| ISBN: 978-0765334435 | Pages: 336 |
Publication Date: September 10, 2013 | Source: Own/Ebook
| Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars |
★★★☆
Old Gods never die…
Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.
Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.
These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.
Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.
Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.
The Goddess War is about to begin.
Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.
Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.
These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.
Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.
Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.
The Goddess War is about to begin.
I have this terrible habit of becoming excited for a series and just pushing it off forever. This is a prime example of that habit...Antigoddess came out in 2013 and I'm finally reading it in 2018.
Coming out of this, I have some mixed feelings but they're leaning more towards the positive so that's good right? We start off following Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strategy, as she is slowly becoming consumed by the owl feathers growing inside of her. I don't know about you, but that's a terrible way to go. She's accompanied by Hermes, whose body is literally eating him from the inside out, and they need to find a way to reverse their dying fast.
On the other side of the story, we have Cassandra who is the reborn prophetess from the Trojan Wars with no recollection of her past. She just so happens to be dating Aidan, who...spoiler alert is also known as Apollo and he is doing everything he can to make sure none of the other Olympians harm her again.
“Fate was the only lesson a god needed to learn. It was their only hard limit.”
Kendare Blake creates this masterful story around the demise of the great Grecian gods and their mad scramble to cling to their fragile immortality. The Olympians have become divided and are willing (some at least) to go through drastic measures to ensure their survival while others (namely Athena and Hermes) just want to find a way to stop whatever is happening. The whole dynamic that is creating is incredibly interesting and well fleshed out that both satisfies and leaves readers wondering.
“For the record I don't believe in Fate. I believe that the pieces have been placed. The ending hasn't been written yet.”
I'll be honest and admit that I was not either Athena nor Cassandra's biggest fan. Athena is very driven which matches her personality of course, but she was driven to the point of becoming insensitive to who gets hurt in the process to ensure her survival. However, she does redeem herself eventually...it got to point where I just wasn't sure how I felt towards her character. I was more indifferent towards Cassandra, but where she is at the end of the novel hints at propelling her character forward in the sequel so I am very excited for that.
My favorite characters were the ones on the "side" - Hermes, Aidan/Apollo, and Odysseus (not a fan of the Athena x Odysseus thing that's growing). My point being...Kendare Blake creates a great cast of characters that make the story entertaining even if the ones in the main roles don't exactly appear likable.
This was a good start to the trilogy - enough to make me want to continue reading. The author incorporates her knack for creating horror scenes with vivid descriptions of tragic deaths and the slow and painful demise of each Greek god/goddess. Hopefully the main characters will start to grow on me but if not, at least I still have some of the side characters.
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