Tim: Richards Slaves Of Troy

One of the most frequently praised aspects of Tim Richards’ Slaves of Troy is his rigorous commitment to Bronze Age reality. Richards, an amateur archaeologist and lecturer on Aegean prehistory, avoids the Hollywood tropes of leather bikinis and katanas.

The novel opens not on the battlefields of Ilium (Troy), but in the bowels of a massive generation ship known as The Agamemnon. The year is 2847 CE. Humanity has colonized the Helios Cluster, but society has regressed into a feudal empire modeled directly on Bronze Age Greece. Tim Richards Slaves Of Troy

The protagonist is Kaelen, a former engineer turned Hypaspist (shield bearer). When the mining colony of Dardania refuses to pay tribute to the Central Oligarchy—referred to colloquially as "The Gods of Olympus"—the empire declares a war of annihilation. One of the most frequently praised aspects of

Kaelen, however, is not a hero. He is one of the "Slaves of Troy." In Richards’ universe, the city of Troy has been rebuilt as a free port, a neutral haven for outcasts. The "Slaves" are actually the indentured defenders of this city: criminals, debtors, and war refugees who have been given a choice—fight and earn your freedom, or die in the mines. “March, march, the oar and loom / Weave

The narrative follows a thirty-day siege. Using stolen "Hephaestus-tech" (primitive railguns and plasma shields), the slaves must hold out against a genetically modified Achaean army led by the psychopathic "Achilles Unit"—a cybernetically enhanced super-soldier who feels no pain.

“The heroes get the statues. The slaves get the silence. This piece is for them.” – Tim Richards (imagined, 2025)

“March, march, the oar and loom / Weave the shroud inside the tomb / Hector’s son, Astyanax / Thrown from the wall – no turning back.”