Wings of Fury

Wings of Fury, Book 1

By: Emily R. King

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

From Emily R. King, author of the Hundredth Queen series, comes an epic novel of ancient Greece, Titans and treachery, and the women who dare to rise up against the tyranny of the Golden Age.

My mother told me that men would speak about the Golden Age as a time of peace and happiness for all... However, the women of our age would tell a very different story...

Cronus, God of Gods, whose inheritance is the world. Among his possessions: women, imprisoned and fated to serve. The strong-minded Althea Lambros controls her own fate and lives to honor her dying mother’s plea to protect her two sisters at all costs. Althea’s journey toward crushing the tyranny has begun. It is a destiny foretold by the Fates. And she is following their visions.

On the southern isle of Crete, hidden among mortal women who have fled the Titans, is the Boy God, son of Cronus and believed dead. He shares Althea’s destiny to vanquish the Almighty - fate willing. Because Cronus has caught wind of the plot. He’s amassing his own forces against Althea’s righteous rebellion and all those who will no longer surrender or run. There will be war. If she’s to survive to write their history, the indomitable Althea must soar higher than any god.

©2021 Emily R. King. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Narrator Lauren Ezzo has a lot of empathy for Althea, the storyteller.… Ezzo presents Althea as a complex character—fearless in the face of a hard world and determined to fulfill her mission. Ezzo shows the relationship between Althea and her older sisters as tender and protective. —AudioFile Magazine

“Sumptuous…King ably weaves Greek mythology into a cat-and-mouse spectacle. Readers will cheer for Althea as she upholds her family’s honor and fights belligerent gods with determination and confidence. This is a winner.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Sharp prose and smart characters…King (Hundredth Queen series) takes a fresh look at the Greek pantheon to create a clamor for the next book of this new series.” —Library Journal

Loved It!

Thank you Emily! You're a vivid storyteller! DOBM can't wait for the sequel! Loved Althea and her sisters!

Great Story!

I enjoyed this story overall, the Greek mythology &
It’s characters, including their self serving actions for power. I wasn’t that fond of the narrator thought, she kept the same tone without much variation depending on the situation. It wasn’t until the ending chapters did that change. It is still well done, Emily R. King does not disappoint!

LOVE both this author and the narrator

I seriously think this combination is a winning pair! I love Emily R Kings quartet The Hundredth Queen and after Wings of Fury she will be a lifetime favorite author. It feel like a fast story, it grips you in and doesn't let go until it drops you at the final page. Plus the story itself! I personally love Greek mythology but I've never heard a story set BEFORE Zeus rules. 5 starts highly recommend

Great book

Emily R King has done it again!
Love this book and cant wait to listen to book 2.

A great twist on a well-known myth

I have loved the Greek myths since I was a young child. As such, I am familiar with the story of how Zeus, spirited away by his mother who then tricked Cronos into eating a rock thinking it was the baby, grew up to challenge his father and defeat him, thus becoming the king of the gods.

After reading this book, I should probably say that I <i>thought</i> I knew the story. In reality, I only knew part of the story - the part of the story dominated by and told by men. Emily R. King takes this well-established mythos and reimagines it from the viewpoint of the women who were involved. After all, we know that Rhea was unhappy with the fact that Cronos continued to eat all of the children they had together. But just how would she have carried out her plan? And who else would have needed to be involved?

Althea is such a strong character from the very beginning. Though she blames her youngest sister for the death of her mother, she quickly realizes who the real enemy is; that realization - made at 7 though it was - stayed with Althea and cemented in her the absolute desire to see the dominance of men brought down.

I definitely enjoyed the final battle at the end between Zeus and Cronos, and by the time the battle actually occurred, I was ready to throw a couple of punches at Cronos myself for the absolute misogynistic arrogant ass he was being. I may have even cheered a bit when Cleora and Bronte got involved.

As I was reading this book, I went back and forth between reading the ebook and listening to the audiobook, though I probably ended up listening to a bit more than I read. The audiobook was narrated by Lauren Ezzo. When I first began listening to her narration, I had a bit of trouble with her male voices, though I can't put my finger on exactly why - they just sounded a bit off. However, after I had been listening for about an hour to an hour and a half, I found that the male voices didn't bother me anymore. I guess at that point I had adjusted to them well enough that they no longer sounded off. Beyond that, Ezzo gave a wonderful performance, and she was able to convey the emotions that Althea was feeling so well that it was easy to identify with her.

I am definitely looking forward to reading and listening to the second book; I purchased both the ebook and the audiobook before I had even finished Wings of Fury - I was enjoying it that much.

So, if you like the Greek myths and want to read one of the stories with a twist, then you need to read this book. I bet you won't regret it.

Enjoyed!

Great start to a new series! Fast pace, twists and turns and great characters. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.

Wowza

Emily has done it again! The only problem is the wait time on the next book. I am so excited to share this awesome read at book club. Thank you for keeping my attention from page one!

Loved!

A book about a fictional past that has a lot of meaning in the present.

Loves the story. Would love a different narrator.

The story was a great take in the female perspective of the times. I felt it was creative. The narration was so boring. I liked the tone of her voice but she rarely used inflections and all the male characters sound the same with way too deep voices. It was hard to track who was whom. Just weird.

Took a while to get going

I'm not sure how I feel about this story. It was wonderful to experience women becoming empowered. However, I had a hard time with all of the mind wiping. It seemed like an overused gimmick to give the story twists and turns.