Alcestis by Katharine Beutner
Alcestis by Katharine Beutner (Powell's and Amazon) (The Big Idea)
This is another book I picked up because of Scalzi's Big Idea feature. Another successful act of marketing. ^_^
In Greek myth, Alcestis was a Greek queen who chose to die in place of her husband. Three days of mourning later, Hercules showed up at her husband's place and went "what now?", then journeyed to the Underworld to bring her back up. (Hercules, unlike Orpheus, knows how to deal with the Underworld.)
The myth doesn't go into why Alcestis would do this, though she is held up as the paragon of Greek womanhood for her devotion to her husband because of this. But the devotion is a thing we are told about - she died so her husband might live, so she was wonderfully devoted to him.
Katharine Beutner's book depicts Alcestis's life leading up to her death, her time in the Underworld, and the three days after her return to the living. It's very... bleak, I want to say. It feels right for a story centered on a Greek woman in those days, which does not lend itself to happy good times.
She works myth in with reality very well - the myth and the gods are real, they do appear as active characters. Apollo is the helper and implied lover of her husband. Persephone and Hades are- Persephone and Hades are wow, though not my particular preference of interpretation for them. The way the gods are written is near-perfect for me, though, because they aren't human, they aren't treated as human, and they don't act human.
The Underworld is as bleak as it was always implied to be in my readings of Greek myth. The afterlife pretty much was emptiness for most people, and she does a lovely job of depicting that.
The queerness of various characters is beautifully handled - Apollo and Alcestis's husband, Persphone and Alcestis. Very lovely, feeling both true to the culture and respectful of queerness.
This book has one of the more likable depictions of Hercules I've seen in a while. I'm rather fond of the big lug, so that made me happy.
Alcestis herself... This book is told entirely from her point-of-view, and like I said, it feels very bleak. Alcestis twigs my little beacons for depressed, which I would find believable given all of her life leading up to her death. She seems to coast through much of her life before her death, but after her death, she chooses for herself how she's going to be.
It's a very good, lovely, interesting book.
This is another book I picked up because of Scalzi's Big Idea feature. Another successful act of marketing. ^_^
In Greek myth, Alcestis was a Greek queen who chose to die in place of her husband. Three days of mourning later, Hercules showed up at her husband's place and went "what now?", then journeyed to the Underworld to bring her back up. (Hercules, unlike Orpheus, knows how to deal with the Underworld.)
The myth doesn't go into why Alcestis would do this, though she is held up as the paragon of Greek womanhood for her devotion to her husband because of this. But the devotion is a thing we are told about - she died so her husband might live, so she was wonderfully devoted to him.
Katharine Beutner's book depicts Alcestis's life leading up to her death, her time in the Underworld, and the three days after her return to the living. It's very... bleak, I want to say. It feels right for a story centered on a Greek woman in those days, which does not lend itself to happy good times.
She works myth in with reality very well - the myth and the gods are real, they do appear as active characters. Apollo is the helper and implied lover of her husband. Persephone and Hades are- Persephone and Hades are wow, though not my particular preference of interpretation for them. The way the gods are written is near-perfect for me, though, because they aren't human, they aren't treated as human, and they don't act human.
The Underworld is as bleak as it was always implied to be in my readings of Greek myth. The afterlife pretty much was emptiness for most people, and she does a lovely job of depicting that.
The queerness of various characters is beautifully handled - Apollo and Alcestis's husband, Persphone and Alcestis. Very lovely, feeling both true to the culture and respectful of queerness.
This book has one of the more likable depictions of Hercules I've seen in a while. I'm rather fond of the big lug, so that made me happy.
Alcestis herself... This book is told entirely from her point-of-view, and like I said, it feels very bleak. Alcestis twigs my little beacons for depressed, which I would find believable given all of her life leading up to her death. She seems to coast through much of her life before her death, but after her death, she chooses for herself how she's going to be.
It's a very good, lovely, interesting book.