Myth Retellings

[issybird]

This is a category that has a lot of appeal for me and is popular right now, especially retellings of ancient myths/history from the/a woman’s POV. But I’ve found the reality is different; there are a lot of duds out there for me, some highly praised, and I either DNF them or finish them just because. Yet there are some I’ve thought terrific. I also should note that they come in two types; a straight up retelling/reimagining or transferred to a different, more modern setting.

Some recent ones I’ve jettisoned include Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Common flaws for me are a mindset that’s unbelievable in the setting and straying too far from the standard story. As one example, a daughter of a king who moans and groans about being married to an old king and having to leave home - that was the deal. You can push the boundaries but not beyond credulity; at some point you’re no longer telling the same story and that’s the case for resetting it. And sometimes, they’re just badly written; people like a lot of what’s carp to me. I’ll add that I thought Miller’s Circe excellent and I’m currently reading a non-fiction book by Haynes about the famous women of Greek myth and it’s very illuminating and informative.

Others I finished but didn’t care for include The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, but I should admit that I have issues with both authors so perhaps it’s not surprising. The later was better than the former, which had nothing interesting to say at all. I also didn’t much like The House of Names by Colm Tóibín, but I do like him. There are others.

On the other hand, in addition to Circe, I thought Ransom by David Malouf and Cassandra by Christa Wolf excellent. A resetting of the Apollo/Daphne myth, The Latinist, was one of my favorite books this year and I also enjoyed The Just City by Jo Walton. It can be a relief to get away from the Trojan War, the House of Atreus and Thebes, far and away the major settings for retellings! I’ve just started Ithaca by Claire North and I like it a lot. The narrator, not so much.

So how do people feel about this sub-genre? Specific books? Despite my issues, I’m hooked. I know a retellings book club was mooted at the beginning of the year, so there are more of you out there.

[DiapDealer]

I thought Malouf's Ransom was great, as well.

In the "transferred to a different, more modern setting" camp, I often recommend Michael Hughes' Country: a reimagining of Homer's Iliad set in mid-1990s Northern Ireland.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

… But I’ve found the reality is different; there are a lot of duds out there for me, some highly praised, and I either DNF them or finish them just because. Yet there are some I’ve thought terrific.
…
Common flaws for me are a mindset that’s unbelievable in the setting and straying too far from the standard story.

Agree.

Spinning Silver by Novik an interesting mashup of three fairytales. Enjoyed and read because I'd read her Dragons in Napoleonic War, but I didn't like Uprooted for two reasons, one was the gratuitous unexpected sex scene (though at least not GRR Martin style) and the other was it seemed to lose way at the end.

Kitchen Sink approach and not too bad: The Seven Kingdoms: Books 1-9 Box Set by Cordelia Castel + The Princesses Reimagines loads of well known ones. But Pratchett in Discworld re-does tropes best.

Then a separate category is the modern sequel that takes (ideally oldest canonical version) of possibly immortal characters and imagines what the they are doing now. Rick Riordan, Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris and Alan Garner do it very differently. But I have a vested interest in this!

If going for modern retelling of Arthurian then Mary Stewart. If you MUST have T.H. White, then his actual books, not awful Novelizations of Disney.

[issybird]

Oh, I can’t believe I left out Mary Renault, who’s the gold standard for many in this genre. Probably because I’ve never been able to get into her books; I suspect it’s because she comes across as neither ancient nor modern to me, just dated.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

In the "transferred to a different, more modern setting" camp, I often recommend Michael Hughes' Country: a reimagining of Homer's Iliad set in mid-1990s Northern Ireland.

I was going to ask you if listened to this as one of my libraries has the audio; then I saw you had. Narration by the author is generally a huge no-no for me, but as you’ve vouched for it there’s no reason not to give it a try. In any case, sounds my kind of thing.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Then a separate category is the modern sequel that takes (ideally oldest canonical version) of possibly immortal characters and imagines what the they are doing now. Rick Riordan, Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris and Alan Garner do it very differently. But I have a vested interest in this!

