Luka and the Fire of Life

The second of Rushdie's childrens fantasy stories, set in an alternative reality in a video-gamesque style. Luka is the younger bother of Haroun (of [b:Haroun And The Sea Of Stories 871431 Haroun And The Sea Of Stories Salman Rushdie https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1294388042s/871431.jpg 1934157] fame), and the son of Rashid Khalifa - famous story-teller. He harbours some jealousy that his brother had an adventure, and now his opportunity is here.With his friends Bear the dog, and Dog the bear, recently escaped from a circus, Luka crosses the frontier into the World of magic. His task - to steal the fire of life, and return with it to save his father.Joined my a host of unlikely helpers, and set against equally unlikely foes, Luka has to complete levels, like a video game. Set in a world of forgotten gods and the like, Rushdie demonstrates a vast knowledge of mythology - from the obvious Greek and Roman Gods, the Egyptian, Central and South American, Chinese, Japanese, Polynesian, Korean, Taiwanese, American Indian, African, Indian, Caribbean, Norse, Armenian and more. And not just gods, goddesses, demons, titans, and more.I enjoyed the fairytale nature of the book, the many pop-culture references (there are a lot, most of them passing mentions), the puns, and the nods towards other literary works.3.5 stars rounded up.