Reviewed by EBookObsessed on
The series involves the Argonauts (the Eternal Guardians), the Argoleans, the misos (who are mix of half argolean/half human), humans and the daimons, and don’t forget those rascally Gods who are always causing trouble.
Orpheus is once again on a search for the Orb, but this time is it not a quest for power and glory. This time he needs the Orb to return his brother’s soul to his body. When Gryphon’s body was stolen by an evil wizard, his soul was sent to the hell realm of Tarturus to be tortured for eternity; a fate which should not await a Guardian as brave and strong as Gryphon. Orpheus is determined to rescue his brother’s soul and return it and his Guardian markings back to Gryphon’s body.
Skyla is a siren, an assassin for Zeus. Her mission is to keep the evil half-demon Orpheus from obtaining the Orb, and she is to bring it to Zeus. When Skyla realizes she has been lied to by Athena and Zeus, she joins Orpheus in his quest to save Gryphon.
Although Demitrius is still my favorite guardian, I was very excited to read Orpheus’s story. Being part-demon, the presumption is that Orpheus would be untrustworthy, dangerous, etc., etc., and encompassing everything bad from the demon side. He has spent a good part of the last two hundred years doing things and making choices for his own personal gain, but could this be less demon in nature and more to do with the fact that he was passed over in the Perseus’s lineage for his younger half-brother simply because Orpheus was half-demon. Now that Gryphon’s soul has been ripped from his body, his Guardian markings transferred to Orpheus who is the last of the bloodline.
I did have a hard time getting into this story since there is a lot of jumping between various characters in the set up of the story. I always find too much switching characters to be distracting to the story. Although I understand that in this series, the demons and the Gods are always plotting go get ahead, between Zeus, Hades and Atalanta all plotting to get the Orb from Orpheus so they could be the most powerful, it was distracting and I had a hard time being interested in Skyla and Orpheus when every time the story got going, we had to be pulled away to watch Hades rant or see where Atalanta was in her goal to be released from her imprisonment.
Take out all the additional distractions and the story was enjoyable, the characters are well written and the quest to save Gryphon was engrossing. The tortures that Gryphon endured and the resulting trauma to the usually happy-go-lucky guardian are heartbreaking and I will be keeping my eye out for his story.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 30 March, 2012: Finished reading
- 30 March, 2012: Reviewed