Previous SFF Author: Gwen Hayes
Natalie Haynes is a writer, broadcaster, and classicist. She was once a stand-up comic, but retired when she realised she preferred tragedy to comedy. She also has a radio series, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, which is available on BBC Sounds and Audible.
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The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes
The Children of Jocasta (2018), by Natalie Haynes, does a nice job of shifting our view of some of the characters in the classic Oedipus tale, but was by the end a solid but somewhat disappointing read that felt its length and also felt too hemmed in by the tale as we all know it.
Haynes makes two good decisions early on. One is the structural choice to weave back and forth between two time periods.
Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Natalie Haynes | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
In A Thousand Ships (2021), Natalie Haynes takes the events of the Trojan War — along with what led to it and what followed — and offers them up in familiar form but a form as viewed/experienced through different eyes: those of the women from both sides who experienced as much if not more of the war’s horrors even if (save for one point-of-view) they didn’t actually fight in it.
Haynes frames her story through the voice of Calliope,
Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Natalie Haynes | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Gwen Hayes
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…