Waning: Dark of the Moon by Tracy Barrett

My mother was with me.

And not only my mother, but her mother and all our Mothers invisible but present nonetheless.

I could not see her, but I felt her presence. I looked out over my people and felt a rush of love. They were so imperfect, and different from the other, yet so beautiful, even the old ones deformed with suffering and the tall, young ones... They were all My children, and they were all beautiful.

I had been Goddess since time was time, and I would be Goddess forever.

Just coming into her own womanhood, Ariadne knows that her loving and so human mother is also She-Who-Is-Goddess and that somday on her death, she herself, now Goddess-Who-Will-Be, must pass through a ceremony in which the goddess of the moon will enter her own body, and make her the living essence of the the deity. But Ariadne's mother unexpectedly dies in childbirth, and her young daughter, not fully prepared, must face the ritual which will make her Goddess incarnate. Then, filled with the essence of that deity, she must choose a consort at the Spring Festival, a mortal man who will briefly take on the spirit of Velchanos and who will be made a blood sacrifice on the third day to insure a good harvest for Crete.

Crete is a matriarchal theocracy, ruled by the living incarnation of the Goddess of the Moon as high priestess, and her oldest blood brother as the Minos, the judge and lawkeeper of the realm. But Ariadne's oldest brother, the Minotauros, is Asterion, huge and hideously deformed gentle but severely limited in mind, bound by her mother's spell in a chamber below the palace, and Ariadne knows that when she becomes Goddess, he will never be able to function as her Minos.

Into this unsettled time before her initiation comes a tribute ship from Athens, bearing the required sacrifical youth and Theseus, the king's son, set to be killed to atone for the death in Athens of Crete's own Minos-to-Be in the previous generation. Theseus has only just learned that he is a son of King Aegeus of Athens and is an open and curious young man as yet unaware of his fate when his ship arrives at Knossus. He and an Athenian girl, Prokris, befriend Ariadne, whom non-priestly Creteans are forbidden to speak with or touch, her only confidantes as she fearfully prepares for the fateful day. But Prokris is a shrewd young woman and soon makes herself a place as the youngest wife of the Minos, Ariadne's kindly uncle, and schemes to enlist Theseus in a takeover of the rule of Crete when Ariadne's brother is made the Minos.

As the day of her ritual draws near, Ariadne fears that the court rumors of her birth may be true and that she will not be worthy of becoming Goddess. But as she emerges from the temple, deadly snakes secure in each hand, she feels that she indeed has become She-Who-Is-Goddess, and when the time comes to choose the man who is possessed of the spirit of the sacrificial bull, the god Velchanos himself, it is Theseus to whom she is drawn and Theseus whom she chooses as her husband. Theseus, learning of his imminent blood sacrifice to ensure the fertility of the harvest, determines that he will not give himself willingly to that fate, and as the ball of enchanted thread which holds the fate of Crete is unraveled, everything is changed.

Tracy Barrett's Dark of the Moon (Harcourt, 2011) is a gripping reworking of the legend of the Minotaur. Barrett is skillful in weaving into her own story of loyalty and love much of the mythology and history of Crete and ancient Athens, and makes of this legendary account a deeply personal coming-of-age human story, albeit one of a time long gone, the story of the flesh-and-blood mortals whose struggles with custom and fate have become the basis of the well-known mythic stories of Theseus and Ariadne.

Kirkus Reviews wrote "Ariadne weaves a new tale in a historically rich reworking of Theseus and the Minotaur... A world and story both excitingly alien and pleasingly familiar." and gives this forthcoming book a rare starred review rating.

Don't Make Me Hurl These Thunderbolts! Oh My Gods!: A Look-It-Up Guide to the Gods by Megan E. Bryant

Are you ready to get your myth on? Then you've come to the right place: MYTHLOPEDIA, your one-stop shop for everything you need to know about the stars of Greek mythology. From gods and monsters to goddesses and heroes, the myths that rocked the ancient world are ready to rock yours!

