Jones's retelling of "Manawydan, Son of Llyr", is the eighth in Seren's series of new stories from The Mabinogion, based on the medieval cycle of Welsh myths and legends. Jones dives slightly awkwardly into the strange otherworldliness of the original story, drawing extravagantly on metaphor to capture its fantastical spirit. It's a tale of mice and men, in which the narrator, failing academic Lou McNamara, is both conventionally and metaphorically "small-minded", exploring microscopic worlds within the plastic walls of memory sticks as he struggles to overcome an existential difficulty with scale. Lou is the latter-day incarnation of Llwyd, a magician seeking revenge against hero Manawydan in the original, the latter now recast as a sexy ex-rugby player whose success at everything only makes his life increasingly difficult. The new story just about works on its own terms and succeeds in shedding fresh light on the original. Part of the interest for the reader is to realise how faithful the new version is to the old, while following its own weird, wild path.