Gorgons Deserve Nice Things

by Tansy Rayner Roberts

“We lived in a world that did not allow women to breathe; how could we be anything but monsters?”

Tansy Rayner Roberts retells the stories of seven women from Greek mythology, giving voice to the scorned, the sidelined, and the monstrous.

A young gorgon finds acceptance at the Medusa Club. Atalanta spills the truth behind the myth of the Argonauts. Scylla suffers through a series of terrible college roommates. Handmaids in Sparta get more than they bargained for when they interfere in their queen’s correspondence with a Trojan prince. A comparative mythology graduate finds herself at a speed-dating night packed with dodgy gods. Behind a velvet rope, a queenly Minotaur presides over a roller disco. Persephone shares her story via a series of pomegranate recipes.

Deliciously mythic and delightfully funny, Gorgons Deserve Nice Things delivers new takes on ancient stories, reinvigorating them with modern perspectives and settings. Showcasing the craft and insight that made her one of Australia’s most beloved short fiction writers, this collection sees Roberts at her wry, subversive best.

Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Historical Fiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 24, 2023

About the author

Tansy Rayner Roberts is a fantasy and science fiction author who lives in southern Tasmania, somewhere between the tall mountain with snow on it, and the beach that points towards Antarctica.

Tansy has a PhD in Classics (with a special interest in poisonous Roman ladies), and an obsession with Musketeers.

You can hear Tansy talking about Doctor Who on the Verity! podcast. She also reads her own stories on the Sheep Might Fly podcast.

Reviews

[L.E. Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a girl in the 1970s, I tattered my copy of D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths before delving into other retellings, and even then, I knew something was terribly amiss. I was angered by Medusa's monstrous punishment and saw my name in Daphne's escape as a laurel tree from Apollo. Tansy Rayner Roberts' Gorgons Deserve Nice Things is the book we've waited for. It's a distillation and recreation with the feminine authenticity we've craved. I'm so pleased to have found this work.

If I have to choose, my favorite story is "How to Survive an Epic Journey," with Atalanta of Arcadia recounting Jason and the Argonauts from her perspective. She tells readers, "I did not care a wet fart about the Golden Fleece. To sail and to fight, to be a comrade alongside my fellow adventurers, was all I ever wanted. The Fleece was an excuse, a story to sail ourselves into: it could as easily have been a monster to slay, a crown to collect, or a stable to scrub clean." Atalanta's personality had me at the opening lines of this story with "Fill my cup with wine, girl. Pass the honey cakes, and I shall tell you a tale of adventure and heroes. I was there. I knew them all."

The humor and the asides to the reader who follows each beat are priceless. "Hesoid, I'm looking at you" made me laugh out loud. I love this collection. Thank you, Tansy.

[Molokov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of short storied based on Greek mythology - sometimes a retelling from a different perspective, and sometimes a modern setting for the characters. All it's really shown me is that I really am not all that familiar with a lot of the details (and thus I should read a book on Greek Myth) but as Tansy says in her afterword, there's so many versions and so many translations and they all contradict one another anyway - so I guess any version is a good start.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun!

[Sally Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edgy collection of short stories by is a wicked delight.

Some tales are retellings of ancient Greek legends from the point of view of their female characters.

Others have lifted these same strong women and girls out of chronicles that have, over the millennia, frequently worked to erase or undermine their roles – and placed them in contemporary settings. These speculative stories might be wildly different from the versions of old – and yet the characters bring their legendary traits along with them, flaunting them in glorious technicolour.

You can take the girl out of the myth, but you can’t take the myth out of the girl!