Category Archives: Top Tens

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (9) Orcus & Demogorgon

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Collage of the first edition D & D Monster Manual art for Orcus (left) and Demogorgon (right), the latter the model for the figurine in Stranger Things. In my opinion, Demogorgon definitely won out between them in art – but both benefited from the more refined art throughout subsequent editions

 

 

(9) ORCUS & DEMOGORGON

 

Yes – it’s another of my matched pair of villains, originating in classical mythology or literature (kind of) but raised in profile and matched as a pair by their adaptation as demon lords in Dungeons and Dragons.

Demogorgon has achieved particular pop culture status through adaptation as an extra-dimensional antagonist in the Stranger Things TV series, especially in the first season when it was a singular antagonist, the Demogorgon – although people forget that within the narrative of the first season, the characters called it the Demogorgon based on its visual resemblance to a figurine of the Dungeons and Dragons demon lord.

“Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Etruscan and Roman mythology. As with Hades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself”. Ultimately, he was conflated with the primary god of the underworld (Hades or Pluto).

TV Tropes has a trope for Orcus on his throne, where an antagonist is powerful to the point of potential victory or “the potential to wipe out the forces of good” but seemingly sits around doing nothing. It’s a surprisingly prolific trope.

Ironically for his higher profile, Demogorgon is less clear in origin as a deity or demon associated with the underworld. “Although often ascribed to Greek mythology, the name probably arises from an unknown copyist’s misreading of a commentary by a fourth-century scholar…The concept itself can be traced back to the original misread term demiurge”.

Interestingly, John Milton paired Orcus with Demogorgon in Paradise Lost (among Demogorgon’s other surprisingly prolific references in literature or poetry) but it’s their pairing as demon lords in Dungeons and Dragons that earns them their entry here as a matched pair – particularly that they were famously antagonistic to each other in the game lore.

 

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (9) Beowulf

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I will never tire of this promotional still featuring Grendel’s hot mother with heels from the 2007 Beowulf film. Or in other words – phwoah!

 

 

(9) BEOWULF

 

“I…AM…BEOWULF!”

The most enduring mythic character – along with antagonists Grendel and Grendel’s mother (with the subsequent dragon tending to be overlooked for that more intriguing mother and son duo) – from “the oldest surviving work of fiction in the English language, written sometime between 700 and 1000 AD”.

Indeed it’s so old – how old is it? Older than yo momma (but not Grendel’s momma) – “that the language it’s written in is barely recognizable as English” and it is more correctly described as Old English.

Like the Iliad and Odyssey earlier in these special mentions, it is an epic poem, but in Beowulf’s case it is “in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend”. The story, set in pagan Scandinavia, is reasonably well known, at least in outline, and is in an effective three-part structure that perhaps has added to its enduring appeal.

Beowulf, a “hero of the Geats” (in southern Sweden), “comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes” (once again gloomy Denmark pops up in classic literature), “whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years”. In the first part, Beowulf faces off with Grendel, tearing off his arm and slaying him. In the second, Beowulf faces off against Grendel’s monstrous mother out for vengeance and slays her too. Yass hero, slay! Although he slays her in a very different sense in the 2007 film adaptation – not surprisingly given she appears as a golden form of her voice actress Angelina Jolie, complete with high heels! In the third, Beowulf, now a king in his elderly years, faces off and defeats a dragon, but “is mortally wounded in the battle”.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote on the difficulty of translating Beowulf in an essay (“On translating Beowulf”). On the subject of J.R.R. Tolkien, here’s a shoutout to him as an enduring influence on adapting or interpreting Beowulf through his study of the epic poem, in lectures or his essay, as well as Beowulf as an enduring influence on Tolkien (“Beowulf is among my most valued sources”) – and through him on modern literary fantasy.

You might know Beowulf’s influence on Tolkien and modern literary fantasy through a little book Tolkien wrote called The Lord of the Rings. Although personally I tend to see more of the direct overlap through The Hobbit – with Bilbo as Beowulf, Gollum as Grendel, and Smaug as, well, the dragon. Sadly, no Grendel’s mother though.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythologies (Special Mention: Complete Twilight of the Gods Rankings)

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Netflix official promotional art for their TV series Twilight of the Gods

 

 

TOP 10 MYTHOLOGIES

(SPECIAL MENTION: COMPLETE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS RANKINGS)

 

 

No, not a repetition of ranking mythologies by their apocalypses but more metaphorically in terms of their decline in actual or active belief in them.

These essentially fall on a sliding cultural-religious scale – from those that have declined to cultural impact or influence with diminished, if any, belief in them, to those that remain as the subject of active or actual belief at the religious end of the scale.

Surprisingly, my special mentions increase the number of mythologies that rank in the religious end of the scale, albeit not necessarily as the subject of religions rather than other forms of active or actual belief, such that somewhat over half my top ten mythologies and twenty special mentions (five of my top ten mythologies and thirteen of my twenty special mentions) rank in the religious end of the scale.

 

CULTURAL

 

(1) FAIRIES

 

Fairies rank in top spot for twilight of the gods – or is that twilight of the godlings (a la the book title by Francis Young)?

That is, at the far cultural end of the scale, enduring in cultural influence but not in actual belief. That’s because believing in fairies (at the bottom of the garden) has become proverbial for gullibility (and calling something a fairy tale as the proverbial expression of disparaging belief in it).

 

(2) DRAGONS

 

Here were dragons?

Dragons rank just below fairies at the far cultural end of the scale – that is, enduring in cultural influence but not in actual belief and almost as proverbial as fairies for symbolizing something as a myth or fantasy, now long-gone as the subject of belief.

 

(3) GIANTS

 

“There were giants in the earth in those days”.

Even in the Book of Genesis, giants are almost as proverbial as fairies or dragons for symbolizing something as myth or fantasy, now long gone, arguably reflecting the origin of giants in adults from a child’s perspective – and hence rank close to them at the far cultural end of the scale.

 

(4) LEGENDARY CREATURES

 

Similar to dragons and giants, it goes with the adjective legendary – as opposed to cryptids.

 

(5) TAROT

 

I’ve ranked the Tarot high up at the cultural end of the scale for twilight of the gods – just under fairies, dragons, giants and legendary creatures. Even when used for divination, it has always been a novelty rather than the subject of serious belief. Indeed, it started as a game and it is only in its modern form that it has any degree of serious belief as a means of divination.

