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sevireads's review against another edition
5.0
„Ти си свободен и твоята свобода се състои в това, че умът не притежава тяло, каквото и да ти дрънкат джуджетата със странни шапки. Дори тялото няма тяло, затова няма на какво да сложиш шлема на ужаса. Но докато не си разбрал това, Астерий е всичко, което виждаш, чувстваш, мислиш и знаеш. И пошлият механичен фарс, който разиграват един пред друг частите на шлема в прозрачната пустота на ума, се превръща в целия твой живот. Ако носиш шлема на ужаса, струва ти се, че това е завинаги. Но всяка вечност продължава не повече от миг. И вече се знае, какво ще стане, когато този миг свърши: ще си спомниш кой си всъщност и ще видиш, че шлемът на ужаса е просто играчка, която сам си измислил…“
bengriffin's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting experiment, and literally impossible to stop reading once I started. Either I wasn't smart enough, or it got too bogged down in parts to be entirely comprehensible, but it made me laugh at various points and was certainly intriguing. A memorably odd read.
tgifrancis's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know what happened. I was on board most of the book, but the last 30 odd pages lost me.
eishe's review against another edition
3.0
Not knowing the original myth in detail, there were times when my mind struggled to understand what and why was being implied by everything that was said by the characters in the modern retelling and in the end the book probably left me with more questions than answers. But this was probably the reason why the book drew me in so much I was not able to put it down until I had read it all.
The style in which the book is written - as a chat room - is quite unique and at the same time mundane in this world of global communication.
The style in which the book is written - as a chat room - is quite unique and at the same time mundane in this world of global communication.
evuks16's review against another edition
2.0
Filozofisks murģelis par minatauru un tēsēju, kas ir šausmu ķiveres iekšpusē un ārpusē vienlaikus
albs's review against another edition
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
greeniezona's review against another edition
3.0
I have an uncorrected proof of this book from such times as I used to pinch such crumbs from Jessa's table. As it has been languishing on my shelves for many years, that makes it a good candidate for my to-read challenge, and reading Winterson's Weight not long ago sparked my interest in the Canongate Mythology series. So here we are.
I knew really nothing about Theseus and the Minotaur before reading this book, which I'm sure didn't help anything at all. In this book everything is up for interpretation: who is Theseus? Who is the Minotaur? What is the labrynth? What is reality? It is written as a chat room transcript, and we are to believe it is populated by people trapped in near-identical rooms with no memory of how they got there and computers that do nothing but provide access to this particular chat. But, as with everything online, what can you really believe?
Many aspects of this book were interesting. Some were bewildering. Some I didn't get I'm sure because I wasn't familiar enough with the myth behind it, some seemed more like the pompous philosophizing of college students too self-important to bother learning to fully explain their theories -- other people's bafflement just proving to them their own superiority. Maybe that was supposed to the the point and it was just too... deep for me, but I ended up feeling for most of the book that meaning was disappearing around a blind corner, just out of my grasp.
If that was the point, it just may be brilliant.
I knew really nothing about Theseus and the Minotaur before reading this book, which I'm sure didn't help anything at all. In this book everything is up for interpretation: who is Theseus? Who is the Minotaur? What is the labrynth? What is reality? It is written as a chat room transcript, and we are to believe it is populated by people trapped in near-identical rooms with no memory of how they got there and computers that do nothing but provide access to this particular chat. But, as with everything online, what can you really believe?
Many aspects of this book were interesting. Some were bewildering. Some I didn't get I'm sure because I wasn't familiar enough with the myth behind it, some seemed more like the pompous philosophizing of college students too self-important to bother learning to fully explain their theories -- other people's bafflement just proving to them their own superiority. Maybe that was supposed to the the point and it was just too... deep for me, but I ended up feeling for most of the book that meaning was disappearing around a blind corner, just out of my grasp.
If that was the point, it just may be brilliant.
itsamess's review against another edition
1.0
What. The hell. Did I just read.
The Helmet of Terror is a sci-fi retelling of the Minotaur's myth, featuring mindfuck monologues and allegedly cool allegories. By a Russian writer, which for me is already a big red flag because Russian are too smart for me.
The idea was really promising: Ariadne starts a thread (see what he did here) on a group chat to stay in touch with the outside world since she - an the rest of the group - are being held captive. I was expecting some kind of mystery but all I got was nonsense.
Thing is, I read to enjoy myself, not to get frustrated.
The Helmet of Terror is a sci-fi retelling of the Minotaur's myth, featuring mindfuck monologues and allegedly cool allegories. By a Russian writer, which for me is already a big red flag because Russian are too smart for me.
The idea was really promising: Ariadne starts a thread (see what he did here) on a group chat to stay in touch with the outside world since she - an the rest of the group - are being held captive. I was expecting some kind of mystery but all I got was nonsense.
Thing is, I read to enjoy myself, not to get frustrated.
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