Reading recommendations - retellings?

A few more for the mill....

Both Martin Gardner and Michael Crichton wrote retellings of Beowulf.
Gardner did it from the monster's point of view in Grendel.
Crichton did it as a fictional "historical source" in The Thirteenth Warrior.

Mary Renault retold the Theseus myth in The Bull From the Sea.

Mary Stewart retold the Arthurian legends in The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills, and dear old T.H. White did it in The Once and Future King (which then became the basis for Camelot.)

And of course Neil Gaiman retells virtually EVERYTHING in The Sandman.

I know that there's a fantasy author who wrote books that involved the Norse Gods, possibly disguised by one or two letters in their names, but I can't for the life of me remember who -- it was someone I read years and years ago. Possibly Mickey Zucker Reichart? (This is what happens when you get rid of most of your books -- you can never find things when you need them.)

And then, of course, there's Douglass Adam's 'The Long, Dark, Teatime Of The Soul,' in which Dirk Gently meets some gods. Not exactly a retelling of any sort of myth.

I'm also pretty sure that recently some modern authors retold a bunch of myths -- Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, etc. -- but I never read any of them, so I can't say if they're what you're looking for.

Smiling Ted said:

Crichton did it as a fictional "historical source" in The Thirteenth Warrior.

And of course Neil Gaiman retells virtually EVERYTHING in The Sandman.

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FYI That's the title of the movie. If you want the book, go looking for Eaters of the Dead. Not one of his best, but interesting as a modern retelling. And speaking of Gaiman, he wrote the screenplay for the very interesting version of Beowulf that's in theaters right now.

Smiling Ted said:

Mary Stewart retold the Arthurian legends in The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills, and dear old T.H. White did it in The Once and Future King (which then became the basis for Camelot.)

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:headbang: I can't believe I missed these. I wrote reports on them in school. Also in the Arthurian retellings, there's also Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon, and The Pendragon by... someone who's very out of print at Amazon. C.S. Forster, I think. No, got it, Catherine Christian. Very good book.

Nyna said:

I'm also pretty sure that recently some modern authors retold a bunch of myths -- Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, etc. -- but I never read any of them, so I can't say if they're what you're looking for.

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Not really sure if they qualify. However, there are some very good retellings of Biblical mythology. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. The Women of Genesis trilogy by three different authors including Orson Scott Card.

Nyna said:

I know that there's a fantasy author who wrote books that involved the Norse Gods, possibly disguised by one or two letters in their names, but I can't for the life of me remember who -- it was someone I read years and years ago. Possibly Mickey Zucker Reichart? (This is what happens when you get rid of most of your books -- you can never find things when you need them.)

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Nyna,

Funny - I just looked up Mickey Zucker Reichert yesterday (she was born the same year as me, lol, although that's not the reason why I was looking up her stuff ).

She has the Renshai Chronicles (Beyond Ragnarok is the first book) and the Bifrost Guardians series (if that title alone doesn't tell you it's got some sort of Norse mythology in it...).

~Nancy

I highly recommend the Camulod Chronicles by Jack Whyte. It's a new telling of the Arthurian legends, cast with new characters and plot. There are 7 books I know of, The Skystone, The Singing Sword, The Eagle's Brood, The Saxon Shore, The Fort at River's Bend, The Sorceror: Metamorphosis, and Uther.

There are a ton of rewrites about the Trojan War, although they tend to not have any fantastical elements. There are also a handful of romanticized rewrites of Greek mythological pairs.

Has anyone noticed that Stewie Griffin in Family Guy is hell-bent on re-enacting The Oresteia?

Or is it just me?

Doodlebug said:

Surprised no one has mentioned this yet!

Gregory Mcguire - Wicked (The Wizard of Oz)
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Cinderella)
Mirror, Mirror (Snow White)
Lost (A Christmas Carol -sort of anyway)

He is a fantastic author!

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I actually really enjoyed Wicked and also Son of a Witch.

And I just started reading American Gods.