Wow, 'Inanna' completely swept me off my feet! This book is a mesmerizing blend of mythology, adventure, and romance that had me hooked from the very first page. What struck me most was the author's skillful reimagining of ancient myths, infusing them with fresh perspective and depth. The protagonist's journey is nothing short of epic, filled with danger, intrigue, and moments of profound introspection. And the romance? It's beautifully woven into the fabric of the story, adding an extra layer of emotion and tension. 'Inanna' is a true gem that left me utterly enchanted, and I can't recommend it enough!

I was completely entranced by the gorgeous design of this cover. And a chance at reading a retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh sealed the deal.

The stories of a brand new goddess of love & war, the epic hero Gilgamesh, & a young warrior kidnapped from her home come together in an earth shattering way.

This was epic! The world building was lush & grand. The world felt huge and expansive, and Wilson’s descriptions were gorgeously written.

I loved the character growth for both Inanna & Gilgamesh as they each grow into their own mythologies. Although Ninshubar was my absolute favorite character. I loved how I kept finding things to look up. I kept stopping because I wanted to research things that came up in the story. And I was absolutely delighted that Wilson provided titles for further reading in her author’s notes.

One of my absolute favorite parts was the emphasis on writing your own story that came up for every character. They all learn that those that are in power have been constantly shaping their stories to keep that power. And each character come to the decision that it’s time to take control of their own lives and stories.

There are a lot of things that are left unresolved, so while I’m looking forward to book two, I feel disappointed that, even with how long this book is, it’s still only part of a story. This particular book didn’t feel like it came to an actual ending, but more of just a lull in the action. I will be seeking out the rest of the trilogy, but I did feel let down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC!

An excellent book that I found intriguing. I had heard of Gilgamesh but never read the story so am interested in finding out more about the Sumerians and Ancient Iraq. The characters were vivid and the story was well structured.

It's really interesting to read about such old history in the ancient sumerians and I loved the magical elements in it.

Sumerian goddess Inanna grows up thinking she is merely the small goddess of love, but as she begins to question the path she is set upon, things change, especially when her path crosses with the "hero" Gilgamesh, who ignominiously starts this novel face-first in the mud. Dreamy and at turns weird.

Inanna by Emily H. Wilson drew me in with it's mythological premise and kept me hooked with its enchanting writing style.
What I loved
-Fun non Hellenic based mythological fiction
-Good pacing with both character development and world building
What didn't work as well for me
-odd dialogue choices in a few places
-The story felt comfortably familiar but I kept waiting for it to push me out of that very comfort zone.
Who I Recommend this title for
Fans of mythological inspired fiction such as Psyche and Eros or Circe will find themselves at home in the pages of Inanna by Emil H. Wilson.

“In Athens, they call me Aphrodite now. In Babylon, they call me Ishtar. But in the first days I had only one name: Inanna. I was born in the city of Ur, in the springtime. …The word went out from Ur to all the city states of Sumer. A new goddess was born: the thirteenth Anunnaki.”

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Inanna’ by Emily H. Wilson.

This is the first book in the Sumerians Trilogy. It is a retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered by many as the oldest piece of literature in existence. The titular character is Inanna, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love and war.

Inanna’s existence is an impossibility as she is the first full Anunnaki born on Earth in Ancient Mesopotamia. At a young age she is crowned as the goddess of love by the twelve immortal Anunnaki, who are worshipped across Sumer.

While she is destined for greatness, it is also a time of war and Inanna is forced into an unwanted marriage to the demi-god Dumuzi, son of Enki, in order to negotiate a peace. Things do not go well.

A number of myths are woven into the novel including Inanna’s journey to the Great Below in order to confront her sister, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld.

Aside from Inanna, there are three other narrative streams. The first is Gilgamesh, the mortal son of two of the Anunnaki. He is arrogant and selfish, so something of a bad boy. He is captured and imprisoned by King Akka, who is seeking ways to distance himself and his people from the gods. He gives Gilgamesh one final chance to prove himself. Sounds like a trap to me.

