Pegasus and the flame by Kate O'Hearn
Mythology and Reality collide! So the blurb on the back of this book tell me. The mythical winged stallion Pegasus crash lands on a rooftop in modern day New York, fleeing...
22 October 2011
Sagas of Icelanders
So myself and himself have gotten in the habit of bedtime stories. We started off with some fairy tales. First those classic old Ladybird books. We were doing some wearing out...
28 September 2011
The hum and the shiver by Alex Bledsoe
Bronwyn Hyatt is coming home. A war hero. Or so some people say, others say she hasn’t changed a speck from the trash Tufa slut she was before she left, but to her family all that is important is that she is home. Back among the Tufa. And who are the Tufa? Well that no on seems quite sure of. They’ve been in the mountains of east Tennessee since before anyone can remember. Closely knit, and prizing musical ability, they live apart from other people. And Bronwyn is a true, pure-blooded Tufa, a First Daughter. But a haint is visiting, and there are ominus signs everywhere her people look.
7 July 2011
Olympos by Dan Simmons
By Dan Simons
I really loved Ilium when I read it in June so was looking forward to this, the sequel. And it kicks off right where we left the story in the first book. Unfortunately it just didn’t work as well. All through this book I was interested in what was going on, but never gripped, never fascinated or engaged by it. Merely hmm, that’s interesting.
8 August 2010
Ilium by Dan Simmons
ISBN: 9780380817924 DDC: The first in the Ilium/Olympusduology. Author site ; Ilium sectionof the Ilium/Olympus wiki Ilium opens with Thomas Hockenberry, a twenty-first century professor, observing the Trojan War on behalf...
11 June 2010
The absolute Sandman vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by: ISBN: 9781401210823 Collects Preludes & Nocturnes (1-8), The Doll’s House (9-16), & Dream Country (17-20). Read as part of the Once Upon a Time challenge & the Graphic Novels...
27 May 2010
Robin Hood dir. by Ridley Scott
Directed by Ridley Scott ; Screenplay by Brian Helgeland
You all know the legend of Robin Hood, he stole from the rich and gave to the poor, living in Sherwood Forest with his band of merry men, his main nemesis being the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. And there have been many version of Robin over the years. My personal favourite still remains the tv show from the 80s Robin of Sherwood. It managed to get the balance between myth and reality just about right, in my opinion, of course. But even Kevin Costner’s version was damn fine fun. This is not.
14 May 2010
The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
by Philip Pullman
The back of the edition of this that I read has only the words: This is a story. Interesting. Is that because the publisher’s don’t want to offend the ultra religious in the Christian world. Or is it a message from the author that the life of Jesus is a story. That the bible is a story.
Pullman, of course, is known for his ever so slightly controversial views on religion, he has used them in his fiction before. In that case it involved a worn-out god, and power-hungry angels. Here he revisits the myth:”(is a myth a religion we dont believe in?)”: of Jesus Christ and weaves a new story out of it.
7 May 2010
The underneath by Kathi Appelt
Author: Kathi Apelt
This is the story of an abandoned cat, an old hound dog who becomes her friend and her kittens, and the family they become. But it is also a tale of old Grandmother Moccasin, a shape-chaning lemia, who is trapped in jar and by her own anger and resentment at her betrayal, as she sees it, by those she loved. And through its blending of myth and floklore it is the perfect fit for my Once Upon a Time reading list. It is also a children’s book, so it shouldn’t take you to long to get through. Although that does not mean that this doesn’t have darkness.
19 April 2010
Clash of the Titans by S.P. Somtrow dir. by Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Lasse Hallström, Louis Leterrier, Peter Weiland
The film opens at sea, in a storm. A fisherman hauls in an ornate box and after prising it open finds a baby boy and his dead mother. He and his wife raise this child as their own, loving him just as much as their flesh and blood daughter, whom they bear some years later. We know this because Pete Postlethwaite tells us so. This boy, Perseus, does not know it, but he is a demi-god, the son of Zeus himself. And he is about to get caught up in a conflict between humanity and the Gods of Ancient Greece.
9 April 2010
Here lies Arthur by Philip Reeve
ISBN: 9780439955331 LibraryThing | Author’s site Some stories will never stop being retold. How many different versions of the Arthurian legends are there out there? And do we really need another?...
21 January 2010
Achilles by Elizabeth Cook
Two rivers. Flowing in contrary directions.
Two layers of water, each moving steadily, separate and self-possessed.
When I was thinking of books to read for the myth section of Carl’s challenge I did consider the Iliad, and the Odyssey too, so when I was wandering around the library and stumbled across this book it seemed perfect. And I’m so glad I picked it up; it makes for a really good read.
8 May 2008
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