Warning: If you have not read “Fate of the Ashers” by Diana Tyler, don’t read this review unless you want spoilers!
I’m back with another book review, and this time it’s “Fate of the Ashers” by Diana Tyler! Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:
“One month after Chloe’s victory over Mania, everything seems back to normal. Actually, it’s better than normal. For one thing, her parents are alive, tensions between she and her brother Damian have eased, more Ashers exist, and she and Ethan are more than fellow former fugitives –they’re a couple.
But things take a downward spiral when Mount Aetna, a volcano thought to be extinct, erupts in Petros’s capital. Soon, what initially seemed like nothing more than a a natural disaster proves to be a sign of an imminent supernatural threat. The Olympian gods of old, heretofore chained in Tartarus, have been freed by the sea nymph Eione, and will do everything in their limitless power to bring the Ashers down.
Chloe and Damian’s cousin Hector is a dejected high school student who, as an only child, is hopeful his eighteenth birthday will bring him a life-changing doma. When he outruns the track team’s fastest sprinter, he’s certain his days as a benchwarmer are over. Little does he know that Ares, one of the most merciless and bloodthirsty gods, has taken notice of his power, a power Hector has barely tapped into.
Kidnapped and whisked off to Mount Olympus, Hector soon finds that being an Asher isn’t so great after all. Compelled by threats from the entire pantheon, he’s forced to embark upon a mission that will destroy every Asher and ensure the gods regain their former glory.
When Athena, goddess of wisdom, informs Chloe and the others of Zeus’s plan, they plan a daring counterattack: time travel back to heaven, before Petros was created, and thwart the rebels’ revolt against the All-Powerful. It’s two Ashers against an army of ruthless, power-hungry immortals who together possess an endless arsenal of deadly superpowers. How hard can it be?”
Before I dive into the review, please note two things:
- I have not read the first two books in this trilogy. I got this book for free in exchange for an honest review, and I didn’t realize at the time that it was the third in a trilogy until just after I got the book. Because of this, there are probably some continuity plots or concepts I might be missing when reading.
- Because of this, I’ll most likely read the first two books in the future, then come back to this one with a re-review. Not sure when that will happen, but hopefully during the course of this year.
I found that the plot was decently well-paced overall. The three points of view we mainly see are through Chloe, the main protagonist, Hector, an Asher like her who ends up being manipulated into killing his fellow Ashers, and Eione, who’s hellbent on letting the gods do as they please. I thought that the amount of time each perspective got was well balanced between the three, even when Eione’s point of view ended a bit sooner than Hector and Chloe’s did due to Eione losing her memory for spoiler-related reasons I won’t mention here.
Out of these three characters, I liked Hector the best in terms of his development, as he wanted to use the doma he had (doma is basically a superpower granted to him and all the other Ashers) for a higher purpose, but just ended up getting horrendously manipulated for the worst until he managed to work with Chloe and the other Ashers to defeat the gods. I could relate to Hector and him trying to figure out what his purpose is, discovering his own abilities, and learning that anything and everything he does, even if it could help him, comes with consequences. Other characters such as Chloe, Damien, and Eione felt a bit flat in character development, though Hermes was interesting to read, and he kept me on my toes wondering whose side he really was on the whole time.
I enjoyed reading the worldbuilding that came into this book, especially with how they incorporated the gods and how they act, as well as the River Lethe from Greek mythology into it. I also like that the concept of the Ashers was well-explained in the book as well, otherwise I would’ve been really confused reading the book. I also liked the concept of the doma, and how all the Ashers have specific domas. I thought Hector’s doma, the one involving stealing powers, was rather creative.
In terms of writing style overall, however, I felt that it was lacking a hook to really pull me into the story. There were a few scenes that wowed me, like Ares recruiting Hector and Eione losing her memory while Hector regained his, but there was nothing that kept me completely hooked all the way through the book. I felt that the ending of the book was really rushed in the last chapter, especially given how long it took for the rest of the plot up until then to unfold.
Overall, 3.5 out of 5 stars!