The second perspective is Ninshubar, a powerful warrior woman, who has been cast out of her tribe. Hunted by her own people, she is searching for acceptance and a new place in the world. The third perspective is Ereshkigal, though she only has a few chapters towards the end of the novel. Over the course of the novel, their fates become entwined.

‘Inanna’ opens with a map and a handy Dramatis Personae. After the main text there are notes about the origins of the myths, including some nonfiction sources, as well as an explanation of the creative decisions made by the author for the purposes of the retelling. Reading group questions and a sneak preview of Book 2 of The Sumerians close the novel.

I was quite interested in the novel’s science fiction themes, which are quite apparent at various points. The narrative embraces the idea of the Sumerian gods as ancient aliens. Wilson writes: “for the purposes of this novel, I have leaned into this alien-conspiracy heritage a little simply because I instinctively prefer my gods’ powers to be based in some sort of science, however notional, rather than old-fashioned magic.”

While different to my own position, I appreciated why Emily H. Wilson took this approach, especially when I read that she is editor-in-chief of New Scientist.

Overall, I was impressed by ‘Inanna’, feeling that it was a promising debut that both respected the source material while daring to expand on the original myths. It’s the kind of balance that I look for in mythological retellings. I am looking forward to reading the future books in the trilogy in due course.

This is a retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh but with Inanna at the front and center.

This book is written so well, in a way that is intriguing rather than overly complicated. I was almost instantly hooked, and I was able to speed through the first quarter so quickly.

This book was written fairly matter-of-factly in relation to the plot. It led to quick investment, but toward the end, it felt like things were moving quicker than the reader could follow. Toward the end I also felt very much like a myth, in that odd things would happen without much explanation or build-up. When I started this book I was expecting it to be a 5-star, toward the end it was more toward a 3.5.

Thank you to Titan and NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan books for the opportunity to read rate and review this arc which has been available since May 19,2023!

This is a retelling of one of the oldest surviving works of literature. It is Sumerian. It is bold, epic, beautiful and tragic. It is the story of Inanna the Goddess love and Gilgamesh a mortal son of the Anunnaki who is captured and imprisoned and Ninshubar a warrior woman cast out of her tribe after an act of kindness.
It tells of their separate journeys and then their fateful meet up.

Quite a story. I was engrossed and engaged. At times bored but overall had a good time reading it.

Inanna is a gorgeously written retelling of Sumerian mythology and the Epic of Gilgamesh, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, that I couldn't put down.

The book follows three different POVs: Inanna, the goddess of love and war from when she is a child to her descent to the Underworld. Her cousin, the young hero Gilgamesh, and his adventures. Finally, there's Ninshubar, a young woman that is cast out from her tribe and sold into slavery in Sumer. The fates of these three characters eventually intertwine as they try to fight the corrupt ruling family of gods, the Annunaki.

All of the characters were well-fleshed-out and full of heart. Their character development was masterfully done, especially that of Gilgamesh who starts out as a arrogant, foolish philanderer and ends the book as maybe not a hero but at least a better man. Inanna had an incredible arc as well, going from a naive young girl smothered by the powerful men around her to becoming a true Goddess of War in her own right. When she is sent to be married off to her cousin and held hostage by her grandfather, her mother extracts a promise from Inanna to submit to whatever may be done to her. The atrocities Inanna suffers in this book were horrifying but thankfully not graphic. Still, the ramifications of it were sickening enough to make me loath the villain of the book from the bottom of my heart. Seeing Inanna get revenge on all the men who wronged her was such a great moment of poetic justice, I can't wait to see her wreck her grandfather in the next book. Enki was one of the most despicable villains I have ever read about and I can't wait to see him die.

The beginning of the book was a bit slow with setting up the world and the characters, yet I was never bored. While I enjoyed the beginning of the book, the parts toward the end of the book where all the characters meet was my favorite. The relationships in this book were quite tangled, with Gilgamesh being in love with his companion Enkidu but starting an affair with Inanna, who in turn is in love with Gilgamesh. Both Gilgamesh and Inanna are also technically married to different people. Talk about messy.

