Surprisingly disappointed :(

The narrator, although not on par with such as Scott Brick, gives a solid and clear performance throughout. My only suggestion would be to inject more life into his reading which at times sounds more like a sermon. Audiobook giveaways from whom I received this ticket for free, have unfortunately let themselves down in my opinion. They are fanatical about mythology on a global scale and their other audio books testify to this. However, in this collection there is little mention of enchanted beasts which are instead six or seven animals which feature in various religions creation myths. There are too many to count that are completely overlooked. Also, rather than focusing on the myths themselves this collection focuses on the theme of some animals and beliefs surrounding the moon being shared by disparate nations. There is much reference to linguistic professors tying the myths of China to Egypt. And shockingly much reverence placed upon the opinions of Christian scholars and American "explorers" which notoriously discredit and deride the beliefs held by those they contacted to force western Christianity onto the "unenlightened". Yet the people behind this book are not ignorant of this fact, but for some reason they felt the need in this volume to reference them as "experts". I spent more time listening to Christian rhetoric and western thoughts than to the actual myths themselves. There were also several mistakes, quite large ones. For example, claiming that Apollo and Thebius (bad spelling) were brother and sister, when in fact the ancient Greeks gave Apollo the latter name as their sun god was intrinsically tied to Thebes. Or ignoring the fact that the Romans famously took the Greek gods and renamed them, instead implying that the two had developed separately. Also, when referencing any myth, they tied it firmly to Christian belief without declaring where it had been stolen from. Even celtic druids have been misrepresented, yet no mention of the celtic faith was actually discussed. Instead they touched upon the English hot cross bun being used in Easter celebrations. What about the rabbits and eggs of paganism which are directly tied to historical and modern paganism? Or after a lengthy chapter on the moon being helped chiefly as a male god, why us there no mention of Celini, Greek goddess of the moon? Or again the triple aspect of the moon and it's prevalence in many pagan belief systems? Even in folklore, the moon was regarded as female which encompassed the three stages of a woman's life. The maiden, the mother, and the other one...(crone).
In summation, I have enjoyed previous audiobooks from these people and greatly admired their deep passion for mythology but this one seems to have been out of their reach. Perhaps they felt a need to legitimise their studies by calling on Christian ramblings or one or two historical opinions. I am greatly saddened by this thought. Any academic interest in mythology is good, but this does not need consultation with academia outside of the subject, which in this case tainted the wonderful creations of humans with spotty reality checks. Reality has no place in Myth. Nor does there need to be so much religious association. It is quite acceptable to state that a myth has it's roots in the Hebrew faith without going on to inject academic opinions on said faith. In your next volume please return to the important part of myths, the people. common people made and retold every myth in existence, they tell us more of the people who created them than those who interpret them in a time where myths are extinct.
I cannot recommend this audiobook but I can recommend their others which I encourage anyone reading this to try instead. The Innuit collection is much better.

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