This books has the myths. All the myths. Seriously. You might even say there are no myths … mything (no, I’m not sorry for that; Robert Aspirin made a career from that pun.)

Incidentally, I’ve been writing book reviews on this blog for quite a while, on and off, but I’ve decided that I’m going to call them “book recommendations” from now on. Partly because I’m not going to fill good blog space (they charge by the pixel, you know) telling you about books I don’t like, but mainly because my brain is weird and when I call something a review I get all hung up about it having to be formal and serious, and really, who wants that?

So, back to Paternus.

I’m going to be honest. I tried this book maybe a year ago, and I only got a couple of chapters in before putting it aside. But I kept hearing great things about it, so I figured I would give it another go, and I am very glad I did. In fact, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year, if not the best.

I’m kind of finding it hard to describe the book. It’s a contemporary fantasy, but quite unlike almost anything else. The only book that really came to mind for me was American Gods, but I enjoyed this a lot more than American Gods, which slightly missed the mark for me, even though I normally like Gaiman’s stuff. Here’s the description of the Paternus: Rise of the Gods on Goodreads:

Even myths have legends. And not all legends are myth.

When a local hospital is attacked by strange and frightening men, Fiona Patterson and Zeke Prisco save a catatonic old man named Peter–and find themselves running for their lives with creatures beyond imagination hounding their every step.

With nowhere else to turn, they seek out Fi’s enigmatic Uncle Edgar. But the more their questions are answered, the more they discover that nothing is what it seems–not Peter, not Edgar, perhaps not even themselves.

The gods and monsters, heroes and villains of lore–they’re real. And now they’ve come out of hiding to hunt their own. In order to survive, Fi and Zeke must join up with powerful allies against an ancient evil that’s been known by many names and feared by all. The final battle of the world’s oldest war has begun.

Ashton doesn’t make this book easy for himself. The first four, five, six – can’t remember exactly – chapters each follow different, at-first-unrelated characters. They are also told in an omniscient voice in present tense. In other words, it’s pretty far out of the normal for fantasy, which tends to either be third person or, occasionally, first person and told in the past tense. It was enough to throw me at first.

But the story is incredibly compelling once you get used to the way it’s told. There are so many original, great ideas, plenty of action, really good characters, and a plot that emerges slowly and satisfyingly over the course of the story. I found both it and its sequel (Paternus: Wrath of the Gods) enormously absorbing.

It’s not perfect, of course. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book that is. Where Paternus dipped slightly for me was when What Is Going On is explained to Fi and Zeke. The story loses a little momentum, and there is a bit of Forrest Gump-ism going on when certain characters turn out to have been involved in pretty much every major historical and mythological event you can think of. But that only lasts for a chapter or so, and then the story gets going again.

When you’re a writer yourself, there are two types of good books. The books where you think, “That was great. Maybe I’ll write a book like that.” And then sometimes you do. And there are the books where you think, “Yeah, no, I could never write that.” This definitely one of the latter books for me.

This book got third place in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off competition in 2016 , which unless it was up against The Lord of the Rings and War and Peace that year is kind of astonishing to me. Well, perhaps not. Any book that’s written in such a non-standard way for fantasy isn’t going to please everyone.

As I said, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year. If you decide to give it a go, don’t be put off by the less-than-usual style. Go with it. It will be rewarding.

5 stars