The developing friendship between Ninshubar and Inanna was also something I loved, Ninshubar's no-nonsense-attitude and practicality brought a lot of humor to Inanna's part of the story. Another favorite aspect of mine was the animosity between Gilgamesh and his footman Hagar. Their banter had me laughing out loud multiple times. Because of the comp with Circe, I didn't expect this book to be so funny, so I was pleasantly surprised. The friendship and later romance between Gilgamesh and Enkidu was perhaps the most beautiful one to me, even though I didn't like that Gilgamesh led Inanna on. It felt to me like he only welcomed Inanna's advances because he couldn't have Enkidu which was definitely shitty. Yet, I still squealed when him and Enkidu got together. Gilgamesh really is the dumb bisexual representation we deserve. A theme that really tugged at my heartstrings was how all of the characters had this moment of recognition when meeting one another, this feeling of being destined to meet each other. Twin souls, kindred spirits, both romantic and platonic. I loved it.

The worldbuilding was very intricate, detailing a lot of customs of ancient Sumer and their mythology. At first, I had trouble figuring out who is related to who in the Sumerian pantheon, but around the middle of the book I had it figured out. Similarly to the Greek pantheon, there is a lot of intermarrying and incest, but it's definitely portrayed as reprehensive. Luckily, the book also has a dramatis personae for those not familiar with the god family, the Annunaki. I found the information about the Sumerian civilization (the oldest civilisation in the world, long before the Greeks and Romans!) extremely fascinating, and was surprised how modern some of their attitudes were.

The exploration of themes of power vs submission, who gets to control the narratives, and immortality, as well as its cost, were written with great care. While some horrible things happen to the female characters, the book is undeniably a feminist book, shown in how Inanna survives to get revenge on her tormentors.

All in all, a stunning read and I cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel!

I thoroughly enjoyed this taste of ancient Mesopotamian culture and myth. Recommend to anyone who enjoyed Circe or who grew up reading Rick Riordan.

I love all things Mythology and so I was excited to be offered an ARC from Netgalley and TitanBooks of Emily H Wilson's debut novel, Inanna. There are so many Greek Mythology retellings out there at the moment so it's refreshing to see an offering from Summerian Mythology.

I read the Epic of Gilgamesh many years ago when studying ancient Mesopotamian history and mythology so I was familiar with the stories being presented by the author. I think she has done an incredible job spinning a compelling story from the Epic of Gilgamesh along with the fragments of other Mesopotamian writings. Its evident that the author has done an amazing amount of research to bring us this book.

I enjoyed that the story was told from the POVs of Inanna, Gilgamesh and Ninshubar. All three characters were strong and captivating and I can't wait to read more about them in the next book in the series.

Overall, I would rate this a 3.7/5. The plot is mostly taken from not one, but two, myths from the Sumerian canon: the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Descent of Inanna. The author did a really good job of meshing the two together quite seamlessly, despite being separate stories originally. It was also clearly very well researched. I liked the "information about the book" section at the end that gives her references and discusses what is fact vs. fiction and the reasoning behind some of her narrative choices. The book had me following along with a summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh as well as periodically Googling Sumerian burial rituals, temple rites, and more. Definitely kudos to the author for helping me learn something!

The book itself starts off quite slowly. It really didn't pick up until the middle and towards the end. I think this is a symptom of it being the first in a planned trilogy; it's ultimately not meant to stand alone. This is fine but also can be a little frustrating when a plot thread gets set up but isn't addressed, especially when it doesn't seem important enough to be a major plot point of the entire series. (I'm mostly talking about Ninshubar and the Potta's storyline, though since there's two more books left in the series, I'll reserve judgment for now.)

Inanna was also incredibly naïve for most of the book, and I'm torn about that choice. In the original stories, she was an experienced, powerful goddess already, while here, she's still a child and it shows. However, her naivete throughout most of the book does underscore her character development after her time in the underworld, where you can definitely see how she's matured.

Enki was, by far, the best written character. He's undoubtedly evil here, but he unexpectedly did the right thing when no one else would (though perhaps for selfish motives). I'm very interested in seeing where the author goes with this in the rest of the trilogy. Speaking of Enki, there is subject matter in this book that is very serious and can be triggering. I thought the author handled this pretty well. Another Goodreads reviewer has provided trigger warnings that I think would be useful to any prospective reader. It also brought up interesting themes about religion, myth, and power, and how one can be used to influence the others. I think it treated these themes well.

