The Ferryman's Disciples ~ Caleb N Kelly (Silence of the Gods #1)

★★★☆☆

I received a digital review copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. My opinion is in no way influenced by the author, publisher, or distributor.

Sort of like Percy Jackson and the Olympians meets Skyrim, this fantasy short story tells the tale of Segree, an assassin for the Egyptian gods who's task it is to hunt and kill minor Greek gods so that his Egyptian employers can escape their prison.

This was a fun little short story, and I liked the concept enough, though it tended to feel more like a RPG and less like a real fantasy world, especially where the mythology was concerned. The writing was generally good, though it often read like passive voice (which I'm not entirely sure it always was) and relied heavily on excessive description. Also, Charon, the main opponent whose scene takes up the vast majority of the story, spoke in incessant third person. To give you an example of how often he said his own name, there were 62 instances of the word "Charon" in this 30 page story. "Assassin" was likewise too often, coming out at 40 times. It quickly went from quirky to downright silly and then into irksome territory.

Besides that, and despite this being a short story, I would have liked more scenes before the showdown with Charon, to establish Segree's character and world. The previous gods he assassinated barely got a passing mention, and I'm still not entirely sure why he was killing them in the first place. Segree, as he was written, seemed like a Gary Stu with no conceivable personality.

This is a trilogy of short stories, but as it currently is, I have little to no interest in continuing the series.

This book is only available from the author