 

(6) MIDDLE EASTERN (BABYLO-SUMERIAN)

 

(7) EGYPTIAN

 

(8) CELTIC (ARTHURIAN)

 

(9) NORSE

 

(10) CLASSICAL

 

For the most part, these top ten mythologies have faded away in the twilight of their gods from the realm of any active religion or ritual, except for the small sliver from modern paganism or neo-paganism.

Classical mythology was particularly poignant, with Olympian gods fading away. Or even dying, as was famously reported for Pan – “Pan is dead!”

Although ironically, as the argument does, Pan was the one Olympian god who did not die, being reborn with his goat-hooved and goat-halved form as the guise of the Christian Devil – better to reign in a Christian hell than to serve in an Olympian heaven I suppose. Sadly, it seems that argument is overstated but I prefer to believe it.

However, these mythologies still retain cultural impact or influence – and I’ve ranked them in ascending order, as the more cultural recognition they have, the closer they come to approximating religion or ritual.

 

(11) VAMPIRES

 

I have to rank vampires at the cultural end of the scale, but surprisingly less so than classical, Norse or Egyptian mythology as there are still outliers of active belief in them even in the twenty-first century – with people even being killed as vampires (in Malawi 2002-2003 and 2017). There is of course also their substantial cultural impact and influence, as well as belief in them enduring for a remarkably long period of time.

 

(12) LYCANTHROPES

 

Similar to vampires, with some outliers of belief.

 

RELIGIOUS

 

(13) CRYPTIDS

 

Yes, there’s no cryptid religions as such – although something like the Church of the Mothman would be a hoot to see – but cryptids have to tip the scale into active or actual belief in them. After all, it’s what distinguishes cryptids from legendary creatures – serious belief that they do, in fact, exist out there somewhere.

 

(14) ATLANTIS & BERMUDA TRIANGLE

 

Similar to cryptids, Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle just tip the scale into the territory of active or actual belief in them, albeit very limited (I hope). And let’s face it – between the two of them, it’s probably the Bermuda Triangle that’s doing the heavy lifting in terms of people believing in it.

 

(15) URBAN LEGENDS

 

Similar to the preceding entries, urban legends tip the scales into active or actual belief in them – it’s kind of the point of an urban legend that it’s a “true story”, at least in some kernel of belief even if we mostly believe otherwise.

 

(16) CONSPIRACY THEORIES

 

Pretty much the same as urban legends, although conspiracy theories have more in the way of true believers – it’s again kind of the point of conspiracy theories.

 

(17) UFO

 

Now we’re getting into the territory of actual religion on the religious scale. Yes – there are UFO religions, although I anticipate that they remain a much smaller part of active or actual belief in UFOs as extraterrestrial aliens or something similar.

 

(18) DISCORDIANISM

 

Discordianism was tricky to rank. There’s probably more people with actual or active belief in the few preceding entries – cryptids, Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle, urban legends, conspiracy theories and UFOs – but with the exception of a few weird UFO cults, usually not as part of a religion. Of course, with Discordianism, that may be a religion disguised as a joke or a joke disguised as a religion.

When you throw in parody religions in general, that’s probably enough to bump it up the religious scale, ranking it with UFOs where that scale just tips into actual religions, albeit at the lowest or smallest level.

 

 

(19) NATIVE AMERICAN (LAKOTA)

 

(20) MESO-AMERICAN (AZTEC)

 

And now we get to two of my top ten mythologies that persist in active religious belief, albeit on a small scale. There are practitioners of native American religions but their numbers are largely a matter of speculation, although unlikely to exceed a million and indeed estimates go lower than 10,000 or so. Arguably they punch above their religious weight in cultural influence and the preservation of Native American sacred sites.

The persistence of meso-American mythologies in active religious belief is harder to track but I speculate them to have higher numbers than their northern native American counterparts simply due to larger population. As I understand it, “the Aztecs abandoned their rites and merged their own religious beliefs with Catholicism, whereas the relatively autonomous Maya kept their religion as the core of their beliefs and incorporated varying degrees of Catholicism.”

 

(21) PAGANISM

 

Paganism would arguably be the archetype for the twilight of the gods – as the combination of all the pantheons eclipsed by Christianity. And yet, here it is in the religious part of the scale for twilight of the gods, not only because of its enduring cultural persistence – arguably as elements of belief in contemporary religions, particularly Christianity – but even more so its modern revival or reconstruction as religion, which pushes it into the religious side of the scale. The number of practitioners of modern paganism are still relatively small worldwide but would place it among what Wikipedia classifies as medium religions – 1 million or more. Indeed, there are estimates of 1 million adherents of modern paganism in the United States alone.

Given that Discordianism is a tiny (and somewhat obscure) subset of paganism – and one that is hard to tell whether it is a joke disguised as a religion or a religion disguised as a joke – I obviously had to rank paganism further along the religious scale than Discordianism.

 

(22) AFRO-AMERICAN (VOODOO)

 

Voodoo, or more broadly, Afro-American diaspora religion in general, which may well rank among major world religions in number of adherents but for the difficulty of estimating with any precision due to “its diverse, decentralized nature and syncretism with other faiths”. Even so, it is estimated at 60 million adherents.

 

(23) SHAMANISM

 

Shamanism might seem up (or down) there with paganism in its twilight of gods, clinging to the residual tribal religions of the world, except that like paganism, shamanism and tribal religions have had their modern revival or reconstruction. As such, you can argue that shamanism effectively incorporates Native American, Meso-American and even Afro-American mythology or religion within it – hence the more religious ranking.

I was tempted to rank it as even more religious, potentially as the most religious, on the argument that there’s the recurring shamanic nature or elements argued for all religions, as by Weston La Barre in The Ghost Dance – but I drew the line here.

 

(24) ZEN

 

Zen outranks most other mythologies for persistence and endurance in cultural influence and religious belief, given that I use it as representative of Buddhism (and Taoism) in general

 

(25) TANTRA

 

There’s not too much information about the number of genuine tantra practitioners out there – that it is an esoteric tradition suggests I might have ranked it too highly in terms of religious belief but because it is a tradition or reflects elements within Hinduism (and Buddhism) to the extent of prolific er0tic temple sculpture, it seemed appropriate to rank it just under the next entry.

