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  • Heroes

  • Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures
  • By: Stephen Fry
  • Narrated by: Stephen Fry
  • Length: 15 hrs
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (11,069 ratings)
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Heroes cover art

Heroes

By: Stephen Fry
Narrated by: Stephen Fry
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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)

What listeners say about Heroes

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    5 out of 5 stars

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!

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102 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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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.

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82 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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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.

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28 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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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

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25 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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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.

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23 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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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!

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15 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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.

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8 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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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!

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7 people found this helpful