Inanna
Ratings3
Average rating4.2
An enthralling and lyrical fantasy debut, and the first in an incredible new trilogy re-telling The Epic of Gilgamesh, perfect for readers of Madeline Miller's Circe and Jennifer Saint's Ariadne. A tale brimming with warring gods, rebellious humans, and the goddess of love caught between them whose destiny has the power to transform the shape of the world. Stories are sly things…they can be hard to catch and kill. Inanna is an impossibility. The first full Anunnaki born on Earth in Ancient Mesopotamia. Crowned the goddess of love by the twelve immortal Anunnaki who are worshipped across Sumer, she is destined for greatness. But Inanna is born into a time of war. The Anunnaki have split into warring factions, threatening to tear the world apart. Forced into a marriage to negotiate a peace, she soon realises she has been placed in terrible danger. Gilgamesh, a mortal human son of the Anunnaki, and notorious womaniser, finds himself captured and imprisoned. His captor, King Akka, seeks to distance himself and his people from the gods. Arrogant and selfish, Gilgamesh is given one final chance to prove himself. Ninshubar, a powerful warrior woman, is cast out of her tribe after an act of kindness. Hunted by her own people, she escapes across the country, searching for acceptance and a new place in the world. As their journeys push them closer together, and their fates intertwine, they come to realise that together, they may have the power to change to face of the world forever. The first novel in the stunning Sumerians Trilogy, this is a gorgeous, epic retelling of one of the oldest surviving works of literature. BONUS FEATURE An exclusive preview of Book Two of The Sumerians trilogy, book club discussion questions and more!
Series
Featured Series
2 primary booksSumerians
Sumerians is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2023 with contributions by Emily H. Wilson.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Such a promising idea. I love this recent trend, and want to see more of it, but am not sure where I stand on this one. It’s tagged as Adult, but its writing felt more like Young Readers: simple declarative sentences, dialog suitable for comic bubbles. A curious blend of characters, most of them flat and uninteresting. Most of them.
The story cycles between three first-person narrators whose stories periodically intertwine. Gilgamesh, no surprise, is the dullest. Inanna, surprisingly (because, like, title character??), comes a close second: she shows little initiative, mostly letting herself be carried by events. It’s the third narrator, Ninshubar, who made me keep reading: original and intriguing, perhaps because Wilson wasn’t constrained by the original Epic? Her chapters, and those from other narrators in which she was present, made the book worthwhile.
Want to give three and a half stars, can’t justify four so am rounding down. Please don’t interpret that as a “don’t bother!” With the right frame of mind and expectations, I would’ve enjoyed this much more and believe that you might too.
The audiobook narration of this is outstanding. I find the sounds of the names going round in my head: Enkidu, Ereshkigal… the narrator really adds a lot to this story.
I’ve read some reviews that say multiple
first-person POV narrators is a terrible idea. I say pfooey to that. Although I did go back and read through the Ninshubar chapters again when I’d got about half-way because I’d got a bit mixed up. That helped.
It’s a fast-paced book and I could easily go back and read it again now. But, instead I’m going to get Snow Crash off the shelf and read the librarian’s infodumps about Enki. That book led me to this one.
I’ll probably go straight into Gilgamesh. Inanna ends on a note with some strong forward motion—not quite a cliffhanger, but it certainly makes me want to continue.
