For Leonteus, bastard son of the former king of Argos, being the hegemon of his half-brother King Diomedes’ bodyguard is what he has trained for his entire life.
But the stability of the land of the Achaeans is suddenly rent in two by the abduction of King Menelaus’s queen, Helen, by a prince of Troy.
Agamemnon, Menelaus’s brother, calls on all the foremost men who, as Helen’s suitors, swore allegiance to defend the man who won her hand a decade before. Honourable Diomedes answers that summons.
The 100,000-man army of the Achaeans sail for war amidst ill-fated omens, destined either to reduce Troy’s great walls to rubble, or die far from home in the pursuit of gold and glory.
And Leonteus, brother of a warrior king, comrade to the wily Odysseus, peerless but troubled Achilles, and the grasping, self-centred Agamemnon, will find himself at the heart of the deadliest war ever fought.
Swords of Troy by Anthony Riches is published on 16 July, 2026.
There’s much more new historical fiction in Historia’s list of over 170 books coming out this year.
