Inanna

June 26, 2023
Wilson’s unfocused debut, the first in the Sumerians series, remixes The Epic of Gilgamesh and the myth of Inanna’s descent to the underworld into one long and brutal epic. In this version of ancient Mesopotamia, the Anunnaki, while still treated as gods, aren’t really deities but extraterrestrial beings with technologically advanced weapons known as mees, and a black powder, melam, that extends their lives in a kind of immortality. Inanna is the 13th Anunnaki, and the only one born on Earth. The goddess of love and war, Inanna’s attempts to survive the machinations of the other Anunnaki and become Queen of Heaven and Earth are interspersed with sections from other characters’ perspectives, including that of Gilgamesh, the womanizing mortal offspring of gods, who travels with his beloved “wild man” Enkidu; Ninshubar, who here is not a goddess but a fierce runner and hunter from what is now Mombasa; and Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld. Wilson, writing in stark prose that echoes the tone of Madeline Miller, plays fast and loose with the myths she draws from, but her changes often feel unmotivated by either plot or character. Meanwhile, her take on the Anunnaki flirts uncomfortably with conspiracy theories about ancient aliens. Lacking a strong hook, this doesn’t stand out in the recent deluge of mythological retellings.