Mythology Fiction: Heroes Gods and Myth in Modern Fiction
Discover mythology fiction's finest—an epic curated list of books where gods, heroes, and ancient myths collide with modern storytelling. From Margaret Atwood's *The Penelopiad* and Roger Zelazny's *Lord of Light* to retellings for young adults and teens, explore how timeless legends of gods and heroes are reimagined in contemporary novels, including works by Susan Cooper, Ali Smith, and more.
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American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path. One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece.
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The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul
by Douglas Adams
Sequel to Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. A passenger check-in desk at London's Heathrow Airport goes up in a ball of flame and Dirk Gently becomes very inquisitive. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
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Deus Ex Machina: a Divine Comedy
by Maria Aragon
A group of Greek gods and goddesses moves in next door to Stewart in order to help him reunite with his long lost girlfriend.
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The Penelopiad
by Margaret Atwood
The author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin presents a cycle of stories about Penelope, wife of Odysseus, through the eyes of the twelve maids hanged for disloyalty to Odysseus in his absence. Reprint.
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A String in the Harp
by Nancy Bond
Relates what happens to three Americans, unwillingly transplanted to Wales for one year, when one finds an ancient harp-tuning key that takes him back in time to the sixteenth century bard, Taliesin.
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Goddess of Yesterday
by Caroline B. Cooney
Taken from her home on an Aegean island as a six-year-old girl, Anaxandra calls on the protection of her goddess while she poses as two different princesses over the next six years, before ending up as a servant in the company of Helen and Paris as they make their way to Troy.
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The Dark Is Rising (Boxed Set)
by Susan Cooper
Susan Cooper's brilliant Dark is Rising sequence has enthralled readers since the first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, was published more than forty years ago. The second book, The Dark is Rising, was named a Newberry Honor Book and is now a major motion picture. The fourth, The Grey King, won the Newbery Medal. This handsome boxed set includes all five books in the celebrated sequence.
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The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
Hailed as one of the most enduringly popular works of the twentieth century, The Wind in the Willows is a classic of magical fancy and enchanting wit. Penned in lyrical prose, the adventures and misadventures of the book’s intrepid quartet of heroes—Mole, Water Rat, Badger, and, of course, the incorrigible Toad—raise fantasy to the level of myth. Reflecting the freshness of childhood wonder, the story still offers adults endless sophistication, substance, and depth. The animals’ world embodies the author’s wry, whimsical, and unfailingly inventive imagination. It is a world that succeeding generations of both adult and young readers have found irresistible. But why say more? To use the words of the estimable Mr. Toad himself: “Travel, change, interest, excitement!...Come inside.” With an Introduction by Luanne Rice
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Pandora Gets Jealous
by Carolyn Hennesy
Thirteen-year-old Pandy is hauled before Zeus and given six months to gather all of the evils that were released when the box she brought to school as her annual project was accidentally opened.
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Ye Gods!
by Tom Holt
A suburban house, a child called Jason who strangles large snakes whilst still in his cot, the Olympian gods and a Girl Next Door are the ingredients of this fantasy by Tom Holt, author of Flying Dutch and Expecting Someone Taller . Being a hero bothers Jason. It's easy to get maladjusted when your mum's a suburban housewife and your dad's the Supreme Being. It can be a drag slaying fabulous monsters and retrieving golden fleeces from dragons, and then having to tidy your room before your mum'll let you watch Star Trek .
