Odyssey: The Reboot: A Hooligan's Tale

by Keith Tokash

Homer's back, and this time, it's personal.

Odysseus, cleverest of Greeks, is missing. Having survived war, betrayal, and his own fat mouth, Gelios discovers himself oathsworn to find his friend, and save the kingdom of Ithaca.

With his squabbling entourage, Gelios careens through the Mediterranean in a desperate bid to save Odysseus and reunite antiquity's most annoying family. Fleeing a trail of mercenaries, bad decisions, and angry women, the group struggles to answer one of humanity's most enduring questions:

Why the hell is this *my* problem?

198 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2021

About the author

Keith Tokash is old. Like Gen-X old. Also gross. He doesn’t usually write about himself in the third person, and he’d like to stop now because it’s weird.

I’ve been building computer networks since 2000, and stealth writing* most my life. Having tried multiple genres, I found my voice via Iliad: The Reboot. Turns out I was a snarky prick the entire time.

Due to my high school nickname being “Twig,” I started working out as a teenager and now I’m rather compulsive about it. I spent over a decade in various martial arts as an adult, mostly MMA and BJJ, eventually stopping because life/kid/career/divorce kicked me off the rails.

I live in LA with a woman, a dog, and three cats, with a smaller version of myself running around being obnoxious about half the time. The grommet is why I’m, quite against my will, learning all about Pokemon.

* Stealth writing: beginning multiple projects, only to realize they were horrible and abandon them, because I was in the wrong genre and it felt forced.

Reviews

[Ashleigh Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to Homer's cousin, the original Odyssey was severely over embellished and this is the real story about the ancient king of Ithaca.

As a former Classical Studies student, I am familiar with ancient Greek mythology, especially the story of Odysseus, and looked forward to reading this story. I was not disappointed. Although this book contained many grammatical and proofreading errors, the story was enjoyable.

This is the second book in a series, though it is the first one I have read. This was not a problem, however, since the events of the first book were mentioned many times. In fact, some information was mentioned more than once. While I found this repetition slightly irksome, I think it would have been more of an issue had I read the first book.

There were a few characters in whom I would have liked to have seen a little more development, but the main characters -- the narrator and Odysseus -- were very well developed. I enjoyed the author's interpretation of the wandering king and, although I hadn't considered it prior to reading this book, found it aligned with my initial interpretation of the man when I first read the Odyssey 25 years ago. I loved the goofier aspects of the main character and enjoyed watching him grow during his journey.

Overall, I found this interpretation inventive and humorous and look forward to reading others in this series. I would recommend it for all readers interested in humorous fiction, especially young adults and new adults, as well as anyone with an interest in Ancient Greece.

Thank you to Reedsy and the author for an advanced copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.