Reviews and Comments

laika

laika@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 11 months ago

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laika started reading Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, …

Truly wonderful book at the start, though it does get a bit long and the tempo slows near the middle. It’s hard not to be a little jealous knowing that the author wrote this during her MSc and is a NYT best selling author while still in a PhD program, but that’s really my own psychological hang-ups and doesn’t have anything to do with the book. I didn’t ever think I would say this, but this book has an absolutely masterful author’s preface.

laika started reading Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint: Ariadne (Hardcover, 2021, Flatiron Books)

Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and …

Content warning Mild spoiler about plot structure

Great follow up read after Song of Achilles! I might actually like this better than Achilles, and possibly just as much (if not more?) than Circe, maybe because of the double protagonist telling, and maybe because I (and maybe most people?) are less familiar with what happens to Ariadne post-Minotaur and definitely less familiar with Phaedra.

laika rated The Song of Achilles: 5 stars

Madeline Miller: The Song of Achilles (Hardcover, 2012, Ecco Press)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is …

laika finished reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and …

Terrific! Loved this style of smutty Greek fan fiction after reading Circe, but I think Circe was better. Her writing is beautiful — the plot climax was truly wonderful and almost unexpected even though you knew exactly what was going to happen. (Which, to be honest, is the case with most Greek mythology since prophecies are such an important component of the plots.)