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Modern Classics Finnegans Wake
by James Joyce
A daring work of experimental, Modernist genius, James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is one of the greatest literary achievements of the twentieth century, and the crowning glory of Joyce's life. The Penguin Modern Classics edition of includes an introduction by Seamus Deane 'riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs' Joyce's final work, Finnegan's Wake is his masterpiece of the night as Ulysses is of the day. Supreme linguistic virtuosity conjures up the dark underground worlds of sexuality and dream. Joyce undermines traditional storytelling and all official forms of English and confronts the different kinds of betrayal - cultural, political and sexual - that he saw at the heart of Irish history. Dazzlingly inventive, with passages of great lyrical beauty and humour, Finnegans Wake remains one of the most remarkable works of the twentieth century. James Joyce (1882-1941), the eldest of ten children, was born in Dublin, but exiled himself to Paris at twenty as a rebellion against his upbringing. He only returned to Ireland briefly from the continent but Dublin was at heart of his greatest works, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. He lived in poverty until the last ten years of his life and was plagued by near blindness and the grief of his daughter's mental illness. If you enjoyed Finnegans Wake, you might like Virginia Woolf's The Waves, also available in Penguin Classics. 'An extraordinary performance, a transcription into a miniaturized form of the whole western literary tradition' Seamus Deane
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Finn Mac Cool
by Morgan Llywelyn
Finn Mac Cool, a great legendary hero of ancient Ireland, comes to life in a historical fantasy of love, betrayal, magic, myth, and war
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Dominion
by Bentley Little
His attempts at fitting in at a new school complicated by disturbing dreams, Dion Semele befriends Penelope Daneam, an orphan who has been raised by nuns, and the two become catalysts for a reign of incredible terror.
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Phone Home, Persephone!
by Kate McMullan
In this laugh-out-loud fractured Greek myth, Hades reveals the real scoop behind the supposed kidnapping of Persephone. Illustrations.
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Sirena
by Donna Jo Napoli
The gods grant immortality to the mermaid Sirena when she rescues a human man from the sea and they fall in love, but his mortality creates great conflict between love and honor when he is called to defend Greece in the Trojan War.
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At Swim-Two-Birds
by Flann O'Brien
A wildly comic send-up of Irish literature and culture, "At Swim-Two-Birds" is the story of a young, lazy, and frequently drunk Irish college student who lives with his curmudgeonly uncle in Dublin. When not in bed (where he seems to spend most of his time) or reading he is composing a mischief-filled novel about Dermot Trellis, a second-rate author whose characters ultimately rebel against him and seek vengeance. From drugging him as he sleeps to dropping the ceiling on his head, these figures of Irish myth make Trellis pay dearly for his bad writing. Hilariously funny and inventive, "At Swim-Two-Birds" has influenced generations of writers, opening up new possibilities for what can be done in fiction. It is a true masterpiece of Irish literature.
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The Tales from the Odyssey #1: One-Eyed Giant
by Mary Pope Osborne
When Odysseus must leave his home to fight the Trojan War, he never imagines that he’ll be away from his family for so many years. Now, at long last, he is leading his men home across the seas. But many dangers await them – and none is more terrifying than Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant.
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The Helmet of Horror
by Victor Pelevin
Retells the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur set in an Internet chat room.
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The King Must Die
by Mary Renault
In this ambitious, ingenious narrative, celebrated historical novelist Mary Renault take legendary hero Theseus and spins his myth into a fast-paced and exciting story. Renault starts with Theseus' early years, showing how the mystery of his father's identity and his small stature breed the insecurities that spur his youthful hijinx. As he moves on to Eleusis, Athens, and Crete, his playfulness and fondness for pranks matures into the courage to attempt singular heroic feats, the gallantry and leadership he was known for on the battlefield, and the bold-hearted ingenuity he shows in navigating the labyrinth and slaying the Minotaur. In what is perhaps the most inventive of all her novels of Ancient Greece, Renault casts Theseus in a surprisingly original pose; she teases the flawed human out of the bronze hero, and draws the plausible out of the fantastic.
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Dream Angus
by Alexander McCall Smith
In a retelling of an ancient Celtic myth about Angus, the god of love, youth, and beauty and a trickster who turns one's romantic dreams upside down, five young men named Angus parallel the god's story as they search for true love.
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Girl Meets Boy
by Ali Smith
Girl meets boy. It's a story as old as time. But what happens when an old story meets a brand new set of circumstances? Ali Smith's re-mix of Ovid's most joyful metamorphosis is a story about the kind of fluidity that can't be bottled and sold. It is about girls and boys, girls and girls, love and transformation, a story of puns and doubles, reversals and revelations.
