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adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol
Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War
dark
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
[Fair warning: This review contains some (major) spoilers that I will tag as such.]
Heracles – one of Zeus’ countless illegitimate sons – is named after Hera to appease the goddess. Sadly, this does not work at all. From childhood on, Hercules (sic!) is plagued by anger issues and the unfortunate fact that he keeps accidentally killing people he loves …
I do not have many good things to say about this book, but let’s start with the few positives.
I like the cover. It is actually what drew me in when I saw the book at a book store. I also think the blurb is interesting, even if the tone is a little too casual for my taste (and that should have been my warning, maybe), so I spontaneously decided to buy it.
The premise, to me, is very interesting. Showing Heracles’ story by using the perspectives of people whose lives he influences is clever, I think. (It also makes it seem like their lives revolve around him, but since this is a story about him, there would not have been much about their lives apart from him either way, so that is fine by me.)
The sheer amount of characters that appear and the amount of (ancient) stories that are molded into one coherent story is impressive. There is also an obvious effort to make every single character feel like a real person with strengths as well as flaws. (Sadly, I think the book tends to err on the side of flaws, making characters feel almost one-dimensional at times.)
Unfortunately, reading this book was very frustrating and it took me an absurdly long time to finish.
One of the first things to annoy me has to do with the main character’s name. Why is he introduced as Heracles if he gets called Herc(ules) for the rest of the book? There is an explanation (he prefers Hercules as to not be reminded of Hera) , but that does not make sense to me, given that Hercules is the Latin name of Heracles and therefore did not exist during the time his story should be set in.
There are other things that make me think the author did not consider (or research) the time period and context of the myths. For example, reading and writing seems to be common in this book when there is practically no chance that the Heracles of myth (and his ›contemporaries‹) would have been literate. And even if literacy were a thing, doctor’s notes about the mental state of someone during/after a crime they committed are still ›anachronistic‹, for lack of a better term. Some chapters are set in the Underworld, but its depiction is nothing like ancient descriptions of it (at least not the ones I’ve seen). The dead, like Hylas and Megara, apparently just go about their ›lives‹, talking to other dead people and even befriending them. Aside from bigger things like these, there are countless details that feel just as thoughtlessly ›anachronistic‹, like Hercules and Hylas exchanging multiple letters a day (which seems impossible since instant messaging is not invented yet and there is no reason for Hercules to have someone (a slave?) he could send as his messenger) or characters talking about their dislike of tea (a drink not available in Europe for roughly another 1600 years) or declensions (not really invented yet) . I think my biggest problem is that these changes do not appear to be thought through or to have a real reason, but instead seem to be the result of a certain carelessness.
Another one of my problems is characters not knowing things they should know. Why would Iolaos not know very common names or epithets of gods? Why would Hylas not know what Ctesippus (a compound word of two very common ancient Greek words) means?
While I agree that the countless switches of the POV are necessary given the premise of the story, I do not think they are particularly well done. Most chapters sound more or less the same, so characters do not really get their own voices. There are also some chapter titles suggesting one or more follow-up chapter(s) that never come. For example, there is »Nessus I« but no »Nessus II«.
Last, but not least, there is the tone of the story. I think it tries to be funny, but misses the mark pretty often (at least for me; humor is very subjective, after all). It also tries to balance a certain lightheartedness with darker aspects, but – in my opinion – fails to do that well, resulting in a very uncomfortable mix.
All in all, I felt at times that the author either is not very knowledgable about ancient Greek (religious) beliefs, customs and mythology or just doesn’t take them seriously. I know that every retelling has to change aspects of the source material and I am fine with that. I just do not think that it was well done in this case, so I did not enjoy this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War
Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did not realize Hercules was such a terrible, disgusting person til reading this book. I appreciate how much the author spotlighted all the people in his life, as opposed to himself. I would have liked more, or any really, perspectives from his children. I was surprised we got none. King Eurystheus was definitely my favorite character, his voice actor in the audiobook slayed the role of stuck-up king and I quite agreed with him on the matter or our "hero". I also liked Hylas, and a lot of his testimonial made me cry ;-; I had no idea Hercules was bisexual before reading this either but its not as surprising. I wouldn't describe this book as feminist though. It's quite vile what Greek mythos does to women and while the author tries to humanize them, they still fell flat for me. I wanted to throw up during the 50 daughters and cousins situation. I did like Queen Iole at least, she was the most "alive" woman to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As an Audiobook, this book was a lot of fun! All of the different narrators did a fantastic job bringing this story to life. I am pretty sure the excellent Audiobook production is why this book is getting as high a star rating as it is, because objectively, the book itself was... Not that great. Which is unfortunate, because the concept is so interesting. Tell the story of Hercules from the perspective of the people who knew him. Sounds so cool!
