My Five Word TL/DR Review: The Fates vs Greek Gods

I’m loving the current trend of Greek myths being retold from different angles and The Fates is no exception.  In fact I really enjoyed reading a story involving The Fates and this is such an interesting take.

I must confess that having read Jennifer Saint’s Atalanta not too long ago at first I thought that my timing in requesting this one was perhaps not good.  As it happens I think that my previous reading fed into this story really well, right down to the conclusion which provides reasoning for the ways that various characters have been portrayed.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.  This is a story that takes a look at the Gods, meddling, petty and to be honest supremely vain and self serving.  The Fates, immortals that are older than the Gods, who are also fascinated with humans and their passion for life, and characters of Greek myth, Atalanta, rejected by her parents as a new born because she was a girl, left to die on a mountainside and actually raised by a bear, and Meleager, a warrior whose death was foretold at birth and has since lived on a knife edge.

To be honest, I’m not going to discuss the plot other than to very briefly say this is a book of ultimate meddling.  The Fates themselves have plotted, they’ve spun their threads and now must sit and wait for the outcome.  Well, they may need to meddle just a little bit more.

We have various povs.  Zeus, for example, has a number of chapters, let me just say he doesn’t come across too well, I loved the way he was portrayed to be honest, just because he’s a God doesn’t mean he’s going to be decent – and he really isn’t – he’s an egotistical horror to be frank.  We have the Fates, who for the purpose of this story are given a makeover into three small girls, who can’t remember who they are but gradually start to believe that they’re not like other people.  I really enjoyed this aspect of the story with the slow realisation as the girls begin to question everything.  Then we have Atalanta and Meleager – and, again, I enjoyed their tales.  The author takes us back to their early stories which really helps to set the scene and give us a chance to buy into both characters and increase the tension as their lives start to experience turmoil.

What I particularly enjoyed with this story can be boiled down as follows:

I enjoyed reading about the Fates.  I don’t think I’ve read a story where they play such a fundamental role before and they were different than I had expected. I think I expected three crones.

I liked that the author uses material already available so that when you’re reading this it feels familiar but then not familiar at the same time.  It adds that sense of plausibility, stories are all about perspective after all and, for example, three people involved in the same event will often tell a slightly different version of events.

This really does lay out the hardships that women suffered but at the same time it gives you some hope as we have females here taking matters into their own hands and changing fate.

The writing was good.  It gives the right amount of detail to set the scene, it gives you characters that you can become invested in and it really succeeds in having that ‘Greek myth’ feel.  I don’t know how else to describe it. I just recall reading Greek myths and the one thing that really stayed with me was how fantastical they can be, this story definitely has elements of that.

Overall I had a good time with The Fates, it makes a good addition to the other retellings I’ve read of late and I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.

I receive a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 stars