Today I am going to talk about Kerry Greenwood. You probably know her for her crime fiction - Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman. Those two series are the books for which she is best known. In fact, when you hear her name, Phryne Fisher comes up first.
But she wrote some speculative fiction as well.
Most of her spec fic was her children’s and YA books - around a dozen speculative fiction books, in fact, including The Broken Wheel, which was set about ten years in the future after a destructive accident with a satellite, and had a lot of societies between Melbourne and Geelong, including a mediaeval group who had been the Society for Creative Anachronism and were now living a mediaeval life. I found that novel a bit silly, but I did agree with her that if there was only one computer left in the world, the SCA would have it! I used to be a member. I remember who was in the group with me, and they were very much techno nerds; the mediaeval thing was strictly cosplay.
But she also wrote three novels set in the world of Greek mythology - Cassandra, Electra and Medea.
Cassandra is, of course, about the Trojan princess whose prophecies were never believed. In the original myth, she was dragged back to Mycenae by Agamemnon and killed by his wife, Clytemnestra.Kerry didn’t like that ending, so Cassandra survives and she and her lovers help Agamemnon’s daughter, Electra, whose little brother Orestes is, in fact, her child of a rape by her mother’s lover Aegisthus.
Medea is seen from the viewpoint of the title character. She was the princess of Colchis who helped Jason steal the Golden Fleece in mythology. She returned with the Argonauts and supposedly killed her own children and fled when he betrayed her. But Jason is not the good guy in this novel. I heard Kerry describe him as an idiot at the Melbourne Writers Festival when I was first discovering her and her fiction. Which he certainly was, even in the myth. As I recall, in the myth Medea lived happily ever after while Jason was killed by the prow of a rotting Argo.
If you have seen the film Jason And The Argonauts, it’s not much like the myth, and ends with a much nicer Medea asking Jason to take her with him because she no longer has a country, and the gods decide to leave things for another day. The film is well worth a watch, though, even if only for that famous scene with the fight with the skeletons. It was a Ray Harryhausen film, after all.
You can get all the books easily from Clan Destine Press, which
re-printed them with much nicer covers after the originals went out of print. They are only A$4.99 each in Apple Books, and has them in audiobook. You can also get them on Amazon, in Kindle, audiobook or print. I haven’t checked the Clan Destine Press web site but I imagine they will be there too.
She wrote three volumes of “slash” fiction about male characters from myth and legend, Herotica 1 and 2 and Mytherotica.
Out Of The Black Land, also published by Clan Destine Press, is not really speculative fiction, but worth a read. It’s about Akhenaten as seen from the viewpoint of a scribe, and his queen, Nefertiti. If you think there was something good about this monotheist Pharaoh, think again. He is horrible in this book. And once again, Kerry Greenwood doesn’t let a heroine be killed. We don’t really know what happened to Nefertiti, but Kerry Greenwood’s imagination supplies a story.
Do you have any favourite books about Greek mythology - or Egypt?
7 comments:
The British author Pat Barker (who won the Booker Prize years ago for her "Regeneration" trilogy about World War I) has a new trilogy out -- a retelling of the Trojan War from the women's point of view. So far, I've read the first book -- "The Silence of the Girls" -- and it is outstanding. The other two books are "The Trojan Women" and "The Voyage Home." I intend to read them too. Pat Barker has the ability and literary skill to take an unflinching look at the realities of war.
Thanks, Debra, that does sound good.
Do you have any favourite books about Greek mythology - or Egypt?
I like reading the myths themselves, not just Greek or Roman, or Egyptian. I like the Anansi ones, and Norse.
Ooh, Anansi is good! There has been some great Anansi fiction, including Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Norse is also great. I’m currently listening to an audiobook of Gaiman’s Norse Mythology.
And hey, I just ordered the e-books of "Herotica" 1 and 2 from Amazon, thanks for bringing them to my attention!
My pleasure, Debra. Enjoy!
By the way, Debra, Pat Barker’s Trojan War story was mentioned this morning on the radio, on a book show.
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