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badseedgirl's review
3.0
Welcome to Day 5 of my 2021 25 Days of Short Stories Christmas Advent Calendar. Each day I will be reading a short story from the collection of over 600 short stories and novellas available for free on Tor.com. This is a collection of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. I will be letting fate (and the random number generator) decide what I read each day.
Day 1: [b:The Art of Space Travel|30532462|The Art of Space Travel|Nina Allan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1558040356l/30532462._SY75_.jpg|50826910] by Nina Allan
Day 2: [b:These Deathless Bones|35506557|These Deathless Bones|Cassandra Khaw|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498282454l/35506557._SY75_.jpg|56914935] by Cassandra Khaw
Day 3: [b:Swift, Brutal Retaliation|13169837|Swift, Brutal Retaliation|Meghan McCarron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541922428l/13169837._SY75_.jpg|18349137] by Meghan McCarron> (Trigger warning: Emotional abuse of children and women)
Day 4: [b:Freeze Warning|18489609|Freeze Warning|Susan Krinard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1379900239l/18489609._SX50_.jpg|26172761] by Susan Krinard
Day 5: Daughter of Necessity by Marie Brennan
You have got to be pulling my leg Random Number Generator and tor.com! Yesterday was Norse mythology and today it is Greek. It’s a conspiracy I tell yah, A CONSPIRACY!! (As I don my qanon hat) But in all honesty, this has been a rather odd selection of stories.
Daughter of necessity is the story of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, you know that guy from Homer’s the Odyssey. Well this tells the story of how Penelope filled the TWENTY YEARS Odysseus was gone on his little jaunt. I only know a little more about Greek mythology than I do about Norse mythology, but the writing was good and the story was interesting. I do know a little about the Fates and their weaving. I have Piers Anthony, the dirty old man, and his Incarnations of Immortality Series for this ill-begotten knowledge.
It will be interesting to see if I ever pull a dude author in the remaining 20 days.
You can read Daughter of necessity here.
Day 1: [b:The Art of Space Travel|30532462|The Art of Space Travel|Nina Allan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1558040356l/30532462._SY75_.jpg|50826910] by Nina Allan
Day 2: [b:These Deathless Bones|35506557|These Deathless Bones|Cassandra Khaw|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498282454l/35506557._SY75_.jpg|56914935] by Cassandra Khaw
Day 3: [b:Swift, Brutal Retaliation|13169837|Swift, Brutal Retaliation|Meghan McCarron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541922428l/13169837._SY75_.jpg|18349137] by Meghan McCarron> (Trigger warning: Emotional abuse of children and women)
Day 4: [b:Freeze Warning|18489609|Freeze Warning|Susan Krinard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1379900239l/18489609._SX50_.jpg|26172761] by Susan Krinard
Day 5: Daughter of Necessity by Marie Brennan
You have got to be pulling my leg Random Number Generator and tor.com! Yesterday was Norse mythology and today it is Greek. It’s a conspiracy I tell yah, A CONSPIRACY!! (As I don my qanon hat) But in all honesty, this has been a rather odd selection of stories.
Daughter of necessity is the story of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, you know that guy from Homer’s the Odyssey. Well this tells the story of how Penelope filled the TWENTY YEARS Odysseus was gone on his little jaunt. I only know a little more about Greek mythology than I do about Norse mythology, but the writing was good and the story was interesting. I do know a little about the Fates and their weaving. I have Piers Anthony, the dirty old man, and his Incarnations of Immortality Series for this ill-begotten knowledge.
It will be interesting to see if I ever pull a dude author in the remaining 20 days.
You can read Daughter of necessity here.
aggressive_nostalgia's review
4.0
This was a lovely little thing (and I think I appreciated it more right on the heels of my disappointment over [book: The Penelopiad]). I'm not certain how legitimately Greek this story can be considered, but it does have an air of ethereality to it that pulls you in, and a weight that manages to evoke a lot of reader sympathy in the space of fifteen minutes. It doesn't share in the sweeping adventure of its source material, but it's a sweet glimpse behind the veil of one of Greek mythology's most sparsely characterized figures. I enjoyed it. Brennan's prose is very evocative, lovely, and trim—I'll have to check out more of her work.
carlacbarroso's review
4.0
In a way it reminded me of [b:Circe|35959740|Circe|Madeline Miller|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1508879575s/35959740.jpg|53043399]. I really enjoyed the writing.
rosebrown's review
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Look at that cover, isn’t it beautiful?!
