Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Do your self a favor, and read one of the most important books in all of Western literature. The fantasy lands that Odysseus encounters will keep you riveted. Furthermore, the love element in the book is very touching.
Rating: 
Summary: A fantastic translation for the modern reader
Review: Robert Fagles has done an outstanding job of brining the Homeric verse to life in English. His translation is extremely readable and makes a great introduction to ancient texts. I found the Odyssey quite a page turner. It beats the 19th century translation I fought my way through in high school. This is a must read for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Albeit poetic, Odysseus is still a man.
Review: After hearing the new version, my husband commented: Just likea man: Odysseus is away 16 years, never calls home, has affairs withwomen he's not married to, and the first thing he wants to know when he gets home is "was my wife faithful to me while I was away?"
Rating: 
Summary: Good but dull
Review: I feel like I heard this story many times before. Not cutting edge. Lots of interesting characters though. Unreallistic platitudes as they relate to the human condition. Homer has a lot of growing up to do.
Rating:
Summary: The Odyssey beats soap operas by a mile.
Review: Anyone who is intrigued by stories of action and adventure will love The Odyssey. Robert Fagles translation keeps the poetry of the original Greek while rendering the story of Odysseus wandering journey home from the Trojan war and his son Telemachus' desperate search for his father into modern English. The wholesale slaughter that reunited father and son do to the suitors who have attempted to steal Odysseus' wife in his absence is far more exciting than any video or made for TV movie. The language is beautiful and brutal at the same time. The plot is vivid and exciting. The moral judgement rendered by Homer on men acting in selfish exploitation of others is the reward for taking the journey home with Odysseus
Rating:
Summary: I was surprised at how much I really liked it!
Review: I was surprised at how much I really enjoed this book. Thiswas the first time I had ever read Homer's Odyssey and I have to admitthat I was hesitant to buy it because I wasn't sure if I would be able to follow the story. But once I started reading it it I found it be very readable. I would reccomend it to anyone!
Rating:
Summary: Odyssey never fails to excite
Review: Once again The Odyssey comes to life, in an athletic and supple new translation. While one might feel that a new translation could hardly change the book much, one should compare Fagles' translation to, say, William Bryant's. It is cleaner and fleeter of foot. One could also compare it to Alexander Pope's translation. Pope's meter and rhyming quatrains make it a slightly absurd and comic story.
But it is the story that truly carries through in each version. Odysseus' long trials at the hands of Poseidon are a cautionary tale of the dangers of hubris, as well as a testament to the power of perseverance. Odysseus' refusal to surrender, despite temptations and obstacles, is a powerful evocation of the power home and family have over a person. Even after twenty years apart, he yearns for Persephone, Ithaca, and his son. In this age of temporary marriages, constant relocations, and diminishing rootedness in community, such a tale comes as a shock, a glimpse of another way of living. Yet the shock awakens rather than pains, energizes rather than drains.
Also recommended: Omeros by Derek Walcott, The Iliad (trans. by Fagles), The Aeneid.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid new translation makes a classic story come alive.
Review: Thanks to this translation of the Odyssey, I'm able to experience the story in an entirely new way. I particularly like the fresh manner in which Prof. Fagles uses active verbs, instead of passive constructions (such as previous translations that I read in college). The text is also more vivid: I find it to be evocative of Old English verse construction, but with a very clean modernist inflection. Reads with an immediacy that makes the narrative jump off the page, and heightens the lyricism of the poetry at the same time
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book.
Review: As noted on earlier reviews these two, the first "The Iliad", and now "The Odyssey" have become the translations read for pure enjoyment. No longer does one `know' of the classics but never read them, now we read them too. Thankfully, Robert Fagles has produced a translation worthy of the original sense of Homer's great poem. It captures well the suffering and tragedy Odysseus went through in his journey full of trials and tribulations from the great ogre, the Cyclops, to the beautiful Calypso and finally one of his greatest tests, the suitors seeking his wife's approval after 20 years absence from his homeland. As usual the introduction by Bernard Knox (NB my earlier mistake in the review on The Iliad) is highly informative and shows real depth of understanding of Homeric poetry, an invaluable aid in the full comprehension of the poem. In addition the extra maps of the Homeric word as well as a glossary of terms and a section detailing some of the characters in more depth provide an excellent background which may be missing in a non-classical education. Certainly this is the transaltion to use when teaching of classic poetry in schools since the child is captivated by the flow of the story and the fast pace which keeps one glued to the book, although not as pacy as The Iliad it is a different sort of story. Unlike the Iliad which is replete with battles and war, The Odyssey is the story of a journey and is of a different tune. I once tried to read an earlier translation of The Odyssey a few years ago and found it stuffy and staid, this is no longer true of Fagles work, were it only the case of other great classics. I felt throughout that Fagles kept to the aura of the original even when substituting more modern expressions for the older ones eg "holding nothing back" is obviously a modern phrase but it captures what the poem is saying and that is what is important ie capturing the poem as a whole. This has been ably achieved. An excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Do not read the novel. Read the Story. Read the notes.
Review: It must be said that for obvious reasons it can not be done. The translation of the massive POEM into English simply looses whatever feel it has when rendered into the english language. Hence, all versions of The Odyssey are very hard to read. Hard in that the conversion is really whatever the translators did this time to it. There are so many versions of this text and none of them work, but some are better than others for obvious reasons.
To be honest maybe direct translation of some of the better parts should be leared but you are much better off just KNOWING THE ODYSSEY which is X 100 more important than READING THE ODYSSEY.
This book is best left not read simply because it is in ENGLISH. You would do better to hear someone tell you story if they know it well.
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