A compelling continuation of Inanna, this reads like a strange mash-up of magic realism and historical fiction as it crosses the boundaries between myth and history. There are numerous interweaving stories that Wilson is juggling and, whilst it can get a little confusing with the amount that’s going on, all her characters remain distinct personalities. There was less in the way of relationship exploration and motivation than in Inanna, with much left unclear and a lot of travel sequences which meant I loved it perhaps a little less than the debut, but still an interesting read.

Gilgamesh by Emily H Wilson is the second book in the Sumerians series, and although I had not read the first book, I did not find it too hard to follow the storyline. I had read that the story of GIlgamesh could be the basis for Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and there are certainly parallels – Gilgamesh is a demigod as is Achilles in The Iliad and there’s an epic journey home which parallels that of Odysseus in The Odyssey, and the usual battles found in ancient stories between Gods and humans, and each other. I really liked the point of view chapter style, which helped to move the storyline on whilst amalgamating other stories associated with the legend of Gilgamesh. It was a 4/5 read for me, but before I read the next book in the series, I feel I need to visit book 1 then revisit book 2 in order to get the full story.

Gilgamesh was a beautiful lyrical read that kept the feel of the classics of old but given a breath of life. I was instantly captivated by the writing style and voice given the characters. You feel as if you are being transported back to Ancient Mesopotamia and part of those stories and legends.

There is a softness to the style due to it’s lyrical nature but Wilson does not shy away from the battle and bloodshed either. If you are a fan of historical fantasy or the ancient classics you will adore this. I will most certainly be re-reading this and the first book in the series in the near future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the e-ARC. My review is completely honest and left voluntarily.

Emily H Wilson has been one of my biggest surprises of the year. Both Inanna and this book, Gilgamesh, are superb takes on lesser known mythology and are delivered with such craft, skill and power.

Inanna has been one of my favourite reads of 2024 so far; having gone into it totally blind, I was surprised by just how good it was (even if I did have a couple of issues), and whilst I didn’t go into Gilgamesh blind, it still had me on strings for the entire duration of the book.

This book continues somewhat where the last one left off, and is formatted in a much similar way, with a rotating selection of POV’s, written in a short, snappy style. It is definitely a tell not show sort of book, but in this instance I think it works mostly to the story’s benefit; there’s no flowery language, and thus no hiding the bad behind pretty words. Whilst I’m usually a ‘show’ type of person, Emily H. Wilson manages the ‘tell’ sort of writing style well. I had an issue with how little we lingered on particular things in Inanna, the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu for example, but I found I wasn’t bothered so much by this in this book.

Speaking of Gilgamesh, there are more POV characters in this book than the last. We still have Gilgamesh, Inanna, and Ninshubar, but we also have the occasional POV of Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld, and a mysterious character called Marduk.

In Inanna I felt as though I had trouble connecting with Ninshubar, as opposed to Gilgamesh and Inanna, but in this book I enjoyed her POV much more. Having now been given access to wealth of power, she presents a much more interesting, cutting character in this book. She and Inanna worked together amazingly, with Inanna working towards her revenge and Ninshubar still looking for her adopted son Potta.

Gilgamesh’s character development in this book was notable. In the first book he seems selfish, spoiled, and a little bit lost, and you can see by the end that the death of Enkidu has forced him to grow up a little bit, and this continues in this book. Now with a wife (who hates hm) and child, Gilgamesh only grows to be more caring and less selfish over the course of the book, never forgetting Enkidu and seemingly never being able to move on. This is one of my favourite aspects of the book, and it is very well written.

My favourite POV’s though belonged to Ereshkigal and Marduk. At first I didn’t fully understand why we were getting Marduk’s perspective, but as the book went on I was more and more taken by his input and his story. I won’t say much about that, since it would be a pretty major spoiler, but there was a reveal regarding Marduk that had me SHOOK. I loved it so much.

Ereshkigal was plagued throughout the book, and her going to and fro, debating what she should do, was super interesting. She didn’t want to leave the underworld, but was being told that she should, and with the arrival of a collection of ‘guests’ to her palace, including the mysterious Etta, her story along with Marduk’s was absolutely one of my favourite parts of the entire story.

This was a massively solid 4/5 star read, and I would absolutely recommend this book, though I would recommend you read Inanna first Ofc. The one issue I had with this book that I hope is fixed come book three, is the lack of character interaction until the final third. Again, many of the storylines were incredibly separate until the book’s end, when they converged like they did in the first book, and whilst this wasn’t bad, I just wish we’d seen more of the characters together.

Gilgamesh by Emily H Wilson is Book 2 of The Sumerian Trilogy. I read the first book, Inanna last year and have been looking forward to reading this one and it didn't disappoint.

The story is carefully woven from threads of ancient myths, archaeological records and a little bit of imagination to create a rich and vivid narrative. We hear from multiple POVs Marduk, Gilgamesh, Inanna, Ereshkigal, Ninshubar and Ninlil. I found these characters captivating and well drawn.

I would definitely recommend this book to lovers of myth retellings that are looking for something a little different.

Thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for providing me with a copy to read and review.

The story is engaging enough and the lore/mythology is interesting. As with the first instalment in this series (Inanna) I struggled to connect with the characters, my favourite storyline was Ninshubar/Potta etc by far. Overall a good read, but falls slightly flat. I would still read the next book in the series however.

Gilgamesh is the second book in The Sumerians book series and is told from the POVs of different characters,
Wilson stays truthful to the original of Gilgamesh, the oldest written known story ever, as of July 2024.
I am a fan of the original myth and use it as an example in my lectures and workshops.
I have not read the first book in this series, but a bit because of my familiarity with Gilgamesh and mostly because of Wilson’s clear narrative, I his can be read as a stand alone book. I enjoyed reading it - especially because of the different perspectives of the characters, the modern and easy-to-follow language, the well-paced chapters. Marduk’s and Inanna’s characterisation stood out.
I will be reading the first book and look forward to the next book (the sample was good).

Emily Wilson does a great job at bringing stories to life and the second instalment of the Sumerians has shown this.
Gilgamesh for me fell into middle book syndrome but did not take away from the character and story development.
I still adore Inanna and loved her character development, as well as some of the other characters.
Can’t wait for the next book!

I love myths and those of ancient Sumer are the oldest we have, preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets and I can't tell you how much I'm loving this trilogy. @emilyhwilson1 does a brilliant job of bringing these stories to life. The POV characters of Inanna, Gilgamesh, Ninshubah, Marduk and Harga are brilliantly drawn characters and bring the reader into the story desperate for the next twist as the Anunnaki power games create fabulous tension. I love the fact that Emily leans into making this true SFF with some of the more interesting theories about the origins of the ancient Sumerian gods and I cannot wait to see how Inanna, Gilgamesh, and Marduk's stories spin out!

Massive thanks to @titanbooks for the eARC of Gilgamesh on Netgalley!