Villains of Lore #1 by Jasmine Mas

A sarcastically funny, dark fantasy romance reimagining of Hercules from Amazon bestselling author Jasmine Mas.

From the book:

I’m struggling to survive in a Titan infested world where Spartans, immortals from twelve royal families who have god-like powers and obscene wealth, rule over all. A shy-stammering foster child with nothing, I keep my head down, cover my scars, and focus on excelling in school. At least, I try to. Then it happens.

My blood test reveals I’m part of the powerful elite. I’m one of them. A Spartan.

Forced to attend the Spartan War Academy, I undergo the most harrowing test of all time to see if I have what it takes to be an immortal. There’s just a few problems. Achilles and Patro are my scary mentors. Kharon, the ferryman of death, and Augustus, the son of war, are my terrifying professors. Also, I’m pretty sure either someone’s stalking me everywhere I go, or my sanity’s slipping––I have a bad feeling both are true.

I get given books at Christmas, but sometimes they sit on the shelf and get to my read pile, so last year I decided that I would read the ones bought for me. This is the first of those, and it would not be my normal go-to style – but it has Hercules, Spartans and a panolpy of demi-humans and Gods… so that’ll just fit straight into my interests – I hope!

I will admit to a minor level of trepidation with the title as greek heroes are more typically referred to by their Greek names, (and not Roman / Latin names)… so maybe Blood of Heracles, would be better… but a minor quibble so on to the book – and this is my first one with a content warning, but that’s the modern thing I assume.

Unfortunately, my initial (possible) optimism started to take a downward turn – the premise is solid – in a world where the Spartans conquered Greece and then settled in Rome (weird, but okay), the Titans have just returned and want to destroy all humanity.

Fortunately the Spartans have revealed themselves and they can teleport and fight Titans – but the Spartans are a dwindling race and their blood is running low. But they have a very greek solution, there are children around the world that have Spartan blood for ‘reasons’… they may be Zeus like reasons and sleeping with mortals. all children are tested, and those with Spartan Blood are sent to the Colliseum (… err…) to fight to the death so only 10 are left — not a great way to replace your dwindling population.

Our author (Alexis, written in the first person) is one of the ten and so joins her fellow survivors in a school/classroom where they learn about Spartan society and knowledge – although not really – and go on runs if they fail a test. Except they all have to do the run and some are killed on it.

If you’re confused, then so was I and I had the author’s words in front of me. There’s no logic to the process the new Spartans have to go through, there’s no Greek mythology other than the character’s names, and there’s no logic to how 2,000 years of Spartan society have resulted in the same society we have now – except for the destruction caused by Titans.

And then there’s the straw… the main character refers to one of her tutors as being ‘like Satan’… really??? Where did Christianity come from?

So a well deserved 1 star review – but not a ‘so bad it’s good’ type book. Save yourself then 400 pages, and leave this one on the shop’s bookshelf.

We always encourage people to shop at local bricks and mortar stores, but if your friendly local book store doesn’t have this available, we have a UK Amazon affiliate link & a USA Amazon affiliate link for which Woehammer receives a small commission.

— Declan & Eeyore