The King Must Die
Aug. 5th, 2017 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I liked this a lot. I've always enjoyed retellings of Greek and Roman myths, and this is a wonderful example of that genre.
The story follows Theseus from his childhood through his escape from Minos, and I think what I like most about the book is that although the characters certainly believe the supernatural is real, the reader knows that natural explanations exist for all the supernatural elements.
Sometimes I felt a little bogged down in the prose; more often, I thought a turn of phrase beautiful and arresting. Always, I anticipated how Renault would twist the bare bones of the myth into something that could actually have happened.
Highly recommended.
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Date: 2017-08-06 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-06 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-06 02:38 pm (UTC)And then there's that interesting moment when Theseus looks at the size of his father's sandals left underneath the massive rock and draws the very cynical deduction that the older man probably had to use a lever rather than superhuman strength to raise the boulder in the first place ;-)
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Date: 2017-08-06 02:49 pm (UTC)The author does a very good job of depicting Theseus as a very young man who's being thrust into these situations that should be beyond him. So he's by turns cynical and angry and overly optimistic; it's a really nice characterization of someone who the myths portray as confident and kingly throughout.