Beyond Hades

Prometheus Wars Series, Book 1

By: Luke Romyn

Narrated by: Neil Hellegers

Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

What if mythology isn't myth? The ancient Greeks told fabulously detailed stories involving unbelievable creatures - monsters dominating all tales from that time. Were they just highly imaginative, or was their inspiration from somewhere else?

Doctor Talbot Harrison, a professor in archaeology, receives a phone call one day which will destroy everything he perceives as reality. His brother has been mysteriously killed and within moments, the United States military appear at his door, literally dragging him from his home. Thrown into a helicopter under intense armed guard, it doesn't take long until they are attacked by something which cannot possibly exist, something drawn to destroy the one man who can stop the beasts from a land beyond Hades....

©2012 Luke Romyn (P)2018 Tantor

The Trouble With Titans

First, I really enjoyed the parts where lesser known gods and titans from Greek mythology were included in the novel along with involving them into the battle scenes in ways that clarified their might and gruesome ability to render carnage. For me, this was the highlight of the story. However, in too many instances, several well-known meta-entities were represented more like a Bizzaro-world version of themselves from lore.

The actual battle encounters were thrilling and entertaining but too often it came off as verging on hopelessness only to be grab victory from the jaws of defeat by some last minute unplanned maneuver or some odd deus ex machina plot device emerging just in the nick of time.

The two primary characters were enigmas in their own ways, Talbot being the lone remaining person who was able to miraculously, even to himself, speak and understand what was referred to as the Elder tongue and Wes, a stranger from the future who had arrived unexpectedly and who played the part of a indomitable Rambo type character. While these type of characters are not unusual in fantasy novels, it was disappointing that the book ended without providing any explanations as to how and why they came about their abilities.

Neil Hellegers' performance was good and I especially enjoyed his Aussie accent but some of the shortcomings of the writing made it difficult even for him to make a acceptable delivery.

Beyond hades

Fantastic work I look forward to reading the next book it was a fun read

A suspenseful roller coaster of a story!

I've read many of Luke's books and this is by far my second favorite series, the first being The Legacy Chronicles. Luke creates an entertaining spin on mythology and manages to mix in futuristic science fiction. I've read this book before and this was the very first book I downloaded on audible, in fact it is the only reason I downloaded audible. Not that I am old enough to have sat in front of the family radio and hear radio programs, this is a very close second. The narrator brings the characters to life, especially the character Wes. My only complaint is that this is the only book so far on audible and I am kind of left hanging. I guess I could go back and read the books myself, but it is so much more entertaining this way.

Spoilers

How do you have an Olympian war against the Titans without a single mention of THE GODS OF WAR?!? Zero mention of Ares or Athena. The author cherry picks obscure Greek mythology, invents reinterpretations of classic figures but leaves out the most famous children of Zeus. Where’s Artemis? How do you kill off Hephaestus? THEY ARE CALLED THE DEATHLESS GODS!! Literally took me out of the third act completely.