Bernard Evslin (1922–1993)

The monsters of mythology are often flat and cardboard in tellings of their stories, being always evil, bloodthirsty, etc. However, Bernard Evslin wrote this cool series where he fleshed out each monster and made them more real, giving them personalities and motives for their deeds.

This book is no exception, and the Minotaur becomes a sympathetic character, born out of the gods' punishment towards an arrogant queen. Minotaur even becomes friends with his half-sister (the Princess) and he is show more actually an likeable character, so you can't help but feel bad for him when the inevitable happens and Theseus comes to the labyrinth. show less

A solid story in the Bernard Evslin collection and offers us a look in the mind of a monster, which is rare in mythology stories.

I was pleasantly surprised by this retelling of Greek myths. The quality of the writing was first class, neither childishly simple nor over-relishing the gorier aspects. There was plenty of humour both in the writing and in the narration of the tales.

Though I was aware of bits and pieces of the myths before listening to this, I don’t think I knew the full story of any of them, and certainly had not picked up on all the family relationships between the various gods, heroes and monsters. As show more a sidelight I found I was learning more about some of the entities and places that had been mentioned in Urban Fantasy books.

I might perhaps have preferred an English narrator because of the occasional American pronunciation that jarred, like saying “plated” for the word “plaited”. This is not a fault of this narrator as I’ve heard the same pronunciation by another American actor. It didn’t impact my enjoyment of the narration and I’m sure I’ll be listening to this book again, and to other books narrated by Todd Haberkorn. show less

This was entertaining, but not at all scholarly. Evslin's retellings are pretty free and seem like the inspiration for some movies I've seen. He has a strong visual imagination. For example, the story of Atlanta compelled me to think of the movie Princess Mononoke, while the ball of string in the story of Theseus behaved just like those magic spheres that Jareth was always using in Labyrinth.