Review ~ Origin of the Sphinx - Raye Wagner

ebook received from the author in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: June 6th 2013

ASIN: B00D9627O4

Description:
In Ancient Greece, the invocation "May the Gods watch over you" was more than a spoken blessing. It was an entreaty for divine benevolence.

When Damon sees a beautiful woman alone, far from civilization, he can’t help but be drawn to her. But his life–as it should have been– is altered and twisted by the immortal touch of deity.

Damon’s daughter, Phoibe, is raised to be wary and distrustful of the gods.

And so she must choose–

If Phoibe marries a mortal, she risks eternal solitude for a moment of love.

If she follows her heart, she risks spurning a god.

The gods are powerful, and their knowledge is vast.

But the gods…

The gods are far from perfect.

Origin of the Sphinx is a novella detailing the story leading up to the creation of the mythological creature, the Sphinx. It is the beginning of the Sphinx series.

My Opinion

I love ancient history, especially ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome. I also love the mythology that comes alongside it all so when I first saw the description for this novella I was excited to start reading it and see what the author did with it all.

Being a novella Origin of the Sphinx was a quick read that I finished in just over an hour. I was surprised by how much Raye Wagner managed to fit into the small amount of pages though. There wasn't plenty of detail but there was quite a bit of action and things moved at a swift pace and for once they weren't disjointed. I have read many novellas that skip from here to there and it makes the writing jumpy and irritating. Origins of the Sphinx didn't do this which I was glad about. The author timed the breaks well, where it felt natural to have a pause or shift in time period and it flowed effortlessly into the next section.

As I'm more into history that mythology I'm not sure how closely the novella follows the truth, yet for me I really enjoyed reading it. Normally I find it hard to connect with characters in a novella due to feeling there isn't enough time to learn anything about them or create a relationship and even though I didn't fully connect with the characters, it is definitely better than any other novella I have read previously. It was also a nice surprise that we got a back story for Damon and found out snippets of information on other characters throughout. There really was quite a lot of information in such a short story which was great.

My only complaint, and it's not really a complaint, is that I wish it were longer. I would love to see it developed into a full length novel with a detailed back story for most characters, and vivid description of actions, landscapes and relationships so I could picture everything and connect with the characters. However this is part 1 of a series so I hope to find out more in part 2.

Overall Origin of the Sphinx is a short and quick novella that is an enjoyable summer read which will keep you turning pages. I would recommend it to those interested in mythology or just a light-hearted read to relax with.