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------------------VIDEO REVIEW------------------10/11/19I finished reading The Mythic Dream last week and what a stunner it was!! In this anthology a host of amazingly talented authors reimagine old myths, interrogating issues of gender, politics, sexuality, patriarchy, power dynamics and family. This is perfect if you’re looking to not only read myths of the Greeks and Romans, but those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Japan, Irish, Indian and many more. There’s not a single story in this book that I did...
Retellings of myths?! Yes please! I was excited to listen to this for one of my book clubs. Like with most anthologies, some stories were great and some weren't for me. My favorites include: “Buried Deep.” by Naomi Novik, “Florilegia; or, Some Lies About Flowers.” Amal El-Mohtar and “Fisher-Bird”, by T. Kingfisher.
The book's a bit slim for the 18 stories it contains, but though short, the stories were good overall, some more than others as is expected in anthologies. They all are myths to retell, but not just Western myths as there's myths from Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well.I got two stories as my personal favourites from the collection, the first of which was Wild to Covet by Sarah Gailey, a modern retelling of the story of Achilles from the point of view of his mother, Thetis, and set in what
A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy by Rebecca Roanhorse ★★★★☆ A Native American tale of obsessive love reimagined in cyberpunk!Bridge of Crows by Jy Yang ★★★★☆ That took its time but ended as a satisfying prelude to vengeance.Across the River by Leah Cypess ★★★★☆ Jewish mysticism and sorcery! This was clever, interesting, soulful, and unique. It makes me want to read Claw & Warder.Florilegia or Some Lies About Flowers by Amal El-Mohtar ★★★★☆ A woman made of flowers is befriended by a re...
This really is a cracker of a book. I could go around and around about my own personal plusses and minuses, but it's probably the most complete collection of original stories I've read so far this year. There are at least three stories that stand amongst 2019's very best. If you like SFF and short fiction, this one is a no-brainer essential purchase.
4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because I want others to read this and I really did love it!When you have a short story collection like this, by so many different authors, it's kind of hard to give it an overall rating, especially if there were some stories you didn't like quite so much. But overall, this is a very strong collection of stories and I discovered some new authors along the way. The theme of this set is the retellings of myths from all cultures, and that, in itself, was quite interes...
I'm a simple girlI see Naomi NovikI click "to read"
Partial reread Sept/Oct 2021.The standout story for me is the Arkady Martine: she rewrites ancient Sumerian poetry as space-opera! Strong 5 stars. John Chu’s tech startup tale, and Jeffrey Ford reimagining the myth of Sisyphus “amid the rolling green meadows of Asphodel” were just a half-star behind. And a whole batch of 4 star stories, and other good ones just behind those. Excellent anthology: strong 4 stars overall. Look for the Martine and likely some of the others on next year’s award ballo...
I love the book, but I don't really love short stories? Some of them were pretty amazing though. I'll just write a bit about the stories I personally enjoyed. Seanan McGuire and Naomi Novik are strong writers and their stories both reflected that. I think that their lyrical writing style really meshed well with the myths that they were telling. It was nice seeing some of the myths from other cultures, even if I wasn't as well versed in them, and I think I'd like to pick up a book from Kat Howard...
This was my first reading experience with an anthology collection, and I am so glad this was it! This collection reinvigorated my love or blazoned a new love for authors I was already familiar with, and it introduced me to some authors I was unfamiliar with.The true standout stories, of the eighteen total stories, for me were:- “Fisher-Bird” by T. Kingfisher- “Bridge of Crows” by JY Yang- “Wild to Covet” by Sarah Gailey- “He Fell Howling” by Stephen Graham Jones- “Kali_Na” by Indrapramit Das- “T...
3.5! Love a myth retelling, some of these were really great and evocative and wonderful and some of these were MEHHHHH. I like the one about the streamer girl, I liked the one I liked Carmen Maria Machado’s I liked the one set in India
In general I really loved the theme of this collection and the assignment of subverting or retelling myths and the large array of myths found in this collection. Below I will list some of my favorite. Fisher-Bird by T. Kingfisher. This was a retelling of Hercules and one of his labors and the banter between him and the bird was so good and engaging that I now want to read all the things by this author just to experience more of their character relationship work. Bridge of Crows by JY Yang. I lov...
3.5 stars rounded up.uh i should be studying but:wow! phantoms of the midway is def one of my fav short stories ~ carnival ghosts [greek, 5/5]the justified is rly, rly hard to get into, but gets good later [egyptian, 4/5]fisher-bird — absolutely love love loved this!! [greek, 5/5]a brief lesson - creepy ~ make sure to read the original folk tale [native american, 3.5/5]bridge of crows - story within story within stories :) [japanese, 5/5]labbatu - goddamn cool [sumerian, 5/5]wild to covet - ok i...
I love a good anthology - The Mythic Dream isn't just good though, it's great.Every anthology carries the implicit promise that you'll find at least some stories you like - the other side of that coin, of course, is that it's almost impossible that you'll like every story. Editors have to cast a wide net to catch as many readers as possible, and taste is a varying thing. Somehow, though, I enjoyed each and every story here - there's genuinely not even one dud.Don't think that means they've sacri...
Phantoms of the Midway by Seanan McGuire - ★★★.5The Justified by Ann Leckie - ★★★.5Fisher-Bird by T Kingfisher - ★★★★A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy by Rebecca Roanhorse - ★★★★.5Bridge of Crows by Neon Yang - ★★★★★Labbatu Takes Command of the Flagship "Heaven Dwells Within" by Arkady Martine - ★★★.5Wild to Covet by Sarah Gailey - ★★★.5¡Cuidado! ¡Que Viene el Coco! by Carlos Hernandez - ★★★★★He Fell Howling by Stephen Graham Jones - ★★★★.5Curses Like Words, Like Feathers, Like Stories...
Overall rating of anthology: 4This is a high quality collection of stories which are retellings of myths from diversecultures, written by contemporary fantasy, science fiction, and horror writers.The audio is ably read by Samantha Desz. She does take some liberties with the text,but those are always in the spirit of the story she’s reading, so they didn’t bother me.Ghosts of the Midway by Seanan McGuire4A poignant reimagining of the Persephone myth, set in a travelling carnival.The Justified by
Stopping here because I was only reading four of the stories for our Locus award post, but I wil definitely continue reading the anthology later, because it's really great so far.
It's rare that I'll give an anthology more than three stars. The quality of the stories usually varies, and I'll find a few stories that I really like, more that are so-so, and some that just don't do it for me. Of the eighteen stories in this volume, I only found one to be sub-par. That's amazing!I also am a big fan of mythology reinterpretations and this book does that with myths from Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Tewa, Ireland, China, India, Judaism and Wales. Some were myths I knew well, l...
Unfortunately it didn't work for me - I think short fiction is more interesting when the authors don't have the... restrictions that a retelling inevitably seems to give a short story. Even the authors who managed to make it work didn't turn it into anything that would have looked impressive outside the anthology, and inside of it, I didn't feel like the stories were coming together in a way that made them worth reading for a "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" reason.
Average Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️.9I’m always looking for anthologies, particularly fantasy ones because I find it to be an excellent opportunity to discover new authors. So, when I happened upon this one during my endless browsing on goodreads, I knew I had to read it. I was also impressed when I saw that it was a collection of mythology retellings, which reminded me a lot of another anthology A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (also happens to be my favorite). This one has more stories inspired by Greek/...