Antigoddess

The Goddess War, Book 1

By: Kendare Blake

Narrated by: Kate Reading

The Goddess War begins in Antigoddess, the first installment of the new series by acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake.

Old Gods never die…or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra - an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god. These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods - in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out. Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

©2013 Kendare Blake (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

American Gods is a better option!

It isn't bad. Just not great. Not inspired enough for me to buy the next one. It almost seemed like a YA fan fiction of American Gods.

warning: it's actually YA!

I bought this book (presumably when it was on sale) on the strength of the interesting premise promised by the summary. Unfortunately, neither the summary nor the classification of the book on Audible thinks that you might want to know it's actually a YA novel. Before you buy this, go back and read the summary with the knowledge that Athena et al are all 17 and 18 years old and with the usual tropes of YA fiction manage to be both thousands of years old and moodily teenage at the same time.

So, now that you know it's a YA novel and you readjust your entire expectations of it, the book was still only ok. The plot was sort of there, but it's clearly the first book in a series because things don't wrap up at the end of the book. Well, it sort of does but maybe sort of doesn't. I, personally, didn't enjoy it enough to bother trying to find out what happens next. The characters just sort of wander around introducing you to more and more sort-of mythological figures. Don't think too hard about the plot and its sort of...actually its still not great. None of the characters seem to put any thoughts into their actions, with predictable consequences. For example, Apollo knows that at some point Kassandra is going to find out how he betrayed her back in Troy, but he never puts any effort into trying to mitigate that before the inevitable reveal.

Bottom line: maybe skip this one.

Love Kate reading

I love Kate Reading and would listen to almost any of her narrations that said its an entertaining book

Always love Kendare’s books!

I always love Kendare’s books! This one had a great way of mixing modern characters with Greek gods. So fun!

Young Adult meets Modern Day Greek Mythology

If you enjoy young adult books like the divergent series or Twilight, then Antigoddess should be a pleaser. Unfortunately, I found the story full of too many moments of teen angst and what if moments that adults would not have displayed. For myself, the story moved so slowly I switched to 2x narration just to keep the narrative moving enough to hold my attention. The storyline was good enough I hung around until the end to see where the action was going, but I wont be returning for the rest of the series as again, this was just too much of a young adult novel.

I would be diving into this entire series if the story focused more on the greek gods and heros and delivered action and intrigue along these lines without the teen angst.

greek gods are so interesting

story was interesting but slow at times. the resurrection part was weird, you have to either go with it or not. I enjoyed the different approach to the gods.

Okay but not great.

I really enjoyed “Anna Dressed in Blood” so I picked this book up a couple years after reading that one. This is the first book in The Goddess War series, there are three books in that series. This book was okay, but not great. I never really understood the driver behind the main characters and their story.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. I would recommend if you enjoy audiobooks.

This book is told from two different character’s POV. The first is Athena and the second is Cassandra. Athena is dying and wants to figure out how to stop it, she’s been told Cassandra holds the key to her survival. Cassandra is a high schooler who can do neat tricks predicting things; she doesn’t realize that she is the prophetess Cassandra reborn.

The story jumps back and forth between the two characters until they eventually come together. The story is set in modern day and most people don’t know about the Gods.

My main issue with this story is that we never really find out why the Gods are dying or if there is a larger reason they shouldn’t die (aside from Athena just not wanting to die). Not knowing these things makes it really hard to see the point of the story; there’s just absolutely nothing driving the story forward. I mean why should mortals sacrifice themselves for a God that is dying? Especially when the God hasn’t been all that helpful? What’s in it for humanity?

Overall this was okay but not great. I had a hard time understanding what the point of the plot was and why it wasn’t a bit more complete. I don’t plan on continuing the series.

Antigoddess great opener for a series that twines the myths with modern day

Kendare Blake does not disappoint with her new series"Antigoddess". With well written characters that take modern day life and seamlessly intertwined it with the legends of mythology that any one can appreciate. The narration was good and I'm looking forward to the next installment.