Reviewed by Chris

TITLE:  Prince of Death 

SERIES:  Lords of the Underworld #1

AUTHOR:  Sam Burns &  W.M. Fawkes 

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  306 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 7, 2019

BLURB:  

Gifted power over life and death, Lysandros has spent millennia in the underworld, listless and alone. The youngest child of Hades and Persephone, he’s been sheltered from the threats in the world above.

Theo Ward hasn’t been so lucky. After watching his mother wither away, he’d do almost anything to have her back. When a messenger appears at the Banneker College of Magic and offers the young professor a chance to save her, Theo can’t pass it up, even if it means going straight into the underworld and dragging her home. But Theo gets more than he bargained for when he crosses paths with the prince of Hades.

Set against the king of Olympus, they must shed their past burdens and learn to trust in each other, so they can face down a storm that threatens to wipe the nation’s capital off the map.

REVIEW:  

I’ve pretty much become the go-to reviewer for Sam Burns books here at Love Bytes. Which I’m more than happy with. Especially when it means I get to read books like this one. I’ve liked, to varying degrees, all of Sam Burns other books, but I have to say that Burns and their co-writer, W.M. Fawkes (who’s a new author to me), has far exceeded my expectations with this newest release.

Despite the fact that had I read this blurb properly (and, dear Minerva, am I thankful I did not), there was a real possibility I would have let someone else pick up this story–I have a long standing dislike of modern-day Greek/Roman gods stories–I can truthfully say that this is by far the best thing I’ve read from Sam Burns. And, sweet gods, was it good. The story was pretty damn seamless, so I’m not sure what parts particularly Burns and Fawkes added to the story, but if this is a measure of their talents, I am excited to see Burns grow even further as an author and I am looking forward to picking up some other stories by Fawkes. I think they recently released a short story, so I’m gonna have to check that out now.

The plot of the story is pretty simple. Lysandros, son of Hades and Persephone (and as a quick aside, I love the authors’ version of that myth included in this story) has had a rather rough history with mortal lovers. Which makes his attraction to the somewhat frumpish professor who happens to accidentally find himself at the gates of the Underworld (via subway), a bit problematic. Though, seeing as after being returned to the land of the living, Theo Ward is unlikely to find his way back to the Underworld while still breathing, Lysandros feels he can rest easy. Well, as easy as you can rest when you have a meddling sister who can manipulate your dreams, anyways. Unfortunately, things in the realm of the gods are hardly any easier than in the realm of man. With a pair of sisters who seem dead-set on hooking him up with a very mortal Theo, a group of scheming gods set on relieving their boredom in the most interesting ways possible, and a Zeus-inflicted storm set on drowning Washington D.C. (for shits and giggles?), not even a homebody like Lysandros is safe from the tides and whims of fate.

This ended up being such an easy book to read. The characters were very well written, and from page one I was totally invested in the lives of Theo, Lysandros, and the various members of the Hades clan. Hell, I even enjoyed being annoyed at Theo’s office-mate/fellow professor, who was a bit of an ass, and a rather horrible teacher (it’s not all about the fireballs, dude, you need to learn how to fucking chill). And while, like I said, I am not one to enjoy the whole “what if gods, but with Starbucks and cars!” thing normally, it never felt boring or redundant here. The authors never try to give you whole Wikipedia articles about the various gods that litter the pages of this book, but instead strike a balance between trusting that most readers have at least the very basics down, and making sure to bring up the points that are pertinent to the story being told. Not being beaten on the head with facts that might be interesting, but in no way impact the story being told, was incredibly refreshing. That is usually the reason I check out of these kinds of stories. It’s like the Spiderman Origin-Story problem. After the eighth time you’ve seen Uncle Ben die, you kinda just want the creators to trust that you get the whole GPGR thing, and focus on telling a story that we haven’t heard a million times before. This book did just that. It took common characters and some common tropes related to them, and said “what else can we make them do?” I loved that.

The authors also totally did not do the thing I was 98% sure they were going to do. I was positive, from the very second I realized what kind of story this was, that they were going to do The Thing that all these kinds of stories do, and I was all set to be disappointed. But they didn’t. And I was really fucking happy about that. So, thanks, for totally not living up to my expectations. Or maybe exceeding them. Whatever.

The story was not perfect. I found that some subplots were a bit underdeveloped. The main one just sorta coasted in the background for a majority of the story till it all of a sudden became Important! but because the book tended to forget about it for long stretches of time it felt a bit jarring in the end. I also think I would have liked a bit more world building on the human end of things. Mostly around how magic worked in this world. We get some of it because that is what Theo teaches, but it still felt a bit too vague for my tastes. I can only hope that book two fleshes this aspect out a bit more, because I did find what we got very interesting.

Luckily Prisoner of Shadows, the second book in the series, is set to release in a couple months, so I don’t have long to wait. And it centers around Prometheus, which sounds really cool. He doesn’t get much more than a page (two at most) here in this story, but what he got was intriguing.

To sum it up, this book was awesome and you should read it. The magic, the characters, and the romance (which I somehow failed to bring up, but which plays a critical role and is sweet and hot and all things good) are to die for. I had a blast reading this story, and find myself excited and on the edge of my seat for the coming books in this series. Burns and Fawkes have managed to get me hooked on modern-day gods, and I can’t say I am in the least bit sorry.

RATING:  

BUY LINK:

Amazon