In a more serious and adult vein than Silverlance is the novel, Nessus The Centaur, by Henry Hollenbaugh. The novel is concerned with righting the wrongs set against centaurs in human history and tells the tale of Nessus’ relationship with Hercules and his wife, Dejanara, from the much maligned centaur’s perspective. There is also material in the novel relating “A Short History of The Centaurs”.
This is an unusual novel that is set in the current era and skips between now, ancient Greece, and the writing of the centaur history.A more experienced novelist might not have produced a book that seems so busy in skipping around time frames and locations so much, but if you are interested in centaurs you will probably find the book amusing.
I like the idea that an author has decided to write a book that tells the story from the viewpoint of a vastly misunderstood creature. Much of history is related from a foreign perspective whereby the historian judges the “other” and cannot comprehend what an alien being experiences, their motives, nor their cultural attitudes. Just why would a so-called monster do monstrous things? Could they be in response to unprovoked violence or in the need of self-protection from mistrusted human interaction? What if Hercules was actually a bad guy and not the legendary heroic figure we now read about? There are two or more sides to every story and that is what this book deals with. The reader gains insight into how the mythical being might have been and what his life was like.
If interested, you can buy a paperback copy of the book through Amazon Marketplace or through Alondra Press, the novel’s publisher.
Centaurica 