No Gods, Only Monsters

Antiquity Chronicles

By: Steve McHugh

Narrated by: Moira Quirk

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Diana, the Roman Goddess of the hunt, lives alone on the far edge of the Roman Empire.

When an old friend arrives looking for help, Diana finds herself thrust back into her old life, and her old problems.

With innocent lives caught in the crossfire, Diana realizes that the only way to ensure the safety of her friends and loved ones is to do what she does best: hunt her enemies down.

©2022 Steve McHugh (P)2022 Podium Audio

Battle Heavy

This was a well-written book with an interesting plot and familiar characters. It was a reluctant hero arc with gradual character growth, and it was interesting to see his version of these character's backgrounds after getting to know them in the Hellequin series, (And I still adore this version of Hades and Persephone.) It felt like the entire book went something like this: Introduce a setting, have a battle. Travel to another setting, have a battle. Travel in a different way, have a battle. And, repeat. I dislike squishy battle scenes so I have to admit that after about halfway through the book I maxed out and started doing a LOT of fast-forwarding past the inevitable descriptions of what battle axes do to human and monster bodies. So it went something like this: Introduce a setting, battle starts. Hit fast forward a few minutes. Listen to check the status. Hear about something squishy happening. Fast forward a few minutes, Check the status. Hear about something squishy -- ew, nope, fast forward. Okay, post battle discussion, Listen to the recovery, infer what I missed, listen to characters make plans for what to do next and travel to the next setting. Setting is described. Battle starts. Fast forward...

Top Quality!!!!!

This is an example, of why Steve has become my favorite author. He has established his rank, with the first Hellequin Chronicles book (Crimes Against Magic). I still recommend that book to people.

This has a great story, with great voice talent. Can't wait to hear the next book.

loved the book

A wow loved the book and can't wait for the next book. I have listened or read all Steve's books and can recommend them all

Loved it!

No Gods, Only Monsters
By Steve McHugh
Wow, what can I say! I really loved this! Myths, legends, roll it around in Steve McHugh's mind and this is what happens! Action, adventure, fights between gods, Diana, Medusa, Poseidon, dwarves, and more. Love the world building. The battle scenes were spectacular! There are tender moments too. Medusa is actually a good character in here. (I loved that!) The characters are flawed and relatable, except some of the horrible ones, they were just flawed! 😂
Nice addition to the Hellequin series! If you haven't read that series then do yourself a favor and pick it up! Great narration!

another great book from one of my favorite authors

As, I expected, as Steve McHugh is the author of one of my favorite series, he delivers once again with a great story with familiar characters. Even though, I would really like Steve to write a Hades series in similar fashion, maybe along the lines of how all the other Gods and Goddesses came to fear him, this is just as great of a back story.

5 Stars

I enjoyed Steve McHugh's take on mythology. Dianna and Medusa are an interesting couple. The story is well written and well developed like the other books in the Hellequin series.

Great Characters

Really enjoyed the character development and would buy any additional stories based on them. Moira Quirk is one of the best narrators I have ever heard, I'll be searching for and buying anything else she's done immediately after this review.

Interesting new series

I have to admit that I am a pretty big fan of Mr. McHugh and I think I've read pretty much everything he has written. For some reason, even though I bought the Audible version of this book quite a while ago, I wasn't that anxious to start it. I'm not sure why.

Anyway, one day I decided to bite the bullet and I'm really thankful that I did. This story takes us on a journey with Diana - the goddess of the hunt - who also happens to be a wear bear. For those of you like myself, you might better remember Diana as a mate of a somewhat prominent character in the Hellequin series. But, put those thoughts aside, this book takes place WAY WAY WAY before any of those events.

It was a great way to get to better know Diana and the story itself was also pretty interesting. There was lots of action, lots of drama and some really interesting side characters in the forms of other gods from several Pantheons.

I'm interested to see where he takes this and I know now that I will not hesitate to read or listen to the next book in this series.

Narrator = Miss

I read the print version on Kindle and enjoyed this story immensely.

The narrator's performance is painful. I made it through about 5 hours - and gave up. I've heard this narrator before and enjoyed her. However, her performance on this audible with the lisps and pauses/stutters in speech ruined the book for me.

In summary:
Would I listen again? No.
Would I recommend? The written book - not this Audible version.
Will I request a refund? No - for the author's sake. He wrote a stellar story and that deserves credit.