Tag Archives: Madeline Miller

Some Books I’ve Read at the Beach (Pt.1)

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We’ve just closed out our first full week of August (and also #Blaugust!), and I’m really starting to feel that we’ve lost the breaks on summer and it’s skidding by faster than an Edgedancer in pursuit of pancakes in a palace (wow I really did not anticipate a Stormlight reference when I began writing this metaphor . . . nor alliteration).

I don’t have any trips to the beach planned for the remainder of the month, but I’m obviously wishing I did, and thinking of just how great it would be to hit the beach just one more time. I could play in the surf . . . relax on the sand . . . maybe get another sunburn.

But most importantly: READ!!

There’s no shortage of articles out there which will tell you what to be reading while you’re soaking up the rays from good old G2V. And the definition of the term ‘beach read’ has come to mean an unfathomable amount of things in the time since it was first coined back in 1990.

So since everybody’s got an opinion on what to read at the beach, and what criteria makes up a ‘beach read’, I thought I’d add mine to the bunch.

This post is a bit retrospective and so I’ll define ‘beach reads’ as: Anything I either read, or bought, at the beach.

This list is not comprehensive, but it does reflect books that fit the definition AND have been written about previously on the blog. I’ve obviously read many other stories while listening to the waves lap against the sand, but I never got around to writing about them. Hopefully I will at some later date . . .

In any case, I hope you enjoy these five I’ve curated for this post and please check out their original reviews as they’re much more detailed than these snippets, and sometimes, a bit like going back in time. I think you’ll find what I’ve chosen is . . . not exactly typical.

Enjoy!

Meathouse Man by George R.R. Martin

For this first — and probably weirdest — entry, we’re reaching all the way back to 2013 when I visited Stone Harbor with my family. I was apparently feeling a bit guilty for posting on vacation, but experienced some sufficiently strong feelings reading this short story and simply couldn’t wait until I got home to get them down.

I’m not sure, but I think this may be the first piece of fiction I’ve read from GRRM. I had watched a bit of Game of Thrones and so I expected it to be grim and dark, but I don’t think I was ready for just how sick and twisted it ended up being.

It’s about a “Corpse Handler”, which is someone who uses synthetic brains to reanimate the dead and put them back to work in all kinds of jobs from field hand to arborist. Even sex work. So gross.

I’m not recommending that you bring this one along the next time you go to the beach, but apparently I did hahah. I’ll just leave it there.

Little Rice by Clay Shirky

This next one is also from the ‘deep past’ of the blog. I read Little Rice as an ARC from Net Galley back in July 2015.

My only other experience with Shirky’s work — Here Comes Everybody — had been for a class assignment during spring break in Panama City Beach Florida with my fraternity. That was before this blog ever existed (though Blogcerto! had been created for the same class), which is probably for the best as I’m sure my analysis would have been a bit more Tucker Max than anyone would want to read. In any case it seems like I had a bit of a beach/Shirky association going for a while. Or perhaps the only time I had for reading was while on vacation.

The book was pretty revelatory for me at the time. Now that it’s a decade old, it might not be quite as relevant. Mostly it follows a narrative about the rise of Chinese cell phone company Xiaomi, and through this lens is able to discuss larger topics and trends in tech, global politics, and the ‘maker movement’ in different countries.

I give some of my own thoughts about the ‘maker movement’ in my review, which is pretty much inline with how I feel these days. I had to look at my LinkedIn page to double check the timing of things, but I would have been just about halfway through my Journalism certificate, which means I’d probably just completed some reporting about 3D printing in libraries. I was at the start of something and didn’t even know it.

Galatea by Madeline Miller

This compact epic marks the beginning of our more modern entries to the list, and makes the cut because I BOUGHT IT at the beach. I didn’t end up reading it until October of 2023 when I was back at home, and (presumably) should have been reading something spooky but was spiraling towards a bit of a Greek mythology binge.

Like everything else on this list so far, I wouldn’t say this is your typical beach read, though I suppose it could be considered ‘light’ in that it does not have a large page count. Indeed it’s only a short story, though one which I found bound in hardback and sold next to Miller’s other epics: The Song of Achilles and Circe.

Galatea isn’t set in any kind of mythic period like these former works, but instead set in “. . . her own world.” which read to me as a bit more modern even though all the ad copy I can find claims it is still Ancient Greece. It takes shots at the patriarchy, beauty standards and the (in this case literal) pedestal we place women on.