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The Night Life of the Gods
by Thorne Smith
James Thorne Smith Jr. (1892-1934), was an American writer of humorous supernaturnal fantasy fiction. Best known today for his creation of Topper, Smith's comic fantasy fiction (most of it involving sex, lots of drinking, and supernatural transformations, and aided by racy illustrations) sold millions of copies in the early 1930s. Smith drank as steadily as his characters; his appearance in James Thurber's The Years With Ross involves an unexplained week-long disappearance. Smith was born in Annapolis, Maryland the son of a Navy commodore, attended Dartmouth College, and after hungry years in Greenwich Village working part-time as an advertising agent, Smith achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper in 1926. His other works include: The Stray Lamb (1929), Turnabout (1931), The Night Life of the Gods (1931), Topper Takes a Trip (1932), The Bishop's Jaegers (1932), Rain in the Doorway (1933), Skin and Bones (1933) and The Glorious Pool (1934). He died of a heart attack while vacationing in Florida.
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Quiver
by Stephanie Spinner
Greek gods and mortals spring to life in this riveting retelling of the myth of Atalanta, the fleet-footed girl warrior who could outrun any man in ancient Greece. Cast off and abandoned at birth, Atalanta– saved by a she-bear and raised by hunters–proves herself to be a superior archer and the fastest runner in the land. But her skills and independence anger many, including her father, the Arcadian King, who suddenly reclaims her and demands that she produce an heir to the throne. Atalanta has pledged herself to Artemis, goddess of the hunt, who has forbidden her to marry. Unwilling to break her promise, Atalanta suggests a grim compromise: she will marry the first man to beat her in a race, but everyone she defeats must die. All the while, Artemis, Apollo, Aphrodite, Eros, and Zeus himself watch–and interfere–from on high.
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The Wizard Children of Finn
by Mary Tannen
Lured by a magical whistle, Fiona and Bran encounter a wizard-like person named Finn, who takes them on a fantasy journey across ancient Ireland and back to another time.
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Binu and the Great Wall
by Tong Su
From the author of the international hit Raise the Red Lantern comes a gorgeous reimagining of the myth of the girl whose tears collapsed the Great Wall--the seminal myth in Chinese culture. Su Tong is China's most provocative young writer. Binu and the Great Wall is spellbinding and shocking--a tour de force from an artist called "a writer to watch" by Kirkus Reviews and "a true literary talent" by Anchee Min. In Peach village, crying is forbidden. But as a child, Binu never learned to hide her tears. Shunned by the villagers, she faced a bleak future until she met Qiliang, an orphan who offered her his hand in marriage. Then, one day, Qiliang disappears. Binu learns that he has been transported hundreds of miles and forced to labor on a project of terrifying ambition and scale--the building of the Great Wall. Binu is determined to find and save her husband. Inspired by her love, she sets out on an extraordinary journey toward Great Swallow Mountain with only a blind frog for company. What follows is an unforgettable story of passion, hardship, and magical adventure.
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Olympic Games
by Leslie What
A modern-day tale of Greek mythological folly, this story follows the spoiled and vain Hera, who yearns for a family at any cost, as she pursues macho Zeus, still on the prowl in the 21st century. Meanwhile, Zeus, having given a family some cursory effort, is attempting to find himself in wine, women of all descriptions, and male rituals engaged in by his very own new age cult. Blind passion is truly a disaster when it involves the gods, leading to broken hearts, shattered dreams, and entomologically enhanced offspring. It is left to an unlikely band of mortals and one determined water nymph to somehow rein in the Olympian chaos.
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Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast
by Jane Yolen
When her adopted father is slain by a strange beast, Atalanta is determined to take care of herself.
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Lord of Light
by Roger Zelazny
Earth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rules their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons. Lord of Light.