Previewed in the New York Times:
“The Lost Books of the Odyssey purports to be a compilation of 44 alternate versions of Homer’s epic… In some of the alternate histories Odysseus returns to Ithaca only to find the island abandoned, or Penelope a ghost or married to a man who is “soft, grey and heavy.” In others Achilles is a golem who slaughters Greeks and Trojans alike, while Odysseus marries Helen or kills her, doesn’t make it back home at all, becomes the author of “The Odyssey” or is confined to a sanatorium for a psychiatric evaluation.”
Sounds brilliant – the Rashomon story structure seems to fit the nature of Odysseus’ quest for home and his desire to return to what was lost. The writer, Zacharay Mason, sounds interesting too: he’s ”a computer scientist specializing in search recommendation systems and keywords, once worked at Amazon.com.”
via Robin Sloan. Not out in the UK until May.
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