Stephen R. Wilk's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I picked this book up because it was a modern retelling of the myth of Medusa, told from the point of view of Medusa. For some reason, there were three books this summer that told the myth from the Gorgon’s point of view, all by young women who are classical scholars (the other two are The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood and Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J. A. Bear). I wanted to see how Haynes (and the others) would handle the characterizations and would re-interpret the nominal hero, Perseus, as the villain of the story.

Some thirty years ago, there was a wave in the women’s movement to adopt Medusa as a symbol of female power and rage, and I was curious about why it seemed to have arisen again. Haynes’ is my favorite version. She interprets Athena as a somewhat flighty, self-driven being who is resentful of being asked to help her father, Zeus’ son, whom she views as something of an idiot. In both Haynes and Heywood, Perseus is a sketchily educated, unsophisticated, insecure teenager who is delusional about his significance. Naturally, as this is all told by the Gorgons themselves, Perseus, who is trying to kill Medusa for no good reason, must be a villain.

Very interesting modern re-takes on a classic myth. Liked to see how someone else approached what was the topic of one of my own books

I’m a big fan of Jules Verne and have been trying to read through his body of work. It’s difficult because they keep adding new, previously unpublished, or untranslated works. Verne wrote well over 60 novels, and not all of them were what would be classified as science fiction. Many were travelogues.

This one was Verne’s homage to Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. He dedicated it to Dumas, and it has an introduction by Dumas’ son, with whom Verne was a close friend.

Even though it’s not science fiction, it has a secret code, an elliptical whispering gallery, and submarine-like electrically powered boats (which were really popular when Verne wrote this). There’s the wronged hero, who escapes and is apparently killed but returns to take revenge upon his oppressors, as in Dumas’ story. Well worth a read. It's another Verne book and a well-written and satisfying adventure.

This is a wonderfully off-the-wall adventure by the author of the Sandman series and co-author of Good Omens. Like those, Gaiman incorporates a lot of mythology and folklore into the work, often in non-obvious ways.

Spotting the mythological references is part of the fun. And, of course, right up my alley. Interesting take on mythological characters. And, despite the potentially grim subject matter, it is much lighter in tone than the Medusa books I cite above.