The Othernauts

You won’t find mention of Periclymenus (Perry), Phoebe or Cora in The Argonautica by Apollonius, or in the 1963 movie Jason and the Argonauts, but these three youngsters have a starring role in Clare Pollard’s retelling of the story of the Argo and its heroes and are an excellent addition. Perry is one of the crew of the Argo, an eager to please eleven-year-old with the ability to transform into any animal. It’s an ability he is still trying to fully master, but it comes in very handy. Cora insists she’s a siren, and has the head of a girl on the body of a bird, though her singing is anything but tuneful; while Phoebe, also eleven, is a stowaway from the female only island of Lemnos with a very sharp tongue and a fierce determination to get away from home and make her own life choices. She also has some skill as an oracle, though it appears seers were two a penny in ancient Greece. In other ways, the story is very close to the original with the Argonauts encountering harpies, wicked King Aeëtes and his daughter Medea, plus that terrifying army of skeletons, and having to brave Scylla and Charybdis before they finally get within touching distance of the Golden Fleece, or ‘old rug’ as Phoebe refers to it in typically scathing form. As with her earlier take on the legend of King Arthur, Clare Pollard tells the story in captivating direct to reader style, highlighting the unthinking chauvinism of the Argonauts and the deeply unpleasant behaviour of Zeus, while presenting Jason as an amiable hero, who means well, and has learned to live with the effect his blue eyes and perfect teeth have on ‘the ladeez.’ It’s both an unputdownable version of one of the great adventure stories, and very, very funny, much of the humour due to Phoebe and her withering put downs of her fellow crew members. We are aware as readers that Phoebe is also angry, angry at being abandoned by her father, angry at her stepmother for putting her twin brother to sea in a wooden crate when the order came to slaughter all males on Lemnos. She’s also very sad, determined not to risk making a friend, in case they break her heart by leaving forever. It all works to create a bok that is wonderfully iconoclastic, totally original and thoroughly enjoyable. My proof copy didn’t have Macha Yao’s illustrations but they look likely to increase the fun. This spiky, human retelling is Greek myth for young 21^st century readers.