Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Book Review | Poseidon's Children by Michael West

Poseidon's Children is the first book in the The Legacy of the Gods series by Michael West.

Book Description

Man no longer worships the old gods; forgotten and forsaken, they have become nothing more than myth and legend. But all that is about to change. After the ruins of a vast, ancient civilization are discovered on the ocean floor, Coast Guard officers find a series of derelict ships drifting in the current--high-priced yachts and leaking fishing boats, all ransacked, splattered in blood, their crews missing and presumed dead.

And that's just the beginning.

Vacationing artist Larry Neuhaus has just witnessed a gruesome shark attack, a young couple torn apart right before his eyes ... at least, he thinks it was a shark. And when one of these victims turns out to be the only son of Roger Hays, the most powerful man in the country, things go from bad to worse. Now, to stop the carnage,Larry and his new-found friends must work together to unravel a mystery as old as time, and face an enemy as dark as the ocean depths.

How would you classify the 1998 movie The Faculty? I would classify it as horror, yet I've seen it on urban fantasy lists. I find the same blurring of lines with Michael West's Poseidon's Children. It is classified as an urban fantasy novel, but it is very much a horror story.

Poseidon's Children starts out a lot like Jaws except the sharks in Poseidon's Children have hands. These sea monsters are descendents of Poseidon, and they have taken up residence in Colonial Bay.

"What kind of mythological creature would you like to be?" is a common question among paranormal book discussion forums and the book blog hops. I've never had an answer to that question until now. I want to be one of Poseidon's children. It would be awesome to be able to transform between a sea creature and a human. If I had a set of gills, my life would be complete.

Moving on.

There are a lot of characters in Poseidon's Children. It seemed like every chapter in the first half introduced someone new. I worried about being able to keep them all straight, but even with West switching between first and last names, I was able to keep track of such a large cast. I'm looking forward to further development of some of the characters in the next book.

Poseidon's Children is a great start to the The Legacy of the Gods series. The ending provides a lot of setup for the next installment, but we are given a complete story prior to the sizable epilogue. I greatly appreciate when a series book can be read as a stand alone.

If you enjoyed the 1998 movie The Faculty (I did), you should check out this series. I've been trying to ease into the urban fantasy genre and being that Poseidon's Children was dark and scary for an urban fantasy, it was a great selection for me. I'm looking forward to seeing where the series goes in the next book. I hope to vicariously spend some time out at sea as a sea monster.

7/10: Recommended Read

Review copy provided by the publisher

Jennifer

Subscribe: rss Follow: twitter goodreads Contact: email

3 comments:

  1. I had pretty much the same reaction to the book.

    As for getting into UF, a lot of fun and gritty titles out there, too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "I hope to vicariously spend some time out at sea as a sea monster."

    That made me giggle! I think I picked this up on freebie, but haven't had a chance to dive in (no pun intended) yet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great review! I personally loved The Faculty and can see why you draw comparisons to it. I also felt this was scarier than Jaws tbh. Maybe because with Jaws I also sort of saw the creature as animetronic but with this I'm only limited by my own imagination.

    ReplyDelete

Follow Me on Twitter! RSS Feed Email Me! Friend Me on Goodreads! Follow Me on Instagram!

 
Powered by Blogger