Jason, the retelling of the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, is a 528-page version of Jason's journey home after he's stolen the golden fleece. He has accomplished the mission his uncle, King Pelias of Iolkos, set for him and hopes to take over the throne that Pelias stole from Jason’s father. On this voyage, Jason and his compatriots must deal with Circe, the Sirens, warring kingdoms, and hostile tribes. It isn’t mentioned on the title page or the first few pages of the novel that this is the second in the Blades of Bronze series. Jason stands well as an independent volume, however, if one has a basic knowledge of Greek myths and can piece together the myth.

Knowles is very knowledgeable about Greek mythology and the depth of his research is apparent. The novel is populated with many of the major and minor characters of Greek mythology: Theseus, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, etc. The storyline is rich, flashing out the myth well while packing in enough action and heroics to engage a modern reader of Marvel comics.

However—and this is a big however—this is not a story for someone who has little knowledge of Greek mythology. Knowles provides no transition from Argo (book 1 in the series) to Jason nor background on the many, many characters. Unfortunately, I found a number of fair number of technical problems with the writing. The writing is convoluted, switching randomly from past to present, sometimes within a paragraph. There are multiple points of view with no indication of whose POV the reader is in for several paragraphs. For instance, in the prologue, the she in is never clearly identified. Even after rereading, I couldn’t decide if the POV was that of one of Celeus’s daughters (Demo, Callidice, or Saessara) or Persephone. While I enjoy learning new words, too often the erudite literary words were too obscure and had to be looked up, thus removing me from the story. Some of the problems were simply amateurish, such as having two or more males in the same paragraph with whichever he is meant being clear. Overall, the prose itself was stilted and lacked rhythm.

I think the concept of the novel interesting and, if properly edited, I’d enjoy it immensely. While Jason is compared to Circe and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, the prose never comes close to the majesty of Miller’s.

I appreciate the chance to read this book but definitely struggled to finish. The pacing of the book could use some work and I think that although the book is very well researched and I was familiar with the story of Jason going in, it was difficult for me to get engrossed in the story and found myself skipping and skimming at times

I had no idea what to expect when going into this book, I hadn't heard of the author and while I am familiar with Greek myth, I didn't know too much about Jason. I enjoyed the story but it was a little slow going for me, I felt like it was just line after line as opposed to getting to know the characters and getting into their heads. I hope this is just a blip as I enjoy a retelling but unfortunately this just wasn't for me!

I love a good retelling of a Greek Myth, and I was familiar with the story and many of the characters, but unfortunately this just seemed to go on forever, without ever really advancing the plot. I found it far too long, without really bringing the characters to life. I kept looking at the "time left in book" corner pages on my kindle and rolling my eyes, as I never seemed to be getting further forward. Not for me I'm afraid, but thank you NetGalley and the publisher, for the opportunity to read the Arc

I think what makes these retellings so fun is that we are allowed to get inside the character's heads and find out not what the story is, but WHY things went down like they did. Unfortunately, this aspect is missing. It was a fun read but, I admit that it was not something you could jump into too easily. I had to look up a lot of things, which is not a problem but it is worth noting that it might take you a bit longer to get through the book because of it.

Jason didn't work for me overall. Firstly, when I requested the book on NetGalley, nothing on the page indicated it was the second book in a series; I only discovered that once I was approved and went to add it on Goodreads. I had seen in the blurb that this was set after obtaining the fleece, but I'd assumed that was simply the author's choice for the narrative. That wasn't a major issue, though, as luckily I know the story of Jason well, so could pick up the thread where the novel started. I struggled with other aspects, such as the erratic pacing and the frequent and badly marked head hopping between the huge cast of characters, most of whom we didn't spend enough time with to get to know very well. Medea was the only one who felt a little more fleshed out and whose thoughts and feelings we could follow. It probably doesn't help that all the best bits in Jason's story happen in the effort to obtain the fleece, and that leaves this book only with them being chased on the way home. Usually I lap up retellings, but nothing about Jason managed to capture my interest, and although I tried to concentrate throughout, I frequently found myself skimming. It might have worked better to concentrate on telling the story through just Medea and Jason, so it felt more like a personal story than an historical narrative. Upon reading the afterword, it's clear the author is knowledgeable and passionate about his topic, but sadly that didn't come through in the text, at least not for me. Therefore, I am giving it 2.5 stars.