The original myth of Galatea and Pygmalion was a new one for me; however, the story was still quite accessible and sufficiently powerful with only a Wikipedia page’s worth of context.

If you’re looking for a short yet powerful piece, I would highly recommend Galatea.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

The opening line of Godkiller is: “Her father fell in love with a god of the sea.”

Like come on. It just begs to be read with the rhythm of the tide in your ears, and the hot sun on your shoulders. With the fine spray of salt-tinged mist suggesting a gentle reminder that the cool embrace of the ocean is just a few sandy steps away.

I’d been on a streak of reading Godpunk novels last August, but Godkiller was stand-out among them for its incredible prose, disabled and queer representation, and Kaner’s unique approach to godhood within the story (there’s also just a really well executed Marks of Magic / Worsening Curse Mark type trope happening throughout).

I recently picked up the next two books in the series and am really looking forward to reading them!

Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam

I gave this one a bit of a negative review, however, it met my ‘beach read’ criteria, and I think a list is better with five entries than just four. I’d heard about this book from Tik Tok, but didn’t actually purchase it until I visited the local bookstore at the beach. I was hoping to score a copy of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model, but it was sold out and I didn’t want to leave empty handed.

I left the store still pretty excited as I’d been looking forward to reading this one, and I thought it was cool to see the book in a real bookstore. Despite my high hopes, I struggled to work my way through it.

There are a lot of things in this book that I’ve enjoyed in other Fantasy books, but somehow could not quite engage with in this story. For instance, the use of Sanderson-like “ideals” — in this story called “tenets” — to track character growth was set up on the first page of the book, but then hardly ever explicitly stated again, so that only in hindsight, after finishing the novel and attempting to write my review, could I see that the characters had actually run up against these benchmarks at all.

I was also disappointed by the main character Anji, who has already done most of the ‘heroing’ before the book starts, and sort of just rides around the countryside, tied up and mouthy like nearly the whole first half of the book. Even when she eventually is unbound, the other characters seem to have all the agency in the story. It seemed an odd choice for a protagonist and POV.

I did, however, enjoy some parts of Anji Kills a King. Many of the characters are older, or aging. The juxtaposition here with Anji being relatively young added an interesting dynamic to what may have been sort of ordinary fantasy elements if the cast had all been the same age. I also thought that Leikam really managed to kinda save the book a bit with its ending, which I won’t spoil, but which I thought was particularly well done.

Wrapping Up

Well that’s all I got for this week. What do you think of these choices? Beach worthy? What have you been reading with the sand between your toes? Please let me know in the comments. Looking forward to talking more about this!

See you next time!

A Compact Epic: Reviewing ‘Galatea’ by Madeline Miller

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Welp there’s no doubt about it, October has arrived and with it spooky season.

So naturally, as I stare down the list of things I’d like to write about, I find myself ignoring haunted houses, ghost stories or creature features, and instead eyeing marble statues, golden fleeces, and . . . ionic columns?

It might be some cruel trick of the Moirai (Fates), or perhaps a joke played upon me by that fleet footed prankster Hermes. It might be that I missed September’s Mythothon or perhaps more likely, that we seem to be in a veritable golden age of Greek mythology retellings.

Whatever my muse, I’m sensing that I might have a bit of an odyssey out in front of me. A Hellenistic period if you will. My own (flips hair) Greek Mythology Era.

I’m not sure where this (hero’s) journey will go or how long it will last, maybe just one episode, maybe nine seasons, but it seems to be starting with Madeline Miller and the myth of Galatea.

I found this short book (only 56 very small pages), in a bookshop by the ocean. It was purchased on impulse alongside a book of murder-themed puzzles to keep me occupied at the beach. I was close to finishing Alloy of Law and remember panicking that I might be stuck without something to read the next time we were out on the sand.

I saw many amazing looking novels within the shop, but could not bring myself commit with such a hulking TBR pile back home. There were deadlines for book club, writing and editing I should be completing. Oh and actually relaxing on vacation . . .

My normal epic fantasy chonkers just felt like too much.

I had read and enjoyed Miller’s Song of Achilles, and her Circe retelling. Achilles has always been one of my favorite characters from Greek myth and was very much “on my radar” when it came to my knowledge of those ancient tales. Circe, less so, but still recognizable.

I had never even heard of Galatea before.

So I figured what the heck. At the very least I would get to learn about another figure from one of my favorite mythologies. Also, I think I was somewhat struck by the novelty that such a short story would be printed and bound, all by itself, without an accompanying anthology.

