Hercules

My five star rating comes mainly from the response of my seven-year old grandson to my reading this book to him, a chapter at a time: he was completely entranced, always begging for more, delighting in the marvellous illustrations (by Jos. A. Smith). It comes also from the excellence of the writing and fine narrative pacing. Descriptions of monsters and violent episodes are realistic without offending. This book offers a version of the Hercules myth that is eminently accessible to children, nourishing the imagination with vivid images of archetypal human striving.

I like this book. It has a lot of suspense and action. It is very exciting and if you like mythology, you should read this book. It has many exciting adventures with Hercules.It starts off in Thebes. Amphitryon and Alcmene had a baby who was going to be the heir to the throne. It turns out that they're going to have two babies. This is a problem because if there is two prince babies, there will be a problem of succession. One baby was Hercules. He was twice the size of his twin brother Iphicles. Hercules was so big that people started to think he was a son of a god. Hera, who is the queen of gods, thought that Hercules was Zeus's son. So she sent two serpents to kill him. The two came and started to choke Hercules and his brother. His brother became unconsious, but Hercules just started to squeeze the life out of the snake choking him. He also took the other snake and tied them together. Iphicles had some broken ribs, but Hercules had bruises but no broken bones. Hera was very angry. Hercules grew and learned from a centaur Chiron. He taught Hercules many things. Hera forgot about Hercules for a while. Then she remembered him and she thought of a way to trick him. She gave him a vision. In the vision, she put a tall, grown man. He had a wife and kids. The man was angry and he struck his wife with his club and killed her. His two children screamed and tried to run away but he grabbed both of them and smashed their heads together. Seeing this, Hercules got scared. He was going to kill himself to prevent this from happening, but Hera said that if Hercules served the King Eurystheus in Mycenae for 12 years, he would be freed of this curse. Hercules went there at once. His first task was to kill the Nemean Lion and bring its hide to the king. The Nemean Lion was bigger than an elephant with teeth like daggers, claws like brass hooks, and a hide that no weapon can pierce. Hercules went the the Nemean Lion's territory. He killed it after using most of his weapons and finally stabbing its eye running at full speed with a spear. He cut the hide by using the lion's own claws. There were more tasks as dangerous as these. He was told to kill the Hydra, clean the Augean Stables in one day which was impossible without help, stealing red bulls from a a triple-bodied monster with 3 bodies and six legs and six arms all connected at the waist, and a few more near-impossible tasks. Hercules probably finishes them but thats for me to know and for you to find out by reading this book. I recommend this book to anybody who enjoys reading mythology books.