Review: The Way Home (Ashes of Olympus Book 1) by Julian Barr

About the Book

The war of the gods has left Aeneas’s country in flames. Though he is little more than a youth, Aeneas must gather the survivors and lead them to a new homeland across the roaring waves. Confronted by twisted prophecies, Aeneas faces the wrath of the immortals to find his own path.

First in a trilogy based on Virgil’s epic poetry, Ashes of Olympus: The Way Home is a tale of love and vengeance in an age of bronze swords and ox-hide shields.

My Thoughts:

Fabulous action, brutal tales of woe and epic disaster swathed in history. This first book in a trilogy is well written, gripping and full of heartbreak. The gods are squabbling with each other and their children pay the price. Aeneas and the last survivors of his people are swept from one impossible battle to the next with barely a breath between them. Aeneas must battle to odds while dealing with personal trauma and grief… and every time there is a calm… it precedes a new storm.

This story flows from one action sequence to the next and before I knew it I had reached the end wanting to read on. The worldbuilding is consistent, the mythology deftly woven and the characters layered and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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