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A review by darwin_girl59
Wings of Fury by Emily R. King
3.0
I can smell a Greek retelling from a mile away and will always read, regardless of reviews! So I was excited to come across a new one and in a Kindle sale.
Overall, this is a novel approach for a retelling, but the author takes a lot of creative license to get the story to work. Whilst I generally enjoyed it, there were enough annoyances that I probably won't read the second in the series. This is definitely a YA and adult readers may find this misses the mark of a more mature author and all that it entails.
The story of three sisters in the era of Cronus, a second generation Titan. In the lore, humans aren't present until the next generation of gods are in power and are created by Zeus and Prometheus. This does make the story more interesting, as squabbling gods gets boring pretty quick without human toys. And of course, what's a Greek myth without a quest? Althea, the youngest sister, must save the oldest who has been kidnapped by Cronus, whilst at the same time help the young Zeus rise up and topple the tyrant ruler, Cronus.
What I liked:
- Stavra - the sisters' mother is only present in the first chapter of the book but the rest of her story is told second hand as the present story unfolds.
- Plot twist reveal - I won't say what it was but whilst it was hinted it at throughout, I couldn't guess exactly how it would play out. It's nice to be surprised, especially with stories that have been told a hundred ways already.
What I didn't like:
- Half baked world building and plot development - Ancient Greece would been rich for all the senses and I couldn't really lose myself in the era. As I was also reading on Kindle, I didn't really check to see how far through I was until I hit 70%, thinking I was probably only a third through! This had the potential to be an epic and the majority of the book felt like a warm up.
- Missing emotional reactions - a lot of the book was a description of actions "This happened and then that happened..." style. Its a sign of author still maturing and it meant I didn't feel that invested in what happened to the characters. It was also just a bit dull to read.
Other thoughts:
- Considering the era is Ancient Greece, a lot of the characters seem to have Caucasian features which didn't seem to match the setting.
- A stab in the dark at feminism - whilst at first glance, it seems like an empowering position of the central character as she points out various discrepancies with how women are treated, it falls flat and superficial as this rarely translates into an actions around equality. It misses out on a lot of nuance and complexity of feminism and so just feels like its pandering to the YA audience.
- The misogyny in the story could have been much worse given the reality of history but sensitive readers will probably find this to be their limit. There are mentions of abuse, rape and purposeful disfigurement of women.
- Relationships with men - characters are likely to form different relationships with other genders in different ways, but the MC's approach to men seems a little off. One example would be that at one point she mentions how long its been since she's lain with a man but she's grown up in a very protected nunnery essentially. It would have been very unlikely that women who lived outside of this protection would have had any pleasurable encounters with men. So how would this encounter have been possible? There are others, but this is one that stuck in my mind.
Overall, this is a novel approach for a retelling, but the author takes a lot of creative license to get the story to work. Whilst I generally enjoyed it, there were enough annoyances that I probably won't read the second in the series. This is definitely a YA and adult readers may find this misses the mark of a more mature author and all that it entails.
The story of three sisters in the era of Cronus, a second generation Titan. In the lore, humans aren't present until the next generation of gods are in power and are created by Zeus and Prometheus. This does make the story more interesting, as squabbling gods gets boring pretty quick without human toys. And of course, what's a Greek myth without a quest? Althea, the youngest sister, must save the oldest who has been kidnapped by Cronus, whilst at the same time help the young Zeus rise up and topple the tyrant ruler, Cronus.
What I liked:
- Stavra - the sisters' mother is only present in the first chapter of the book but the rest of her story is told second hand as the present story unfolds.
- Plot twist reveal - I won't say what it was but whilst it was hinted it at throughout, I couldn't guess exactly how it would play out. It's nice to be surprised, especially with stories that have been told a hundred ways already.
What I didn't like:
- Half baked world building and plot development - Ancient Greece would been rich for all the senses and I couldn't really lose myself in the era. As I was also reading on Kindle, I didn't really check to see how far through I was until I hit 70%, thinking I was probably only a third through! This had the potential to be an epic and the majority of the book felt like a warm up.
- Missing emotional reactions - a lot of the book was a description of actions "This happened and then that happened..." style. Its a sign of author still maturing and it meant I didn't feel that invested in what happened to the characters. It was also just a bit dull to read.
Other thoughts:
- Considering the era is Ancient Greece, a lot of the characters seem to have Caucasian features which didn't seem to match the setting.
- A stab in the dark at feminism - whilst at first glance, it seems like an empowering position of the central character as she points out various discrepancies with how women are treated, it falls flat and superficial as this rarely translates into an actions around equality. It misses out on a lot of nuance and complexity of feminism and so just feels like its pandering to the YA audience.
- The misogyny in the story could have been much worse given the reality of history but sensitive readers will probably find this to be their limit. There are mentions of abuse, rape and purposeful disfigurement of women.
- Relationships with men - characters are likely to form different relationships with other genders in different ways, but the MC's approach to men seems a little off. One example would be that at one point she mentions how long its been since she's lain with a man but she's grown up in a very protected nunnery essentially. It would have been very unlikely that women who lived outside of this protection would have had any pleasurable encounters with men. So how would this encounter have been possible? There are others, but this is one that stuck in my mind.