Book Review: Harry Harrison & Leon Stover - Stonehenge (1972)

 

"Ason, Prince Of Mycenae, escapes slavery and death at the hands of the King Of Atlantis hen catstrophe strike that mighty empire. He sets sail on a perilous journey to the island of the Yerni. But there he discovers that an important Mycenaean mine has been ransacked and all the workers butchered. Savagely he aanges his dead countrymen, amking himselfchief of the island's warring tribes. To consolidate his newly-won power he orders a mighty symbol of unity and stregth to be built: Stonehenge"

 I picke dthis one up from a charity shop, mainly for two reasons, firstly, seeing the name Harry Harrison on the cover and secondly, the cover itself is metal as fuck. 

So metal, in fact that NWOBHM outfit tank reused it for one of their album covers. 

I miss the days when HM album covers looked like this. 

 To be fair, the basic idea also sounded interesting; taking the known trade connections between the Aegean and Britain and throwing in a bit of Atlantis in there too. In this case, Atlantis is based on the island of Thera, the island which exploded in 1476ish so was (possibly) a factor in the Agean Collapse.  

 I suspect the idea of Ancient Greeks and a stray Egyptian being responsible for Stonehenge is one that makes historians mutter darkly but I will give the authors credit for trying to create a feasible pre-Iron Age Britain that leans heavily on Celtic warrior culture. 

 I also suspect that this is more Leon Stover's book more than Harry Harrison. Harrison normally makes his characters more likeable than this and one major issue is that "hero" Ason is a bit of an arsehole.  A violent, rape-y arsehole with very little charm. 

 That aside, Stonehenge is written well enough, has a decent lot of action and does manage to get everything said and done in under 220 pages.  That's not counting the quick history notes at the back. 

To sum up: If you can get past the hero and are willing to roll with the history then this is decent read, with some interesting ideas.  

 Before I finish, the notes at the back do feature the absolutely fascinating Irish tale of the carving of Mac da Tho's Pig. Basically a bunch of Irish warriors arguing over who gets first dibs on a nice bit of pork and some absolutely brutal verbal smackdowns being dished out. 

The Blog The Head of Donn Bó has a brilliant pair of writeups so go check him out:

https://headofdonnbo.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/the-story-of-mac-da-thos-pig-part-1/
https://headofdonnbo.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/the-story-of-mac-da-thos-pig-part-2/

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