Heroes

I listened to all of three of the books in this series and absolutely loved it. Having the author, Stephen Fry, read his own words adds so much to the narrative. The writing is superb, easy to follow, and extremely entertaining. Highly recommend the whole series.

I bought all four of Stephen Fry’s Greek myth novels and I’m leaving this same review for each one … If you are looking for a thoroughly enjoyable and erudite retelling of the great Greek myths and heroes then you must not pass up this tetralogy by Stephen Fry. He loves the Greek myths and it clearly shows! I can’t recommend this series highly enough! I bought the hardcover edition of all four novels and they are just gorgeous and illustrated throughout with artwork inspired by the mythology. (Also, I listened to the audio versions of these books narrated by the author and they were even more entertaining with his first class narration!)

I enjoyed this book—and it predecessor, Mythos—a great deal. It tells the intertwined stories of the various Geek heroes clearly and amusingly, without either turning them into children's stories or getting bogged down in sources and complications. (It does not slight sources; it just does not overcomplicate the narrative with philological details.) The voice is contemporary, and that is usually an advantage. At times the references to popular culture seem a bit intrusive, but mostly they work. What could be a dryasdust report on ancient texts becomes a really good read.

If you are reading this you probably read Mythos first and know whether or not Heroes is for you. I personally loved mythos and remember vaguely wondering why the stories of the heroes weren’t included. It was a complaint I had that I didn’t think much about as the book was already a fairly good length and had a focused structure I enjoyed. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the sequel had released and addressed my question. One of the reasons I picked up Mythos is that it appealed to me as a one off read rather than a drawn out series, so of course it turns out a trilogy was planned all along and I simply wasn’t paying attention. I don’t think these books are written for those who don’t already have an interest in mythology. They don’t shy away from the sometimes awkward or inconsistent points in the tales but Fry does a good job of always making sure the story is the star. My biggest complaint about the myths is one that I’m sure will have some rolling their eyes. Reading them back to back is a little depressing given that almost all of the stories end so tragically. Unlike in mythos the stars of this book are very human and suffer fates the immortals tended to avoid in the end. There’s nothing wrong with a classic greek tragedy, I guess I just didn’t think about what it would be like to read so many so close together. I still very much enjoyed the book and will of course finish the trilogy once the Iliad is released, I’ll just make sure the next book I choose to read is on the lighter and happier side.

I feel like I’ve been in a semester class on Greek mythology. I’ve read both Mythos and Hero’s and looking forward to Troy. Stephen Fry’s ability to make these myths come to life in all their grizzly details and in a humorous way has given me one of the most wonderful reads this year. Imagine a most interesting person sharing amazing stories with you, your family and friends in the familiar setting of your favorite space and you’d have Stephen Fry in your living room. Amazing story teller.

This book is amazing! It uses many heroes stories to entertain the reader, while still keeping Stephen Fry’s amazing character and charm. Two thousand out of ten rating!

I love Stephen Fry. His humor, his intellect and his books. Always informative and entertaining

I’ve always been fascinated by Greek mythology but most books are either for children or just boring. Stephen Fry’s books about the subject (Troy and Mythos along with Heroes) are an outright joy to read! His light tone and witty manner about albeit some gory material is just perfect. I enjoyed the Heroes book more than I expected. I’m looking forward to his next book in the series “Odyssey”. Now that should be quite a wild read!

I love Greek Mithology, and with Fry's wit and knowledge, the journey is totally amazing

Libro acquistato per cognato inglese. Ho optato per la copertina rigida, essendo un regalo. Il libro è arrivato nei tempi previsti e in perfetto stato, come sempre. Soddisfatta

Having enjoyed Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold so much, I had high hopes for the 2nd volume and was not disappointed. Stephen Fry does an amazing job of making the Greek myths relatable to a modern audience whilst preserving what makes them mythic and epic, inspirational and cautionary, funny and tragic. As per last time, I had both the audiobook and Kindle versions, listening mainly to the narration and reading a few pages here and there when it was more convenient. My knowledge of characters such as Heracles, Jason, Theseus, Oedipus, Icarus etc was fairly minimal so I learned a lot of interesting detail about them all and met some characters I'd never heard of. I really appreciated the author's additional notes on how various sources contradict each other on timelines and which supporting characters were (or weren't) involved in certain events. It's the nature of such myths to have become a little muddled over so many centuries, and masterfully done to thread them together in a way that makes a reasonable amount of sense to a modern reader. The footnotes were yet again a rich vein of information regarding how more words, phrases and concepts have survived into English (and Latin) to this day; from everyday phrases, to taxonomy of animals and birds, to the constellations we still see in the night sky. I especially enjoyed the snarky note about Freud taking none of the actual content from the story of Oedipus. It seems the man was never one to let facts get in the way of his so-called theories! An excellent instalment and I will definitely be on to Troy at some point in future.

I was positively surprised that they included pages of picture of art connected to the stories!

The book is original and the pics inside it is so beautiful