Poseidon's Children by Michael West

Synopsis

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.

Review:

It seems like lately I have had a lot of books to review that have fallen under the mythology themes. And this book proudly enters it into the list. I'm actually a little bit on the surprised side that I enjoyed the book as much as I did, and that's not because the book isn't good, it's because the book borders on that like between horror and urban fantasy. I love urban fantasy, but horror is just not my thing (I'm a big wimp, I won't even go see scary movies). So when I started to realize this book had a bit of the horror genre in it, I was a little nervous but I stuck it out and I was happy that I did. 

I do have to say my only real complaint with the book was that the beginning was a bit on the slow side. I know writing a beginning to any book, or series involves a lot of set up by the author to put the infrastructure in place, so it's actually pretty common for me to find that a book starts a bit on the slow side. I will say that even though it starts off slow, it does pick up as the book goes on. 

One of things I appreciated about the book though was I think that there is a character out there for everyone. This book has a lot of characters in it, so you are pretty much guaranteed to find someone you like within, someone you can identify with and want to know more about. And the characters all compliment each other pretty well, which I think is a pretty nice achievement by the author, especially with a cast as large as it was in this book. 

I do really like that the book has a good pace. Once the book gets going it really doesn't stop, it keeps the reader interested in the plot throughout the entire thing. It does a really good job of making you want to know what is going to happen next. And the suspense factor in the book is also pretty good too, but I think that is a common element with the horror genre. 

The book is a really quality read. The writing is good, the plot line is solid, the characters are well formed and easy to identify with. I like any book that makes me think, and makes me think I know what is going to go on next and then have the author completely surprise me. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy or horror. But if you are like me and you avoid horror at all costs, I think you might want to give this one a try, because it really is a great molding of the two genres. 

Michael West Guest Post

When I first sat down to write Poseidon’s Children, creating an epic Urban Fantasy series was the furthest thing from my mind.  For one thing, there was no Urban Fantasy at that time.  The sub-genre simply didn’t exist. And, for another thing, I didn’t consider myself to be a Fantasy writer.  I wrote Horror stories.  Still do.  But, as I got deeper into the creation of this tale, it became quite apparent that the finished novel would be very hard to categorize.  There were aspects of Lovecraftian Horror and the supernatural, some Science Fiction ingredients as well, and yet, as a writer, I was more concerned with telling a good story than with what category it would eventually be shelved in. 

When I sent the final manuscript around to various Horror publishers, however, I received the same response over and over again: “We really enjoyed Poseidon’s Children, but we didn’t find it to be scary enough to be Horror.” Based on some of the story elements, they suggested that I try a Science-Fiction publisher instead. And so I took their advice, hoping to have better luck, but finding only further rejection. “We found this to be a fast-paced, enjoyable read,” they told me, “but it’s just too horrific to be part of our Sci-Fi line.”

Frustrated, I trunked the novel for a time, focusing instead on other projects, but I never stopped loving those characters, that mythology, and I wanted to get it out there.  Maurice Broaddus, who was writing his own series of novels at the time, told me that what I had was clearly Urban Fantasy. I questioned this, thinking that all Fantasy, even Urban Fantasy, had to have wizards and dragons. The more I looked into it, however, the more diverse the genre became. Urban Fantasy could have vampires and werewolves; it could have demons and monsters, even aliens. And the more I read, the more I thought that my novel was a perfect fit. 

I decided to do one final polish. I played up some elements, jettisoned others, and expanded the whole mythology into a series I was now calling The Legacy of the Gods. But I still kept it dark, kept it bloody; in fact, I lovingly described it as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre of Urban Fantasy.” Satisfied with the finished product, I approached my current publisher, Seventh Star Press, who had released a fair amount of Fantasy and Urban Fantasy before taking on my Indiana-based Horror series.

When they told me they loved Poseidon’s Children, I was overjoyed, and yet I kept waiting to hear “but it’s not scary enough for this,” or “it’s too Sci-Fi for that.” This time, however, it was just right. They greenlit the entire series.

Right now, there are a total of four novels planned.  The next chapter, Hades’ Disciples, will pick up soon after the events of Poseidon’s Childrenand will be action-packed!  After that, there will Zeus’ Warriors, which will set up the finale, Olympus Returns.   Each instalment will explore more of the history and mythology set up in Poseidon’s Children as the characters work to stop events that will mean the end of life as we know it.

 

I hope my faithful readers will enjoy Poseidon’s Children, and I hope they will look forward to the next entry in the Legacy of the Gods series with great anticipation.

Summary for Poseidon’s Children:

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.

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