This is very short story or retelling of Penelope and Odysseus myth. To be honest I’ve not read anything about this myth before and know about odysseus only from The Song of Achilles, and didn’t like him much in that book. So this is my very first take on his myth and quite frankly, I like it. I find Penelope a intriguing character, a woman defending his honour and staying faithful to his husband not even knowing if he is alive or not. The concept of fate’s connected with weaving and disentangling of threads. That’s interesting. I would like to read more about this myth now.
This is very short story or retelling of Penelope and Odysseus myth. To be honest I’ve not read anything about this myth before and know about odysseus only from The Song of Achilles, and didn’t like him much in that book. So this is my very first take on his myth and quite frankly, I like it. I find Penelope a intriguing character, a woman defending his honour and staying faithful to his husband not even knowing if he is alive or not. The concept of fate’s connected with weaving and disentangling of threads. That’s interesting. I would like to read more about this myth now.
sevireads's review
5.0
"A queen who can trace her ancestry back through her grandmother’s grandmother to the three daughters of Necessity. From them she inherits this fragment of their gift, to spin thread and link it to men, to weave the shape of their fates on her loom. "
Brilliant both in concept and in execution, [b:Daughter of Necessity|23301706|Daughter of Necessity|Marie Brennan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1412347876l/23301706._SX50_.jpg|42376194] adds a clever little detail to the story of Penelope that beautifully enhances the original text.
Brilliant both in concept and in execution, [b:Daughter of Necessity|23301706|Daughter of Necessity|Marie Brennan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1412347876l/23301706._SX50_.jpg|42376194] adds a clever little detail to the story of Penelope that beautifully enhances the original text.
rick_k's review
4.0
I really enjoy alternate point of view stories, or to clarify, a familiar or famous story told from someone other than the original protagonist's perspective. Wicked by Gregory Maquire is a classic example. I imagine stories like these start as an academic challenge or writing prompt, but to be successful it takes more than cleverness to interweave a seamless story with well known waypoints and motivations. These types of stories (and indeed all fan fiction) are wonderful experiments of empathy.
Penelope, Queen of Ithaca, who has ruled for twenty years in Odysseus's absence waiting for him to return from the Trojan War. While his exploits are famously chronicled in The Odyssey, her trials and cleverness are only footnotes. One of the strategies she employs to hold off her 108 suitors is to weave the burial shroud of her father-in-law Laertes. She claims she will select a new husband (and King of Ithaca) from the waiting suitors upon completion of the shroud, however each night she unravels her work to delay for Odyssey's return. We learn all of this in the Odyssey.
In Daughter of Necessity Marie Brennan brings us into the heart and mind of Penelope. You sense the weight of her responsibilities to Ithaca, her son Telemachus, and her husband. Each night as she finishes the shroud and she contemplates union with each suitor she can imagine the chaos and disorder from each selection. She can read all the potential outcomes in the warp and weft of her cloth as she weaves, then unmakes, the shroud. This is beautiful and clever work. Rich with reference to the source material and rightly honors the sacrifices of Penelope who held the throne against all opposition during Odysseys's lengthy voyage.
You can find this and many more short stories for free on Tor.com.
Penelope, Queen of Ithaca, who has ruled for twenty years in Odysseus's absence waiting for him to return from the Trojan War. While his exploits are famously chronicled in The Odyssey, her trials and cleverness are only footnotes. One of the strategies she employs to hold off her 108 suitors is to weave the burial shroud of her father-in-law Laertes. She claims she will select a new husband (and King of Ithaca) from the waiting suitors upon completion of the shroud, however each night she unravels her work to delay for Odyssey's return. We learn all of this in the Odyssey.
In Daughter of Necessity Marie Brennan brings us into the heart and mind of Penelope. You sense the weight of her responsibilities to Ithaca, her son Telemachus, and her husband. Each night as she finishes the shroud and she contemplates union with each suitor she can imagine the chaos and disorder from each selection. She can read all the potential outcomes in the warp and weft of her cloth as she weaves, then unmakes, the shroud. This is beautiful and clever work. Rich with reference to the source material and rightly honors the sacrifices of Penelope who held the throne against all opposition during Odysseys's lengthy voyage.
You can find this and many more short stories for free on Tor.com.
moonpie's review
4.0
Surely somewhere, in all the myriad crossings of the threads, there is a future in which all will be well.
I probably would have gotten more out of the one -- from the beginning -- if I had more than a passing knowledge of The Odyssey, but a quick google gave me enough info to enjoy the story anyway.
silentcat7135's review
3.0
Decent, probably 3-1/2 stars. I like retellings from other angles in general, but I wish this had been longer and more fleshed out. Novella length at least rather than short story.