As a twenty-first century devotee of Ereshkigal, I approached this book with scepticism, but enjoyed it so much I ended up reading the entire series in two days. Hinze takes liberties with the very few ancient texts we do have which mention Ereshkigal - most notably having Her start out as a human - but I commend her for creating a sympathetic portrait of a goddess usually characterized as grim, fearsome, jealous, and even demonic.

The ancient texts are not clear about how Ereshkigal became the ruler of Irkalla, the Underworld, but they do remark on the transition. "Queen of Shades" imagines how that came about. Early Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer interpreted the text as describing Ereshkigal being kidnapped to the underworld by a dragon-like creature called the Kur, asserting that this was an early version of the Persephone myth. Hinze does not adopt this story, but she does provide us with an abrupt, even violent, transition for Kigal into the underworld, and a delightful giant dragon-like character called The Kur who becomes her guide and friend.

The theological foundation of the story is the importance of burial rites. Kigal-who-becomes-Ereshkigal is convinced of the necessity of burying the dead, even in the face of The Law of Decay which forbids it. No explanation is given for why she feels so strongly about this or chooses to live as an outcast to do this work, only that she is driven by a deep compulsion. (The reason becomes clear later in the series.) Reading about it, I could not help but think of Antigone, who was willing to die in order to ensure that her brother received proper burial rites.

Because the emphasis of this story focuses on how a mortal becomes a goddess, it was the least satisfying for me. But Kigal/Ereshkigal is a lovely character, and Hinze surrounds her with real-feeling challenges and supporting characters. I genuinely enjoyed reading her story. ( )