BBNYA Tour: The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin King

I received this book to read and review as part of BBNYA 2020 organised by the @The_WriteReads team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest. 

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A little bit of background for BBNYA and for anyone looking to get involved!

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. 

If you are an author and wish to learn more about the 2021 BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website (https://www.bbnya.com/) or our Twitter account, @BBNYA_Official. If you would like to sign-up and enter your book, you can find the BBNYA 2021 AUTHOR SIGN UP FORM HERE. Please make sure to carefully read the terms and conditions before entering. 

If you are a book blogger or reviewer, you can apply to be part of BBNYA 2021 by filling out this form (also remember to read the terms and conditions before signing up)! 

BBNYA is brought to you in association with the Folio Society (if you love beautiful books you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group TheWriteReads.

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But now let’s get to what we’re really here for…

Coming in 1st place for BBNYA 2020 is The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin King!

Blurb: John Carver has three rules: Don’t drink in the daytime, don’t gamble when the luck has gone, and don’t talk to the dead people who come to visit. It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from the whispers, the guilt, and the fear he was losing his mind, Carver fell into addiction, dragging himself through life one day at a time. Desperation has pulled him back to Afghanistan, back to the heat, the dust, and the truth he worked so hard to avoid. But there are others, obsessed with power and forbidden magics, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth of his gifts. Abducted and chained, Carver must break more than his own rules if he is to harness this power and survive.

Review:

John Carver is a man adrift. Back from fighting wars in dusty lands, civilian life is full of gambling debt and the ghosts of his fallen comrades. So when a chance to get back out to familiar surroundings as personal security beckons, he jumps at the opportunity. But not everything is as it seems. People have heard about John’s ability to stop bullets in their tracks and they’ve decided he’s valuable. So valuable that he awakes chained in an underground facility where unidentified figures put his powers to the test.

I’ve said it before but this book definitely warrants me saying it again. BBNYA is absolutely fantastic for putting books in your hands that you’d otherwise miss out on – and this one in particular is one I’m so grateful for. I thoroughly enjoyed this book way more than I ever expected to and honestly would recommend it to anyone who likes X-Men style mutants on the loose who are now finding out the extent of their power! It’s just as messy as it sounds…

The storyline, combined with a fantastic writing style, was the stand out reason that I enjoyed this book so much. The first excerpt I read focuses on John new civilian life and his debts with certain heavy handed mobsters which didn’t seem like my sort of read, but the further you go, the better this story gets. King’s writing style is punchy and quick, giving us some fantastic scenes between John and Mackenzie, but also between John and his fallen soldiers. There’s humour, even in the more gory scenes, and it enables us to see the vulnerable sides of all the characters hiding beneath tough exteriors which I always appreciate. We flick between John and Mackenzie’s points of view which really helps to build the intrigue as we know something sinister is going on even before John gets abducted. The pacing is also done really well as little pieces of information are revealed at the perfect time to keep you interested but to also increase the tension to have your mind wildly trying to guess what’s going to happen next.

I also have to say, but I won’t spoil, this book has one of the most satisfying endings that I’ve come across in a while. It’s a real punch the air type moment where I so badly wanted to be one of the main characters just to experience it!

Overall, I’d definitely recommend this book if you’re after a read that combines the magic of X-Men with the unspeakable experiments and carnage of the best sci-fi novels!

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Did you follow along with BBNYA 2020? Or maybe you’re excited for this year’s event? I’d love to know!

You can always find me over on Twitter if you’d like to discuss this book (or any others that I’ve featured) in more detail 😌