This book does have some parallels in style, tone, and "vibes" as Madeline Miller's Circe. I can tell this book was trying to evoke Circe, with some success. I do think people who liked Circe and have an interest in Sumerian myth would also enjoy this book.

I'll definitely continue with the series as the next books come out.

While I overall enjoyed this, there were parts where the pace didn’t feel quite right.

I love mythology retellings and you can tell this author didn’t try to paint a picture of perfection and change things in the story that would make people uncomfortable. This I can appreciate because rarely ever is mythology a story without elements that a modern reader isn’t used to.

Going into this book entirely blind of what to expect isn’t ideal if you’re a sensitive person. I’d recommend looking further into trigger warnings for this book.

As for characters, I found I could never care that much for them. Gilgamesh ended up being the only character that came through for me. I had difficulty understanding their personalities and motivations as I read

"Inanna" was a little slow and dry in parts, but don't let that put you off reading. There's some lovely writing to be found here, a great story, and some very interesting characters. It's hyped as a fantasy retelling of "The Epic of Gilgamesh", I can't comment on that since I know next to nothing about it, but this book should stand on its own merits regardless.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

A vivid retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Goddess Inanna. Being myth inspired brings a certain magic to the book, underneath this there are a lot of historical elements included.
The multiple points of view make for an interesting read as the stories intertwine.
Overall an elegant and powerful book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Review will be published here on the 9th of August: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/08/review-inanna-by-emily-h-wilson.html

One of my favourite fun facts (because I am a hit at parties) is that the earliest recorded text for which we have a named author was written by a woman. Her name was Enheduanna, and she wrote several hymns to Inanna, and to other of the Sumerian gods, back in the 23rd century BCE. The myth of Inanna - a... complex goddess of both love and war - alongside the Epic of Gilgamesh, is thus one of our oldest attested mythological narratives, rich in variations as all stories are when they've been around long enough. In a literary environment full of feminist retellings of goddesses and mortal women girlbossing it up, it feels somewhat surprising that we haven't yet had a heavily marketed attempt at this story of a goddess who seemingly gets to have it all (so long as you define "all" is as being the ability to wield both violence and sensuality). But we haven't, and so Emily H. Wilson's upcoming debut novel gets to attack the problem from a relatively clean slate.

Somewhat belying the title, the novel is actually a retelling of both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the story of Inanna's descent to the underworld (is it spoilers if it's 44 centuries old? I feel like that may be past the statute of limitations on spoilers), linking the two via Inanna's interaction with Gilgamesh in his own story, but mostly holding them apart as two concurrent but mostly unconnected tales. They both take place in a historically authentic Mesopotamian setting, rich in details of how life is lived by people both within and without the structures of power. However, this is a setting where the gods live very literally among their people, in palaces and temples, exercising temporal power alongside their more numinous abilities. We see Inanna grow up here, the only child of the gods born after their fall from the heavens, learning what it is to be an immortal among the mortal, forever set apart by her blood and birth. Meanwhile, we watch Gilgamesh, born likewise in the mortal world to gods but without their immortality, reckoning with his own fragility in comparison to those he loves, and who love him, and how this affects his character and behaviour.

We also follow Ninshubar, born outside of the sphere of Sumerian society but drawn into it by forces beyond her control, and forced to learn how to deal with its power and its cruelties, before she finds herself allied with Inanna and her people. An interesting person, drawn from a much more minor mythological figure, she presents the outsider's perspective to everything, as well as just someone with a unique view of the world and how one interacts with it, as something of a balm in the face of the other two stories, as well as, sometimes, a strange sort of comic relief. She's such a fun person to inhabit the thoughts of, I always found myself glad when I got to one of her chapters, because the way she speaks, and thinks, was so specific to her and unlike most other characters I've read before.

In some ways, this is a heavily character driven story - it cares a lot with young Inanna's reckoning of watching those around her die, as well as Gilgamesh's various interpersonal relationships, and particularly that with Enkidu. It wants to humanise their emotional inner lives, and have us relate to them as people, first and foremost, even as they behave as gods and heroes.