Speaking of which…

 

(26) HINDU

 

(27) BIBLICAL

 

‘Nuff said – no surprises here for these entries from my top ten mythologies, except perhaps I rank three other entries as further on the religious end of the scale.

Hindu mythology underlies Hinduism, the third largest religion in the world, while Biblical mythology underlies Christianity as the first largest and arguably Islam as the second (as well as Judaism).

 

(28) WITCHCRAFT

 

Wait – witchcraft as even more religious than Hindu or Biblical mythology?

Am I referring to modern witchcraft or Wicca?

In short, no – or at least almost entirely not. I’m referring to the old witchcraft rather than modern witchcraft or Wicca – that is, the almost universal belief in witchcraft, including in the Bible itself, which not only features religious injunctions against witches but also an actual witch, the Witch of Endor. Hence the ranking above all but two other mythologies, because it features in almost all other mythologies.

You’d think that belief in witchcraft would not persist in the modern world but you’d be wrong. For one thing, it’s sobering to recall that the height of witch hunts and trials was not in the medieval period but the early modern one, not too far removed from the scientific revolution. For another, it persists as a subset of my next special mention entry and almost as prevalent, since it is intertwined. And for a last sobering thought, the persistence of beliefs in witchcraft in the modern world still has very real and fatal consequences, the latter particularly for those accused of it.

 

(29) MAGIC

 

In terms of persistence of belief, magic – and even more so magical thinking – would seem to outrank even the most religious of my top ten mythologies (or special mention entries) as it is almost universal to all of them, such that I rank it second only to one mythology on the religious side of the scale. As I like to quip, religion is just organized magic.

 

(30) GHOSTS

 

And here we are, with ghosts ranking as the most “religious” of all my top ten mythologies or special mentions – as in higher than actual or active belief than Biblical mythology or Hindu mythology with their major world religions, as well as higher than witchcraft or magic.

How so? There may not seem to be any ghost-religions as such but I have ranked it so high in terms of belief because almost all religions would seem to have some belief in ghosts, albeit more in terms of souls and afterlife. Indeed, it’s been argued (by Pascal Boyer in his book “Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought”) that religion itself originated in the nearly universal belief that we persist in some form after our death (at least in the dreams of the living if nowhere else). Hence I have ranked ghosts so that they outrank all other mythologies that persist in actual or active belief.

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (8) Scylla & Charybdis

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Odysseus in front of Scylla and Charybis, painting by Henry Fuseli, 1794-1796. Pretty sure that’s Scylla top right and Charybdis top left

 

 

(8) SCYLLA & CHARYBDIS

 

Yes – it’s another matched pair of villains, but from classical mythology and a pair that was canonically matched in their mythology.

Scylla and Charybdis were two sea monsters that Odysseus had to sail between in Homer’s Odyssey.

“Greek mythology sited them on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria, on the Italian mainland…They were regarded as maritime hazards located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding Charybdis meant passing too close to Scylla and vice versa.”

However, they weren’t equal hazards. Of the two, Charybdis was far more dangerous. Whereas Scylla would snatch up six sailors – one for each of her six ravenous heads – Charybdis would suck the whole ship down to the depths. Accordingly, you’d err on the side of Scylla.

And yes – you read that right when I said her. Scylla and Charybdis were female sea monsters. In the usual style of classical mythology, they were nymphs or demi-goddesses transformed into monsters by the gods. In some later versions, Scylla was adapted as a beautiful nymph transformed into her monstrous form. The reasons varied – as did the form, although it consistently involved six man-eating heads, which she would feed by snatching sailors from passing ships. In one version, the heads were those of dogs. Charybdis was somewhat more ambiguous in her origin and form, but the latter consistently involved her sucking or swallowing down water like a whirlpool or maelstrom.

Indeed, Charybdis was rationalized as an explanation for a coastal whirlpool, while Scylla was rationalized as a rock shoal, presumably with waves that could sweep sailors from a ship.

Between Scylla and Charybdis became a proverbial expression similar in meaning to between the devil and the deep blue sea, or similar expressions for a dilemma or choosing between evils. Indeed, I used to believe that the latter originated from the former, with Scylla as the man-eating devil and Charybdis swallowing you down into the deep blue sea. Sadly, the origin of the latter phrase is not clear but probably does not originate from the Odyssey.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Fantasy Books (Complete & Revised – 2026)

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Theatrical release poster for the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film – still arguably the defining image of fantasy in popular culture, so much so that it is often dubbed the Conan pose (as originating in pulp fiction covers, particularly when combined with the leg cling trope not in this poster)

 

“Fantasy isn’t just a jolly escape: It’s an escape, but into something far more extreme than reality, or normality. It’s where things are more beautiful and more wondrous and more terrifying.” – Terry Gilliam

Exactly what it says on the tin – counting down my Top 10 Fantasy Books.

In effect, it runs parallel to my Top 10 Literature list, albeit there is quite the fantasy overlap in that list, in that this is my top ten list of fantasy literature. Comics tend to be fantasy or SF – at least the ones I like – but I have a separate Top 10 Comics list. Similarly, I like many fantasy or SF films or TV series, but they have their own top ten lists.

But what is fantasy?

Magic is often seen as or argued to be the defining feature of fantasy, not least by me.

Which prompts to mind this quotation from TV Tropes – “Fantasy: it’s stuff with magic in it, not counting psychic powers, or magic from technology, or anything meant to frighten, or anything strongly religious, or the technology behind the magic that is magitek, or — where did that clean-cut definition go?”

Fictional genres can be notoriously difficult to define or difficult to distinguish from other fictional genres, with the two looming largest – and closest – to fantasy being science fiction and horror, with all three often being classed within the category of speculative fiction.

Again as per TV Tropes – “While the core of the fantasy genre is clear enough, there is no succinct definition that encompasses it all. The boundary with science fiction is notoriously ambiguous and the boundary with horror is often no less fuzzy.”

Indeed, I will note where science fiction or horror loom large or close to the fantasy for my entries.

That core of the fantasy genre is often defined as high fantasy – fantasy set in a so-called secondary world or world other than our own, even if linked to or evolving into our own in some way. Hence the counterpart of fantasy set in our own world is often defined as low fantasy. These distinctions within the genre of fantasy, usually classed as sub-genres of fantasy, intrigue me even more than the distinctions between fantasy and other genres – and fantasy sub-genres are worthy of their own top ten.

