Hello everyone!
Right, so lately I've been going through more recent books I've read, despite the fact that I still have a huge list of them backlogged from my vacation and through autumn. Although apparently, according to Goodreads, I've only read twenty-two books in the entire year of 2015 ... well.
I may have forgotten to add them onto my list there, because I'm pretty sure I have more than 22 of them on my reviews!
In any event.
I've been sort of jumping through genres recently, going through what seems to fit my mood best, and it might be something historical (like A Breath of Snow and Ashes) or it might be something slightly more ... well, shall we say religious? I mean, Laini Taylor's Days of Blood and Starlight have both demons and angels in there, so there might as well be something about religion.
And then of course, every once in a while a good Greek Mythology book comes along, or something along those lines, and then I settle down quite cozily to read it. I'm talking, of course, of Lizzy Ford's Omega.
Yet again, this is one of those books that I found through Sasha's channel. She has the best book videos by far that I've seen in a while, although Christine isn't far behind either, but I have to be prepped for those haha! Her energy exhausts me just by watching them.
Anyway.
The premise of the story is this: the world is ruled by the Triumvirate and the Greek Gods, but the problem is the Delphi Oracle, who always has the power to predict the future (and some other nifty tricks we'll see along the way), not to mention she holds the portal that allows gods to come to Earth open. Each generation usually has at least one Oracle, or, depending on the situation, there may be more ... you'll see why.
Alessandra, or Lyssa, who is our protagonist, was raised in a forest next to a private school for Nymphs by Herakles, and she was always told not to cross a red cord boundary. Then one day she does ... and the world explodes.
The cord was hiding her from existence, but now the Supreme Priest, the Magistrate, and the Silent Queen are all after her to fulfill their own purpose (the first one, a half-Titan, keeps playing games but essentially, I think he wants to kick the Gods to kingdom come; the Magistrate wants to rule the world and the Silent Queen wants to expel the Gods so that the world can go back to being normal without their wars and interferences). Lyssa's task is basically to take the place of the Oracle, but suffice to say the road won't be easy.
Each Oracle has to complete three tasks - and one of them is to be subjected to live dissection so that her body will be connected by wires and she'd be in suspension ... yeah. Let's not go there.
From the beginning to end, we see a young girl not even eighteen years old yet who's played by people a lot more knowledgable than her, and even those she thinks she can trust are basically not people you want on your side unless you really, dearly have to have them, and even then I'd probably just say no thanks. No one is what they seem, and most of the time, the wrong people deliver the right messages.
The only one who is pretty much always on her side, regardless of what, is Adonis, the ruthless commander of a secret police who works for the Supreme Priest, but he turns out to be someone named Mismatch, a grotesque that a young Lyssa brought to life and he has protected her ever since - not to mention, he is one of the Bloodline, the line of humans destined to rule but cursed, and he was a powerful king back in the days of Ancient Greece.
Did I also mention that he might just love Lyssa? Oh yes, Greek version Beauty and the Beast, ladies and gentlemen.
Although our Lyssa is a bit of a hypocrite in a way: she can forgive Herakles the murder of her own parents, but she can't bring herself to forgive Adonis for doing what he had to do to survive when he couldn't even remember who he was.
Ahem.
Adonis leaves to find something which will help him fulfill his destiny, and Lyssa is forced to accept a chip into the head from the Magistrate so that he can control her, since she sees it as the only way to keep on fighting; the Silent Queen vanishes and the rebellion begins.
I LOVED the book. It started off a little slowly, but it picked up by the time the forest was razed to the ground and it didn't stop until the very end. And now I want the second book, fast! Because honestly, Mismatch needs to come back and kick some serious Magistrate butt. The man doesn't deserve to survive for much longer. And I need my fix of Beauty and the Beast, too.
Generally speaking, the book was written for young audiences and not specifically for adults, but the heroine isn't as annoying as some, and most of the characters have begun peeling away the layers that make them tick, so it isn't comletely one-dimensional. All in all, a very interesting and original twist to the usual Greek myths, I highly recommend it.
xx
*image not mine
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