Book #17

Poseidon’s Trident by A.P. Mobley

After stealing Hades’s Helm of Darkness and narrowly escaping the Underworld, Andy and Zoey are ready to embark on the second quest they must complete before they’re prepared to lead a war on the gods—that is, traveling to Poseidon’s undersea palace and stealing the Sea God’s legendary Trident. 

Having no idea how to get there, the teens and their friends travel to the lair of the all-knowing Fates and ask for a clue, soon discovering the only person who can help them is a Titan named Prometheus who’s been imprisoned by Zeus. The problem? He won’t help unless the group manages to free him of his seemingly unbreakable chains. 

Andy and Zoey will have to find a way to free Prometheus as they battle enemy demigods and nightmarish creatures of myth—all while they begin to discover the secrets of their past.

I am so invested in this series.

After discovering in book one that two mere mortals had been chosen to battle and defeat the Greek gods in order to save humanity, I was utterly hooked. Once they had successfully obtained the first item to aid them in the battle, the Helm of Darkness, I was shaken. Now that I’ve just witnessed their journey to steal their second item, Poseidon’s Trident, no less, I am completely and irrevocably devoted to this quest and everyone involved.

Mobley’s writing just gets better and better. Book one saw her building this world of gods and mortals; book two sees her elaborating, exploring, and defining absolutely everything. Her craft is glorious, seeing the gods brought into reality in a skilful and relatable way is divine, and her introduction of new characters and species is a complete masterstroke. Prometheus, anyone?

I really wanted to settle in and enjoy this, but I found myself racing through it, desperate to find out what happens next. There’s a lot of action, a lot of violence, but Mobley peppers this through important development and dialogue scenes. Her pace is engaging, and perfect; I just wanted to keep reading until my eyes had fallen out.

There are lots of wonderful messages here about good and evil, love and hate, doing what’s right against doing what’s safe, choosing our paths without being afraid of deviating from them, and most of all, a reinforcement of the power of friendship and determination. What I love most is Mobley’s ability to humanise everything - a Cyclops who gobbles people up as a snack just wants his freedom, a sea monster sent to kill just wants some respect, one of the hero mortals is just worried the other hero mortal might think she’s a slut, a Titan god wants to do his best for his family. It’s gorgeous. 

My only mild criticism here would be that I found the novel quite difficult to get into, purely because I was reaching to remember what had happened in the first book. There was some definite confusion on my part (very possibly due to my untrustworthy memory, and perhaps didn’t affect anyone else), but this didn’t take long to dissipate, and everything soon came flooding back. This is definitely a series which is best read back to back, but I don’t have that luxury as I impatiently wait for Mobley to write the final instalment. Maybe some more subtle reminders of where we came from would’ve helped.

Such a wonderful, wonderful series with impossible plot made possible, and some beautifully complex and intriguing characters. I am in Mobley’s hands for book three.