Cheap Dazzling Brightness (Book) (Roberta Gellis) Price

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Customer Reviews of Dazzling Brightness

An interpretation, not a myth!
I loved this book. I am fascinated when an author takes some artistic liberty and adds their own spin to something. That's the case with this book! Gellis sees the Greek gods not as omnipotent beings, but as falleable mages who just happen to be extraordinarily long-lived. She takes the basic idea of the gods and expounds on them--Zeus is an adulterer AND a ruler; Demeter a widow who has never forgiven him for her husband's death and so shelters her daughter from the world in order to keep her 'protected'; Hades is a man who would rather be independent and self-sufficient rather than have to rely on anyone; Kore(Persephone) doesn't even know herself at the beginning of this book. While is does get a tad systemic at times, I would say that for the character studies alone it's a pretty good read. This is not a literal take on the Greek myth; it's an interpretation out of left field in the spirit of Marion Zimmer Bradley's 'The Firebrand'.

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More of a fantasy than a Greek Myth.
I picked up this book because I love the story of Persephone and Hades. I don't know why, but I just do. So a love story from their perspective sounded wonderful!

It was a disappointing read--I've never been particularly fond of Gellis's style, and I was hoping to be proved wrong, but I was not. Persephone is a bit of a twit, and spends most of her time trying to be protected by Hades. As soon as they descend into the underworld, it becomes less of a Greek Mythology story or a Romance and more of a badly written fantasy novel. There are man eating creatures, dead people that aren't dead, mysterious evil funguses....well, you get the idea.

If you are as big of a fanatic of greek myth as I am, I encourage you to pick it up anyways and judge for yourself. I loaned my copy to my sister and she loved it, but then again, she loves anything Romance, and is not a very picky reader. I am on the other end of the spectrum -- I am EXTREMELY picky and am very choosy about my authors. So if you are looking for your average romance with a bit of the fantastic, you should like this book. If you are very picky about who and what you read, I advise you to steer clear.

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Bk 1 in the Greek myth series
This is the story of Persephone (born Kore, daughter of Demeter) and Hades (brother of Zeus and Poseidon). Gellis wrote three books that are interrelated - Dazzling Brightness, Shimmering Splendor, and Enchanted Fire, and followed them up with others - Bull God, and Thrice Bound. Hint - try to read them in order, because some references in later books make more sense.

Dazzling Brightness is a retelling of the Hades-Persephone myth. I read this along with Shimmering Splendor last weekend. Frankly, I enjoyed the first book far more. We see the transformation of Kore, the sheltered daughter of the Corn Goddess, into the powerful goddess Persephone. We also see the interaction of Olympian rivalries most vividly in this book - Zeus versus Poseidon, Poseidon versus Hades, Demeter versus Zeus and Hades. For me, the love story in this book also worked most compellingly. I could believe in Persephone falling in love with Hades, as he taught her the full extent of her powers *and* allowed her to use them without asking anything in return. By the end, when Hades and Persephone come to terms with her mother Demeter, I could believe that this was a couple that was truly in love, and that they fully deserved each other. [Neither was perfect of course - Hades is jealous at one time, and so is Persephone. But that's life and love].

It helps if you know a bit about the Persephone myth. In this book, Gellis stays true to the myth more or less, but changes the nature of the Olympians who are powerful mages and long-lived beings, but are not Immortals. Nor is the Underworld what it first appears to be. The story of Hades and Persephone's first journey through the underworld was compelling reading.

[written September 16, 2002]