Given the runaway success of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, readers who have become hooked on the the soap-opera drama of the classical gods certainly need a guide through the maze of interpersonal (or interdeital?) relationships of the titans, Olympians, demigods and demigoddesses, heroes, monsters, nymphs, and mere mortals. While professors of classical studies must be salivating at the promise of future undergraduates crowding their classes, kids whose primary point of entry to the pantheon is Perseus (Percy) Jackson need help right now, and that's the promise of Megan Bryant's Oh My Gods!: A Look-it-Up Guide to the Gods of Mythology (Mythlopedia) (Scholastic, 2009).

There's a "classical" form underlying this volume: Bryant succinctly defines mythology and myth, explains their ancient purpose, and briefly points out the many points of reference for the classics in modern life--Cupid on Valentines, Nike on sneakers, Apollo spacecraft on the moon--and then launches into a classical scholarly and alphabetical presentation, from Apollo to Zeus, of the biggies of Mt. Olympus. Not that Bryant is exactly egalitarian: some gods seem to have more, er, karisma, than others, so Apollo gets three double-page spreads while his bad-boy brother Ares rates only two.

But each deity does draw the same design--a sidebar "Profile," featuring Greek and Roman names and aliases (with pronunciation guide), generation check boxes (Titan, Olympian, and the ubiquitous Other), "Divine Powers" and "Attributes", and "Top 10 Things to Know about Me." A "bottom bar" deals with those messy "Family, Flings, Friends, and Foes" issues, and the remaining regular text delves into all the tales, gossip, connections, and vocabulary spinoffs surrounding the character. Catchy boxes pass on useful knowledge, for example, Asclepius's caduceus, the symbol of medicine, and his health-oriented daughters Hygieia and Panacea, who also lent their names to modern practice. An additional sidebar, titled "Don't Dis Death" recounts Asclepius's unfortunate deadly duel with Hades, who was angered at the healing god's divesting him of his due of dead souls.

Wry touches catch the eye of modern readers: a marble image of Dionysus, wearing a party hat and with a party whistle in his mouth, features a thought balloon which says "The party goes where I go!" and parents Ares and Aphrodite get an irate email from their kids' school:

From: Principal@MountOlympusSchool.edu
Re: Parent-Teacher Conference

Dear Ares and Aphrodite:

The new school year has just begun, and your sons Deimos, Phobos, and Cycnus have already begun terrorizing students on the playground. I remind you that Mount Olympus School has a zero-tolerance policy regarding bullying. Please contact my secretary to arrange a parent-teacher conference.

A text message to Dionysus reads "D-Dude! i gotta do something about those maenads. 4 real. totally wack! my dad is gonna freak when he sees what they did to the minotaur." Hermes says "You've got mail," and Pan brags "I am the original party ANIMAL!" Poseidon himself presides over a theme park titled "Poseidon's Water World," featuring attractions such as "Proteus's Fun House of Mirrors." There are puns and parodies aplenty. Prometheus jokes "Light My Fire," and Zeus tries to placate spouse Hera with a weak apology: "Hera, baby, light of my life, mother to, well, a few of my children...those other 114 didn't mean a thing to me!"

Spoofs aside, though, there are plenty of basic facts about the personalities of the pantheon here, including maps of the classical world and a "Family Tree," beginning with Gaea and Uranus, which tries to bring some order to the deities' doings. There is also a glossary, a sky chart of the "Stars of Greek Mythology," a bibliography and list of useful web sites, and an index to pull together all these messy mythological characters insofar as we mere mortals may.

For the distaff side of deity doings, mythological mayhem, and pantheonic pranks, there is a "sister" volume to this one, also by Megan Bryant, She's All That!: A Look-it-Up Guide to the Goddesses of Mythology (Mythlopedia), and its companions, All in the Family: A Look-it-Up Guide to the In-laws, Outlaws, and Offspring of Mythology (Mythlopedia) and What a Beast!: A Look-it-Up Guide to the Monsters and Mutants of Mythology (Mythlopedia). And the die-hard demi-deity devotees of Percy Jackson must not miss the mega-popular (and priced for mere mortals) Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide (Hyperion, 2010).