Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

Prince of Death by Sam Burns & W. M. Fawkes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sam Burns just cemented her place as one of my favourite fantasy/paranormal authors with this brilliant collaboration with W. M. Fawkes.

Although the Greek Pantheon is a familiar sight in urban fantasy or paranormal stories, their interpretation looks at the Underworld and focuses on the family of Hades and Persephone, adding their own twist with the character of Lysandros, youngest child and only son.

Our other protagonist is professor of magic Theodore Ward, someone who considers himself to be useless as his magic is one of absorption and channelling.

I loved Theo, he’s one of those unassuming characters that sneaks up on you and quietly gets on with letting you come to your own conclusion that he’s actually very special.

Lysandros was a wonderful addition to the Pantheon, capable of giving and taking life but haunted by a mistake he made back in the days of the Roman Empire.

There’s all the sort of dodgy dealings and double-crossing that the Greek Gods and Goddesses are known for and, interestingly, Hermes appears again as a bit of a dick in this one. A role he’s also playing in the utterly sublime Soulbound series from Hailey Turner!

The big villain reveal, while it was actually totally obvious once the climax occurred, still managed to surprise me, and I loved how these two authors took a common theme and twisted it.

I am a fantasy and Sci-Fi girl at heart so I’ve been overjoyed this week with two very strong additions to my collection within the MM genre.

#ARC kindly received from the authors in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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