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janroesler's review
4.0
I bought this book after visiting the Acropolis and thought I’d be learning something more about the Greek. This book definitely served this purpose. Actually, it requires quite a lot of foreknowledge. I googled a lot while reading. But it was worth it. Perhaps now I can visit Greece again and know a little bit of this and that and smile complacently.
caitlinosullivan4's review
4.0
This book has a clever concept in tracing Greek mythology through real historical sites. When I one day go to Greece, I’ll definitely be taking this book as a guide, as each chapter deals with a specific place and even provides a list of sites to visit as a tourist.
The mythology itself was pretty brief, and a bit matter of fact, which I find a shame when Greek mythology is so exciting! If you are unfamiliar with Greek mythology, this provides a clear and concise overview, but is unlike to inspire the passion you might get from Stephen Fry’s retellings.
The mythology itself was pretty brief, and a bit matter of fact, which I find a shame when Greek mythology is so exciting! If you are unfamiliar with Greek mythology, this provides a clear and concise overview, but is unlike to inspire the passion you might get from Stephen Fry’s retellings.
pizzabrot's review
3.0
3.5 stars according to my holiday "review" (which eloquently only consisted of "3.5 - review to come (I'm on holiday)). I don't remember much of this. My holiday in Crete featured, as it should, its fair share of Greek novels (only 2, but it's still 40% of all the books I've read there) and I just really REALLY wanted to get this book over with before I even started it. Why? Because it sounded dull. Also, it has a really small font-size, which was just an awful contrast compared to the Large Print book I read before this one. Which is not the book's fault in any way - but still didn't hinder me from disliking it from the start. Although, disliking it...may be expressing it a bit strongly. Let's just say I was fairly sceptic. I got this book for my birthday because when I was in Greece last year (as you can see I'm a regular traveler there) I accidentally took a photo of this book before realising I didn't want to have it after all (that's why you first skim the book and only THEN take pictures of the ones you like). Unfortunately, I forgot to delete it from my camera roll, leading to it ending up in the "Crete 2018" photo folder which I shared with my parents...and adorable as they are, they thought "Hey, Kathi took a picture of this book, she obviously wants to have this one!" My mum almost literally moved heaven and hell to acquire it for me. Which is so DUMB AND SWEET!!! (dumb on my part only. I take full responsibility for the dumb). So yeah, I decided I finally had to read this book for my parents' sake and it wasn't all that bad! Some parts were very interesting; and I liked the extremely subtle and dry humor of the author. So subtle that it took me 3/4 of the book to even notice it (it's not like it occured very regularly, anyway). I could've definitely done without the whole real place-links and (to me, but not in reality) endless-seeming descriptions of various towns and cities (you know, the ones where myths allegedly took place in). Some of them were so...long, and boring, way too convoluted, and flowery, and verbose to read for someone who's 1. not there and 2. not interested in going there. But since those real life-links were the author's whole point of even writing it...well...let's just say it was a major and not exactly to-be-ignorable part of the book. But I still found out things I didn't know or that I already forgot about (the last time I read Greek myths was when I was 12 or something), so it was a really worthwhile reading experience after all! Also quite a quick read if you've got your mind set to finishing it. Which I did. I just wanted to reach the end - and then surprisingly didn't dislike it as much as I pretended to (to myself, even).
So yeah, not a bad book AT ALL. The research was very thorough, the myths descriptions short and crisp, and it's probably a fantastic book for anyone traveling in Greece who's hellbent (or just, you know, interested on a normal level) on visiting important mythical and historical locations. But since I'm not that type of person, I could've done very well, one would say even better, without all the focus on geography that was the whole purpose of writing it. Would still recommend if you're into Greek myths!
Edit: 2 passages that made me chuckle:
So yeah, not a bad book AT ALL. The research was very thorough, the myths descriptions short and crisp, and it's probably a fantastic book for anyone traveling in Greece who's hellbent (or just, you know, interested on a normal level) on visiting important mythical and historical locations. But since I'm not that type of person, I could've done very well, one would say even better, without all the focus on geography that was the whole purpose of writing it. Would still recommend if you're into Greek myths!
Edit: 2 passages that made me chuckle:
hallsifer's review
4.0
A fantastic book for really getting a sense of where the myths are set, deeply interesting and the chapters are manageably sized and relatively self contained so it's easy to pick up at leisure. The only "downside" is now my bucket list of travel is a few destinations longer - thoroughly recommend!
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