Series: Paternus #1 | Rating: 3.5/5 |
Date of Publishing: May 1st 2016 | Genre: urban fantasy, dark fantasy, contemporary fantasy, mythic fiction |
Format: Kindle/Audible | Available: Amazon |
Number of pages: 477 | Author’s website: http://www.paternusbooks.com |
“She wears a vest she couldn’t button if she wanted to, because her enormous boobs shove out her blouse like intercontinental ballistic missiles preparing for launch.”
Blurb
Even myths have legends. And not all legends are myth.
When a local hospital is attacked by strange and frightening men, Fiona Patterson and Zeke Prisco save a catatonic old man named Peter–and find themselves running for their lives with creatures beyond imagination hounding their every step.
With nowhere else to turn, they seek out Fi’s enigmatic Uncle Edgar. But the more their questions are answered, the more they discover that nothing is what it seems–not Peter, not Edgar, perhaps not even themselves.
The gods and monsters, heroes and villains of lore–they’re real. And now they’ve come out of hiding to hunt their own. In order to survive, Fi and Zeke must join up with powerful allies against an ancient evil that’s been known by many names and feared by all. The final battle of the world’s oldest war has begun.
Personal notes
When I started to write up my review I debated between 3 and 4 stars. This book actually is somewhere in between so my actual rating is 3.5 and since overall I liked the book, I decided to round it up to 4.
I’ve been hearing about this book for a while now and after reading Dyrk Ashton’s short story in the Lost Lore Anthology, I decided to bump it up on my TBR pile. I admit, I had really high hopes for this one. Maybe too high. On the other hand, I understand why this book gets all the hype, because it is unlike anything I’ve read in a while. Can you say my emotions are a bit conflicted right now? *sigh* Hopefully I can entangle the jumble my thoughts are right now by the end of my review.
Review
Myths and legends are real. Part of them anyway. And they are still roaming the world, keeping to themselves, sleeping, helping people or plotting for taking over the world. After the Cataclysm and two wars called Holocausts the world is in peace, until, that is, when the Asura (those children of the Father who choose to do bad deeds, and not exactly fond of humans) decides it’s time to show the Deva (the good kids, who choose to help humans and doesn’t consider them as cockroaches) who is in charge. Deva are attacked all around the world while the Master of Asura focuses on an old man called Peter. He lives in a nearly catatonic state in a hospital. The only one who can have an effect on him is Fi, the 18 year old girl who works there in part-time as an intern. This is where she meets Zeke, mythology enthusiast, guitar player, too-smart-for-his-own-good guy. Together they help Peter to get away from those who chase him. And so they face the craziest 24 hours of their life while unexpected and not so unexpected twists occur.
Rise of Gods builds up slowly, but the second half or so is packed with action to the brim. But then you need a bit of time to get used to the book being written in the third person, present tense and the sudden changes in the POV, which sometimes can be kind of annoying. Because of this and that things happen really fast, and mythical creatures and legends get a rather big role (maybe bigger than they should have at some points) there isn’t enough time and space for character building (I liked how Fi and Zeke adapted to the situation though), so this book is rather action driven. Sometimes this is overwhelming and makes hard to connect to the main characters: Fi, Zeke and Peter. Although their interactions are good and they bring some humor into the bloodbath, which does good to the book. These light moments are refreshing and give a moment of break to get from one scene to the other. Still, my favorite character was Tanuki.
But there are so many things going on that you can find it hard to catch up. Personally, I think if this book were about 50-100 pages shorter and maybe a bit more focused on the characters rather than the myths/Firstborns, it would have been much more a page turner. I’m not saying it’s not as it is, because the second half of the book kept me glued to my kindle.
The writing is smooth otherwise and this book is crammed with mythology, stories, names and legends from all around the world: from Native America through Ancient Europe to Africa and Asia. Good points for Mr Ashton using the less known legends and stories instead of the overused greek and roman gods. Actually, let’s give the man respect for doing such a thorough research to bring together so many cultures.
Paternus: Rise of Gods is an exceptional work in its genre. Dyrk Ashton had an ambitious goal when he started to write this book, and for a debut book it did really well. Yeah, it has some flaws and all the side stories can be overwhelming for those who are not familiar with all these myths – which is probably most people. Even I had to google some things and I had some studies regarding religions. And although for some reasons it didn’t work out as well for me, it deserves all the hype and praise it got so far. It’s action packed, funny, bloody, intense and highly entertaining. So, what are you waiting for? Go and get it already before the second book comes out in July!
P.S.: I can highly recommend the audiobook as well!
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