So I proceeded to purchase it and then get busy finishing out the rest of the vacation (we never made it back to the beach) and then doing all the things that need doing when I got home.

Fast forward to now, I’ve also been in something of a short story era recently as well, soaking up anthologies (like Book of Witches) and pretty much anything I can find online. Galatea had obviously not been intended to be a part of that, but now that we’re here, it seems to fit so well.

So What Did You Think?

I enjoyed this piece quite a bit. This might be a bit of a cliched description, but I felt it really was just a perfect little “morsel” of fiction.

When reading something related to Greek mythology, I think there can be an expectation for epic scope and fate-of-the-world scenarios. No doubt the Iliad and Odyssey are responsible for this, and indeed this is probably what attracts most of us to these myths.

With a short story things must be handled a bit differently.

The author notes in the afterward that while writing Galatea: “From the beginning I knew that Galatea was not in the same strictly mythological world as Circe and The Song of Achilles. She demanded her own world . . .”

This “un-mythological” world may turn away some readers, but I felt it was perfect for the story Miller was trying to write. A story that is more about escaping patriarchy and misogyny than it is about a statue coming to life.

For those unfamiliar, as I was, with the myth of Galatea, it is most well known from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and involves the king, Pygmalion, becoming disgusted by the sight of prostitutes and deciding to carve an ivory statue that resembles the ‘perfect woman’. He falls in love with the statue, and eventually the goddess Aphrodite answers his prayers and brings the statue to life. The couple is united in marriage and they have a child.

Though I think most retellings of this myth have spun the tale as a love story, or a metaphor for artists who become obsessed with their work, when described in the simple terms above it is not hard to see the story as problematic.

And so, while the story might not have us venturing through a protracted quest across the ancient seas (indeed most of the story takes place in a bed), it is still ‘epic’ in the scope of its themes and the weight of its messaging.

Also, researching the myth, I’ve learned the word agalmatophilia. So there’s that . . .

Give This One a Read?

Absolutely. Miller’s brand seems to be taking ancient Greek myths which seem clear and tired, and getting the reader to see them through a new lens. Galatea is no different.

Where I think this piece really shines however, is in its short form and skillful handling of weighty themes. It does not have the time or space of a longer epic. It does not need it. Galatea (both the story and the MC) says what it means directly and with precision.

For a quick, fulfilling read, go ahead and give this one a shot.

That’s all I have for today. Has anyone read this short? Familiar with the myth? What’s your favorite Greek myth? Your favorite retelling? Any recs for my Greek Mythology Era?

Leave your answers in the comment section! Looking forward to talking about this one!

Song of Achilles: Still a Song Worth Singing #WyrdAndWonder

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My Preconceived Notions

I can’t really remember a time when I didn’t have some conception of Achilles’ legend. It’s the kind of story that you feel you’ve always known, even though you can hardly remember the first time you’ve heard it. Certainly it has influenced tons of media (a personal favorite of mine being Led Zeppelin’s Achilles’ Last Stand which apparently is more about tax evasion than Greek warriors), and will continue to do so for eternities to come.

But for me, I think my first look at the Iliad was probably in the sixth grade although I’m not certain how much of it we actually read, or whether or not it was just summary. At some point I had a paperback of it on my shelf, but which edition or when I actually read it, is as shrouded in my mind as the facts surrounding the ancient city of Troy itself.

In college, I read more pieces of it for a Western Literature class. The thing I remember most is that according to whichever translation we were reading, the very first line of the poem is simply the exclamation to rage! I was newly accepted into a fraternity that semester, and it seemed a very “Greek” thing to yell. Especially when listening to the speaker busting dial-up modem that is (was?) Dub-Step.

It was probably during that course that I was starting to put together my first inklings that Patroclus and Achilles may have had something more going on than friendship, but I can’t say that I really gave it much thought.

But even with all of that floating around in my mind, the movie Troy, with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom — and I feel like I should hate to admit this, because in general everyone hates the movie Troy (especially Roger Ebert), but I absolutely love it — is probably the strongest image thus far in my mind, of who Achilles was and how his story went.

My only other entry into this comparison is Jesse Beeson-Tate’s Achilles vs Mecha-Hector which I will continue to talk about fondly on this blog, but will probably never re-read to do an actual post about. That it exists at all is half of what makes it so wonderful . . . I digress.

All of this to say, by 2021, I did not think there would be much I could glean from another retelling of the Trojan Myth. Surely I’ve heard every telling conceivable, or if not, the nuance between the next retelling and what I already knew would be so similar as to be nearly imperceptible. In fact, I need no longer waste my time with tired old Achilles and his stupid pride. I had wrung every last drop from that myth, and could better use the time elsewhere, with newer, more modern stories.

