The Age of Zeus, by James Lovegrove Review

The Age of Zeus is the second of the Pantheon series by author James Lovegrove.  Fear not fellow readers because the "Age of" books are not a continuous series.  So if you hate Zeus (the character) or any other mythologies that Mr. Lovegrove has written about you don't have to read them all to understand the others, each is a stand alone title that works by itself and is a complete story.  The relief that presents in what the book industry has become today is lovely.  Today the book world might be called "The Age of Trilogy" because nobody can do one story by itself anymore or just a book and sequel everyone is cashing in on the three part series.  Thankfully Lovegrove isn't doing that at all.

SPOILERS BELOW!

This book is rather straight forward.  The gods from the Greek pantheon have forcibly taken over the world through violence, domination, and displays of their power.  They have no qualms about killing innocent people to make their point and they have essentially become the rulers of earth which there is nothing anyone can do about it. Mr. Landesman (an old man and one of the main characters in the book) has a very different plan and no longer wishes to be dominated by the gods.  He has assembled a rag-tag group of individuals who has a hatred for the gods due to personal loss to try and fight back wearing suits of extremely high tech armor and calling themselves the Titans.  The Titans are selected because a member of their family or a friend was killed directly the gods hand or by one of the monsters the gods allowed to run amok on Earth. 

Titans are on a mission to kill every monster that is running around maiming and killing innocent people.  Monsters vary from the cyclops, gorgons, griffin, minotaur, to the sphinx and all of the others that existed in those ancient myths.  After killing the monsters, they move onto assassinating the gods themselves, which one can say is not an easy task.  Some of the gods are assassinated in a brutal and awesome manner, one standing out is Hercules.  Although Hercules was not a "god" per say, he still fits in with the pantheon of Greek gods and heroes and what the Titans do to him is disturbingly awesome.  The book culminates in a battle of epic proportions on none other than Mount Olympus where the you know what really hits the fan. No I won't spoil the ending but let's say it is very satisfying.

There are elements to this story besides war and blood.  There is an underlying love connection, the struggles that Sam (the main protagonist) goes through both internally and externally.  She really shows how humanity can overcome violence in certain parts, while in others she is kicking ass with the rest of the Titans.   Family is big part of the book and shows how it can be a saving grace or ultimate demise.  The book is so multi-faceted that almost any reader can enjoy it. 

The book takes a dive into sci-fi war where there is a lot of ass-kicking, tons of action, and all of it in great detail.  Overall the plot is progressed in such a speed that you don't even realize it is progressing until you sit back and say to yourself "holy crap when did that all happen?" I personally loved how Lovegrove took a book about Greek mythology, hybridized it with science fiction war, and was able to do so in such a clean and crisp manner.  I know a lot about Greek mythology and I was learning things about various monsters and gods I never knew before. I was happy to be a student learning things about Greek myths written in a language that isn't ancient and horrible to read (although Lovegrove is English so sometimes there is an extra u or o thrown into a word.)

Books have a way of forcing you to finish once you hit that point. That point is where you have to finish it and now because of how badly you need to know how it ends. This book has that point with about 150 pages left. I literally sat on my couch and plowed through 150 pages as fast as I could absorbing what I could in order to fully enjoy this story. The book is almost 700 pages long but don't let that fool you.  You will be far into the story before you even know it.  Pages fly by and you wonder what can he do with all these pages that are left, but you will be quite happy with the result. 

 It is a very clean read easy to pick up and enjoy. I wouldn't call it a book for kids just because there are sex elements, language and a lot of violence that occurs in the story so if your looking for a way to teach your kids about Zeus I would recommend a different source.  For the reader who enjoys sci-fi, war, or mythology this is the book for you.