A review by cryo_guy
The King Must Die by Mary Renault
3.0
Well overall I'd say this was a fun read, but it fell short of my expectations in a few ways compared to the other of Renault's I've read. Essentially her other books came off as a bit more thoughtful and considered (I haven't read the Alexander the Great trilogy yet) and this one was more of an actione/adventure story. In a way, that is its strength and I can see a certain faithfulness to the myth in it, but ultimately I think it makes it a bit too shallow.
There are some cool aspects to it, of reconstructing mythical ancient Greece in a more historical way. And Renault as always seems well-researched and to create interesting cultural extrapolations. Maybe the most interesting is her idea of splitting the older worship of female earth goddesses and male sky gods. But these elements are mostly overshadowed by the action of Theseus' grand adventure. Theseus himself is an interesting protagonist, hearing Poseidon's voice and having a strong sense of honor and gentlemanliness. But in other ways he's a bit cliche and boring or his narrative voice skips over the finer details.
As far as faithfulness to the myth, I think Renault does a fine job, filling in gaps where she sees fit. I think she totally bombs Theseus leaving Ariadne on Naxos and sometimes the ethnic oppositions are a bit bland (hellenes vs. minyans). Still, the story is engaging just not as interesting or, dare I say, profound as some of her other books. I'm thinking of Last of the Wine, The Praise Singer, and The Mask of Apollo. However, it's still pretty interesting as a psuedo-historical reconstruction of a myth. All of the "mythic" aspects of Theseus are put in historical terms which, within the context of the novel, create a coherent whole.
I think I'll still read the sequel to see how that goes and then move to the Alex trilogy eventually.
There are some cool aspects to it, of reconstructing mythical ancient Greece in a more historical way. And Renault as always seems well-researched and to create interesting cultural extrapolations. Maybe the most interesting is her idea of splitting the older worship of female earth goddesses and male sky gods. But these elements are mostly overshadowed by the action of Theseus' grand adventure. Theseus himself is an interesting protagonist, hearing Poseidon's voice and having a strong sense of honor and gentlemanliness. But in other ways he's a bit cliche and boring or his narrative voice skips over the finer details.
As far as faithfulness to the myth, I think Renault does a fine job, filling in gaps where she sees fit. I think she totally bombs Theseus leaving Ariadne on Naxos and sometimes the ethnic oppositions are a bit bland (hellenes vs. minyans). Still, the story is engaging just not as interesting or, dare I say, profound as some of her other books. I'm thinking of Last of the Wine, The Praise Singer, and The Mask of Apollo. However, it's still pretty interesting as a psuedo-historical reconstruction of a myth. All of the "mythic" aspects of Theseus are put in historical terms which, within the context of the novel, create a coherent whole.
I think I'll still read the sequel to see how that goes and then move to the Alex trilogy eventually.