‘LOVE WAS SURELY THE GREATEST PUNISHMENT OF ALL’
He’s a rejected immortal. But can this magical blacksmith fight against fate and overcome the darkness of his past?
Hephaestus fears he’ll never be accepted. Cast down from Olympus and raised by a powerful sea witch, he sets out on a quest to discover his unknown father’s true identity. But he struggles to be taken seriously by the other gods who only want him for his ingenious inventions.
Convinced that solving his paternity will help him earn the love he seeks, the god of fire traps his mother and refuses to free her until she reveals a name. But when he uncovers a terrifying truth, he finds himself with more enemies than allies amongst the wrathful Olympians.
Can Hephaestus unlock buried secrets and prove himself worthy?
God of Fire is an imaginative standalone historical fantasy. If you like forgotten legends, fantastic beasts, and dark tales punctuated with humour, then you’ll adore Helen Steadman’s fascinating expedition into mythology.
Buy God of Fire to unravel the mysteries of ancient Greece today!
Recommended for fans of Mythos, Song of Achilles, Circe and Pandora’s Jar.
What did I think?
By Ouranos, God of Fire is an absolute masterpiece of reimagined fiction! I feel like I've had the most entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable lesson in Greek mythology as Helen Steadman brings the gods to life in her exquisite new novel.
The amount of mythology packed into this 335 page novel is amazing and I learnt so much whilst reading God of Fire, having known very little about Greek mythology beforehand. The way that the characteristics and individual personalities of the gods are depicted is fantastic and it made each god, gorgon, nymph or mortal completely unforgettable.
There are a lot of characters in the novel and I found that jotting down their names helped me to remember who was who, especially as some of their names get shortened as the story progresses. I also used my list of characters to research each god myself, but found that the most important parts of their stories were already covered in God of Fire anyway.
Hephaestus (or Heph as he is fondly referred to) craves the love of his mother Hera, who threw him from Olympus as a baby as she found him to be too ugly. Awww, doesn't your heart just go out to him from the start? Even his wife Aphrodite doesn't love him which is such a shame as Heph has such a big heart.
God of Fire is an extraordinary novel and I loved every single perfectly written word. Hephaestus' story is fascinating and Helen Steadman's research is impeccable; to take so many Greek myths and weave them into a captivating and entertaining story that holds the reader's interest throughout is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
Absolutely brilliant, completely unmissable and very highly recommended.
I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
About the author:
Dr Helen Steadman is a historical novelist. Her first novel,
Widdershins and its sequel,
Sunwise were inspired by the seventeenth-century Newcastle witch trials. Her third novel,
The Running Wolf was inspired by the Shotley Bridge swordmakers, who defected from Solingen, Germany in 1687. Helen’s fourth novel is
God of Fire, a Greek myth retelling about Hephaestus, possibly the least well-known of the Olympians. Helen is now working on her fifth novel.
Despite the Newcastle witch trials being one of the largest mass executions of witches on a single day in England, they are not widely known about. Helen is particularly interested in revealing hidden histories and she is a thorough researcher who goes to great lengths in pursuit of historical accuracy. To get under the skin of the cunning women in Widdershins and Sunwise, Helen trained in herbalism and learned how to identify, grow and harvest plants and then made herbal medicines from bark, seeds, flowers and berries.
The Running Wolf is the story of a group of master swordmakers who defected from Solingen, Germany and moved to Shotley Bridge, England in 1687. As well as carrying out in-depth archive research and visiting forges in Solingen to bring her story to life, Helen also undertook blacksmith training, which culminated in making her own sword. During her archive research, Helen uncovered a lot of new material and she published her findings in the Northern History journal.
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