Book Review: Mythology by Edith Hamilton

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton

This great overview of stories from western mythology is mostly focused on Greek mythology which has such a strong literary tradition from the era before Christ. Roman mythology is mixed in with the Greek since it often overlaps or has continuations, like how the Aeneid follows Aeneas's travels after the Trojan War ends in the Iliad. Hamilton is selective in her sources, looking for the most full accounts. She refashions the texts of Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, and others to tell the stories of the gods and heroes of the ancient world. The last fifteen pages review some of the Norse mythology which is very different from the Greco-Roman works and is more closely related (at least linguistically) to the English-speaking world.

The book brings to life concise reviews and retellings of classic myths, both familiar and unfamiliar. Her style is very personable and she is aware of her biases. Ovid is too bombastic and over-the-top for her, though she does use him when he's more restrained or the only source. The book ends with family trees for the gods and heroes as well as an index to look up the stories and characters.

Highly recommended--this is a a great review of ancient Greco-Roman mythology.

TV Review: Loki Season 2 (2023)

Loki Season 2 (2023) created by Michael Waldron based on the character from Norse mythology and Marvel Comics

Apparently I never reviewed season one of Loki. It's a fun outing for the Norse god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston), where he gets involved with the Time Variance Authority (TVA). The TVA polices various timelines and other universes, making sure things go properly or at least don't get out of hand. Loki travels to different times and encounters other Lokis from other branches of the main timeline. Those other Lokis include an alligator version of himself! The most significant one is Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who teams up with the Hiddleston Loki to stop whatever nefarious scheme the TVA is hiding. A big bad is hiding behind the scenes, manipulating realities for some purpose. Sylvie winds up killing the big bad, He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), a variant of Kang the Conqueror, a time-traveling baddie from the comic books. The ending of the season wasn't as good as the build-up to it.

In this second season, the TVA has run into trouble. The main timeline is branching more than usual, causing an overload in the Time Loom that is supposed to keep things running smoothly, presumably by weaving variant branches back into the "sacred timeline." Loki needs to get a group together to fix the problem, though convincing people like Sylvie of the plan's value is difficult. All the people that work at the TVA have been plucked from various timelines and don't remember their previous, normal lives. The TVA is a bit of a dystopian bureaucracy which Sylvie thinks is awful and doesn't mind if it collapses (thus, she killed its organizer in season 1). Some factions in the TVA want to take over, others want to fix the problem. Things get more complicated and out of hand. Even the god of mischief has a hard time sorting things out and getting them back in order. What exactly is the order they are supposed to be in anyway?

The show suffers from too much time travel. Loki involuntarily travels to other moments and places, which causes him agony and problems, though it does help with the narrative. Towards the end of the series, he gets control over it and uses it for what he thinks is good. Loki is persuasive and charming (Hiddleston is a master actor) but his transformation from selfish con artist to, ultimately, a self-sacrificing hero is not quite believable. The story creates problems and complications that are not very convincing, as if they want more problems to stretch out the story and give Loki time to change. 

The ending gives Hiddleston a chance to bow out much like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans did in Endgame. This isn't as great an ending for him as it was for them; Loki seems more like he's in a Purgatory burning off the consequences of his previous sins. I find that very satisfying but I don't think the creators of the show had that idea in mind.

Mildly recommended--Tom Hiddleston is great as usual but the story is a little too convoluted to be really satisfying.

Book Review: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman takes the old Norse texts, the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, as his source to tell the tales of the ancient Norse gods and goddesses, made so familiar by Marvel's Thor. Odin and Loki and Baldur and the rest are here. Gaiman picks and chooses the stories he wants to retell and has wound up with an overall narrative from the Norse creation myth (the nine worlds connected by Yggdrassil, the world tree) to the Norse apocalypse (Ragnarok, the great battle that ends the lives of just about everyone, gods and humans). But not quite everyone dies, so the ending isn't so grim--it suggests a cyclical nature to the mythology's history.

The individual stories are interesting, though some have more charm and memorableness to them. I especially liked "Hymir and Thor's Fishing Expedition" where Thor (who has never fished before) goes out with a giant and tries to catch something for dinner. Thor is a bit clueless and brutal though he is willing to try anything, because he's Thor. Loki features in many stories for good and for ill. He has a large roll in Ragnarok, especially as the father of many of the evil creatures fighting against the gods.

My only complaint about the book is the style of writing, which vacillates between having the voice of an ancient and otherly narrative and the voice of a very contemporary speaker. Such a juxtaposition works well in something like Anansi Boys, where ancient gods live in modern times, but here it is ill-advised and much less satisfying. Otherwise the stories are excellent.

Recommended.