unsuccessful invasion by Athens, Syracuse has imprisoned its would-be captors in a disused mine. Two local nobodies, massive fans of Euripedes, plan to use the prisoners as actors, staging a production of two tragic plays.

Liked:
Surprisingly touching, especially given that the narrator starts out a proper arsehole. This is perhaps the most growth, and most *believable* growth I've seen in a character in a good few years. Truthfully, I've been a bit over-emotional recently anyway, but this one had me nearly crying on the tube. Lennon has the grace to leave some things unsaid, too: I really liked that Lampo's shine for Paches is never reasoned out. I went into this one expecting something oddball and hard work, and it IS both of those things, but there's something quite quietly special there, too. Impressive.

Disliked:
Still don't really get the Irish accent thing; feels like a bit of a gimmick, or perhaps just a concession to writing what you know. It doesn't take much away, but it doesn't really add anything, either. The conclusion to the book's main romantic relationship ended fairly frustratingly, with a mishap that could/should have been easily avoided, and Lampo's confession midway through, whilst endearing, feels a bit too abrupt to be fully earned. No huge deal-breakers, though!

Would definitely recommend: check it out.

What an absolute blinder of a book! Glorious Exploits is a refreshingly unique take on the current trend for novels set in Ancient Greece. It chooses a bold historical setting: the aftermath of Athen’s most infamous disaster, the Sicilian expedition, where thousands of Athenians lost their lives and several thousand were imprisoned in stone quarries near Syracuse. And in this grim war-ravaged setting it creates a story both laugh-out-loud funny and brutal: we follow Syracusan Lampo as he and his pal Gelon attempt to stage two plays by Euripides (Medea and Trojan Women). The catch? Well, Lampo and Gelon are but lowly unemployed potters, fond of the drink. And they’ve decided the only proper way to stage Euripides is with an Athenian cast..

There’s so much to enjoy with this book! It isn’t your typical historical novel, and Lampo’s voice as narrator is a delight - terrible, authentic, crude, pathetic, hilarious - with an irish-pattered dialogue so real you can almost hear it. There’s no expectation that the reader knows any of the ancient historical details to enjoy it. And as an added bonus, it introduces Euripides’ work to a whole new audience (Lampo’s initial opinion of the Trojan Women is spot on!)

This book is set in Syracuse, is a brutal, fun, hilarious, gory and horrific book. Yes is all that I did enjoy it lots I like the characters Lampo and Galón and I like the message in the whole book. Is such a vibrant and real narrative. My favourite character is definitely Lampo. I like the story is tell by different characters and I do Belive this book will become a favourite of many readers For me is a book that worth be read big shout out and thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Fig tree to the access to this ARC.