The Young Warriors anthology, edited by Tamora Pierce and Josepha Sherman, has quite a few short stories by authors who are on my favorite list. One of them I’m more used to seeing as an editor; I’ve been reading Esther Friesner’s ‘Amazon Comedy’ anthology series (Chicks in Chainmail, et al) for years. Her short story in the Young Warriors anthology is about Helen of Troy, and her kidnapping by Theseus. Nobody’s Princess is not an expansion of this short story: it’s an entire prequel.

In the Afterword, Friesner says that the writer’s question is usually What Happens Next, but in Helen’s story, we know what happens next (the Trojan war, ten years, kidnappings, running around the town a few times, etc.). So the question must be, What Happened First? Helen’s childhood is largely unknown, and her time predated Classical Greece by a few centuries. So Friesner, armed with questions and recent historical theories, created her story.

Helen of Sparta, prior to being the Face that Launched a Thousand Ships, was the Child who Annoyed Her Parents So. She learns very early on that she has power over people, and as she says in the Prologue, that is a horrible thing for a child to learn. Rather than the power corruption, her besetting sin is wilfulness and a refusal to let her life be dictated to her. She insists on training in weapons with her brothers; while she learns women’s skills such as spinning and weaving, she isn’t very good at them. This is a bit unfortunate, as she is to be the future queen of Sparta. When she and her twin sister Clytemnestra are fourteen, she accompanies her sister to Mykenae for her wedding. On a subsequent detour on the way home, Helen meets Atalanta (of the golden apples) who inspires her (even more) to seize her own destiny.

Although my plot description is less than interesting, I loved this book. The characters, especially our first-person narrator of Helen, are all surprisingly well-drawn; Helen’s mother, Leda, is one of my favorites. Although she is primarily engaged in ‘women’s work’, she did spend a childhood hunting with bows, and still does. The setting is also excellent. Friesner is quite skilled at making a little description go a long way. She doesn’t generally describe all the details of life, including however they dealt with sewage and how often they bathed. Helen is a member of royalty, after all, so a few things don’t concern her; gory details wouldn’t add to the story.

One issue that is included but not emphasized is slavery. There are slaves, of course; Helen even frees one, but she isn’t painted as a suffragist. Considering it was a historic reality, I felt that Friesner handled it quite deftly. The gods are mentioned, but never actually appear; Helen barely believes in their existence. Her religious beliefs are very pragmatic, for all that she is supposed to be the daughter of Zeus. I believe that it might be somewhat more representative of the actual Greek beliefs in the gods.

Friesner’s writing is excellent; I believe the best thing I can say is that it never got in the way of the story. Even though there are many philosophical questions raised about destiny, slavery, women’s rights, and roles in life, this is primarily a story, and quite an engaging one, at that. I should warn that it ends on a cliffhanger to set up the sequel, which will be coming out in April of this year. Due to the depth of the story, I’d primarily recommend it for YA readers and older, and any fan of Greek literature and strong female heroines. I’ll award it a full 5/5 stars.