Tag: mythology

Norse Mythology Neil Gaiman

norse-mythologyTitle: Norse Mythology

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Bloomsbury

Published: 1 February 2017

Format: Paperback

Pages: 304

Price: $27.99

Synopsis: The great Norse myths are woven into the fabric of our storytelling – from Tolkien, Alan Garner and Rosemary Sutcliff to Game of Thrones and Marvel Comics. They are also an inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s own award-bedecked, bestselling fiction. Now he reaches back through time to the original source stories in a thrilling and vivid rendition of the great Norse tales. Gaiman’s gods are thoroughly alive on the page – irascible, visceral, playful, passionate – and the tales carry us from the beginning of everything to Ragnarok and the twilight of the gods. Galvanised by Gaiman’s prose, Thor, Loki, Odin and Freya are irresistible forces for modern readers and the crackling, brilliant writing demands to be read aloud around an open fire on a freezing, starlit night.

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Neil Gaiman has turned his terrific and inspiring talent with words to the realms of Norse Mythology –Odin, Loki, Thor, Freya, and all the others. He retells the major myth cycle of the Norse myths and pantheon for a modern audience, giving each god a voice, starting from their births, and the mischief they get up to, tricking humans and fellow gods alike – a characteristic that Loki, the trickster god, embodies without shame. Together with Thor and Freya, and Freya’s brother Frey, the story evolves naturally. Though written for a modern audience, the lyrical and oral nature of these original tales shines through.

Beginning with the creation story sparked by the death of Ymir, and concluding with the battle of Ragnorak, Norse Mythology takes myths that are not always as widely used or known as Greek and Roman myths, and repackages them for a modern audience, while still keeping the cadence and lyrical nature of the old stories, giving an image of ancient Norse people sitting around, telling stories of the Gods and myths, lessons learned through the oral tradition of their world.

Like many myth cycles throughout the world, it begins with creation, has the gods and goddesses and other beings causing mischief with each other and humans, causing havoc upon Earth through boredom or the need to do something, lives lived, anger, and finally, destruction and the end of the world.

Many of Neil Gaiman’s other works incorporate aspects of Norse Mythology. American Gods features Odin and Loki in a modern setting, so Norse Mythology is a natural progression, incorporating Gods, Goddesses, Dwarves and Frost Giants into the narrative that has existed for centuries. Norse Mythology reveals the romance and adventure of these tales, fairy tales retold for an audience who may have outgrown fairy tales. Like all his stories, Neil Gaiman’s lyrical style reminds adults of what reading a fairy tale is like – full of magic and whimsy, where bad things do happen but everything will be all right in the end – mostly.

A fine book that explores a lesser known myth cycle, wonderful for fans of mythology and Neil’s previous works.

Booktopia

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The Blood of Wolves by S.D. Gentill (Sulari Gentill)

blood-of-wolvesTitle: The Blood of Wolves (The Hero Trilogy #3)
Author: S.D. Gentill
Publisher: Pantera Press
Category: Fantasy/YA/Mythology
Pages: 440
Available formats: Print
Publication Date: 1/3/2013
Synopsis: The third and final book in the HERO TRILOGY
4 DARING YOUNG HEROES…
…INSANITY… HERESY…
AND A BLOODY WAR…
As empires fall and are founded anew, the Herdsmen of Ida join the refugees of Troy in search of a vague destiny promised by fickle gods. Amidst disaster, monsters, heresy and war they risk not only their lives, but their hearts, to twist the treacherous threads of fate and deny the desperate demands of blood.

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The Blood of Wolves was my first introduction to S.D. Gentill’s work when I read it and reviewed it for the New South Wales Writer’s Centre. The second time around, having purchased and read the preceding books in the trilogy, I came to it with a better understanding of the events that led to what happened in this book, and found it just as enjoyable.
The fall of the Trojan empire and Aeneas’ attempts to position himself as the Son of the Goddess and to build a new city for his people coincides with the conclusion of the Trojan War and Hero and her brothers’ journeying to find Odysseus and their adventures following their encounters with him. Aeneas, and his young son, Iulus, who finds Hero a great comfort during the time the Trojans find themselves wandering with the kinsmen of The Herdsmen of Ida. Aeneas’ dedication to the gods and the signs they give him, so he says, capture Hero’s attention, even when it seems Aeneas is leading those with him into disaster.
Accompanied as they have been by she-wolf Lupa, throughout the trilogy, the siblings find themselves helping Aeneas, but then threatened by the Carthaginians when Machaon battles to gain the freedom of the Phaeacian princess, Nausicaa, who helped them during their search for Odysseus, and finally embroiled in tragedy that Aeneas claims has been foretold, the journey of the siblings must come to a conclusion. What that conclusion is to be can only be decided by yet more war and tragedy.
Gentill has yet again seamlessly woven ancient history and mythology into a fine narrative, accessible for young adults and anyone interested in Greek Mythology. In calling the chapters books, as in The Odyssey, and describing the gods as Homer did, it adds a layer of authenticity and familiarity for people who have read The Odyssey and texts with similar themes such as The Aeneid, and can introduce the idea of reading these texts to new readers. I found this trilogy to be enjoyable, and would love to revisit them. I recommend them to anyone interested in adventures and mythology or ancient history, and hope that future readers enjoy the journey as much as I did.

