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A review by krysley
Skies of Olympus: Books One, Two & Three by Eliza Raine
4.0
This book takes everything you know about Hercules the hero and turns it on its head. In this book, Hercules is a villain and his daughter, Lyssa, is the one who is gearing up to take down the tyrant during the Immortality Trials.
I have to be honest ... when I picked up this book, I didn't think it would fall into the YA category, but sometimes it did. I loved the premise of this book and Lyssa, Epizon, and Erix were, hands down, my favorite characters (I wanted SO much more from Erix and 'shipped Lyssa and Epizon so hard). But there were certain instances in this book were it felt like it would fall into some of the bad YA tropes (*cough* Phyleus *cough*). Overall, though it was really enjoyable and all the trials were incredibly fun. I flew right through this audiobook.
I can see why this was compared to the Hunger Games but with mythology. It hit a little too close to that series when the heroes were conscripted into the trials. Which leads me to one of my biggest questions from the book ... why were only four heroes chosen to compete in the trials if all 12 gods were supposed to select someone to compete on their behalf? What was the point of all gods picking someone if only four were going to compete anyway? I don't get why the author chose to go that route rather than just make it clear that there would be a handful of champions competing for immortality.
I absolutely loved the narrator, Elizabeth Evans. She knocked all the characters out of the park and made the entire book incredibly enjoyable.
One note on the grammar. There were some odd grammar issues, such as “they were sat.” I don’t know if it was a case of needing another once-over by an editor, a stylistic choice by the author, or the narrator accidentally saying the wrong verbs, but it definitely needs fixed. It threw me straight out of the story every time as I pondered what I just heard.
I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I have to be honest ... when I picked up this book, I didn't think it would fall into the YA category, but sometimes it did. I loved the premise of this book and Lyssa, Epizon, and Erix were, hands down, my favorite characters (I wanted SO much more from Erix and 'shipped Lyssa and Epizon so hard). But there were certain instances in this book were it felt like it would fall into some of the bad YA tropes (*cough* Phyleus *cough*). Overall, though it was really enjoyable and all the trials were incredibly fun. I flew right through this audiobook.
I can see why this was compared to the Hunger Games but with mythology. It hit a little too close to that series when the heroes were conscripted into the trials. Which leads me to one of my biggest questions from the book ... why were only four heroes chosen to compete in the trials if all 12 gods were supposed to select someone to compete on their behalf? What was the point of all gods picking someone if only four were going to compete anyway? I don't get why the author chose to go that route rather than just make it clear that there would be a handful of champions competing for immortality.
I absolutely loved the narrator, Elizabeth Evans. She knocked all the characters out of the park and made the entire book incredibly enjoyable.
One note on the grammar. There were some odd grammar issues, such as “they were sat.” I don’t know if it was a case of needing another once-over by an editor, a stylistic choice by the author, or the narrator accidentally saying the wrong verbs, but it definitely needs fixed. It threw me straight out of the story every time as I pondered what I just heard.
I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.