Mythology has provided storytellers with inspiration for thousands of years, and modern fantasy continues to draw on it heavily. In addition, a new generation of writers has crafted retellings of these timeless, classic stories, sometimes making them more accessible, other times totally revising or reimagining them.
This list looks at the finest of these mythology books, from the energy of Percy Jackson to the psychological darkness of the Trojan War. If you’re a fan of ruthless gods, dangerous monsters, fantastical lands, and powerful heroes of legend, you’ll probably find something to enjoy here.
8
‘The Lightning Thief’ (2005)
“If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.” While not a literary masterpiece or anything, the first Percy Jackson novel was one of the most entertaining kids’ books of the 2000s. It’s classic hero’s journey stuff: twelve-year-old Percy learns that he’s actually a demigod, the son of Poseidon, and his existence places him at the center of a dangerous conflict involving the Olympian gods.
When Zeus’ master lightning bolt disappears, Percy becomes the main suspect and must embark on a perilous quest across the United States to prevent a cosmic war. A lot of the fun comes from the way that Greek mythology is mashed up with a modern-day setting. Familiar deities and monsters (like Medusa and Hades), as well as legendary locations, are all cleverly reinterpreted. There are minotaurs, satyrs, hellhounds, chimeras, magic swords, flying sneakers aplenty.
7
‘A Thousand Ships’ (2019)
“When a war was ended, the men lost their lives. But the women lost everything else.” This is a retelling of the Trojan War that shifts the focus to its female characters. Rather than concentrating on iconic warriors like Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus, A Thousand Ships explores the perspectives of the women whose lives were devastated by the war and its aftermath. Its enormous cast includes familiar figures such as Helen, Cassandra, Penelope, and Andromache, alongside comparatively overlooked characters who highlight the war’s impact on ordinary people. Even a few goddesses chime in now and then.
Refreshingly, author Natale Haynes reinterprets familiar mythological events without reducing their characters to simple victims or modern stereotypes. The characterization is solid: each woman possesses distinctive motivations and fears. The plot is brisk and juicy, too, replete with courage, betrayal, revenge, and comeuppance.
6
‘The Bear and the Nightingale’ (2017)
“I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die.” Shifting gears a little, this enchanting historical fantasy draws on Russian folklore. The protagonist is Vasilisa Petrovna, a girl raised in a remote medieval village surrounded by harsh, wintry forests. Unlike most members of her community, Vasilisa possesses the ability to perceive the household spirits and supernatural creatures that inhabit the surrounding countryside.
However, the arrival of a devout new stepmother and an increasingly influential priest threatens the traditions that have protected the village for generations. From here, The Bear and the Nightingale becomes a rich tale of cultural clash and the tension between the past and modernity. At the same time, it nicely shows off Eastern European mythical creatures and concepts like water spirits, frost-demons, vampire-esque upyrs, the leshy of the forest, and, of course, the Winter King.
5
‘Norse Mythology’ (2017)
“When something goes wrong, the first thing I always think is, it is Loki’s fault.” Rather than offering subversion or revisionism, this short story collection simply retells the classic Norse myths in engaging modern prose, and that’s precisely why it works so well. Drawing from traditional sources such as the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, Norse Mythology reconstructs interconnected tales involving Odin, Thor, Loki, and numerous other supernatural figures.
There’s so much for fantasy fans to dive into here: trickery and treasons, giants and dwarves, venomous snakes, godly punishments, dangerous wagers, mythical goats, monstrous wolves, epic origin stories, apples that grant immortality, mead that grants knowledge, and, finally, the long-foretold Ragnarok itself. In keeping with the more traditional approach, the book also avoids imposing an excessively modern moral framework on the characters. Instead, it leans into their contradictions (and frequently questionable behavior).
4
‘The Silence of the Girls’ (2018)
“Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles… How the epithets pile up.” This one has some parallels with A Thousand Ships. Here, acclaimed English writer Pat Barker (most well-known for the Regeneration trilogy) offers a devastating reinterpretation of the Trojan War, totally shattering its usual heroic assumptions. Riffing on The Iliad, The Silence of the Girls centers on Briseis, a young queen whose life is destroyed when Achilles and his fellow Greek warriors conquer her city.
After witnessing the slaughter of her family and the destruction of her home, Briseis is taken captive and forced to become Achilles’ concubine. Her experiences subsequently place her at the center of the famous dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon. Indeed, the book is brutal and unflinching, stripping away the expected romanticism and replacing it with psychological complexity and a bitter dose of hard realism.
3
‘Mythos’ (2017)
“For the world seems never to offer anything worthwhile without also providing a dreadful opposite.” This one is similar to Norse Mythology, rendering Greek tales of old in accessible, conversational language (courtesy of the endlessly charming polymath Stephen Fry). Beginning with the emergence of the primordial deities and the creation of the cosmos, he traces the complicated relationships between the Titans and successive generations of Olympian gods.
Drawing mostly on Hesiod’s Theogony and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Mythos gives us all the Greek mythology greatest hits: the war between the Titans and the Olympians, Zeus’ rise, Artemis’ rage, Persephone in the Underworld, Midas and his ill-fated touch, Prometheus and his stolen fire, Pandora opening a jar (originally not a box!) and unleashing countless woes upon a world, along with a solitary glimmer of hope. These stories are fun and frequently funny, but also not afraid to get dark at times.
2
‘American Gods’ (2001)
“Gods die. And when they truly die, they are unmourned and unremembered.” A landmark of 2000s fantasy writing, American Gods follows Shadow Moon, a recently released prisoner who meets a mysterious individual calling himself Mr. Wednesday. Soon, he learns that ancient gods and supernatural beings have accompanied successive generations of immigrants to America, surviving through the beliefs and traditions of the communities that brought them across the ocean.
They include the big names from Norse mythology, as well as the West African trickster god Anansi, the hard-drinking leprechaun Mad Sweeney, the dark Slavic death-god Czernobog, the ibis-headed Thoth, the fiery Vulcan (now a gun manufacturer), various jinn, and Bilquis, goddess of desire, who feeds on sexual sacrifice. Opposing them are the New Gods of media and money and the internet, making this a surprisingly thoughtful and thematic fantasy epic.
1
‘Circe’ (2018)
“There are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth.” When it comes to modern reimaginings of mythology, no one working today does it better than Madeline Miller. She’s given us several bangers, including Galatea, Menstra, and The Song of Achilles, but the best of them is Circe, about the witch who famously crosses paths with Odysseus. She is also the daughter of the sun god Helios, and has an unusual fascination with humanity.
After discovering her talents for witchcraft, Circe is eventually exiled to the remote island of Aiaia, where she spends centuries developing her powers and encounters the likes of Hermes, Daedalus, and Medea. Thanks to the protagonist’s immortality, the narrative spans generations, yet the book remains grounded in her changing understanding of love, loneliness, power, and independence the whole way through. It’s a psychological portrait of a mythical figure, handled with intelligence and style.
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