Heroes by Stephen Fry. 4 stars

This is a lovely follow up to Mythos which featured the stories of the Greek gods. This book focuses on Greek heroes; their trials and tribulations. I really liked the sections featuring Heracles and Orpheus and Perseus. Really entertaining with Stephen Fry’s characteristic prose style. I also listened to Mythos and will eagerly await his narration of Heroes.

Thank you Netgalley and Chronicle Books for this ARC.

Like Mythos, Stephen Fry's prior book of retellings of Greek myths, Heroes is simply a joy to read. Familiar myths unfold on the page like live performances, with Fry as a chuckling master of ceremonies, having a better time than anyone. Fry makes his mythological characters alive, flawed, and infused with warmth and wit. Gods, demigods, heroes, royals, and supporting characters cavort about capriciously, and readers will be forgiven for not keeping them all straight.

Heroic quests are more than a bit iffy, with a fair amount of dumb luck mixed in with the heroes' gallantry and skill.

As in Mythos, Fry treats the reader to a feast of sumptuous and sometimes naughty footnotes with asides, jokes, linguistic lessons (e.g., to be catasterized means to be made a constellation) and much-needed hints about tricky pronunciations. I became reacquainted with these ancient tales and mythical beings with almost the wonder of first meeting them in childhood. I can't be the only reader hoping that Fry continues to reimagine ancient tales.

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley and was encouraged to submit an honest review.

A wonderful retelling of classic myths by Stephen Fry. They are so accessible and enjoyable when you read them through the mind of the author. He has the unique gift of being supremely intelligent but also able to speak to the every day man. Outstanding.

I really really enjoyed this book. I was so entertained. I really didn't want to put it down. I listened to the audio as well as reading the text as Stephen Fry's voice us hypnotic. I'd listen to anything once it was narrated by him. The heroes we encounter almost come to life from Fry's telling, This continues from where Mythos left off and does not disappoint. I absolutely loved it and I'm going to seek more from Fry now, he's just magnificent!!!!

I absolutely loved Mythos and Heroes was just as great! I actually enjoyed it even more. Stephen Fry's commentary about how these myths/heroes relate to our lives today is unparalleled. All fans of mythology should read this!

Once again, the wonderful Stephen Fry has brought his erudite wit to the Greek myths, this time focusing on some of the great heroes, including Heracles, Jason and Theseus.

The Positives: I love the tone that Stephen Fry uses to tell these great tales. He allows enough of the rhythms and phrases from the original texts for the stories to feel authentic, but also injects them with enough modern day parlance and humour for them to feel accessible to all. I think the choices he has made of whom to include here, make sense and give a nice balanced reading of the Greek world at large. Naturally the scope feels smaller than that in Mythos, given that we are dealing with mortals for the most part, but for me, that made the stories more fun and enjoyable.

The Negatives: The women of Greek myth don't come off very well in most re-tellings, but I do think that more could have been done to highlight their unfair treatment occasionally.

Overall, I found this to be a really well curated and fantastically accessible collection of myths and I look forward to the next instalment.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The format was a little difficult to read. However, I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen Fry's take on these stories, and it made for an enjoyable, engaging read and I fully intend to read Mythos this year.

Easy to read and engaging throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed both the words and the pictures in this book, as the pictures were carefully selected and presented. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an egalley.

This was a fun dive into the world of Greek heroes. Stephen Fry did an awesome job of transitioning these tales in to something more digestible for modern readers. The storyline flowed well and never felt segmented or like the end of a chapter. I can't really give you criticism in the material itself because it is stories of our past. One critique I do have is the ebook layout for your reviewers. The watermark blocked a large chunk of words on each page.

Stephen Fry returns after Mythos with tales of Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Jason, Atalanta, Oedipus, and Theseus. Each is told with all the humor you'd expect from Fry, but the stories seem extremely short. I guess that's due to making them friendlier to people not already familiar with them. This feels like the kind of book you dip in and out of, rather than read from cover to cover.

Yes, this is that Stephen Fry. Color me intrigued!

While I am writing this review based on a PDF read on my computer, I see that this particular edition of Heroes seems to be meant as a hardcover collectible. I can imagine it quite well – the art in this book is beautiful and there is a generous amount of it. I would have like to see a few more of the classical paintings as full-page pieces, however. Some of them seem quite small when compared to the overall size of a page.

Now, there are many, many collections and retellings of Greek myth out there, so I won’t dwell on the details of each chapter. That said, Fry’s voice sets this one a bit apart from any other collection I’ve read. The dialogue is abundant and cheerfully British – and accompanied by tongue-in-cheek English sensibilities. I admit it’s a little strange at first, to read about Perseus calling his mum mum – but I can just about hear an early conversation between the two of them.

There are footnotes throughout with informative comments from the author regarding pronunciation, the meanings of names, possible modern locations — or else explaining bits of local custom. Additionally, there is a very thorough index in the back of the book. They are both excellent, in my opinion. Heroes feels both accessible and well researched.

I really enjoyed Stephen Fry's take on Greek mythology and I will need to pick up Mythos soon. I would've preferred to read them in order, but it's not necessary. Much easier to follow than Bullfinch's Mythology (which I will always love) illustrated with beautiful pieces of art from classic artists, Heroes revived my interest in Greek mythology and has started a reading phase for me focusing on retelling of mythology. Dotted with fascinating footnotes, I want to keep this as a resource not just for myself, but for the little ones in my life who love to read.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

If you love Stephen Fry's writing style, wit and mythology Heroes will be absolutely perfect for you!
Having read Mythos, I couldn't not request its sequel on heroes, Greek heroes. Through Fry's brilliant storytelling the reader follows Heracles, Oedipus, Perseus and so on in their adventures, riddles, battles, their love, courage, cowardice, loss and it's captivating, funny and full of intense stories. You may know of Greek heroes, but it's a pleasure discovering them with Fry's voice. This book hooked me since the very beginning, just like the first installment did and I found myself immersed into a world full of heroes, battles and what humans and mortal are capable of.

Perhaps not as good as Mythos, but highly enjoyable nonetheless... very much looking forward to the final chapter in Mr Fry’s great retelling of Ancient Greek myths and legends. It’s a 4.5 out of 5 for me.

Wasn’t too crazy about this edition, though... difficult to read and illustrations could’ve been placed better.

Though the lightheartedness of the narrative does not align with my personal sense of humour, I really appreciate Fry's attempt in making the stories simple and funny.

"Heroes" focuses on 8 heroic characters – Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Jason, Atalanta, Oedipus, and Theseus. It is easy for people of any age to understand and enjoy. If you are into fun storytelling mixed with some murmuring of the author, you would find the tweaks in conversations making the dialogues more witty and interesting.

I definitely recommend this book for those interested in Greek mythology but probably not too seriously so.

(Sidenote: The “copyrighted” watermarks are not opaque enough, resulting in reading difficulties.)

To my utter dismay this book is only being offered as a PDF, and I can only read it as a Kindle file. I adore Stephen Fry and was totally looking forward to reading this fascinating book with its interesting topic. I was wondering if there is any way it could be turned into a Kindle file at all?

I have been unable to read as this is not in a format I can read on my device - am so disappointed

I needed to have this in kindle format to be able to read and review so have been unable to this on this occasion