While I get that he's a hero of old, the whole thing just feels like a petulant boy stomping about, even when he's older. In this story, first person told by Gilgamesh, he's the most amazing, awesomest, strongest, sexiest thing ever, and of course everything is about him.

I have not read/studied the Epic of Gilgamesh, so I don't know how well the story would roll with academics who know such things intimately, and I'm generally going to miss any subtext of what was going on or what constituted pop-culture in ancient Mesopotamia, but overall, it is hitting most of the major plot points I remember. This is a novelization/memoir style telling of the Epic of Gilgamesh that's totally NOT GAY. Silverberg bases his historical fiction account on the Epic of Gilgamesh and gives vibrant life to the tale, describing Gilgamesh’s Herculean adventures in first person narrative. Gilgamesh (two parts god and one part man) was a legendary ancient hero king of Sumer who was likely a historical figure, living sometime between 2800 BC and 2500 BC. I also had to check out the Gilgamesh listing in Deities & Demigods: Cyclopedia of Gods and Heroes from Myth and Legend (Gary Gygax and company describes him as having 180 hit points and is a Neutral Good 12th level ranger / 5th level Cleric –Druid / 10th level magic user / 11th level monk and 5th level bard!).

The almost pre-historic, shrouded in myth and legend setting made me think of Creation by Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings. I read five pages and dropped and GAVE MYSELF TEN PUSHUPS!!!

The Gilgamesh that Robert Silverberg describes is a combination of Leonidas (as portrayed by Gerard Butler in 300), Conan (as portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Ted Nugent: he is an alpha male with an attitude, a manly man of testosteronian power and ursine manliness, with a steaming hot side order of god-like virile manly manness.

Gilgamesh the King by Robert Silverberg