Whether in its core of hard fantasy or in other sub-genres, fantasy tends to be defined as such by common features or themes. And yes – magic or supernatural elements is the primary feature or theme, but not always. There are fantasy works with low or no magic.

Secondary worlds are another common feature or theme, as are imaginary beings or creatures – here be dragons! – and what TV Tropes calls the appeal to a pastoral ideal.

Anyway, here are my Top 10 Fantasy Books – or my Top 10 Fantasy Literature.

 

 

Paperback cover of the first book, The Will of the Many, published by Saga Press in 2023 – the edition I own

 

 

 

(10) JAMES ISLINGTON –

HIERARCHY (2023-2025)

 

My usual rule is to reserve my wildcard tenth place for the best entry from the present or previous year, although in this case I have bent the rule slightly as it was the second book of the series that was published in 2025 with the first book published in 2023. I’m still counting it within my usual rule – I make my own rules and break them anyway!

Australian fantasy writer? Epic fantasy modelled on the Roman Republic, except where the metaphorical become literal and citizens of lower classes have to cede half of their Will – their life force or physical and mental energy – to the citizens of classes above them? Protagonist rebelling against the imperial Republic literally draining the Will of its subjects? What’s not to love?

The Catenan Republic of the Hierarchy is a little like a pyramid scheme, except that only the chumps in the lowest class are left with half their Will. Each tier cedes Will to the tier above them, except all but the lowest tier is ceding half the Will they have received from the tier below them. Of course, the people at the top of each pyramid are powerful indeed, empowered by the strength of those below them without having to cede anything.

Will is also used to power magical technology – both that technology and the means to extract Will originate from their predecessors prior to the Cataclysm three centuries previously, the apocalypse that more than decimated the world – leaving only one in twenty alive. So, in effect combining a fantasy Rome with a fantasy Atlantis, not unlike my top entry…

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER) – BEST OF 2025

 

 

 

 

(9) WILLIAM BROWNING SPENCER –

RESUME WITH MONSTERS (1995)

 

Great Cthulhu in a cubicle!

Yes – we’re talking a light fantasy evocation of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

Spencer delightfully combines a playful comedic style and observational humor to fantasy themes, as in Resume with Monsters, which combines the Cthulhu Mythos with satire of the corporate cubicle drone workplace.

Philip Kenan may not be the most reliable narrator of his experience as a worker in dead-end office cubicle drone jobs – between bouts of therapy and his unrequited quest to win back his ex-girlfriend Amelia, although he saved her (and quite possibly the world) from some…thing at their mutual previous employment (“the Doom That Came to MicroMeg”). Now he is routinely alert to signs of otherworldly incursions at his workplace.

Or perhaps he is simply lapsing into mental breakdown or outright insanity, symptoms of his obsession with H.P. Lovecraft’s “monsters” (his therapist noting that Lovecraft “was not in the pink of mental health”). An obsession born of his father’s own obsessive narration to him of the stories of Lovecraft, identifying it with the ‘System’ – “don’t let the System eat your soul”. An obsession that Philip Kenan tries to keep at bay by the equally obsessive emotional talisman of his own Lovecraftian novel, “The Despicable Quest”, which he has been constantly rewriting over twenty years until it has swollen to two thousand pages. Or perhaps all of the above.

It has a special resonance for those, like myself, who have always suspected a connection – nay unholy collusion! – between the soul-destroying corporate workplace and the soul-destroying dark entities of the Cthulhu Mythos. In my own experience as corporate cubicle drone, I suspected that the mind-numbingly boring files simply could not exist for their own purpose but had to have a more substantial and sinister purpose in inducing a receptive state or lack of resistance to otherworldly invasion. Of course, I was too smart for them, as I simply didn’t do my files…

 

SF & HORROR

 

It’s the Cthulhu Mythos – of course there’s an overlap with SF and (cosmic) horror!

 

RATING: 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

*

 

 

(8) JAMES MORROW –

GODHEAD TRILOGY (1994-1999)

 

Religious and philosophical satire clothed in absurdist Vonnegutian fantasy – Morrow takes the Nietzschean theme that God is dead and makes it flesh, literally in the form of a two mile long corpse – or Corpus Dei – in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is the premise of the trilogy as a whole – particularly the opening of the first novel, Towing Jehovah. God is dead and the Vatican charges Captain Anthony Van Horne to tow the Corpus Dei with a supertanker to the Arctic Circle, to preserve it from decomposition, for possible resuscitation or at least for time to ponder the theological questions of the Deity’s death.

My favorite is the second of the trilogy, Blameless in Abaddon, where theodicy is made flesh – theodicy being the theological study of the problem of evil or suffering in the manner of the biblical Book of Job. It turns out that there’s life in the old God yet – and He’s about to be prosecuted in the World Court for the suffering of His Creation.

In the third book, The Eternal Footman, the last remnant of the Corpus Dei, God’s grinning skull or Cranium Dei, is in geosynchronous orbit over Times Square and Western civilization is collapsing as a people become ‘Nietzsche positive’ with their awareness of impending death (literally embodied in their own double or ‘fetch’).

 

SF & HORROR

 

Not really – it’s pretty much pure absurdist fantasy, although that’s not uncommon in works that are nominally SF.

 

RATING: 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

2004 edition published by William Morrow & Company

 

 

 

(7) CHRISTOPHER MOORE –

PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING (1992)

 

Christopher Moore is a writer of comic contemporary fantasy, who has combined the narrative voice (and Californian geography) of John Steinbeck and the comic absurdist fantasy of Kurt Vonnegut.

Like other writers, Moore has constructed his own storyverse, with its focus in California (Moore himself lives in San Francisco) and particularly the sleepy town of Pine Cove. Sleepy that is, until invaded by supernatural or othe forces such as Godzilla (the fantastically named Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove) or near-miss zombie apocalypses (The Stupidest Angel).

As for which Moore novel is my personal favorite, there’s some tight competition – such as the Bloodsucking Fiends vampire love trilogy set in San Francisco, A Dirty Job psychopompic thriller also set in San Francisco (which crosses over with Bloodsucking Fiends) or anothe fantastically named novel, The Island of the Sequined Love Nun (stepping outside the main Californian venue of his storyverse to the Micronesian Island of the Shark People).

However, I’ll go with his debut novel, Practical Demonkeeping, in which Pine Cove is invaded by a demon and its weary summoner:

“The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and “roads” scholar Travis O’Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor facade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.”

 

SF & HORROR

 

Not so much in this book and Moore predominantly keeps to fantasy but he occasionally dips a toe into SF in his books, as with the Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

He dips more than a toe into horror or dark fantasy, as with this book and his vampire books.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

*

Cover of the complete Drive-In Trilogy, paperback edition published 2020 by BookVoice Publishing

 

 

(6) JOE LANSDALE – THE DRIVE-IN TRILOGY (1988-2005)

*

Joe Landsale is a genre-hopping self-branded mojo storyteller so Texan his books positively drawl. His fantasy is never purely fantasy, as he writes books and stories (and comics!) in a number of genres, often at the same time. Westerns, of course – although he is from east Texas – but often of the Weird West, horror or so-called splatterpunk, mystery, suspense and thrillers.

A good introduction to Lonsdale is his short stories, which are particularly difficult to pin down in genre. I mean, how do you classify “Bubba Ho-Tep” (subsequently adapted into film starring none other than the Chin himself, Bruce Campbell) – in which an aged Elvis Presley and a black JFK battle a soul-sucking mummy in a nursing home? (No, seriously – Elvis Presley, having swapped with a double to opt out of fame. Not sure about JFK though – he claims the Conspiracy swapped his mind into his present body. Even Elvis is skeptical). Or his post-zombie apocalyptic “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks”? “Frequent features of Lansdale’s writing are usually deeply ironic, strange or absurd situations or characters”. Indeed.

And perhaps none more bizarre than my introduction to Lansdale and still my favorite, although it is a little intense (if by intense you mean insane) – his 1988 book The Drive-In, or for its full title, The Drive-In: A ‘B’ Movie with Blood and Popcorn, Made in Texas. It starts as a normal summer Friday night horror movie marathon at the Orbit Drive-In in Texas. And then it becomes the horror-movie marathon, as they are trapped by a demonic grinning comet in the drive-in, beyond time in an eternal night – seemingly at the whim of the dark gods of B-grade movie horror, who lend a hand to all the base humanity on show with a little (or a lot) of some monstrosity of their own, with the Popcorn King.

Don’t eat the popcorn. It’s watching you.

A sequel – The Drive-In 2: Not Just One of Them Sequels – followed shortly after in 1989, with a third book (Drive in 3: The Bus Tour) in 2005 rounding out the Drive-In Trilogy.

 

SF & HORROR

 

As I said, genre-hopping – so this trilogy and Lansdale in general straddle the lines between fantasy, SF and horror. This trilogy leans heavily into horror – or splatterpunk.

*

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

(5) ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY –

SHADOWS OF THE APT / TALES OF THE APT (2008 – 2018)

 

Like my previous entry, this entry particularly resonated with me as reflecting my own unwritten story idea involving the same premise – but then Adrian Tchaikovsky went ahead and wrote it. And it’s awesome.

I have always been fascinated by insects, so one of my unwritten story ideas involved high fantasy with insect-people. They were essentially human, but with the skin or hair coloring of their insect species, as well as other physical attributes that did not radically alter their otherwise human appearance – wings for example (in the style of the butterfly or other insect wings occasionally depicted on fairies), perhaps antennae and so on.

I imagined the insect-people as essentially divided up into realms according to the three great species of social insects – bees, ants and wasps, although there would be different realms of each (corresponding to different sub-species or types). Each of these realms would also include other thematically similar insect-peoples – for example, bee-kingdoms (or more precisely, bee-queendoms) would include other pollinating insects, such as butterflies.

As for antagonists, one was spoilt for choice – flies or locusts as marauding hordes (the Locust Horde!), various parasitic insects (fleas, mosquitoes and so on) as blood-sucking bandits or brigands, arachnids such as spiders or scorpions as monstrous figures. However, I imagined the most dangerous and recurring antagonists as the fourth great species of social insects – termites. In fairness, I didn’t get much beyond imagining the various insect-people societies, although I did imagine my main protagonist as a mantis warrior.

And then I found Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadows of the Apt series, which effectively does just that – a high fantasy set in a world of insect-‘kinden’, humans who have adopted some of the characteristics of their insect-types (or arachnid-types) through their magical Art from the dangerous and giant fantasy insects (or arachnids) of this world. Ant and beetle kinden dominate the so-called Lowlands (not surprisingly, given the sheer prevalence of those insect species in our world).

Even more intriguingly, it is a world in which magic is being replaced by science – an industrial revolution by the technologically Apt peoples of the title, matched by a political revolution, in which the more mundane but Apt ants and beetles have ousted the more magically-minded moths and mantises (although mantis warriors are still legendary). However, the antagonists are not termites, but the growing and ruthless Wasp Empire.

Of course, Tchaikovsky is a little too fond of spiders for my arachnopobia (even if spider girls are notoriously hot) – a fondness that extends across his fantasy or SF works, not just the spider-kinden in this series. Perhaps because Tchaikovksy is secretly a spider himself, or maybe a man-shaped swarm of spiders, without a shred of normal human arachnophobia to show for it.

So – damn you, Adrian Tchaikovsky, for conceiving and executing your insect fantasy first, in such an epic series! And I love it!

 

SF & HORROR

 

Tchaikovksy straddles both fantasy and SF genres – his Hugo Award-winning Children of Time series is an example of the latter but of course also features his beloved spiders.

For that matter, Shadows of the Apt has more than a touch of SF to it – and on occasions I almost thought it had a similar premise as the Children Time series with human (and arthropod) space colonists. Setting aside those thoughts, it was interesting to have a fantasy world increasingly eschewing magic for industrialization and technology.

And it wouldn’t take too much tweaking to adapt his premises to horror. Because, you know, spiders – perhaps not to Tchaikovsky who loves them, but to an arachnophobe like myself.

 

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

*

 

 

(4) GARTH NIX –

THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM (2003 – 2010)

 

Cosmic fantasy by an Australian writer.

Creation is coming undone – not just the universe, but the entire multiverse, is slowly falling apart into Nothing in the absence of its Creator, the Architect. And at the center of it all, the cosmic structure called The House, divided up into seven domains or worlds by its seven most powerful denizens, the Morrow Days.

But the Architect left his Will (in more than one sense of the word) and where there’s a will, there’s a way – for mortal Rightful Heir to the Keys to the Kingdom, the aptly named Arthur Penhaglion, who has to ascend all seven domains of The House to reclaim the Will and the Keys to the Kingdom from each Morrow Day – Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday and Lord Sunday.

Also somewhat reminiscent of the cosmic fantasy of one of my favorite webcomics – Kill Six Billion Demons

 

SF & HORROR

 

Definitely overlaps with multiverse SF – not so much horror, except perhaps for occasional elements.

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

(3) JOSEPH FINK & JEFFREY CRANOR –
WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE (2012 – PRESENT)

 

“A friendly desert community, where the Sun is hot, the Moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale.”

Surreal horror and humor podcast styled as a community radio broadcaster in an American desert town – although my familiarity with it is more from the novels, which served as my introduction to the Night Vale setting, a desert town where all conspiracy theories are real as well as other urban myths and other surreal fantasies.

In other words, a fantasy and conspiracy kitchen sink setting, where the laws of time and space and nature in general don’t apply, or at apply only spasmodically. The citizens of Night Value simply roll with it, accepting surreal fantasy side by side with mundane reality.

“The news from Lake Wobegon as seen through the eyes of Stephen King”. Alternatively the Illuminatus Trilogy filtered through H.P. Lovecraft and crammed into one desert town. Or the surreal dream logic of David Lynch on crack or acid flashback (or both).

The Sheriff’s Secret Police along with all the other government surveillance agencies and spy satellites, Old Woman Josie surrounded by angelic beings all named Erika, the Glow Cloud (all hail the Glow Cloud!) and plastic pink flamingos that warp time and space.

And then you have the really dangerous entities and eldritch abominations – the car salesman loping like wolves through their yards, the mysterious hooded figures in the town’s forbidden dog park, the City Council (in the council building draped nightly in black velvet) and worst of all, the Library and its most dangerous part, the fiction section filled with lies…

 

SF & HORROR

 

As usual for fantasy kitchen sink settings, anything goes – even SF and horror.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

Prince Caspian movie poster art

 

(2) C.S. LEWIS –
NARNIA CHRONICLES (1950-1956)

 

“He’s not a tame lion.”

Yes, we’re talking about Aslan – the famous talking lion (whose name is Turkish for lion), the King of Beasts, the son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea and the King above all High Kings in Narnia. Aslan – present in all seven volumes of the Narnia Chronicles and voiced by Liam goddamn Neeson in the films. (If only they could have worked in his famous Taken speech into the films. Stay with me here – it absolutely could have worked, over the phone to the White Witch cajoling her to return Edmund).

To paraphrase Bob Marley, Aslan is iron like a lion in Zion, aptly enough, given his religious imagery. And yes, I know, that Aslan is, in the words of Robot Chicken, the Jesus allegory lion. But quite frankly, I can more readily identify as Aslanist – after all, the dude’s a talking lion with magic coming out his mane. Who wouldn’t be an Aslanist?

Although there are any number of protagonists to choose for heroes from the seven volumes in The Chronicles of Narnia, notably the child protagonists who find themselves drawn from our world (specifically England) to Narnia through magic portals – hence the description of the Narnia Chronicles in Wikipedia as portal fantasy. (My personal favorite remains the native Narnian – or Archenlander to be precise – Shasta from The Horse and His Boy, albeit all native Narnian humans ultimately originate from our world in the first place).

But really if one character both embodies Narnia and rises above the others, albeit not so much as protagonist but as the moving force behind the world – from singing it into being in the beginning to literally closing the door on it in the end – it’s Aslan.

And Aslan embodies the spirit of Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles, those seven fantasy books that continue to inspire readers and remain among the most popular fantasy books or series, strikingly so for children’s fantasy books and explicitly Christian ones at that, although many readers remain unaware of the Christian themes.

Indeed, as my second place indicates, C.S. Lewis might be considered second only to my top place entry – with whom he was a close friend and colleague – as founding father (and leading theorist) of modern fantasy literature.

The books were published in anachronic order – that is, not in sequence in terms of their in-universe chronology, albeit with two of the books out of place, most famously with the book of Narnia’s creation being the second last book (and effectively as prequel to all preceding books). Some publishers or collections place them in chronological order but I’m a publication order purist, particularly for the prequel book.

Narnia might lack the same grandeur as Middle-Earth but for me it will always have a charm and place close to my heart, with these books as something of a recurring source of familiar comfort even as an adult. And so enchanting that after reading its Chronicles, what young reader doesn’t search wardrobes for other worlds? (Or hot White Witches with Turkish delight? Except I’ll pass on the Turkish delight). I know I still do…

 

SF & HORROR

 

No SF – although C.S. Lewis did venture into SF with his Space Trilogy – but it’s striking how much classics of high fantasy, such as this one, leans into dark fantasy or horror.

 

 

RATING: 5 STARS****
S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

The Return of the King cinematic poster art

 

(1) J.R.R. TOLKIEN –
THE LORD OF THE RINGS (1954)

 

One book to rule them all!

Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings defined modern literary fantasy. Fantasy could well be classified as pre-Tolkien and post-Tolkien. Such is its influence that Tolkien has been identified as the father of modern fantasy literature or high fantasy, although of course there were many other writers of fantasy before (and apart from) Tolkien – perhaps most notably Robert E. Howard, writer of Conan. I particularly note Robert E. Howard, because I understand that Tolkien read and enjoyed the Conan stories – and because I couldn’t resist including George R. R. Martin, who came to The Lord of The Rings from those very different Conan stories:

“Robert E. Howard’s stories usually opened with a giant serpent slithering by or an axe cleaving someone’s head in two. Tolkien opened his with a birthday party…Conan would hack a bloody path right through the Shire, end to end, I remembered thinking…Yet I kept on reading. I almost gave up at Tom Bombadil, when people started going Hey! Come derry do! Tom Bombadillo!”. Things got more interesting in the barrow downs, though, and even more so in Bree, where Strider strode onto the scene. By the time we got to Weathertop, Tolkien had me…A chill went through me, such as Conan and Kull have never evoked”

Indeed, just as A. H. Whitehead stated that the western philosophical tradition could be generalized as being footnotes to Plato, so too might modern fantasy literature be generalized as sequels or epilogues to Tolkien – and Stephen King has done just that in his non-fiction study of horror Danse Macabre, attributing modern fantasy to a hunger for more stories about hobbits.

Much of the appeal of The Lord of the Rings is the depth of its world-building, or what Tolkien identified as his legendarium of Middle Earth. On the other hand, this can present as a flaw to more modern readers as a potential lack of pacing, or where world-building takes precedence to story. However, this is not surprising since the world-building was essentially Tolkien’s life hobby, from which the story revolved in recitations and into which Tolkien was not above shoehorning other ideas – the aforementioned Tom Bombadil for example, or The Hobbit itself to some extent, or as Hugo Dyson infamously exclaimed during one of Tolkien’s recitations, “Not another f…g elf!” (The same might have been said of yet another poem, song or verse).

However, I prefer the reaction of C. S. Lewis – “here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart”. Indeed, there are and it is. For me, I loved the depth of Tolkien’s world, one of the few fictional worlds I regard as real as our own (canonically, it is meant to be a mythic precursor of our own world) – or indeed, perhaps more real. Again, as George R. R. Martin wrote – “The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real…They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle Earth”

As for the story, like George R. R. Martin, I was enchanted and entranced – but unlike George R. R. Martin, from the very start in the Shire. The story itself should be well known to any reader (or viewer) of fantasy, and in any event is too complex to discuss in depth here, but can be summarized as the Quest to destroy the One Ring, the source of the Adversary or Dark Lord Sauron’s power. Its themes are the themes of humanity in any world – life and mortality, the corruption or addiction of power, courage and compassion, triumph against adversity and at the same time the sense of loss for those things lost in battle or passing from the world.

 

SF & HORROR

 

The Lord of the Rings is among the highest of high fantasies – but as the definitive work of modern literary fantasy has also proved highly influential for modern literary SF as well. And along with the Narnia Chronicles, it’s striking how much these two classic and definitive works of high fantasy also lean into dark fantasy or horror.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

TOP 10 FANTASY BOOKS (TIER LIST)

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

(1) J.R.R. TOLKIEN – THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Yeah – this is the big one, the book that defined modern literary fantasy AND shaped my world of fantasy forever.

(2) C. S. LEWIS – NARNIA CHRONICLES

(3) JOSEPH FINK & JEFFREY CRANOR – WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE

 

If Tolkien and Lewis are my Old Testament of fantasy books, then Welcome to Night Vale is my New Testament.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(4) GARTH NIX – THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

(5) ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSY – SHADOWS OF THE APT

(6) JOE LANSDALE – THE DRIVE-IN TRILOGY

(7) CHRISTOPHER MOORE – PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING

(8) JAMES MORROW – GODHEAD TRILOGY

(9) WILLIAM BROWNING SPENCER – RESUME WITH MONSTERS

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER) – BEST OF 2025

 

(10) JAMES ISLINGTON – HIERARCHY

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (8) Prometheus

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Prometheus Brings Fire – painting by Heinrich Fueger

 

 

(8) PROMETHEUS

 

The Rock – the People’s Champion!

No, seriously. Prometheus was the people’s champion – the champion of humanity – in classical mythology. The Rock comes later…

Unlike the Olympian gods or other gods in general (and Prometheus was a Titan which might account for some of the difference), he was consistently in humanity’s corner. In some versions of the myth, he created us (from clay) – which would also account for why he looked out for us.

The primary myth is that he stole fire from the Olympian gods to give to us and hence gave us the means for civilization. In some versions, he added to that by teaching us the actual arts and sciences of civilization as well. As part of his character as benefactor to humanity, he was the classic guile hero or even benevolent trickster, relying on intelligence – with his very name usually argued to mean forethought.

Some versions of his myth have him playing another trick on the gods which compounded his theft of fire from heaven – swindling their sacrifices. That is, he instructed humanity when the gods were choosing their portion of animal sacrifice to disguise the bones under a glistening layer of fat. The gods chose that portion, so that humans were able to retain the meat from animal sacrifices.

Unfortunately, you can only play so many tricks on the gods – only the one as a general rule, two if you were lucky or on a winning streak – before they came down on you with their wrath. The house always wins – and in classical mythology, Olympus was the house.

And so Prometheus literally was bound to a rock as people’s champion – perhaps not so bad of itself, but the eagle eating his liver daily was the true torment, the liver of course regenerating overnight to be eaten again the next day. I told you the Rock comes later. However, Zeus just couldn’t stay mad at Prometheus forever and allowed him to be freed by Heracles. Some versions of his myth attributed that to Prometheus finally confessing the secret of Zeus’ downfall but there was not too much attention given to what Prometheus did after he was unbound.

“In the Western classical tradition, Prometheus became a figure who represented human striving (particularly the quest for scientific knowledge) and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences.”

Hence, Prometheus has lent his name to common usage as the adjective Promethean, meaning “daringly creative” or innovative but also often rebellious and defiant of authority (or even “suffering grandly”).

“In particular, he was regarded in the Romantic era as embodying the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence could also result in tragedy” – as with the lesser known subtitle Mary Shelley gave her novel Frankenstein, “The Modern Prometheus”.

“The myth of Prometheus has been a favourite theme of Western art and literature”, particularly “in the post-Renaissance and post-Enlightenment tradition” – including popular culture, notably as the title of the Alien film prequel-sequel (presequel?).

 

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (7) Beelzebub & Baphomet

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Beelzebub’s appearance from the Dictionnaire Infernal in 1818 and Baphomet as depicted by Eliphas Levi in 1856, both public domain images

 

 

(7) BEELZEBUB & BAPHOMET

 

Yes – it’s my fourth matched pair of villains from Biblical mythology and second alliterative one (after Moloch and Mammon).

Or maybe not, since while Beelzebub is canonical to the Bible (in both Testaments), Baphomet is not – although ironically Baphomet has a stronger influence on the visual iconography of the Christian Devil as goat or so-called Sabbath goat.

Similarly to Moloch, Beelzebub is derived from a Canaanite (or Philistine) god – Baal, although that name is an honorific title meaning “lord” and hence was somewhat generic for gods, clarified by epithets hence the latter part of Beelzebub’s name, apparently from Ba’al Zabub or something similar. I say something similar because again like Moloch, there are variant names or titles – with the most famous as Lord of the Flies, the titular metaphor for human savagery in the novel by William Golding. My love of that novel is a major reason for his inclusion as special mention, although that in turn reflects that sheer evocative resonance which underlies other special mention entries.