Booktopia

Trying War by S.D. Gentill (Sulari Gentill)

Book Title: Trying War, (Hero Trilogy Book Two)
Author: S.D. Gentill
Publisher: Pantera Press
Genre: Young Adult/Mythology/Fantasy
Release Date: 17th February 2012trying-war
Book Synopsis: Mac, Cad, Lycon and Hero return to the ruins of Troy to conf
ront disaster. Once again the Herdsmen of Ida are caught in unfolding legend – facing monsters, murderers and the gods at war, in a desperate attempt to challenge what the fates have decreed.

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Picking up where Chasing Odysseus left us, we rejoin Mac, Cad, Lycon and Hero on their journey across the ancient Greek world. From their pursuit of Odysseus back to Ithaca to reclaim the honour for the Herdsmen of Ida, but their return is hindered by Hero’s capture by the Amazons, in search of a new Queen to have a child with Ares, their god, after the death of her mother, Pentheselia. Bremusa, which I deduced was Hero’s true name before her mother stripped her of it and sent her to live with Agelaus at the beginning of Chasing Odysseus where their journey begins. Hero’s capture made me scream NO, so many times in my mind, that I felt I was there with her brothers and Oenone plotting to get her back. Their journey brings them into contact with Medea, a figure from Greek mythology I am quite familiar with, and was immediately fascinated by her appearance, yet alarm bells started ringing as I knew her myth cycle…this is the witch who, in revenge for her husband, Jason, abandoning her and taking up with another princess, a revenge which led her to unspeakable acts that are described in the book and in all her myth cycles. S.D. Gentill has definitely done her research here with the ancient sources and any other sources. In terms of the Medea myth cycle, she has seamlessly combined each aspect of the myth cycle explored by different ancient texts together to explore her character. Her involvement with the Herdsmen does not last the entire novel, but enough for her to cause enough havoc and bring the Erinyes after Machaon for much of the book.
Trying War doesn’t follow a specific myth cycle, rather it takes on various aspects of the Pantheon of Olympus, Medea, and the priestesses of Artemis in their temple in ancient Athens, in the heyday of the power and authority of the Pantheon, and has our heroes, the Herdsmen and their sister, encountering Ares himself, due for trial in front of the entire Pantheon for a crime against another god. The climax rises with the decision of the fates and the pantheon – too many spoilers to give away here for potential readers, so all I will say that it was a great climax and finale. This familiarity with the Greek mythological cycles, I feel, gave me a better understanding of the books but it isn’t a necessary understanding to have: the important facts of the myth cycles, such as Medea’s, are presented to the reader in conversation.
Yet another spectacular book from Sulari, and I look forward to many more in the future. A definite fan here.

Book Review: Chasing Odysseus by S.D. Gentill

odysseusBook Title: Chasing Odysseus, first book in the Hero Trilogy
Author: S.D. Gentill
Publisher: Pantera Press
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Mythology
Release Date: 2011
Book Synopsis: Four young heroes in a quest against myth, magic…and betrayal. One girl, three brothers…four daring young heroes… Treachery, transformations and a deadly quest. A thrilling adventure of ancient myth, monsters, gods, sorcerers, sirens, magic, and many evils…the fall of Troy and a desperate chase across the seas in a magical ship… Hero and her three brothers, Mac, Cad, and Lycon go on this exciting and dangerous quest to prove their murdered father’s honour, the betrayal by King Odysseus and the loyalty of their own people to the conquered city of Troy.

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Chasing Odysseus opens with Hero being presented to her father, Agelaus by her Amazonian mother, Pentheselia at age five. Rejected by the Amazonian tribe, and her true name, Hero is welcomed into the arms of Agelaus and her brothers, Machaon, Cadmus and Lycon, Herdsmen of Ida, during the Trojan War. Tragedy befalls the family when they are named as traitors to the Trojans and blamed for aiding Odysseus and his men enter Troy in a wooden horse. Thus begins the journey of Hero and her brothers to find Odysseus, and have him put the story right.
I entered this world with a knowledge and love of Greek mythology that carried me through several university degrees, and immediately, I was swept up
The novel uses the descriptors of the gods used by Homer in the Odyssey, and this link to the original text, though the story is told from an opposing viewpoint to that of the Greeks and Odysseus. Their Phaecian ship takes them on a journey across the world as it was known in ancient times and the setting of the Odyssey. I was swept up into this story, and felt at home amongst the gods and the various ancient Greeks and their alliances. I sat with Hero as she made her sacrifices to the gods, and protected her brothers from the wrath of Zeus, journeyed with them as they met Pan, and ate with the Cyclopes. Having previously read The Odyssey, this retelling of the tale was of great interest to me.
Though this book, and its sequels are aimed at the YA audience, it is a lovely read for those familiar with the world of Greek Mythology. The journey of discovery in Chasing Odysseus that Hero and her brothers take to avenge the death of their father, and to return honour to the Herdsmen of Ida at the hands of Odysseus.
Chasing Odysseus follows the pattern of The Odyssey, a journey that took Odysseus ten years following the conclusion of the Trojan War, from his entrapment by Calypso to encounters with The Lotus Eaters, Circe, Polyphemus, the Cyclops, the Sirens, and with Nausicaa, a Phaeacian princess, to whom he recounts his tale, before he is able to return home. The period of time is unclear in Gentill’s work, but could be days, weeks, months or years, if following the narrative of The Odyssey. Whether it does or not, however, does not take away from the beauty of Chasing Odysseus, and the wonderful set up for the subsequent books.
A five star rating, and recommendation to anyone who loves adventure, mythology or just a good read, and it is not essential to have read The Odyssey before hand.