The Helmet of Horror by Victor Pelevin provides an intelligent, witty and very post-modern deconstruction of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

The book is written as the chat log of a number of characters who awake to find themselves trapped in a labyrinth with little more than a glowing computer screen through which they can communicate. This not only provides a comment on the problems and uncertainty of modern communication, but also cleverly encapsulates the sense of confusion, of lostness that is to be expected when people are placed in a maze.

The dialogue is clever, rapid and the book as a whole reads incredibly quickly. It is, however, the kind of book that demands a second reading, and a third, before it will begin to be properly understood. Much like the labyrinth it describes, this tale has layers within layers of meaning and complexity and commentary.