OLYMPUS BOUND

The final installment of a trilogy that sees the goddess Artemis fighting for her life—and the lives of her fellow Greek gods—in the 21st century.

After the events of Winter of the Gods (2017) left her body and ego bruised, ancient Greek goddess Artemis—now using the name Selene Neomenia—is racing against time to stop the powerful leader of a cult trying to usher in a new Age of Humanity by wiping out the immortal Greek deities. Forcibly separated from her lover, classics professor Theo Schultz, Selene is also grieving; she has already lost several of her loved ones trying to stop the cult. But when she realizes that her own father, the mighty Zeus, is next in line to be sacrificed—and that the cult leader is none other than her grandfather, Saturn—the stage is set for an epic familial battle. With Theo back in Manhattan hatching his own plans to stop the cult, Selene is in Europe working with fellow Olympian Flint (the contemporary name of smithy god Hephaestus). They must follow a trail of complex clues involving Christianity, ancient Roman mystery cults, astrology, and mythology to try to prevent any more deities from being wiped from the face of the Earth for good. Brodsky has always seemed more comfortable writing about gods than human characters, so she hits her stride here in the trilogy’s climactic showdowns: like an erudite version of Die Hard, the novel moves quickly from nail-biting predicament to battle and back. And the long-awaited addition of Athena to Brodsky’s pantheon will delight readers who are mythology nerds. If one can put aside a fair amount of outlandishness (Theo’s old roommate just happens to be the incarnation of the god Dionysus?), Brodsky’s popcorn read offers a fun escape.

A satisfyingly over-the-top finale.