jimsreadingandstuff 's review for:

Gilgamesh the King by Robert Silverberg

3.0

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I read a lot of science fiction by Silverberg in my teens, this was different it was a mix of the historical, the mythological and fantasy. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest pieces of world literature, this is a reimagining of Gilgamesh's story in the form of his memoir. Gilgamesh sees himself as two parts god and one part man was an ancient hero king of Uruk who was likely a historical figure, living sometime between 2800 BC and 2500 BC. This is partly a Coming of Age story of an arrogant protagonist, Gilgamesh is very full of himself from an early age, the son of King Lugalbanda, who dies when Gilgamesh is a boy. Gilgamesh is a giant among the people of Uruk, tall and broad shouldered with a hungry appetite for food and women. Uruk is a city with divided loyalties between its king and priestess. Gilgamesh is also very lonely, he turns down the suggestion of marriage from Inanna, the high priestess, and meets a wild man Enkidu, who matches Gilgamesh in strength and the two become close friends or something more. In Silverberg's tale he emphasises Gilgamesh's womanising, not wishing to state a homosexual bond between the two men, although Gilgamesh tells us "He was to me my other half", their relationship like that of David and Jonathan is certainly ambiguous. The book also gets philosophical as Gilgamesh leaves the city on a quest to find an answer to death and whether he can overcome death. I didn't warm to the central character, who was too arrogant and lacked respect of those around him. Apart from Gilgamesh, the characters aren't well fleshed out and seem a little two dimensional. I prefer Silverberg's sci-fi.