Thanks for the names. I even have the first Percy Jackson (unread) and I’ve read some Gaimans with enjoyment, The Graveyard Book and Coraline.. I shall have to look out titles by him that fit this theme. Harris and Garner are familiar to me in name only.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by issybird

Narration by the author is generally a huge no-no for me, but as you’ve vouched for it there’s no reason not to give it a try. In any case, sounds my kind of thing.

Hmmm... If I knew the author was the narrator before buying/listening to it, I've somehow forgotten it since.

[DiapDealer]

I'd also recommend Lavie Tidhar's deconstruction/reconstruction of arthurian legend, By Force Alone (if you're OK with vulgarity and a good deal of gore). There's no heroes in this one. Mostly thugs, gangsters and parasites.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'd also recommend Lavie Tidhar's deconstruction/reconstruction of arthurian legend, By Force Alone (if you're OK with vulgarity and a good deal of gore). There's no heroes in this one. Mostly thugs, gangsters and parasites.

There are reasons to read instead of listen, and being able to skip over the bloody bits is one of them! Thank you.

ETA: Except that my library only has the audio! Oh, well, it won’t kill me.

And how’s this for a coincidence? I only this moment, pretty much, posted in the Deals forum about the Judge Dee books having just been added at Faded Page (not in PD in the US) and when I searched on Lavie Tidhar’s name at my library, I saw a Judge Dee original story!

(Seeing Judge Dee was happenstance; I was at Faded Page for a Baroness Orczy which is PD here.)

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

Harris and Garner are familiar to me in name only.

Harris is famous for Chocolat series. But she's done Norse, both sort of traditional and imaginative. Quite varied so I've loved some of her books and hated two!
Gaiman has done a straight retelling of Norse (a very good one) and uses myth & tradition as background in many. Coroline, Graveyard and Stardust are very different. He's very diverse so you could love one book and hate another. I've not read any of his comics. I've 5 novels and a couple of DVDs.

Garner: I don't recommend Boneland (2012), a more recent book supposedly a sequel to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960). I read Boneland recently so I have started re-reading the originals below:

Classic ones with Welsh, Arthurian and other mythic inspirations (1960s to early 1970s)
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen 1960
The Moon of Gomrath 1963 (Recent first read)
Elidor 1965
The Owl Service 1967
Red Shift 1973

[John F]

Originally Posted by issybird

...


Thanks for the names. I even have the first Percy Jackson (unread) and I’ve read some Gaimans with enjoyment, The Graveyard Book and Coraline.. I shall have to look out titles by him that fit this theme. Harris and Garner are familiar to me in name only.

If you like Rick Riorden, I'm guessing you would like Michael Scott's Nicholas Flammel series.

[rkomar]

I'm a fan of myths and modern retellings of them. I'm surprised that this series hasn't come up yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canongate_Myth_Series. I've read quite a few of them and enjoyed each one. The Penelopiad is part of that series, and I enjoyed that one, as well (I'm more a fan of Atwood's essays than of her novels). In Canada, these books were published by Knopf, so they might also be under a different publisher in the USA.

[ZodWallop]

I enjoyed Colleen McCullough's The Song of Troy, a retelling of the Trojan War where different chapters are told from different characters perspectives. The supernatural elements are still there, but presented in a realistic way. Unfortunately, it's a UK only book (even my old paperback was a UK import).

[Uncle Robin]

Probably not an exact fit, but Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a superb spin on The Pied Piper of Hameln and an insightful look at folk tales generally, imo.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

If you like Rick Riorden, I'm guessing you would like Michael Scott's Nicholas Flammel series.

Though it's more a serial than series (The Percy Jackson stories are more distinct and the Nicholas Flammel series is one big storie in volumes) . I've read both and I don't think they are similar.
The huge array of mythic & historical characters and things in the Nicholas Flammel series have mostly only a tenuous connection to established stories, but it's entertaining. I'd hardly regard it as "Myth retellings".

[Luffy]

I cite Aru Shah and the End of Time, by Roshani Chokshi, and Kaikeyi, by Vaishnavi Patel. The latter is quite popular at the moment. A few Hindus' feathers were ruffled with a blasphemous mischaracterisation in it. Both books seem to be critically successful, and commercially too. I would rather not read these personally but some here might be interested.