Gods

I’m reading another Tom Holt book and totally loving it. It’s called Ye Gods. It’s generally about a rebellious, pizza-eating kid (redundant), named Jason Derry. Phyllis is his suburban, not entirely clueless (but close to it) mother. Jupiter, god of the sky and king of all other gods is his father.

FYI, the old gods have been replaced by christianity and they’re none to happy about it. They want their jobs back. Dammit.

Phyllis was and is unaware that the man who is Jason’s daddy is a divinity. I’m unsure of all the details but Phyllis’s husband seems to understand that he’s not Jason’s biological father. The husband is generally, like Phyllis, not clue enhanced.

The kid is a capital h Hero, born to do the god’s biddings. Our Jason is not entirely happy about this to say the very least.

Then there’s Prometheus—out of favor with Jupiter, he’s chained to a large rock. An eagle eats his liver (which grows back) twice daily. Eeeeew! For starters, who the fuck likes liver? No one, that’s who. Secondly, this seems like a pretty severe punishment for giving fire to us sad human types.

In any case, Prometheus has a plan to get himself off the rock. Jason is at the center of said plan.

I totes enjoy comedic tales of the old gods. Hells bells, funny stories about the new god would be right up my alley too. I sincerely believe that taking god(s) too seriously is hell on the digestive track.

One amusing except:

A message cut into the stone lintel of the Athens treasury building:

“WISEACRES OF THE WORLD UNITE”, it said. “YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS.”

About thirty thousand years ago, when telepathy was the only accessible form of mass entertainment, there was a popular game-show on the main brainwave channel called Read My Mind. A panel of guest celebrities had to guess what each of the contestants did for a living, and if they failed they were torn apart by wild dogs. It was good middlebrow family entertainment.

The humor is absurd and dry—my brand of badinage and shit.

Minerva (goddess of music, poetry, medicine and wisdom) is included in the story as is Apollo (music, truth, et., etc.), Mars (god of war) and more.

Yeah, I fully recommend. That is, I do as long as you're not horrified by gods being mocked