Exina's Reviews > Frieze Frame

The story starts in ancient Greece: Thanos, warrior of Stageira, enrages Ligia, a soothsayer and sorceress. Ligia is a gorgon and in her rage she turns Thanos into stone.



Somehow Thanos remains alive inside the statue. He observes everything around him, but he is not able to move, and though he can speak, nobody hears him.



After a hundred lonely years, a little boy finally is able to hear him and talk to him. This boy is Eryx, (view spoiler)[son of Ligia (hide spoiler)], and he vows to free Thanos from the curse, from the stone. They have become friends, later develop romantic feelings for each other. Eryx grows into a spectacular young man and a powerful sorcerer. Still, no matter how many times and how many different ways he tries, his spells don’t work.

And so it went for centuries, for over a thousand years. Eryx came, he tried to free me, he failed. We spoke of alchemy and black magic, of new gods and new crimes. He brought me modern inventions to marvel at, things he found in distant lands or objects that he himself had created. When he told me the world was actually round, I laughed and called him senile. When he proved it to me with an astrolabe, delighting in the science that he had always craved, the smug look on his face made me laugh all over again.

But Eryx never gives up. He is almost too late, but thousands of years later he finally finds the solution.

The story is narrated by Thanos, in first person. His voice is very enticing and amusing. I loved his positive attitude and humor, and Eryx’s perseverance was admirable.

Frieze Frame is such an extraordinary and wonderfully surprising story: it spans over millennia, one of the main characters is a stone statue most of the time, almost nothing happens, but the story remains consistent and exciting. Sadly, it ends abruptly - I’d love to read more about Thanos and Eryx, and their life together.

Highly recommended!

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