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Bradley's Reviews > Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures
Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #2)
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I shall judge this book purely upon whether I was entertained. And I'm happy to announce that I was. :)
Fry's wit and erudition come together nicely to make one of the most accessible accounting of a large handful of Greek Heroes I've had the pleasure to read. Perhaps better than Hamilton, definitely better than Bullfinch, but perhaps not quite as bright as Ovid, these are, however, punctuated with Fry's charmingly dry wit and panache.
And isn't that why we love Fry? Oh, and the tellings of these Heroes are quite vivid, uncomplicated, and evocative.
Is everyone accounted for? Hmmm... not quite. But the biggest and brightest names are. Want all of the trials of Hercules, or shall I say Heracles? Check. Perseus? Bellerophon? Theseus? Orpheus? Even Dedalus? Check!
It was like having a movie in my mind. :) No overcomplication. Just fun. :)
Fry's wit and erudition come together nicely to make one of the most accessible accounting of a large handful of Greek Heroes I've had the pleasure to read. Perhaps better than Hamilton, definitely better than Bullfinch, but perhaps not quite as bright as Ovid, these are, however, punctuated with Fry's charmingly dry wit and panache.
And isn't that why we love Fry? Oh, and the tellings of these Heroes are quite vivid, uncomplicated, and evocative.
Is everyone accounted for? Hmmm... not quite. But the biggest and brightest names are. Want all of the trials of Hercules, or shall I say Heracles? Check. Perseus? Bellerophon? Theseus? Orpheus? Even Dedalus? Check!
It was like having a movie in my mind. :) No overcomplication. Just fun. :)
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Reading Progress
December 7, 2018
– Shelved as:
to-read
December 7, 2018
– Shelved
February 19, 2019
–
Started Reading
February 19, 2019
– Shelved as:
2019-shelf
February 19, 2019
– Shelved as:
fantasy
February 19, 2019
– Shelved as:
traditional-fiction
February 19, 2019
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-10 of 10 (10 new)
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Trish
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rated it 5 stars
Feb 20, 2019 12:26AM
I have the feeling there might be another book on the horizons. A girl can hope. ;)
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If there is, then I have no worries about whether I'll like it. :)
and that Bradley is how to rate books. Forget their 'literary' value, how good the book is should be a measure of how much it held your attention and entertained you.
Actually, I think it's a combination of those.
Trish wrote: "Actually, I think it's a combination of those."Fastest reply in history! :)
Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. That is how I make my own ratings. Attention and entertainment, the former being important because I listen to all my books, and that requires (I think) a little more focus. In other words, it is easier for my attention to wander, so I have a built in gauge of how attention holding (aka 'good') a book is.
Biggus wrote: "Trish wrote: "Actually, I think it's a combination of those."Fastest reply in history! :)"
Total coincidence. *lol*
Well, let me put it this way... when you've read as much as I have, most of everything is just a repeat on a theme. If I was going by straight literary value alone, I would have given up AGES ago, bemoaning how this and that did the same damn thing so much better and this other is obviously superior.It's much simpler to trust by taste and enjoyment. I personally describe in my reviews what kind of genre it is and give an idea of what to expect, but this can be a wide range because I like a LOT of different genres. :)
I really doubt most people would sit still for a spreadsheet review cross analyzing this according to the slew of similar books, and so I don't do that. But here's the weird bit: I could. :)
I've read a few :PIn my spreadsheet, I added a column a while back "early impressions", because I realised that first impressions aren't always right, even though they generally are. I subscribe to the "too many good books out there to struggle with ones you don't enjoy" theory.
As it happens, this one was a BIG struggle, because I didn't enjoy it. It therefore rates a '2' on my personal system, which is "finished it, but only just" :) Loved Mythos, disliked this.
The Greek stuff is all a refresher but I don't mind. I now read these for the way they're written and I'm a fan of Fry so it felt like a no-brainer. Sorry you didn't connect, tho!
