Stephanie Jane reviewed The golden shadow by Leon Garfield
Not a good choice for me
3 stars
The Golden Shadow is a book for older children so I wasn't expecting it to be the deepest of Greek myth retellings, but I was still disappointed in the story. An elderly storyteller wanders across Greece at the time of the Gods and Goddesses. He collects and retells their stories yet always seems to find himself at just the wrong time or place to actually see a deity with his own eyes. Instead we get second (or third) hand accounts of a selection of myths including Prometheus being chained to the cliff, the boar hunt at and some of the Labours of Hercules. I wasn't familiar with most of these myths so appreciated the chance to discover them. However I wanted a lot more in the way of characterisation and detail. I think even child me would have been unsatisfied with The Golden Shadow. Perhaps a good book for a …
The Golden Shadow is a book for older children so I wasn't expecting it to be the deepest of Greek myth retellings, but I was still disappointed in the story. An elderly storyteller wanders across Greece at the time of the Gods and Goddesses. He collects and retells their stories yet always seems to find himself at just the wrong time or place to actually see a deity with his own eyes. Instead we get second (or third) hand accounts of a selection of myths including Prometheus being chained to the cliff, the boar hunt at and some of the Labours of Hercules. I wasn't familiar with most of these myths so appreciated the chance to discover them. However I wanted a lot more in the way of characterisation and detail. I think even child me would have been unsatisfied with The Golden Shadow. Perhaps a good book for a reluctant younger reader as each story zips along at a fast pace, but overall too swift and shallow a collection for me.