Heroes

Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures

By: Stephen Fry

Narrated by: Stephen Fry

Length: 15 hrs

Publisher's summary

Enter the monstrous and magical world of Stephen Fry's Sunday Times best seller Heroes, brought to you by Penguin.

Shortlisted for the 2018 Specsavers audiobook award.

Imagine sandals on your feet, a sword in your hand and the hot sun beating down on your helmet. Enter the world of Stephen Fry's Sunday Times best seller, Heroes.

Few mere mortals have ever embarked on such bold and heart-stirring adventures, overcome myriad monstrous perils, or outwitted scheming vengeful gods, quite as stylishly and triumphantly as Greek heroes.

In this companion to his best-selling Mythos, Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, funny, tragic and timeless tales.

Join Jason aboard the Argo as he quests for the Golden Fleece. See Atalanta - who was raised by bears - outrun any man before being tricked with golden apples. Witness wily Oedipus solve the riddle of the Sphinx and discover how Bellerophon captures the winged horse Pegasus to help him slay the monster Chimera.

Filled with white-knuckle chases and battles, impossible puzzles and riddles, acts of base cowardice and real bravery, not to mention murders and selfless sacrifices, Heroes is the story of what we mortals are truly capable of - at our worst and our very best.

©2018 Stephen Fry (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A romp through the lives of ancient Greek gods. Fry is at his story-telling best...the gods will be pleased." (Times) 

"Assured and engaging. The pace is lively, the jokes are genuinely funny." (Guardian)

"An Olympian feat. The gods seem to be smiling on Fry - his myths are definitely a hit." (Evening Standard) 

Wonderful

Truly enjoyable, both the story and the narration are perfect. This book goes deeper and more detailed into ancient Greek stories than any other book I've ever read. Surely recommend to anyone interested in Greek mythology.

Pure magic. Stephen Fry is transcendent.

Both the story and narrative are excellent! It was a very special experience to revisit the ancient Greek universe. I wish Stephen Fry could have been my history teacher. And English teacher. And art teacher. And... well, you get the idea

An engaging continuation of Mythos

This book's subject is the lives and deeds of Greek heroes. The narration is (as always) brilliant, and the plot is most engaging. Recommended to anyone struggling with original Greek sources on heroes but interested in Greek hero myths. The stories are spiced with humour and drama but remain faithful to the original. Fry sometimes offers insight into how different heroes reflected changes in Greek society over time.

An Exceptional Performance

Stephen Fry’s telling of the quests and sometimes unfortunate adventures of Greek Heroes and Demi-gods is unlike any other in the category. Whilst not a comprehensive collection of scholarly work, these tales are filled with a brilliant balance between wit, humour and mythology, as well as a perfect performance from Fry himself.

Loved it!!!

Found it fascinating to listen, put a slot of colour to the stories I have read and heard on Greek myths.

Greek mythology and Fry - a match made in Olympus

As with Mythos, this book also focuses on Greek mythology, but now it's all about the famed heroes, such as Theseus, Perseus and, of course, Herakles. You'll learn a great deal, and you'll do so in the company of Stephen Fry, who's storytelling skills and wit will keep you beautifully entertained. The man's a treasure, and so is his voice.

Transcendental stories and great performance!

It was a sincere pleasure to be taken on this marvellous journey! Many thanks for the incredible amount of work and passion that has gone into creating this book. These stories bring one closer to the culture we share and to one self.

Brilliant

Absolutely loved every second. The narration by Stephen Fry is great, and the subject matter is of course amazing. As a long time lover of anything ancient or classical Greek, I found these collections of myths of Greek heroes vastly encapsulating. I’ll definitely recommend it to any fellow philhellene.

Another incredible book by Stephen Fry

For someone that is not an avid reader, these books are so fun to read(listen to). Love his first book, Mythos and excited for the third, Troy.

Stephen Fry helps guide those who prefer audiobooks through the story with all the details through his voice and narrative.

Stephen Fry is my hero

Great story telling and beautifully read. Mr Fry continues to entertain the listener or reader with his enthusiasm and knowledge.
Many thanks.

