The Immortals (Olympus Bound) by Jordanna…

The Immortals (Olympus Bound) (original 2016; edition 2016)

by Jordanna Max Brodsky (Author)

Series: Olympus Bound (1)

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Title	The Immortals (Olympus Bound)
Author	Jordanna Max Brodsky (Author)
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Review	Selene wanders through the streets of New York city, helping women who have been preyed upon by men; she protects the innocent. Unfortunately, Selene's power is waning and though it scares her, she also knows that it might be inevitable. Shortly after hearing a summons from a true believer, things begin to change and Selene finds herself embroiled in a mission to find a man who murders women in order to complete and ancient ritual. With Theo, a classics professor by her side, she faces a choice she could not have predicted. Will she remain Selene the private detective, or return to being the Goddess Artemis, with all the power, coldness, and anger this entails. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm going to straight up say, I am a huge mythology geek. When I realised that this book is about Greek gods living in the modern world, the only thing that would have given me pause before picking it up, is if it were paranormal romance or YA. I'm happy to report that The Immortals is neither of the aforementioned and is actually quite grim and dark. That being said, I must acknowledge that the premise - ancient Gods in our present times, is not something that is at all new; however, Brodsky does put an interesting twist on her story. Once humanity stopped worshiping the Greek Gods, they found that their powers began to depart and so upon the orders of Zeus, the great diaspora began. Some Gods, like Dionysus mange to hold off the great fading because each night in bars across the world people still imbibe. Apollo, God of music becomes an Indie Rock star and Hermes, the messenger benefits from things like branding through the apparel brand Hermès, and of course the fact that in the present, the transfer of information is faster than it ever has been. Even the little known Victory is doing well thanks to Nike. These Gods have managed to still to retain some of their strength but lose some of their talent - like Apollo's ability to heal or Hermes ability to fly for example have been forever lost. Not all Gods fared as well, Dionysus or Apollo. Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth for instance, simply faded away and died because she lacked the strength worship would have given her and because there's no place Goddess of the Hearth, in a world where people heat with gas or electric. Though Artemis has many names, being the Goddess of the Hunt is a largely diminishing power in a world of factory farming. Still, Artemis insists om protecting the innocent and holding fast to her virginity. Much is made of Artemis's virginity in The Immortals and her relationship with Orion. I must admit to being quite conflicted by it all. On one hand, some would call Artemis explicitly feminist but then there is also the overt fixation on virginity and purity which stems from a place of misogyny and patriarchy. When you really think about the myths, Artemis is surrounded by rapist, even her father Zeus. That being said, her constant hunting of men, combined with the over fixation on virginity was absolutely a problem for me. To some degree, I would have preferred an asexual Artemis to the version we got in The Immortals. As the protagonist of the story, Selene/Artemis left so much to be desired. I found her to be almost robotic. Even in times when she was mourning for the loss of Orion, who had died millenniums ago, this character actually aroused very little sympathy from me. Selene is neither human nor Goddess and thus she is very difficult to even remotely like, let alone identify with. Selene walks the street as a vigilante but not because she cares for women but because some part of her tells her to punish the men who hurt them. She is even willing to turn her back on a woman who returns to an abuser though we all know that there are multiple reasons why a woman may choose this option. Selene walks away from the few women she gets close to claiming that because she is a Goddess, she doesn't care about what happens to humans and yet, she is not a Goddess any longer. I simply didn't like her as a protagonist at all. On the other side of the equation is Selene's male love interest, the classics professor Theo. Unlike Selene, is easy to relate to, a bit of a geek, funny and very bright. There is however a problem with his character. For much of the book, though the character of Theo is male, he reads like an author insert. I understand a professor being excited about his life's work but Theo was at times pedantic. I felt like I was reading lecture notes and it took away from the story. Yes, for The Immortals to work, the reader must understand the Elusinian Mysteries; however, the degree to which Theo broke down every little detail, despite the simplified version Brodsky featured in The Immortals, pulled me out of the story repeatedly. The plot often suffered to get a point across regarding mythology or the value of mythology in the modern age. This approach is not the wisest way to go about world building. I firmly believe quite a lot of the mythos could have been cut out of the story to give us a much tighter meta. Read More
Other authors 1
Publication date	2016
Publication	Orbit (2016), 464 pages
ISBN	0316347183 / 9780316347181
Number of volumes	1
Number of copies	1
Pages	464
Dimensions	5.88 x 1.5 x 8.63 inches


LC Classification	PS3602.R6354 I46
Dewey


Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language eng	English


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Summary 1	The Immortals (Olympus Bound) by Jordanna Max Brodsky (2016)


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