kyscg's reviews
252 reviews

quaint and nice, but also drawn-out in some places

I am rather unfairly partial to the Allen Mandelbaum translation of The Odyssey (because it was the first classic I ever read) and so I am not going to say this was a great retelling or anything.

However, I think Fry's four volumes on Greek Myths are incredibly important for how all-encompassing they are. My first exposure to the Ancient Greek myths and legends was Mandelbaum's translation of the Odyssey, and then I picked up the Robert Graves book on Greek Myths off a shelf in my school library. After reading that, I was so captivated that I searched far and wide for other such books but never found any.

Children now wont have to search farther than the next book in the series. Athena smiles on Stephen Fry.

what was that in the middle? the most pointless backstory ever. The Sherlock stuff was cool.

this writing has some of the best self-deprecating + existentialist humour ever written. some parts would go real viral on substack/blog-screenshot-twitter. the plot gets weak at some places and the ending is lacklustre. almost like it was written in the hope that it would be adapted into a movie.

wasn't too bad, although I felt that narration + dialogue were far stronger than descriptions in many places. I have no clue what that Weed character is doing in the book except as a literary device for more exposition, and even that is a weak justification.

I hadn't realised how much I missed this sarcastic percy jacksonesque humour until I started reading this book. I finished this in one sitting, which is something childhood me wouldn't really think was anything special but many winters have passed since I read a book cover to cover without stopping.

both the dialogue and monologue are great, the plot kinda darkens and pales simultaneously towards the end but it was still very enjoyable to read. also, the subject matter is clearly dark, and the humour does a very good job of being thoughtful as well as effective.

my third consecutive Jack London book, I can't get enough of his writing. I wish I read this when I was in school. For me, this is better than The Call of the Wild as far as the writing and story go. I am going to go around for the next few days asking everyone I run into to read this book.

I love this book so much, for so many reasons. As a child, I used to open this book to the scene where Buck pulls a thousand pounds for John and read it over and over again. Simply wonderful

Some Robinson Crusoesque short stories that I really enjoyed reading. I liked The House of Mapuhi, Mauki, and The Heathen a lot.

good book, the whole christian evangelism propaganda was overdone in my opinion, but it is tolerable