Gilgamesh the King

By: Robert Silverberg

Narrated by: William Coon

We're used to hearing about the latest tell-all memoir from one of today's sports figures, political insiders, or celebrity wannabes. But what if we discovered that one of history's greatest heroes had written his life story? That's the premise behind Robert Silverberg's amazing novel Gilgamesh the King.

The journey begins when six-year-old Gilgamesh's father dies. As he grows to manhood and eventually ascends to the throne, he faces many challenges along the way: political intrigue, war, the burden of leadership. But none are as difficult as his intense internal struggles against loneliness and his own mortality. Weaving together historical data, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and his own fertile imagination, Silverberg creates a rich and compassionate portrait of a man who lived about 2500 B.C.

©1984 Robert Silverberg (P)2010 Eloquent Voice, LLC

Critic reviews

"Fantasy, myth and ancient history interweave seamlessly in this powerful retelling of the epic of Gilgamesh…. Silverberg extends his mastery of the fantasy genre to the re-creation of the magic and mystery of ancient Sumer, uncovering the deep human truths that lie beneath the legend. ( Library Journal)

sensational!!!!

a beautifully put together book all of different sources to complete one amazing autobiography type feel to this ancient story. Gilgamesh is and always will be one of the best Tales to come from Sumer and related areas. I have been blown away by this book!

A nice journey

Having read other materials concerning the main character,time period, and history, I find the book logical and enjoyable.

Gilgamesh

great story made modern and understandable. good read, may want to listen again and again.

Who's idea was this narrator?

I'm a fan of Robert Silverberg. Ok, this is not his best offering, but not bad, particularly if you like the original epic. But the choice of narrator? This is Gilgamesh of Uruk, part god, mightiest of men. The narrator sounds like a nervous student teacher. Normally it wouldn't bother me, but it is so incongruous with the narrative that its distracting.

Epic

The metaphorical transition of man from wild to urban projected onto Gilgamesh and Enkido, embraced in brotherly love for the nakedness, untamed wild man from the bush, but that lives in each man's chest. A hero's journey from young prodige to wondering the world looking for immortality. Realizing this life is the one to live.
Set in the first walled cities in Mesopotamia, portrays the sociocultural word of Inana at turning point in history, grieving the loss of the wild, and the threat from other cities. A story that evert young man must read.

You need to now what will you be listening to

This book is talking about gilgamesh as a deceived human not as a god, i loved it but I felt betrayed by the story ,yes it takes the milestones in his life but the book gives it as it really (possibly) went,so when you buy the book you have to now that you’re not going to hear about gilgamesh the god but you will hear about gilgamesh the king

Vivid extrapolation; skilled but annoying narrator

Fans of Majipoor will enjoy the parallels. Silverberg fleshes out the ancient story skillfully and honorably. Narrator's boyish voice works in parts but seems totally off character in others. I wish Stefan Rudnicki had read it.

Horrible Narration and Wildly Innacurate

I'm an avaid amateur assyriologist. So unlike many who may have listened to this book, I have actually read, albeit clumsily, the original Standard Babylon Epic of Gilgamesh, in its native Akkadian, along with the various Akkadian fragments and the Sumerian poems which inspired it. But first...

Like most of the reviewers, I want to reiterate that Silverberg drug this book out behind the shed, shot it in the head, and throughly butchered this performance before unceremoniously burrying it in a landfill. His droning monotonous voice completely saps any and all nuanced tone or careful characterization from what might have been an otherwise enjoyable, if innacurate, retelling of the classic Gilgamesh epos.

With that out of the way, lets get to some of the many innacuracies with this story...

The most glaring one is obviously the author's depiction of the Inanna priesthood—Inanna was not incarnate in her chief priestesses any moreso than other gods were incarnate in their chief priests. We don't know how often the sacred marraige was performed or if it was even performed at all. While it is probably true that some level of sacred prostitution did occur, chiefly by harimtu or "women of the quay", most of Inanna's clergy were actually men called Gala-priests. Gala were lamentation singers who imitated traditionally feminine speech and dress while performing hymns to Inanna during certain state functions, rituals, and funerals. There may have been an element of homosexuality to their order, but many had documented wives and children too. Additionally, at the time "Gilgamesh" (this is the Akkadian pronunciation of his native Sumerian name of Bilgames) probably reigned, the functions of the Inanna priesthood would have been far less important than those of An in Uruk. It is only really with the rise of Sargon of Akkad some half a millennium later that we see the elevation and expansion of Inanna into a role approximating that of a prominent deity. Furthermore, the way the author mentions nude children makes me suspect he's a closeted pedophile—there is no evidence for anything like these practices anywhere in the literature that I know of. This seems like a detail that the author wanted to shoehorn into the story simply because he wanted to write about little girl's chests. It was tolerable once or twice, but he writes about it nonestop—honestly one of the worst parts of this book, in my opinion.

My second issue is with Inanna's characterization—where does this author get the connection between Inanna and serpents from? I recognize that scholarship progresses as we learn new things, but as far as I'm aware, Inanna has always had a prominent connection with lions, not snakes.

The third glaring issue I noticed was the erroneous statement that Kish's patron deities were Enlil and Ninḫursaĝ... this is blatantly not true. Kish's patron deities were Zababa and Inanna of Kish (considered at times a warlike aspect of Inanna or a separate being from her) and later on during the Old Babylonian period, Bau, due to synchronization between Zababa and Bau's Lagashite husband, Ningirsu. Kish was also filled with Akkadian speakers who would have been rarities in Uruk and only recently introduced to Ur via royal marriages at this time. This brings me back to a point I made earlier, "Gilgamesh" should have been pronounced "Bilgames" the whole time—that was how his name would have been produced by the Sumerians, NOT how the Akkadians would've pronounced it—furthermore, the weird assertion that Gilgamesh was descended from the "desert nomads" as code for the Akkadians seems suspect at best since the Akkadians had been settled in the north for a very, very long time by now. Doesn't make sense to me why the author included this assumption.

This is all very serface level information that should have been known by the author and the fact that it wasn't was very upsetting to me. I'm only half way through this book and it's taking me a lot to get over just how damn innacurate it is.

Reader is terrible

The reader’s voice was so annoying that I could hardly stay focused. My mistake for not sampling the story first. All I can equate the painful narration to is somebody who sings a great song slightly off key. The song can’t possibly be enjoyed. I’m a big fan of Silverberg, but this story fell short of all my expectations. Complicated fantasy tale that becomes tedious and frequently repetitive.

The worst narration I have ever heard

When this book started I genuinely thought that they were using a computer generated voice initially and the narration did not improve. I listened to this with my daughter for school. The narration is so glad and unexpressive that it seems like even the narrator is tired of this audio book. We made it through but even my partner who was only in the room occasionally while it was playing felt like it was torture. The entire house was relieved when it was over.