Unfortunately, this author's Hercules is irredeemably awful, so the book ends up being a bit of a slog. Even the people who supposedly loved him didn't seem to like him all that much. Who wants to follow around a supremely unlikeable dude? I think this was the greatest downfall of this book. I understand wanting to tell an alternate story of one of the world's most beloved heros, where he is not such a grand hero after all, but we have to have something to like about him to keep it interesting! There were snippets of the author attempting to garner empathy, but it was such a small part of the book that it fell flat.
As is the case with most new novels, this book also definitely needed a stronger editor. Yes, yes, yes it's hard to tell a Greek story without spinning complicated webs, but the story was too big, with too many side stories that weren't necessary to the plot. Sequencing of chapters was also odd at times. Jumping backward in time in order to connect different people to the tale was sometimes confusing and other times disappointing. Why are we going backwards? I want to continue progressing forward in the plot.
Those who enjoy the Greek myths and are quite familiar with the story of Hercules may love this alternative version but this is not a good introduction to those who don't know much about him (like me). Because you're just gonna end the book hating him, instead of appreciating the topsy turvy sarcastic retelling that the author presents.
Unfortunately, this author's Hercules is irredeemably awful, so the book ends up being a bit of a slog. Even the people who supposedly loved him didn't seem to like him all that much. Who wants to follow around a supremely unlikeable dude? I think this was the greatest downfall of this book. I understand wanting to tell an alternate story of one of the world's most beloved heros, where he is not such a grand hero after all, but we have to have something to like about him to keep it interesting! There were snippets of the author attempting to garner empathy, but it was such a small part of the book that it fell flat.
As is the case with most new novels, this book also definitely needed a stronger editor. Yes, yes, yes it's hard to tell a Greek story without spinning complicated webs, but the story was too big, with too many side stories that weren't necessary to the plot. Sequencing of chapters was also odd at times. Jumping backward in time in order to connect different people to the tale was sometimes confusing and other times disappointing. Why are we going backwards? I want to continue progressing forward in the plot.
Those who enjoy the Greek myths and are quite familiar with the story of Hercules may love this alternative version but this is not a good introduction to those who don't know much about him (like me). Because you're just gonna end the book hating him, instead of appreciating the topsy turvy sarcastic retelling that the author presents.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Incest
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse
Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a retelling! I salute Rogerson in their attempt to collate and portray the various branches of Greek Mythology stories where Heracles was the centre of it. Just as their author's notes said, Heracles is "right there in the middle of it." This is an exemplary exhibit of exploring the development of a protagonist through the perspective of another character. And unlike other retellings, it involved various characters my fingers and toes could not count. Not even once did Heracles had his own chapter in his own point of view and this was the charm of this book that was unique and extraordinary despite how simple it sounded.
I also cannot believe this was my first exposure into Heracles' death LOL. Like I didn't think his death would be so.... anti-climatic? For all his glory and ambitious feats of victory, as well as the wrath and violence he had displayed, it was a curse no less casted by a centaur and administered by his own wife that finally cut the threads of his mortal life.
I had not expected for his twin brother Iphicles to pass away in battle. But I think that was the foreshadowing in Laonome's last chapter. Anyhow, I liked how this became the catalyst of their conclusion, the beginning of the end.
I would have finished this sooner if only life and adulting issues had not happen, as well as falling down from grace in uni coursework lol....
I highly recommend this book. Thank you to my friend Nathan for giving this to me on my birthday earlier this year. Although the language had some modern slang that took me off sometimes in the immersion, it was not worse and Rogerson's prose still captivated me and brought me back to the ancient world where Heracles was the centre of everyone's stories throughout ancient Greece.
I also cannot believe this was my first exposure into Heracles' death LOL. Like I didn't think his death would be so.... anti-climatic? For all his glory and ambitious feats of victory, as well as the wrath and violence he had displayed, it was a curse no less casted by a centaur and administered by his own wife that finally cut the threads of his mortal life.
I had not expected for his twin brother Iphicles to pass away in battle. But I think that was the foreshadowing in Laonome's last chapter. Anyhow, I liked how this became the catalyst of their conclusion, the beginning of the end.
I highly recommend this book. Thank you to my friend Nathan for giving this to me on my birthday earlier this year. Although the language had some modern slang that took me off sometimes in the immersion, it was not worse and Rogerson's prose still captivated me and brought me back to the ancient world where Heracles was the centre of everyone's stories throughout ancient Greece.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Alcohol, War
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder