The World’s First Superheroes, Shauna Roberts: Author Guest Post & Giveaway

AUTHOR GUEST POST…The World’s First Superheroes

He was as large and strong as the Incredible Hulk. He was as handsome as Superman. He was as savage as Wolverine. He was Gilgamesh: Warrior, hero, tyrant, king, one-third-god, and the world’s first superhero.

The “Epic of Gilgamesh” as we know it today was written down—to be accurate, impressed in clay with a stick—about 1200 BCE. The epic recounts the adventures of a king who lived more than 1,500 years earlier, about 2700 BCE. Gilgamesh was king of Uruk, the world’s first city. A frequent companion on Gilgamesh’s adventures was his best friend, Enkidu the wild man. Like Gilgamesh, Enkidu was a giant with incredible strength. In contrast to Gilgamesh’s childhood as son of a king, Enkidu grew up in the wilderness living with gazelles and antelope.

Together, Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed the hideous monster Humbaba, leveled thousands of square miles of cedar forest, defied the great goddess Inanna, and slew the Bull of Heaven, whose snorts alone caused earthquakes.

Literary snobs sometimes look down on science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and other genre works as “low culture.” So it amuses me that some of the world’s great works of literature are thick with fantasy elements: the “Epic of  Gilgamesh,” the Bible, the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey,” the “Ramayana” and the “Mahabharata,” the “Aeneid,” the “Nibelungenlied,” “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” A Christmas Carol, and on and on. The characters and plots in these acknowledged classics bear a closer resemblance to those of comic books than to those of, say, Madame Bovary.

When I wrote Like Mayflies in a Stream, my publisher (Hadley Rille Books) wanted the story to be as historically and archaeologically accurate as possible. Goodbye, petulant goddesses, humans who don’t need sleep, and monsters with intestines for faces. My challenge was to keep the excitement of the original adventure story while grounding it in the mundane world.

I chose to tell the story of Gilgamesh’s era from the perspective of a character who gets little screen time in the original epic but is crucial to the story: Shamhat, the woman who brings Gilgamesh and Enkidu together.

Shamhat herself is almost a superhero as well. When Gilgamesh hears of a wild giant terrorizing trappers in the wilderness, he could have sent an army out to capture him. Instead, he sent only Shamhat, with a trapper as guide. Shamhat—a priestess in Mayflies and probably a priestess in the original epic as well—tames Enkidu with the power of her sexuality alone. Once Enkidu is putty in her hands, she teaches him the fundamentals of being a civilized man: drinking beer, eating bread, wearing clothes, bathing, rubbing his skin with oil. Then she takes Enkidu back to Uruk, where he first fights with Gilgamesh and then becomes his best friend and brother.

The world has changed a lot since the Sumerians built the first city. But it hasn’t changed unrecognizably. Like those people of thousands of years ago, we still enjoy a good story populated with brave heroes, clever heroines, and monsters.

LIKE MAYFLIES IN A STREAM…At the dawn of civilization, one woman must risk her life and her reputation to save her family and society itself from destruction.

Within the walls of ancient Uruk on the bank of the Euphrates, more than fifty thousand people live, love, work, and play, ruled over by King Gilgamesh and protected by their patron goddess, Inanna. But civilization is precarious. At any moment, the armies of other cities could fall upon them, a spring flood could wash away the city, famine could strike, or, the Sumerians believe, the capricious and vengeful gods could punish any or all for the sins of a few. Although the tall, strong, and handsome Gilgamesh epitomizes manly physical perfection, in other ways he falls far short. His subjects fear him, and for good reason, because he has become a bored and restless tyrant. The people cry out to the gods for relief. The elegant, sophisticated priestess Shamhat fears Gilgamesh’s growing wildness will attract the wrath of the gods. She wants to protect Inanna and her temple, as well as free the people of Uruk from Gilgamesh’s oppression, but she fears the repercussions for her and her son if she acts against the out-of-control king. Then word comes to Uruk of a wild man living in the desert, a man the equal of Gilgamesh in size and strength. The king thinks the wild man can relieve his boredom and restlessness and sends someone to bring him back to court. But the person he has chosen, Shamhat, has her own agenda: She believes the wild man can humble the arrogant king. Enkidu the wild man becomes a pawn in the struggle between Gilgamesh and Shamhat, and the future of Uruk hangs in the balance. Like Mayflies in a Stream is a historical novel set 4,700 years ago in Sumer, in what is now southern Iraq. – FROM AUTHOR SITE

The Book Faery Reviews will be reviewing Roberts debut novel later this month so keep an eye out to find out what I think!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Shauna Roberts first fell in love with the ancient Near East in high school when she read Samuel Noah Kramer’s History Begins at Sumer. She has degrees in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) Since 1990, she has been a freelance medical and science writer and copyeditor, winning several awards. Science fiction and fantasy are her primary fiction genres, and she has had several short stories published. She is a 2009 graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. She grew up in Beavercreek, Ohio, and currently lives with her husband in Southern California. She enjoys herb gardening, quilting, playing medieval and Renaissance music, and bellydancing.

FIND HER AT…

Fiction Website: http://www.ShaunaRoberts.com

Nonfiction Website: http://www.ShaunaSRoberts.com

Blog: http://ShaunaRoberts.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shaunaroberts

BOOK GIVEAWAY…Thanks to Shauna Roberts, The Book Faery Reviews is giving away 1 copy of Like Mayflies in a Stream to one lucky commenter of this post. Commenter’s must have a US/Canada address and no PO Boxes. Leave us a comment on who your favorite epic hero is for your first entry.

For additional entries you can do the following:

1. Tweet (make sure you add in “@farrah1230 #tbfr” so I can find the tweet easily)
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This giveaway will run til October 31st and The Book Faery Reviews will be announcing the winner November 1st.