Honestly this didn’t do it for me. I am a sucker for retellings, history etc. but this one felt a little boring and slow. But fast in random spots. I had high expectations for this but it would have been a DNF if I wasn’t asked to review it. I feel horrible even saying this so I’d like to point out the positive: the writing was beautiful and the word chose was well done. I also don’t want to scare others, because while I wasn’t a fan that does not mean others will agree! Definitely worth trying for yourself.

I did not know what to expect from Jason. What a treat. Mark Knowles masterfully tells a story, this is brilliant! I'll be reading his other books.

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for providing me with an egalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a sequel and that is mentioned no where on Netgalley, or on Goodreads at the moment, and it really should be. I did not read Book 1 but I have some knowledge of Jason and the Argonauts and didn’t find myself too confused.

But I still didn’t vibe with it. It’s an emotionally detached narration that I would have liked to have seen be a little more full of life and personal. Jason or Medea would have made great personal narrators, and I would have been more invested in the novel if we stayed close to them. Jumping around between third person perspectives took me out of it.

Additionally, I think a final round of edits is in order. I found a typo in the very first chapter.

**I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Head of Zeus in exchange for my honest review of the novel**

<u>Jason</u> takes place after the events of Knowles’ first book <u>Argo</u>, and follows hero Jason on his return home to claim his uncle’s throne. While this is the second book in the series, in my opinion, it can be read as a stand-alone novel, and it is not necessary to read the first book to grasp what is going on.

It is evident that Knowles is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about Greek mythology. It is clear that a lot of research went into the novel, and I appreciated the accuracy of the myths that Knowles took and retold. The novel is extremely detailed, and goes into great depth in many sections. I loved that many of the both major and minor characters in Greek mythology were present. The storyline is rich, and packed with action and the heroics expected from a retelling of Jason’s story.

However, this is not a story for someone who has a limited knowledge of Greek mythology. There is little to no explanation of what is going on, or background on the characters and myths. Even as someone who knows a fair amount of Greek mythology, I found myself having to look up a lot of characters and their subsequent myths to fully understand what was going on.

Unfortunately, there are a fair number of technical issues with the book. The writing is convoluted and confusing. It feels as though Knowles took a thesaurus and changed every fifth word. Rather than enhancing the story, or providing more accurate language, it makes the writing seem immature. Additionally, the written tense flip-flops from past to present throughout the book randomly which is confusing. While the novel does go back and forth between the past and the present, the tense often switches in the middle of a chapter. Finally, the semi-omniscient POV, rather than providing more detail, stints the storyline. I think this story would be much more enjoyable if it was told from solely Jason’s POV. With it being in third-person limited omniscient, it becomes confusing to tell who is speaking and thinking, and when.

At the state it is currently in, I do not think I would necessarily recommend this book. I think it needs to be significantly edited down and simplified. I think there is a lot of great potential for this story. It is an excellent concept, and could be quite good. In my opinion, Knowles’ biggest struggle is with moderation. I am all for using large vocabulary words, but I should not be grabbing a dictionary for every other sentence. Additionally, the POV needs to be altered to allow for a more emotional story. I found myself unable to establish an emotional attachment to any of the characters due to the POV currently being used.

Overall, I think this is an excellent concept for a novel, and I would be interested to read further work if it was edited down, and had some stylistic changes.

<b>Overall rating</b> 2.5/5 (rounded up to three stars).

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the advanced copy.

Thank you for this arc! Sadly, this book was not for me. To begin with, I didn’t realize that this wasn’t the first book, but that’s my mistake. I couldn’t get into it though and didn’t like the writing style or characters so I decided to DNF it.

Not to my liking. I found it confusing, too long and slightly pretentious. There were too many characters and none of them were fleshed out enough for me to actually like them.