Heroes

 

by Steven Fry (read by the author)

 

 

I just finished reading Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined| and thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked his take on the stories and I like how he blended the stories with their provenance through the ancient Greek authors and dramas.  I even liked his embellishments to the stories as well, the kind of details that were not available in the various anthologies of Greek mythology that I devoured in my early teens. All in all, I found his take refreshing; he has breathed new life into old tales and made them interesting and readable. No slogging through olde tyme language and sentence construction -- but plenty of $5 words.

A couple of times he brought me to a halt with his use of vocabulary.  I thought he misused a word and was stunned. Turns out he was right. Where I thought that the more logical choice was A, he took Q, the road less frequently traveled but still correct.

I read it all in one go but it probably the kind of thing that you could break into pieces, reading one heroes tales and then take a break.

 

Four stars -- for creativity, for research and for readability 

P.S. I love the cover.