This wonderful text came to me via a circuitous route. I was listening to Brian Fagan's fascinating course on Human Prehistory, and while he was discussing Minoan civilization, mentioned Renault's book. It is a retelling of the Theseus myth, which explains all the fantastical elements of the stor...
Unfortunately “The King Must Die” was a disappointment. I was expecting something more like [a:David Gemmell|11586|David Gemmell|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1202771023p2/11586.jpg]’s epic re-imagination of the fall of Troy; a masterpiece recast of a legendary myth. Part of the nove...
This book was assigned to me in high school, and after that I quickly read every historical novel by Renault I could get a hold of. It's certainly one of the books responsible for making me interested in both history and historical fiction. Along with Robert Graves, Mary Renault is my gold standar...
Great retelling of the classic myth about how Theseus defeats the Minotaur on the island of Crete. I really enjoyed how the author weaves this story, but maybe it is because I really like fantasy, I was disappointed in how she rationalized some of the magical elements of the story. Instead of the ...
The past, they say, is a foreign country. One might even go so far as to say that it is another world full of strange wonders and people who both fascinate and repel. I imagine that is why history so intrigues me and I definitely approach the subject with a heaping portion of romance as I in no way ...
I meant to write a whole post on this and then it just didn’t happen. But I found it both a fascinating take on the Theseus story, and a huge influence on Tracy Barrett’s Dark of the Moon and Megan Whalen Turner’s worldbuilding in the Queen’s Thief series. (I am worried about what the latter means, ...
Mary Renault takes the Greek Legend of Theseus and the Minotaur; combines it with real architectural findings; adds in her own literary skill.. and makes it bigger and better in the telling.My own telling of the Theseus legend would mostl likely cover half a page. Renault has made it a 350 page adv...
I remember reading the Mary Renault books as a kid and being very excited by the gay bits, and I was recently reminded of this by a middle-schooler of my acquaintance, who enthusiastically recommended Renault to me. So we'll see. So far so good. Something I didn't recall: Theseus is short!
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