However... there's a catch. And it's by far the most interesting choice Wilson has made in the novel.

From the moment we start, the prose, constantly, at both a sentence level and a broader structural level, has a ghost of reminiscence of the original Sumerian way of telling stories about it. It's not a full on pastiche, by any means, and it doesn't read like a bad translation at any point, but if you've ever engaged with one of those stories directly, whether in translation or original, you will begin to feel the kinship between the way they speak, and how Wilson has organised her prose.

One of the ways she does this is the use of repetition. On a sentence by sentence level, it looks something like this:

Take away water from a man, and he wilts. But you have given me water and I thank you for that water.

As an English sentence, devoid of context and relation to any other text, this reads as... somewhat artless. The repetition is strange, and very much unnatural to the usual way our literature is written. But, in the context of Mesopotamian myth, this is very very normal. Some of the texts we have that these stories come to us from are also hymns, rather than simple narratives, and we find this repetition especially common in those contexts. Wilson here is evoking very strongly the sort of phraseology you would see if you picked up a translation of Enheduanna's work, for instance.

But it's not just on the small scale. There's one phrase that Ninshubar uses in her first chapter - one step and then the next - that crops up from time to time in her own later ones, her way of approaching the seemingly insurmountable problems she faces. But as the story progresses, we find it repeated not just in her perspective but in the perspective of Inanna, who now travels with her, and even in that of Gilgamesh. It stops being a set phrase, repeated word for word, but becomes a sort of ideal that permeates how they all approach the problems of the later half of the book, and so this simple sentence sets off echoes that reverberate and change across the whole length of the story.

We also frequently see repeated motifs, like the following that comes in a Gilgamesh chapter when he meets strangers in the desert and is offered tea:

I drank it down, but at once he poured me another cup. Only when I had forced down three cups did Uptu hunt around for other cups, and hand them around to the other men. Finally, he sat down cross-legged in front of me, with his own tea, and sipped at it. Since he said nothing, I said nothing.

And then a few paragraphs later:

Uptu nodded at me, and then handed me a small plate.
"Thank you," I said. I heaped my plate high.

<gap of a few lines>

I ate a second plate, and then a third one.
After that, the other men came forwards to shovel meat and breads onto their own plates.

This type of repetition and formulaic, almost ritualistic expression, even of a relatively minor event, is incredibly common in Mesopotamian myth, and to see it here very strongly evokes them, to anyone familiar. And that particular type of repetition - and how it feels ritualistic - lends an air of the mythic to the story, even in those moments when we feel that its subject has become as mundane as drinking tea and eating meat. The prose feels constantly considered and laden with meaning.

And I love this, I love how there's such a persistent thread of commonality with the source texts running through it, meaning you can never forget where this story comes from. Wilson has done an impeccable job making it palpable and present, but without ever letting it become overbearing - you never stop feeling like you're still reading a modern novel... it's just one that evokes something much older. I think it took a great deal of skill to manage, and it's something I think we see less in retellings, even ones that do a lot to heavily set their story in an authentic historical place.

However, and to loop back to where this all started, this approach has a downside. Where repetition can feel ritualistic, ponderous, laden with weight and meaning, giving the whole text the air of the numinous and potent... it also very much undercuts the more intimate, human moments, precisely because it conveys their opposite. For Inanna in the underworld, numinous is amazing. For Gilgamesh's newly budding feelings for a travelling companion, for his grief at the death of a beloved, it robs us of our intimacy and our sympathy. By elevating the events of the story above the mortal plane, Wilson unfortunately loses some of the grasp on those same events' humanity, and this is a terrible shame. There are some incredibly potent moments across the story that even through the prose were heartfelt, but because they felt stilted and formal, never quite reached the level of sob-inducing and gut-wrenching they might have done in a story told differently.

On balance, I think this is a price worth paying. If I want my heart ripped out by touching moments of intimate emotion, there are other authors and can go to, other stories I can find. There are very few that do what Wilson has chosen here with her prose, and I think that should be treasured. But I have to admit, I wish she could magically have done both, even as I don't see how - I think if you applied the prose techniques more inconsistently, it would ruin the atmosphere she's so painstakingly created, and so succeed at neither part at all.

