The Face of Apollo (Book of the Gods, Volume 1)

Rating:
Summary: enough to make me sick
Review: This book was absolutly awful. The central plot was just stupid, and the book was boring. If you want to read a good novel about mythology try "Inside the Walls of Troy". Throw Saberhagens in the trash.

Rating:
Summary: enough to make me sick
Review: This book was absolutly awful. The central plot was just stupid, and the book was boring. If you want to read a good novel about mythology try "Inside the Walls of Troy". Throw Saberhagens in the trash.

Rating:
Summary: Too much repetition.
Review: This is the first Saberhagen book I've ever read and most likely the last. It sounded interesting and could have been really good, but I can't take the style in which it was written. It was inconsistent in a lot of places and SO repetative. It would probably be half as long if everything weren't repeated twelve times. I really can't stand it when someone says the same thing over and over. It gets irritating. It's almost like he wrote some paragraphs twice, couldn't decide which version he liked better, so decided to keep them both (or all three or four). I especially didn't like the way Jeremy had decided that the masks were taking over the wearers and totally changing their personalities, and then suddenly two pages later(after a lot of repetition) everyone is back to normal and the masks don't seem to have such an influence over them. I really regret reading this one.

Rating:
Summary: Try this book if you like mythology and fantasy.
Review: This was my first Fred Saberhagen novel and has peaked my interest in his other stories. The story is fast-paced and full of action and a lot of fun to read. I chose this book because I have an interest in classical mythology and always I've wondered what happened to the ancient gods and goddesses of Greece. This book gives a compelling answer to that question. The story tells of the supreme conflict between "good" justice, embodied by the god Apollo in the form of his human avatar, Jeremy, and of "evil" (Hades) also in his human form. This story tells of the most intimate and direct relationship between mortals and the gods and goddesses. The characters, particularly Jeremy, discover that the gods can not exist without humans. Some of the secondary characters are not as well developed and characatures but, on the whole, this was a very enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: Great story for adventurous mythology buffs
Review: Whatever happened the the gods of the Greek pantheon? "The Face of Apollo" explores the lives (as exhibited in memories), "death" and rebirth of the some of the ancient gods and their impact in the lives and minds of mortals. The main character, Jeremy, is overtaken by an Intruder who is in fact the god Apollo. The story develops around the quest of Apollo, in the form of his human avatar Jeremy, to take back the sacred Oracle of Delphi from control by Hades' minions after the "death" of Apollo in a collosal battle...and ultimately to restore the lives of gods and the faith of mortals. It concludes, in an interesting story line, that the gods need humans to in order to "be". This is a lively and entertaining story although some of the secondary characters and story lines were a bit under-developed, in my opinion. A lot of detail was put into developing certain subplots but they seemed to trail off a bit at their conclusions. Regardless of the few minor shortcomings, I enjoyed the story very much.

Rating:
Summary: masterfuly done
Review: wonderfully written, though the book does seem to repeat itself, i forgive this in the light that it presents and interesting view of men and gods. the concept of the faces being biological computers gives an opening for a possibility of a post apolcalpytic world or perhaps the remnants of some long dead civilization. a must for mythology fans.