Lore

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R14KZ1V2U70CBC/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0892548HC

My appreciation of this book followed a bell curve. At first, I was fairly bored with the stock urban fantasy characters - angry, outcast anti-hero, sassy gay sidekick, lost friend from youth - but I became interested in the story midway through with its unusual background, but at the end, I was back to impatience at the cliches and tropes.

So, to begin with, Lore is Melore Perseides of the Bloodline of the hero Perseus. Sometime in the 6th century, nine Olympian gods - who are real, as, apparently, are other pantheons - rebelled against the loss of their believers to the upstart Galilean. Zeus put them down because he's a pluralist kind of god and condemned Ares, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo and the rest of the Olympians other than Hera and Hades to exile from Olympia and the requirement of the “Agon,” where there immortality is stripped for seven days every seven years. During the Agon, anyone who kills a god, takes over as that god, immortality included.

To make matters even more competitive, Zeus recruited the bloodlines of nine Greek heroes to act as hunters of the gods during the Agon. The hunters want to kill the gods so as to bring the god's power under their control for wealth and power during the intervening years.

Lore is the last remaining scion of the Perseus bloodline. When she was 12 years old, her family was slain by the bloodline of the hero Cadmus (the “Kadmeides.”) Worse, the Kadmeides have a “new god,” the successor to Ares, under their control and he intends great things.

We meet Lore as a 19-year-old on the eve of the next Agon in New York City where she is kicking the ass of men in underground boxing matches. She had received training as a warrior, up until she was around 12, which explains why a 19-year-old girl with limited upper body strength can best any male challenger despite the numerous examples of women athletes regularly losing to male to female transgenders.

You go, girl!

She meets her lost friend, Castor, of the line of Achilles. She discovers later that Castor has “ascended” to the position left vacant by Apollo's death. She also is recruited by an injured Athena - who presents as an unlikable character throughout the yarn - to help Athena's cause in return for the promise that Athena will put down the new Ares.

Then, Lore is off and running everywhere - breaking into House Achilles and then House Cadmus. She goes toe to toe with numerous hunters and their best warriors, whom she regularly bests despite not training and being a nineteen-year-old girl. She suffers fatal injuries on two occasions. On one she is helped by Castor's healing powers in his form as the new Apollo.

This is the author's book, but at some point, the over the top girl warrior aspect becomes too much. If she had magical powers or superior training, then maybe it would be fine, but neither apply to Lore. For me, “too much” was reached when Lore was wielding the Aegis against the new Ares. The Aegis wasn't doing too much, but Lore is able to stand up to this godlike warrior and cut off his arm, and go for a draw in wrestling him, all while resenting his male chauvinism. Again, perhaps the example of “transwomen” breaking the jaws of female boxers has jaded me.

I didn't particularly like the stock feminism that comes out at odd moments. Lore chastises Athena with arguments that men are bad, Athena is bad for supporting men, and Athena was wrong for turning the Medusa into a monster (or not, according to Athena) just like they were in the middle of a feminist class consciousness-raising session rather than being hunted by two bloodlines of warriors.

Priorities, people.

Another bit of senseless ideology was the pairing of Lore's sassy gay friend with Castor's best friend, because that friend has been protecting Castor because of an unrequited crush because, obviously, any male relationship has to be sexual for it to be meaningful. Again, this is the author's book, but is it really necessary to have an unnecessary gay romance in every story published after 2020?

The ending turned into a lot of talking and posturing. This is pure stock villain dialogue:

““What use do I have for it now?” he said, glowering at her. “When my victory draws near? I cannot summon him and I will not be able to carry it. From this day on, I will only ever hold a sword.”

Bracken, Alexandra. Lore (p. 526). Disney Book Group. Kindle Edition.

And this was done better elsewhere:

“Lore drove down harder, and saw the moment his eyes widened when she didn't take a stance he recognized, and instead drove her knees down onto his lower stomach, just where his breastplate ended.

“Your biggest mistake was trapping yourself in this city with me,” Lore said.

Bracken, Alexandra. Lore (p. 522). Disney Book Group. Kindle Edition.

I am all for young characters going on their “hero's journey” but this is uniquely snotty. We've seen nothing that indicates that Lore has the ability to take on a god (much less two). This is right up there with Bat Woman's statement that the Bat-suit will be “perfect when it fits with a woman.” Humility and modesty are virtues and make for likable characters, but hey!, You Go, Girl.