Ancient Myths from a Modern Legend!

This is an audiobook that I simply can't recommend enough. One of British entertainment's legends in Stephen Fry dusts off these ancient tales and breathes a contemporary form of life and colour into them in his own unique style. It's a mixture of description, a little conjecture and of course the lion's share being taken by these grand old tales themselves. They take front and center stage and while Fry cleverly interweaves background and information it never feels like anything other than being told an engaging story. Of course being Stephen we also get charming nuggets of etymology thrown into the mix as well.

Using a fairly informal, almost irreverent approach, for example he pronounces the names of people and places as comes most easily to him, Fry brings these stories to life like few others ever could. The Gods, heroes and of course villains are given an often-missed humanity and character that is both charming and humorous.

In fairness, although clearly a lot of personal research went into these re-tellings it's neither a comprehensive collection, more of a Greatest Hits if you will, nor is it a hugely scholarly work. However, if like me you mainly have a passing knowledge of the Greek Myths or you want to dip your toe into them for the first time this is a fabulous place to start.

My favourite has always been Jason and his Argonauts ever since watching Don Chaffey's 1963 film as a boy. Even with this one though, the one that I'm most familiar with I learned more about the back story and how the plot developed and has been toyed with than I ever have before. Then, right at the end Stephen describes "Mythos" as a trilogy which I wasn't aware of so hopefully to match his shows there will be one more of these which will cover the Trojan war and its aftermath. I can't wait!

So, if you want to spend some time listening to a modern legend breathing life into ancient myths, this is very much the right series!

Great Book, Shame about the poor navigation

Mythos was my first audiobook and was in many ways the perfect place to start. Heroes was my second audiobook and for some reason the creators didn't see fit to carry over the use of chapter titles or book sections which were so helpful in the first book. I don't really understand it as it can't possibly require that much more work just to denote each chapter with a title rather than a number. It, unfortunately, discourages relistening to the book and is in many ways more necessary in this second book as the stories unfold separately following different heroes and is less chronological than Mythos. My hope is that this will somehow at some point be fixed and that they return to chapter names for the third book. If all you care about it the story then, by all means, go ahead and buy this audiobook, i just felt i would voice my opinion on this small point of criticism.

Pantomime accents nearly ruined Heroes - FryFan

I love Stephen Fry and I loved Mythos.
However the accents for the characters in Heroes are so off putting.
The young Perseus sounds like a cast member from Last of the Summer Wine.
Then the Irish and the Welsh etc etc. Really made it hard for me to finish this one.

The stories are all great and it truly feels like a sequel to Mythos. I just should've read it.

I'm just a 26 year old who likes a good bedtime story.

WOW!! Totally worth it

Amazing book with fantastic stories and my I say Mr Fry, what a story teller he is perfect in everything and I definitely suggest mythos

Avoid audiobook - buy book

Stephen Fry makes Perseus sound like the village idiot...His story telling is first class, his accents ruined it for me.

Rather disappointing

I love the stories from Greek mythology but I can’t help but feel underwhelmed with this one. I agree with others that are unhappy with the accents chosen for a lot of the characters. Also, I just couldn’t loose myself in some of the stories like I usually do... and the omission of the Trojan war was annoying - I can only hope this huge tale has been left so we can do a whole book on it!

Unnecessary Accents ruined the story.

Accents ruined it. Mythos was great with Stephen Fry voice just as it is, sorry but stories were ruined. Not for me I’m afraid.

The heavy Irish and Scottish accent is overdone

I feel like I'm listening to an afternoon radio drama. All the high pitched squeaking and thick Irish accents does not make a good Greek mythology reading/listening.

Not a patch on Mythos

The bizarre decision to put such awful accents to the characters made this audio book almost unlistenable. I have enjoyed all of Mr Fry’s audio books save for this one.

great listen though overacting at points

enjoyable and very entertaining take on the Classic greek myths, though some of the accents are a bit much (Greeks are Welsh, Irish and Scottish? I am greatful to know Perseus is from Yorkshire!) recommended regardless!