Beelzebub pops up as Baal in the Old Testament but is even more notably name-dropped in the New Testament by none other than Jesus himself – which has seen him placed high in Hell’s hierarchy by Christian folklore, even as high as second in command as in Paradise Lost.

Baphomet has no such Biblical pedigree and the first reference to him by name only emerges as the demonic idol of which the Knights Templar were accused of worshipping in their fourteenth century trials for heresy. His subsequent infamy belies such an obscure or esoteric origin, which might otherwise have been relegated to a historical footnote but for him being reimagined by nineteenth century occultists – it is that infamy that sees him ranked with Beelzebub in this special mention, apart from my usual predilection for alliteration.

“The modern popular image of Baphomet was established by Eliphas Levi in…1856” – that of the “Sabbatic Goat” as an unsavory winged human-goat hybrid that has been the iconic image of the Devil in popular culture ever since.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (7) Gilgamesh

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The standard design of Gilgamesh in the Smite video game from the wiki

 

 

(7) GILGAMESH

 

Epic!

No, seriously – the first epic hero, Mesopotamian mythic hero and titular protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The first surviving version of that epic apparently dates back to the 18th century BC, in turn originating from Sumerian poems which may date back to the Third Dynasty of Ur in 21st century BC.

“He was possibly a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was posthumously deified”. That’s certainly how he was presented by my favorite adaptation of him by Robert Silverberg, who had him as the protagonist of posthumous fantasy in Silverberg’s novel To the Land of the Living. Silverberg obviously had an enduring interest in Gilgamesh, featuring him in a more straightforward adaptation Gilgamesh the King. Indeed, Gilgamesh has been surprisingly enduring and prolific in adaptation in art and popular culture, not just by Silverberg.

Gilgamesh is perhaps most famous for his epic quest for immortality – in which he failed, ironically perhaps for its fame but not surprisingly given how much any such quest is defying the odds. The house of mortality always wins.

Gilgamesh and his epic are even more impactful from their influence on both Biblical and classical mythology, particularly the latter as an influence on the Iliad and the Odyssey.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (6) Legion & Wormwood

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Collage of Yorkshire pigs at a wallow in mud at the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Poolesville, Maryland (evoking the Gadarene swine in the story of Legion) as photographed by Mark Peters and licensed for Wikipedia “Pig” under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en and Artemisia herb-alba (a plant believed to be the original wormwood as source for the bitter Biblical metaphor) photographed by Floratrek and licensed for Wikipedia “Wormwood (Bible)” under  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 

 

(6) LEGION & WORMWOOD

 

Yes – it’s my third matched pair of villains from Biblical mythology but in this case, they are both from the New Testament, as Behemoth and Leviathan are both from the Old Testament.

Legion and Wormwood stand out among the demonic beings referenced in the New Testament because of their sheer evocative resonance.

Legion is the more chilling of the two, from the declaration of their identity “I am Legion, for we are many” – connoting “a large collection of demons that share a single mind and will” in the gospel incident (in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke) variously described as the Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac or the Miracle of the Gadarene Swine. That is, where Jesus exorcises a demonic horde from a man into a herd of swine, which then run down a hill to a lake and drown themselves.

One can’t help but feel the original story may not have been so much literal but a parable against the Romans controlling Judaea, given the demonic self-description evoking a Roman legion and that they are driven into pigs, the archetypal unclean animal of Jewish ritual – and also evocative of the boar emblem of the Tenth Legion that was centrally involved in the first Roman-Jewish War.

Wormwood – or more precisely Star Wormwood – on the other hand has his, her or its singular appearance in the Book of Apocalypse, as a prophesied star or angel that falls from heaven and makes a third of fresh water “bitter” or deadly to people.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (6) Angels & Saints

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“Archangel Michael defeats Satan” painting by Guido Reni at some time between 1630 and 1635

 

 

(6) ANGELS & SAINTS

 

Well, you simply can’t feature a list of mythological heroes without featuring angels and saints, even if they aren’t always straightforward as heroes.

That’s particularly the case for angels – even in the Biblical text, they can be as ineffable as the God for whom they serve as supernatural intermediaries or messengers. All too often they are agents of His wrath. Not to mention they are literally looking like some sort of eldritch abomination:

“Six wings, four faces, a wheel of fire with eyes lining the rim — you name it. Benevolent or not, these angels were the stuff of nightmares. They didn’t traditionally introduce themselves with “Fear not!” for nothing. Those that were winged tended to stay in heaven or looked… different”.

Of course, angels were also depicted as appearing human, defaulting to the modern archetype of winged (and haloed) humans. Careful with those wings, though – bird wings good, bat wings bad. It’s interesting how the wings of fallen angels seem to transform from good bird wings to evil bat wings – insect wings tend to be reserved for fairies. (Some works also transform angelic halos to something more sinister when they fall).

Also interestingly – and somewhat surprisingly – there are only a few named angels, most notably Michael and Gabriel, demonstrating the usual -el suffix for angel names although there are exceptions.

Michael is the archetypal heroic angel – or is that angelic hero? – famously as the warrior of God and leader of Heaven’s host of angels against Satan, in which role he doubles up as dragonslayer, albeit he casts down rather than slays Satan in the latter’s form as dragon.

Michael also demonstrates some other angelic features. Firstly, that angels have been depicted as a hierarchy of different ranks or types – Michael himself is an archangel. Secondly, Michael has been canonized as a saint as well as an angel – Saint Michael – such that he offers a nice segue into featuring saints as heroes.

Saints of course are almost always depicted as human, at least originally, with a few exceptions of angels characterized as saints or the singular case of Mary, rendered semi-divine through her own immaculate conception. However, saints transcend their humanity to partake of divine or semi-divine nature – becoming saints – by the power of their faith or grace, “having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God”.

As such, they are heroic by nature, albeit usually of a gentler or more pacific nature than other mythic heroes – very often, the only violence is of a self-sacrificial nature, as martyrs. However, there are warrior saints – even at least one dragonslayer saint in the form of Saint George, the archetypal heroic saint.

Really, angels and saints could well be the subject of their own top ten list – indeed, many such top ten lists, including their various elements, tropes, and types, not least angelic hierarchies and patron saints. They came very close to having their own entry in the special mentions for my Top 10 Mythologies, except that they primarily appear in Biblical mythology and associated religions – although there are analogies and counterparts in other mythic or religious traditions such as Buddhism.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)