On a more structural level, she also harks back to Mesopotamian myth narratives in the way her story is arranged - especially toward the end it begins to feel rather like one event and then the next, rather than a cohesive plot with coherent underpinnings. But again, I find I don't mind it. Does it feel like a modern novel? Mostly, but not entirely. Does it once again evoke the feeling of reading an ancient myth? Absolutely. Gilgamesh's story particularly is full of twists and turns of things just sort of... happening... and him going along with them, and there's a shadow of something very similar haunting all of his chapters, and everyone's chapters in the last quarter of the story.

But the joy isn't purely in the story's authenticity. In little hints that I hope point to much more significant developments in the sequels (because this is the first in a trilogy), Wilson starts to suggest that maybe the power and backstory of the gods isn't quite as... magical or mythological... as we might assume. It's never made explicit, but the hints build and build until a point where you cannot quite ignore them, and you start to wonder if maybe this one needs to be shelved as SF rather than F. Again, in the landscape of myth retellings, this is a nice twist to set this one apart from the many others, and one I really want to read the sequels for, simply to find out where it leads. To have something like that, a surprise and a mystery, in a story 44 centuries old, is incredibly refreshing.

You will note that at no point since my opening paragraph have I talked about this in the context of a feminist retelling... because it's not one. It's not anti-feminist. It just has other themes and threads its interested in, and in a literary context where girl-boss Inanna feels depressingly plausible, I am incredibly glad to see she has not materialised here. Is she powerful? Yes, undoubtedly. But her power and her focus is unconnected to her gender (though she is deeply aware of how her gender influences her situation), and so it just never becomes the point... which again, is refreshing. It is a gender-aware story, without needing to hit the reader over the head with its points.

On the whole, that level of subtlety and care is exactly what exemplifies all the good parts of the story. It's an incredibly thoughtful retelling, and one that sets itself apart by how it ties itself close and pushes itself away from the myths it exists in conversation with. You have no doubt that the author is deeply familiar with them, but also wants to make her own story, not just put us through the same events in a different voice. It does let itself down in how it portrays the emotional lives of its characters, and I do feel like there was something of an opportunity miss in the way Gilgamesh and Enkidu was rushed a little through, but on the whole, this feels like a price worth paying for a story choosing to do something unusual in both ideas and form.

Oh! So it's about ancient aliens? - my husband excitingly asked. Well, quite not. The author evidently did their research before diving into the retelling. It can be easily determined not only from the text of the book itself but also from the afterword. The story of Gilgamesh is the oldest written text known to us. Inanna on the other hand know also as Ishtar or Aphrodite would be the longest worship deity in history. In this book, we have the interpretation of events that ancient Sumerians consider as true. I loved how closely the language represented the mythology writing. Simple sentences, different style of talking, and conversations always add something to the world-building. I appreciated the three points of view, of characters that intertwined their paths due to decisions in the face of events out of their control. Inanna's arc shows how she grew to be wiser in her pain. Gilgamesh had his own coming-of-age story... Ninshubar challenges women's stereotypes and inspires them with her strength. Many times, I caught myself thinking I am reading real mythology instead a fictional story. I had to make a conscious effort to bring myself back and keep my distance for objectivity’s sake. It was hard. It is not a romance tho there is a romantic element. I could, similarly to the author, make an argument about what this book is not. One thing I know for sure, it was a refreshing read, and it will stay with me for long. Strongly recommended!

Inanna is my most recent rabbit hole trigger into Mesopotemian Gods and Goddesses and I am loving it.

Inanna is the Mesopotemian goddess of love and war, is the precurser to the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the subject of possibly one of the oldest epic poems in literature (The Descent of Inanna)! If you know the Epic of Gilgamesh, then you might be interested in Inannas' story, too.

Though this particular book is not the true stories of Inanna and Gilgamesh it takes huge inspiration from both epic poems and actual history and merges them into a clear story. Otherworldly and strange this book takes you on multiple journies through Ancient Mesopotemia and turns a couple of people, gods and goddesses on their head.

If you enjoy books like Ithaca by Claire North, Hall of Smoke by HM Long and Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, you might just enjoy this too!

