Though the tales are ancient, author Stephanie Spinner invents a modern, ironic, somewhat snarky voice for Hermes that both fits his mythological character (he was, after all, god of thieves and pranksters as well as messenger) and adds to the enjoyment of his story. On Zeus: "Joking with my father when he's testy is like challenging the Gorgons to a staring contest. Bad idea." On Hades: "a walking bad mood." The Furies: "as gleeful as undetected felons at a public execution."

Parents and teachers will be glad that, unlike so many attempts to modernize and add humor to Greek myths, this one hews very closely to the original stories. Even the humor grows organically out of the tales and existing characters of the gods, not through anachronism or adding a street-slangy patina. The updating comes in the telling, not by altering the myths, making it very useful for classes studying ancient Greece.

From the Book:
It's dark and gloomy, and it smells like dead sheep, but when Zeus says go to Hell, I go. The Lord of All Creation is not a patient deity. Have you ever seen his hands clench and unclench when he's kept waiting? I call it the Thunderbolt Reflex. Best not to trigger it is my advice, unless you long to burst into flame and explode.

I do not.