Review--Fire & Fate by Serena Valentino

 

The tenth book in the New York Times bestselling Villains series takes a dive into the Underworld, exploring how Hades turned from god to villain.

The myth has been told for Brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades waged a years-long war against their father Cronus and his tyrannical Titans. Upon their mighty victory, Zeus split the world into three. For himself, he claimed the Sky and what fell below it. To his brother Poseidon, he assigned dominion over the Sea. And his oldest brother, Hades, would rule the Underworld.

While Hades tries to make the best of a lonely situation, eternity proves a long time to be forced live in a role—a domain—he never wanted. And the part of the story no one tells is that when your family treats you like a villain, it is far too easy to become one.

Years of being ignored and shamed by his family reach a fiery head, when three perfectly alive witches find their way into the land of the dead. Bored and lonely, Hades befriends these mysterious Odd Sisters and makes a bargain that will change the course of fate. But when you’re a god, making a deal has the potential to rewrite more stories than just your own . . .

One thing I will say about Serena Valentino's Villains series is how incredibly fast they can read! I dove into Fire & Fate with abandon after finishing Hook's story and just whoa. This one was a trip! Like time-warp trippy! Having finished it, I am still not quite certain I have a firm grasp on things either.

I always had mixed feelings about Hercules. I mean Disney took pretty much the X-rated story of the Greek Gods and made it into a G-rated family flick! It's bizarre! I mean, a caring, doting, and devoted husband AND father, Zeus? Who is that?! So yes, suspend what you know about Greek mythology in this one and just stick to the Disney version of things.

Hades has never really been happy about being forced to rule the Underworld after he and his brothers defeated their father and the Titans. Zeus took the heavens and the world, even though Hades is the eldest brother. So saying he is harboring feelings of resentment is putting it mildly. What I really enjoyed was that Valentino does bring up Persephone in this soliloquy of Hades. It was definitely interesting having read soooo many different Hades and Persephone retellings where they are a love match. Well, here they are not. She's pretty much gone and they are married in name only.

It's when trying to make his plot for revenge and gain the throne of the heavens that Hades meets the Odd Sisters and a friendship forms. He essentially leaves this world and enters the Many Kingdoms where all of our previous stories took place. Hades finds that he is quite happy over here and even stays for awhile, all while the events of Hercules is taking place back at "home." Hades is able to create a double of himself who basically plays the role we all know.

This is kind of where things start to get really trippy. The timeline is not what we thought it was. Yes, we read many of the villains' stories out of their movie order but now even the timeline of the series is not what we thought. Time becomes a very funny thing in this book and it really threw me through a loop because I am not quite sure what's going on anymore. I mean, I know in essence what was happening in regards to the Hercules storyline and what Hades eventually does in his "finale," but it's still very strange. Granted if I were to move onto Gaston's book (which won't be as soon as I'd like) maybe things would be a little more clear, but alas, right now, I am perplexed.

Don't less this dissuade you however. While the series can be read in any order, there are things that follow along a more concurrent path within this series. This book just shakes it up a little bit and had you trying to puzzle things back out. What it will mean for the series further down the line, I can't say yet since I am still have 1 book left to being caught up until this year's release.

Despite having a bit of confusion with the matter of time in this one, it was still a fun novel. Hades is quite the character and isn't what you'd think he be like after watching Hercules. He kind of reminded me of the Genie a bit in that he knows things you think he wouldn't know because of the whole "time" thing, but I guess like the Genie, he's immortal and a god at that, so anything is possible and fits in within the realm of possibility!

Fire & Fate may be one of the trickier books of the series to date, but it was still a fun and engaging read. I enjoyed seeing Pain and Panic again and catching glimpses of familiarity of Hercules and other glimpses of the series to date. It's a fun read, but definitely one that might make your head spin a bit!

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars