Review: The Mythic Dream

The Mythic Dream by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars

Most of my blog readers know I'm not much of an anthology fan but I'm always willing to make an exception for anything by Dominik Parisien and Hugo Award-winning editor Navah Wolfe. Each of these stories is a recasting of classic mythology, and some are simply breathtaking. Featuring stories by Seanan McGuire, Ursula Vernon (as T. Kingfisher), Ann Leckie, Rebecca Roanhorse, JY Yang, Arkady Martine, Sarah Gailey, Carlos Hernandez, Stephen Graham Jones, Kat Howard, Jeffrey Ford, Alyssa Wong, John Chu, Naomi Novik, Carmen Maria Machado, and Amal El-Mohtar, these authors offer masterful retellings from Greek/Roman, Welsh/Irish, Jewish, Babylonian, Japanese, and Native American mythology. Of particular note for me were Sarah Gailey's farouche Thetis (and she has reasons to be), "Wild to Covet;" Amal El-Mohtar's sharp edged Blodeuwedd, "Florilegia, or Some Lies About Flowers;" J.Y. Yang's almost lyrical Tanabata, "Bridge of Crows;" and Naomi Novik's Ariadne and the Minotaur story, "Buried Deep." ("Minotaur," she said softly, "Minotaur, I'm here." *chills*) One of the main themes for these stories is that in many myths women are basically "created for" the circumstances, as wives, as mothers, daughters, and they had no say so about their assigned mythological role. Until now.

I loved this anthology about as much as I loved their first, the epic "The Starlit Wood." Read one story a day, as a tonic for your soul.

I received a Digital Review Copy from Saga Press in exchange for an honest review.

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