Back in the mists of history, the gods of Olympus fought
against the demonic forces of Kaos. And they lost because one of their number,
Aphrodite, turned against them.
With gods dead and facing utter destruction, Hera
launched a last, desperate plan; sealing off Olympus and the tree, the source
of their powers and with it sealing the demons away from the world and
humanity.
Aphrodite is still active in the world, her schemes
stopped only by the human descendants of the Olympians. Which is where Megan,
newly grieving for her dead grandfather, and Karl come in – learning a lot
about their ancestry, their abilities – and a sudden, high risk duty.
Greek gods! Demigods! Epic battles between the Olympians
and the forces of Kaos! Demons, a rogue Aphrodite! Lots and lots of Greek
mythology sprinkled around!
This book was almost designed for me. Throw in some human
descendants developing super powers and discovering what they are and a big
epic battle to save the world all coupled with a well realised and developed
antagonist? Excellent idea, you’ve hooked me in; this concept will have me
begging for more.
Unfortunately, the writing is very very slow – this is a
long book that could have been a lot shorter. It was a shame because it opened
extremely strong. The scenes of the ancient world, the history of Aphrodite and
the Greek gods, what happened and what the consequences were were awesomely
done. I actually want to read that book – just the war between the gods and the
demons would be excellent. Not only do we have the prologue but the book is
intercut with more snippets of the past from Aphrodite’s point of view. All the
scenes are excellent and really do a lot to flesh out and develop Aphrodite as
a villain – giving some motives behind her destruction.
Really, the whole ancient world would have been an
excellent series of books in their own right.
But having them cut in randomly from half way in the book
felt more confusing to me than anything. Because the actual present being
depicted was moving so slowly, these sudden flashbacks – to the ancient world, to
Hannah and Unity when they were younger, to Meghan’s grandfather’s journal,
while all considerably better than the main plot line, served to bog it down a
lot, make the book longer than it had to be and make it all a little jarring.
Sometimes I just didn’t have any idea what was going on or why.