Obviously, I was wrong.

Enter Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles . . .

Told from the perspective of Achilles’ best friend and lover, Patroclus, Miller sings a song that sounds familiar, but feels completely new. It’s as if I know the notes, but not in which order they will come, or how fast they will go.

Each moment I was reading this book, I could feel myself checking the scenes before me against the story as I believed it should go, but instead of Patroclus’ beautiful catchphrase when describing Achilles – This and this and this – I found myself asking: What’s this? And what’s this and this and this?

Somehow, this book manages to buck so many assumptions at once, that there is a temptation while reading to become hung up, to want to stop and check whether or not the legend of Hercules really included him going mad, and killing his wife and children (because the Disney version did not; and now I’m also wondering if this core element of our beloved Greek God slayer Kratos, was ripped from Hercules’ myth who in-game is supposed to be his brother but again I digress. Yeesh!)

Resist this temptation! And also resist the urge to try and figure out how and when the parts that you know are gonna happen, will happen, and how. Because it’s a Greek Tragedy, those parts will come. They will get that same effect from you they always have, but you’ll be so busy worrying about it, that you will not enjoy the parts you weren’t expecting.

Like Achilles playing the lute, and Patroclus being awkward, bony, and terrible at fighting (although he does pretty well for himself a few times). Or the two of them being happy together and not caring what others thought about them, for these things truly are what make the book so enjoyable to read.

Final thoughts

To put it shortly, this book is a beautiful, if somewhat (expectedly) sad love story. It is well told and engaging through and through. I highly recommend it to anyone, but especially those whose conception of the Achilles, Troy, and the Trojan War matched anything I talked about at the beginning of my post.

Anyway, thanks for reading this, and give Song of Achilles a shot!

#WyrdAndWonder Kickoff post!

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IMAGE CREDIT: pegasus images by Svetlana Alyuk on 123RF.com

Hey all, so there’s this thing that happens in May called Wyrd & Wonder, in which fans of Fantasy Lit from across the internet get together and celebrate this awesome genre. I’ve watched from the sidelines in years past, enjoying all of these wonderful blog posts and twitter threads, but this year, since I’m blogging again, I thought it might be cool to participate.

I typically post reviews on Wednesdays, so I’ll continue to do that, but I’ll try to keep them as Fantasy genre related as possible. For anybody following my long list of Hugo contenders, you’ll notice that most of them are on that list too (double duty!) and some are even Hugo Finalists (triple duty!).

I will also try to post a response to one of their challenge posts. Mostly this will be on Mondays, but there will be a couple other random days as well, if I have time, or because I thought the challenge prompt was cool.

Finally, if for whatever reason, you actually come to this blog to read my fiction, I’ll continue to post new fiction on Fridays. I cannot promise that these stories are considered ‘fantasy’, but most of them so far have involved made-up animals so . . . that seems pretty fantastical to me.

Below is my plan as it currently stands. I’ll revise the titles and provide links here as I do the writing for this. We’ll see how this goes . . . Very excited to be a part of it all. Thank you @deargeekplace, @imyril & @joriestory for putting this together! Can’t wait to see how this goes . . .

Here’s the list:
May 3rd – #MapMonday: Using Emerging Tech for Fictional Maps
May 5th – Should ‘Black Sun’ get a Hugo?
May 9th – Spine Poetry for Mother’s Day – *Failed this one as alas, I spent the entire weekend at the beach with mom. Plus my book shelf is not suited for this challenge AT ALL. Gotta work on buying some Titles that aren’t so ‘in world’. Oh well.
May 10th – Mixed feelings: The Truth About Dinosaur Lords
May 12th – Review: Song of Achilles
May 17th – Can’t Wait to read! (twitter post) and Desert Island Reads (catching up from last Wednesday)
May 19th – Review: Silver in the Wood
May 24th – TBR: 11 Fantasy Books I should have read by now
May 26th – Review: Empire of Gold – deadlines are the worst. I spent the time I could have been working on this trying to finish up editing for my WIP to submit to critiques. I got it done (sorta) and sent it off . . . fingers are crossed it’s goes well. I’ll still review Empire of Gold at some point but just not for #WyrdAndWonder
May 31st – Wyrd and Wonder Wrap up Post!

Enjoy! and feel free to leave comments on what you’re most looking forward to this May for Wyrd and Wonder.