The second in Stephen Fry's series retelling the Greek myths, this time focusing on the mortal heroes begot by the gods, including Perseus, Jason and Theseus, and their mad adventures.

As with 'Mythos', the tales are written in Stephen's unique style, with wit and wisdom shining through in every word. He's tried to make sense of the tangled web of the mythological timeline, but doesn't let the fact that it doesn't quite make sense bother him. Every character is brought vividly to life and every story feels so real, despite being totally ridiculous! 

I remember learning about the 12 Labours of Heracles at primary school. In particular, how our teacher would snap at us if we dared call the hero 'Hercules'. Weirdly, this made me enjoy reading this section of the book even more! I've never really remembered the details (nor have I ever actually gotten round to watching the Disney film!), but this was a great refresher. All of the stories have enough detail to make them engaging and readable, but (in most cases) he doesn't bog it down with back story upon back story. There are a couple of places where there are just a few too many characters in a small window which does getva bit confusing, but it's certainly no worse than reading books set in the Middle Ages where everyone only has one of about six names!

My only real criticism is that there is quite a bit of repetition in his comments and reiteration of who fairly well known characters are. Indeed, some of the footnotes are exact repeats. It's just a little frustrating. There are also a couple of copy editing errors, which I found quite jarring considering who the author is! 

I do wonder if the difference is because I read this one, rather than listening to it. Stephen Fry's voice does add an extra layer of joy to the story! 

Overall, I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as Mythos, but I think that's because I'm a little more familiar with the tales so I wasn't quite as intrigued.