Dioscuri by Chrystalla Thoma

Blurb:

When you are Zeus’ immortal son, you know you can get away with mostly anything. Bringing back the dead is not one of those things. Yet this is what Polydeukes does when his mortal twin, Kastor, dies. According to the dark deal he strikes with one of the gods, the brothers must alternate days in the land of the living, and Kastor cannot be told, or the deal is off. On top of that, If Hades was to find out, all hell would break loose. Literally.

But Kastor begins to put two and two together, and keeping the secret becomes difficult for Polydeukes. Will Kastor break his brother’s deal and save Polydeukes from an eternity of punishment in Tartarus, or will Polydeukes find a way to save them both?

Review:

It’s modern-day Athens, digging the foundation of a skyscraper opened the doorway between Olympus and the human world and the gods and mythical creatures mingle with people.  Tourists flock to the area to catch photos of creatures of which they’ve only read.  Which part of the Hydra will kill you do they not get?  Polydeukes and Kastor, twin sons of Zeus are members of the Resistance army sworn to protect the silly humans.  Pol is immortal, but Kast is mortal and dies in one of the skirmishes.  Pol makes a deal with a lesser guardian of Hades—he’ll spend alternating days there so Kast can live, at least part time.  But Kast can’t know what’s happening.  Of course, Kast starts to figure it out.

Dioscuri is a young-adult novel, but is a fun read even for someone like me who is over the proverbial hill.  At fifty-nine pages, it moves quickly, but the characters are well-drawn and the situations get rather humorous as Kastor tries to fill in the blanks when people refer to things Pol did on the days Kast was dead—especially when he inadvertently stands up a girl he likes.  It’s even worse when she runs into Pol and he keeps the date.  Because of course, the boys’ personalities are very different.  Kast is serious and this was a date with the daughter of the owner of his favorite bookstore.  Pol is fun-loving with no interest in reading.  They even smell different—something neither of them ever thought about, but girls notice those things.

This book would be a great way to introduce your kids or grandkids to Greek mythology, or to refresh your own knowledge of the Gemini twins.

Length:  59 Pages

Price:  $3.50

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/young-adult/ya-fantasy/dioscuri-detail

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW