As a big fan of Greek mythology I really, really wanted to enjoy this one but unfortunately it wasn't for me. I tried a couple of times but whether it's the writing or the character I just struggled to find myself invested in the story. I think this was an 'it's not you it's me' issue and I'm sure Athena's Champion will be a hit for other readers

This is an extremely thrilling book which is centred around Odysseus. I have read the Illiad before but still haven't got around to read the Odyssey which describes Odysseus journey home after the Trojan War.

This book is full of action and at the start Odysseus's life is just miserable. Later on he is shown that he's on a road with even more obstacles.

I really liked this me take on Odysseus's life, and how he learns more about the Gods and himself. I also like the struggle between the gods for power and how Odysseus proves that he is very cunning.

Good day! Before anything else, I would like to extend my deepest, sincerest gratitude for sending me a digital review copy of this book (via NetGalley). Thank you very much for the opportunity!

Unfortunately, I am sad to say that I have lost interest in this particular title, and consequently, I have decided against finishing it. Forcing myself to finish a book I am disinterested in (solely for the sake of finishing it) can only negatively impact the entirety of my reading experience, which, in turn, could result in me writing an unfairly negative review. That is a circumstance I hope to avoid. With that said, I believe that the best course of action is for me to simply not read it and to refrain from publicly posting any feedback regarding this book.

I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Again, thank you for the lovely opportunity!

A brilliant read! A story of a young prince who learns of his true ancestry, his world is turned around when he learns that the gods are real and that they have plans for the humans that worship them. Contains triggers

"Athena's Champion" is just not my cup of tea. It's not a very exciting story so it didn't really manage to hold my interest. It definitely could have been better.

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Goodreads Synopsis:
Prince Odysseus of Ithaca is about to have his world torn apart. He’s travelled to the oracle at Pytho to be anointed as heir to his island kingdom; but instead the Pythia reveals a terrible secret, one that tears down every pillar of his life, and marks him out for death.

Outcast by his family, hunted by the vengeful gods, Odysseus is offered sanctuary by Athena, goddess of wisdom, and thrust into the secret war between the Olympians for domination and survival. Only his wits, and his skill as a warrior, can keep him ahead of their power games – and alive.

When one of Athena’s schemes goes drastically wrong, and the young Helen of Sparta is kidnapped, Odysseus must journey past the gates of Hades to save her. Falling in love with a Trojan princess, a bewitching woman who poses a deadly threat to both his homeland and Athena, won’t make his task any easier…


I have always had a fascination with Greek mythology, though I must admit, I don't know it all that well. I know the players and the rough idea of everything but I'm not completely up to date with all the happenings. So when I saw this title available for request, I hit that button as fast as I could. Then I left it sitting in my TBR pile along with around 200 other titles I haven't quite got to yet. So I thought I'd start from the bottom of my netgalley request list and work up to the most current one so I can clear out a bit of backlog and appease the netgalley review Gods.

I found the first half of this story rather slow. I understand the point of everything that happened in that part of the story, I understand why it was slow, but it doesn't change the fact that that first half of the book was a pretty hard slog for me. It was all the set up for Odysseus and what was to come. Once the book hit the halfway mark though, the pacing of the story picked up a lot and just flew by, action all the way. This was great. I really thoroughly enjoyed the second part of the book, but the first half had me wondering if I should bother to continue and contemplating DNFing it.

If you're not completely on the up and up with your Greek mythology and all of the players, it can be a little bit of a task to get your head around the locations and the names. 90% of the names in the story were familiar, though there were a few, I'm not afraid to admit, I was spelling out in my head to make sure I was pronouncing them right. So this could have had something to do with the pacing problem I experienced as I felt like I had to slow down to make sure I was reading things right hahaha.

I've read a lot of reviews for this book saying that Odysseus has never been a favourite of anyone, and sure, he's not my favourite either, but I actually really liked the way Odysseus was portrayed in this story. I really felt for the guy. His whole world is shattered into a million pieces and then he keeps getting kicked in the guts when he's just trying to do the right thing. In a way, I think me not being completely knowledgeable of all the stories worked in my favour here. The character of Bria was interesting, and I liked Eurybates (not sure if I spelled that one right). I also absolutely LOVEDDDD Hades and Persephone. Something about them just made me smile.

The imagery of the world was brilliantly described and set up, the characters were well envisioned and I honestly had no idea what was about to go down which caused Helen of Troy to be kidnapped, I was honestly shocked by that outcome, so that was nice.

All in all, this was an okay story, by the end I did enjoy it but the first half was a major slog. I am interested to see where the story goes from here as this is the beginning of a new series, though I'm unsure at this point whether I will continue.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The novel actually started off a bit slow for me and I put it down for a month or 2. Not wanting to leave it unfinished, I picked it up again and was pleasantly surprised how the story picked up after a 100 pages or so. This novel is part of a series that chronicles the life of the hero Odysseus before the Odyssey.
Full of petty fights between the gods and mortals, love, treachery, loyalty, honour, death, remorse, and quite a few epic battle scenes, I found myself really enjoying it. Odysseus took a while to grow on me though. I wasn’t such a fan of his dialogue both inner and outer at the beginning. By the end, I found it had evolved a bit to a point where I was comfortable with it and it no longer seemed condescending. I love sassy Bria, grey eyed Athena, and wily Odysseus. I loved to hate Theseus.
Good job. I wish I’d managed to get in on the request for the second novel but that’s ok, I may have purchased it already. Looking forward to more in this series.

-- I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. Many thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity. --

Odysseus has always been one of my favourite figures from classical antiquity, so I was understandably excited to read a novel about his youth. While this novel does not excel at either plot or characterisation, it was a solid, enjoyable read, building up to a likely sequel taking place at the beginning of the Troian war. Addressing first tensions between the Achaeans and Troy, as well as between their deities, the stakes are raised, and the lines are drawn, ready to continue on to the tales known from Homer. Odysseus seems like a fair representation of the known figure, and the side characters, such as the Daemon Bria only help the story.

I wasn't sure whether I'd like this. Modern retellings of ancient myths can sometimes suffer from imposing modern sensibilities on an ancient culture and there was an element of that present in "Athena's Champion."

However, it wasn't enough to distract from what was an intriguing reimagining of the Odysseus myth, following the hero in his early adulthood as he finds himself claimed by the goddess Athena and drawn into a plot involving Theseus and a very young Helen of Troy.

The action is swift paced and the characters intriguing in a tale that leaves you wanting to know what comes next. Even if you're familiar with the myths, Hair & Mayo bring their own twist into things so there are still a few interesting touches that will keep you engaged.

A must read for fans of Greek mythology.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo publishing for a free copy. This is an honest review.

I love mythology so I was excited to read this. I didn't even read the description. This was well written. I just had Odysseus so I really didn't like this book. I wanted to but its about a character I dislike.

An absolutely fantastic novel with great dialogue and countless breathtaking scenes many a landscape photographer would undoubtedly be envious of. The characters were rich and original and, well, I'm waiting for the author's next book.

A well-written prequel to the events leading to the Trojan War and The Odyssey, Athena's Champion tells the story of Odysseus, the then-prince of Ithaca who ventures to different lands, both worldly and otherworldly, to rescue Princess Helen of Sparta and save his own family from internal conflict. David Hair and Cath Mayo did a splendid job of giving us a glimpse into the hero's life and struggles, as well as the Greek gods' selfish attempts to keep humans into submission. There's very little to no side-stories, which makes readers focus on the quests at hand. Personally I appreciate this. However the ending is anticlimactic and rather disappointing, however the epilogue was a saving grace. A novel full of magic and mayhem, Athena's Champion is one book to keep in the library, especially with the overarching lessons on the importance of family, honor, and keeping your head level over rampaging emotions.

I really enjoyed this delve into the life of Odysseus before the better known stories of his life. A nice alternative slant on the roles of Gods and Men and all things inbetween.

I've always been interested in Greek mythology and love reading books based around one. I really enjoyed this one, although there were a few places the story dragged a little. I loved that Odysseus was the main character and thought that the characters as a whole were well written. The pacing is generally good and the story was engaging throughout. There was some inconsistencies with language at times between the use of modern language and speech of the time period. Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend checking it out, especially if you enjoy Greek mythology.

I’m a well know lover of the mythology and all things greek and roman, so when I first saw the cover of this book as well as the name my attention was caught!
As I read the book and followed as Odysseys early life as Athena’s Champion, it kept being caught until I was crying at the epilogue! And now here I am, waiting anxiously for the next book of the trilogy because David’s and Cath’s writing got me hooked and I need more!

Their writting style is great, and as someone who isn't as great with old english usually used on this story, I loved how they created the worldbuiling and wrote in a bit more current! Or this is just me getting used to it!

I would like to thank Netgalley for letting me read this book, as I don’t know if I would have ever found it here where I live! And I recommend it for who likes retelling of myths and all that!
5/5 stars!

#AthenasChampion is the story of Odysseus, who is disowned by his father and taken under the protection of the goddess Athena.

Odysseus is shocked to learn that the gods and goddesses he has grown up thinking of as metaphors, are truly as real as you and me. In return for Athena’s gifts, like enhanced strength and healing, he must act in her interests both on earth and with the other gods.

The book is very detailed, and quite slow moving in places, but it is the firs5 of a trilogy so the world building is necessary. Particularly as the gods and goddesses of Greece aren’t exactly as they are in most stories. The language is very modern, and to be honest I found it distracting.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

As a big fantasy fan historical fiction fan was this book a real winner for me. The authors brought Ancient Greece back to life and I can’t wait to read the next book in the Olympus Series. The writing style was very direct and just focused on the action and dialogue, Hair and Mayo craft an imaginative conflict that tangibly threatens both the Gods and those sworn to their service. The development of characters, that you'll recognize from Greek myths and legends. David Hair and Cath Mayo have written a great book that makes me eager to get the next book in the series however Sometimes I felt it went its own way with Homer’s original story, nevertheless, the authors always manage to bring the story back to the original. Overall the descriptions of characters, events and places were well executed.

This retelling, however, deals with the events that lead up to the Trojan War and explains why the Greeks were so quarrelsome. It’s apparent that the authors did their research as they told of the events and arguments amongst the Gods that lead up to the Trojan War. I really liked this new take on Odysseus life and how he learns more about the world and about the Gods. The authors created a plausible young Odysseus, it doesn’t feel out of place or character and they expand on the idea in Greek mythology that the Gods and Goddesses constantly meddled in the lives of mortals, and used them as pawns, to win favour with Zeus, start wars, gain worshippers, etc. Odysseus is a theios, “god-touched” awakened by Athena that offered him her protection and Once Odysseus has sworn his allegiance to Athena, he is automatically regarded with enmity by other members of the Olympian family.

First book in the Olympus Trilogy.

This is written in present tense. I can see why in the first chapter. It gives it an ethereal, mystical past feeling and as it follows some known mythology, it could have made a good start to the story if it hadn't carried on in present tense throughout.

As that's what it did, it reads rather slow. The story itself is interesting so I persevered, but by 18% it was becoming a real chore.

I'm not sure how closely it follows the actual mythology as I'm not that familiar with the Greek stories, but my impression is that it's pretty close. The plot and action are good and I liked the main character. My only problem is that it dragged terribly and could have been a really good read if it had been written properly in past tense. Why is this a thing? No Classics, NONE, are written totally in past tense!

The writing itself was very good. The authors are obviously able to write well. I just hope they progress from using present tense. Unfortunately I'll never know because once stung with this, I never go back to the author again.

This book is what I wanted Madeline Miller's books Circe and The Song Of Achilles to be.
We follow Odysseus on an adventure battling scheming Greek gods and mortals alike. Some action, romance, politics, history and adventure.
I thoroughly enjoyed this first book and will make sure to check out the second installment.
I can recommend this book to anyone who likes Greek mythology, historical fiction with more plot and action than in the Madeline Miller books.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Athena's Champion focuses on Odysseus in his early life, before Troy and even before meeting his wife Penelope. In this book, Odysseus learns the gods are real and that certain mortals are god-touched, for better or worse. Learning about the gods and their involvement with mankind takes him on a dangerous journey where he must rely on his new strength and his wit. This book is fantastic, and I had a great time reading it. It's an exhilarating journey that moves at a rapid pace. Odysseus has much more depth in this tale than he does in others. Seeing his thought processes throughout the journey makes for a riveting tale, and I can't wait for the next book in this series.