Kate O'Hearn

If your first reaction when reading this book's description is, “That kind of sounds like a Percy Jackson for girls,” then you’re thinking along the same lines as I was when I started reading this story. It turns out that The Flame of Olympus, Kate O’Hearn’s first book in her middle-grade “Pegasus” series, has a very different feel than Rick Riordan’s series and flies very well on its own wings.

When Olympus is overrun by multi-armed creatures named Nirads that cannot seem to show more be killed, Pegasus is sent to Earth by Jupiter to find The Flame of Olympus – a human with an ember of the Eternal Flame buried deep within. But when young Olympian thief Paelen attempts to intercept Pegasus to snatch his golden bridle and control the winged horse, Pegasus ends up crashing onto the roof of a New York apartment building while Paelen falls to Earth and is found by the authorities. The story then takes two directions, as Paelen is taken by a secret government agency named CRU (Central Research Unit) for interrogation and Emily and her friend Joel attempt to heal Pegasus and help him return to Olympus.

O’Hearn travels a different road with The Flame of Olympus than Riordan does with “Percy Jackson.” In her world, the Roman gods and mythical creatures are actually revealed to the general populace when Nirads attack NYC and Pegasus flies down Fifth Ave. She also takes a darker tone with the inclusion of the CRU, especially Agent J (a possible nod to Men in Black?) who will do anything to hunt down, examine and destroy any non-human entities. The tone was the biggest surprise for me with this book; it may be a bit too dark for very young middle-graders but should be fine for anyone who has read “Percy Jackson.” I couldn’t help but see Agent J as the actual villain of this piece; torturing children is not something he has a problem with, and when he finally has Emily, Joel, Roman goddess Diana and Pegasus in his control they are not treated well. Only Paelen’s skills as a thief provide a ray of hope and an opportunity for Pegasus to complete his mission. While the tone was unexpected it was not unpleasant, and the pacing of the story was brisk and engaging.

Character development is not very deep, but there was enough for me to feel connected to the characters. Emily was a wonderful heroine, brave and compassionate. She was determined to help Pegasus find the Flame and fought through fear and injury to do so. We first see Emily’s bravery when she recruits Joel to assist her with Pegasus. Joel is a new student with an extremely tough reputation, but she has seen him drawing pictures of winged horses and believes he may be the only one who will help her. I really liked Joel – he WAS tough, but he was also excited to find the myths he had grown up with were real. Each teen had tragedy in their past, but Pegasus helped bring them together and gave them a purpose bigger than their sadness. Paelen was a bit harder to sympathize with; the way he abandoned Olympus and the gods who needed his assistance showed a lack of character that was definitely not admirable. Thankfully, his character did develop a conscience and some backbone as the story progressed so that by the end I felt more invested in him. Providing Paelen with a reason to grow was Agent J; after he was treated so badly by J, Paelen was determined that Pegasus not go through the same. Agent J added some serious menace to the story, and his lack of conscience was chilling. I think he is going to be just as tough to defeat as the Nirads in future books.

While Kate O’Hearn’s The Flame of Olympus is treading familiar territory with teenagers interacting with gods and goddesses of Olympus in the city of Manhattan, she takes a very different approach adding in a secret government agency and allowing her mythical characters to be seen by regular people. The tone darkens as the book progresses and might be slightly disturbing to very young middle-graders, but for most pre-teens and up it is fine. Characters are generally easy to connect with, especially young heroine Emily, and swift pacing keeps the story moving. Middle-graders and adults who enjoy adventure stories with mythology mixed in will want to give The Flame of Olympus a try. show less

Freya is about to turn fourteen, the time when she will take up full duties as a Valkyrie goddess. She will be an angel of death and collector of souls from humanity's battlefields to add to the warriors that fill Valhalla. But Freya is filled with dread at the thought of the soldiers that feast in Valhalla by night and practice their battle skills by day for all eternity. From her home in Asgard she wonders what it is to be human, whilst knowing that to touch one would cause their death. show more

During her first battlefield mission, Freya reaps the soul of a soldier with unfinished business and promises to help his troubled family. Always impulsive and often recklessness Freya sneaks away with the help of trickster Loki, breaking the rules and crossing Bifrost, the light bridge that connects Asgard to Midguard (Earth). Will helping the soldier's family fulfil her desire for to learn more about humanity?

Would have liked to see more character development and the ending was a bit predictable but a good story with a new concept. show less

This book isn't terrible, but it's quite frustrating. I think the problem is that I don't believe Freya -- I don't believe in her hatred for humanity that is so swiftly turned on its head, I don't believe in the hard and fast rules of Odin's world, because nobody else seems to believe in them, either -- there's a pretty huge amount of defiance on from all levels of his dominion, so it's hard to take the dire warnings seriously. There's a whole lot more tell than show, and it undercuts both show more the characters and the story.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. show less

Emily and her winged horse face a war of Olympic proportions in this second book of an adventurous series.Emily, newly recognized as the Flame, is living in Jupiter’s palace on Mt. Olympus. Her friends, Joel, Paelen, and—of course—Pegasus, are there as well. The only person missing is Emily’s father, who is still being held prisoner by the CRU back in the human world. Emily wants to go find him, but Jupiter won’t allow her to leave. However, Emily does have access to a winged show more horse… Determined to rescue her father, Emily and her friends make plans to sneak away from Olympus and back to New York. Then Cupid, Emily’s sort-of crush, decides to come along as well. It will be hard enough to hide a winged horse from the prying eyes of the CRU, but a winged boy as well? And when the gruesome Nirads begin a new invasion, old grudges are unearthed, new enemies are discovered, and Emily and her friends become entangled in a conflict more dangerous than they ever anticipated. show less