The best entry point for emotional investment in the characters. Miller tells the story of Achilles and Patroclus from Patroclus's perspective, from childhood through Troy, with warmth and psychological depth that makes both characters feel fully human. Readers who come to the Iliad after this novel find that Patroclus's death in Book 16 hits with an entirely different force. A note of honest framing: this is a modern reinterpretation — Miller prioritizes psychological interiority and romantic feeling in ways Homer does not. Read it to care about the characters, then let Homer's harsher heroic code surprise you.

Miller's second novel follows the witch Circe — daughter of the sun god Helios, minor figure in the Odyssey — across millennia of Greek myth. Where Song of Achilles is about glory and loss, Circe is about power and transformation. It touches the Trojan War world obliquely but rewards readers who have already met its cast of characters. The best of Miller's work by many readers' estimation.

The Trojan War from the perspectives Homer marginalizes — the women, the Trojans, the figures who appear briefly and are then forgotten. Haynes gives voices to Penelope, Hecuba, Cassandra, and Briseis, filling in the human reality around Homer's male-centered narrative. An excellent complement to the Iliad rather than a substitute for it. Like Miller, Haynes draws on the full Epic Cycle and applies a distinctly contemporary critical lens to the ancient material.