The cover and title don't really match the book, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into. But I was pleasantly surprised. The writing felt refreshing after too many melodramatic smart-alecky novels. I liked the main character, though I never felt I knew her husband who has a substantial role. I also didn't exactly follow what was going on politically at first, but it didn't matter. I liked the tone and Auria and that was enough to keep me going all the way through. The battle at the end felt a little anti-climatic, but overall it was a good read. ( )

Journal Entry 2 by Wings details...MarysGirlWings details... from Brooklyn, New York USA on Wednesday, May 09, 2007
5 out of 10

From the book jacket:

"It was an age when muses and fates roamed the earth, when the world was new and all things seemed to be happening for the first time. The Golden Age of Greece was ending.

Within the setting of decline and fall, Ellen Gilchrist expands her fictional realm and for the first time tells a story set in ancient times. A slave girl named Auria - independent, resourceful and, like women in other Gilchrist fiction, certain to captivate the reader - rescues a child that has been put out to die, and they flee to the mountains. Within herself Auria finds strangth and courage she needs. Theanabasis, her rise to liberation, is an enchanting passage.

Ellen Gilchrist is the author of many notable books, including...Victory over Japan, for which she received the National Book Award."

This was a quick and undemanding read. I would have liked it to be more demanding and involving. Gilchrist has the potential for engaging characters in a fascinating story, but handles them in a distant/omniscient POV. I never got emotionally involved in the story or felt attached to the characters. ( )