Thanks Titan Books for this eARC

Mythology is filled with amazing stories, tales that have existed for thousands of years across multiple cultures. Because of this, mythology often gets used as an inspiration for other tales. Whether that's simply taking mythological figures and slapping a new coat of paint on them, such as comic book characters like Thor, or changing things that much that folks don't even realise it's a mythological retelling, like O Brother, Where Art Thou? (an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey), myths and legends are everywhere in modern storytelling. Inanna by Emily H. Wilson, draws upon an area that most people would probably be less familiar with though; Sumerian mythology.

Inanna tells three interweaving narratives, each drawn from mythological figures and stories. The first of these is the titular one, Inanna. Inanna is the first Anunnaki child born on earth, a child with the same powers as and abilities as the twelve Anunnaki gods that rule over man. Other Anunnaki have had children whilst ruling on earth, but these have resulted in demi-gods, and mortal children; making Inanna something special and new. Crowned as the Goddess of Love, she grows up wanting to be friends with other children, not understanding why her being a god means that she can't. Her parents try to impart lessons about detachment on her, grooming her for her adult role of Goddess. Part of this is them arranging a marriage for her with the demi-god son of another Anunnaki, an arrangement that will change the course of her young life forever.

The second character is Gilgamesh, the great warrior of legend, mortal son of the gods. However, the Gilgamesh we meet here is less of a great hero, and more of a drunken womaniser. It's his whorish behaviour that gets him in trouble when held captive by King Akka, an enemy in the war he's fighting in. Forced to flee in the night with the help of his faithful friend, Gilgamesh finds that the favour of the Anunnaki is waning, and that he has one last chance in which to prove himself. Luckily for him, he has the wild warrior Enkidu by his side.

The third narrative focuses on Ninshubar, a powerful and skilled young warrior woman from a distant land. Elected to take over for her father upon his death, an act of kindness on her part brings her mothers wrath down upon her, and she's cast out and hunted by her former people. Ninshubar is forced to flee her homeland, and searches out a new place to call home where she might be accepted.

One of the issues that can plague a book based upon mythology is that people can know the source material, and your work will get compared to other adaptations, and be picked apart by folks who think it's not going the right way. Even I've come across stories based upon myths and legends that have failed to excite me because little has surprised me in them. Fortuantely for me, I have practically no familiarity with Sumerian myths, and have only heard of two of the characters featured here in passing (any Trekkie worth their salt will remember the names of Gilgamesh and Enkidu - thanks Jean-Luc). This resulted in a reading experience that felt incredibly fresh and new.

But this isn't just down to lack of familarity that makes Inanna such an engaging read, Wilson makes these ancient stories feel new thanks to the focus on the characters and their experiences. A lot of mythological stories were focused on the big events, the spectacle, but in Inanna every moment is told through the eyes of one of these characters, and every moment is personal to them. It grounds the events in their experiences, their emotions, and it ends up drawing you in more than you expect. Wilson also does fun and unexpected things, such as introducing the legendary hero Gilgamesh on his back on the ground, being poked in the chest with a spear. He doesn't rouse himself and beat his foe, but runs away in a very undignified manner. It's these moments of subversion that help to build out more rounded and believable characters.

Despite all this praise, the book did take me a while to get into. The beginning felt kind of slow, despite giving the reader a lot of world building and characters. Once I reached a certain part of the book my interest was definitely grabbed and I found that it became a book that was hard to put down; but it took me a while to get there. There are also some parts of the story that are incredibly unsavoury, and I'm quite disappointed that the book (or the advanced copy I read anyway) didn't include trigger warnings. This may start that 'you don't need trigger warnings' debate, but when a book includes rape, incest, child grooming, and child abuse it should contain some degree of warning as these are incredibly difficult topics that some readers may have had to deal with in their life.

Inanna is an interesting and well written book, one that's taking ancient stories and making them feel fresh and interesting thanks to the skill of the author. The characters are engaging, and you enjoy spending time with them. Whilst this is the start of a new series (Sumerians) it doesn't end on too much of a cliffhanger, so you can easily give the first book a try without having to worry about massive unresolved story lines. Definitely worth a read for fantasy and mythology fans.