Where Can I Find The Best Retellings In Stories Of Anubis?

I stumbled onto this amazing retelling a few years back, completely by accident, and it’s honestly spoiled me for any other version. 'The Red Pyramid' by Rick Riordan isn’t just a straight Anubis story, but the way Riordan integrates him into the modern world and the Kane family saga is top-tier. He’s not just a scary death god; he’s got this whole complicated, aloof yet honorable vibe going on with Walt Stone. I loved how the book wrestles with his traditional role versus this more personal, almost tragic connection. Riordan’s whole approach makes ancient mythology feel urgent and fresh.

If you want something less YA and more, I dunno, literary and weirdly sensual, you absolutely have to check out 'Servant of the Underworld' by Aliette de Bodard. It’s a fantasy-mystery set in an Aztec-inspired world where the gods are real, and Anubis is this terrifying, powerful, and deeply enigmatic figure. The atmosphere is so thick you can taste the incense. It’s less a 'retelling' of a specific myth and more a completely original story built around his essence. The prose is dense but rewarding.

For a more traditional mythic feel but with gorgeous writing, 'The Book of the Dead' edited by Jared Shurin has some stellar short story interpretations. There’s one piece where Anubis is a weary bureaucrat in the afterlife, which sounds silly but is played totally straight and ends up being profoundly sad. Honestly, once you start looking, you find him popping up in the strangest places, from romance novels to grimdark fantasy. The best ones, for me, are never just about the jackal head and the scales; they dig into that tension between judgment and mercy.

Actually, I'd argue the best retellings aren't in novels at all right now, but in games. 'Smite' has a great playable Anubis, sure, but 'The Unavowed' (a point-and-click adventure) has a minor character who is Anubis, and his portrayal as a tired, ancient being stuck running a pawn shop in modern New York is weirdly perfect. The interactivity adds a layer. You're not just reading about his judgment; you're making choices that he quietly observes. It’s a subtle, brilliant use of the character that prose can't really replicate.

You know, I have a slightly different take. I feel like a lot of modern retellings try too hard to make Anubis 'relatable' or sexy, and they lose the primordial dread that makes him interesting. For the 'best' retelling, I keep going back to the original sources, or as close as we can get—like the vignettes in Egyptian mythological collections. Reading those stark, ancient descriptions of him presiding over the weighing of the heart, that's the core of it. No frills, just immense, silent power.

That said, if we're talking accessible fiction, I thought 'Anubis' by Ibrahim Al-Koni was a fascinating deviation. It's a novel, but it blends Tuareg lore with Egyptian myth, presenting Anubis almost as a desert spirit of oblivion. It's not an easy read, and it's translated from Arabic, but it feels closer to a mythical truth than a lot of Western genre fiction. It doesn't cater to you; you have to meet it on its own terms. Sometimes the best interpretation isn't the one that fits neatly into a fantasy series, but the one that feels like it's unearthed from the sand itself.

Most recommendations you'll see are for the obvious big names, but I found a hidden gem in a webcomic called 'The Necropolis of Nu.' It's an indie project, updates slowly, but the art is stunning and the take on Anubis is so unique—less Egyptian god, more of a cosmic wanderer burdened by his duty. It's a moodier, more philosophical interpretation. You can find it on sites like Webtoon or the creator's own Patreon, which is where the best, most niche retellings often live, honestly. Forget just books; the visual medium lets artists play with his iconic imagery in ways prose sometimes can't capture.

Also, don't sleep on audio dramas and podcasts. There's an anthology horror podcast that did an episode where Anubis is the guardian of a supernatural subway station, judging the souls of lost passengers. It was more of a modern urban legend twist, but it worked surprisingly well. These formats are great for his atmospheric potential. The sound design for the Duat, the weighing of the heart... it chills you to the bone in a way reading sometimes doesn't.