Mother of Mortals

A Tale of the Nepheleid #1

by Marisol Charbonneau

On the eve of her return to Olympus from her yearly journey circling the Earth, Hera, Queen of the gods and ardent protector of mortals, takes a moment to wistfully bear witness to the very last launch of humanity's soon-to-be-defunct space rocket programme. Perched upon a solitary mountaintop somewhere in North America's vast Boreal forest, the goddess encounters Prometheus, who reveals to her that her days of subtly guiding mortals in their heroic endeavors are far from over.



Zeus, on the other hand, takes a dim view of his Queen's seemingly innocent chance encounter with his former foe, and begins to suspect that Prometheus harbors sinister intentions for his wife -- and for the gods of Olympus.



Piqued by Zeus' paranoia, and encouraged by the goddess-Queens of old and the gods who dwell at the boundaries of the Earth, Hera defies her King, and undertakes a journey that will lead her to discover a past she had long forgotten, and embolden her to secure humanity's future as mortals set out to colonize the stars.

346 pages, Paperback

Published April 25, 2017

About the author

Marisol is an author, a scholar, and a storyteller of fantasy and Solarpunk speculative fiction.
Drawing from her vast academic and experiential knowledge of contemporary Witchcraft and
Paganism, mythology and anthropology, Marisol tells the tales of traditionally maligned
goddesses and heroes by subverting taken-for-granted narratives through a critical yet humorous
lens for the enjoyment and edification of all.
Her mythology inspired Nepheleid series includes the following titles:
Mother of Mortals (2017: Arcana elements)
The Cloud Born (2019: Arcana Elements)
The Aeon of Eris (upcoming: Arcana Elements)
Her most recent offering is Moonshine (2021: Arcana Elements), the first in a series of comedic
books set in Montreal, featuring the city’s famously unique fringe communities.
Other works include Quebec’s Distinct Paganism: A Study on the Impact of Language, Culture
and History in the Development of Contemporary Paganism in Quebec (2018: Arcana Elements),
based on her master’s thesis in Religious Studies/Anthropology completed at the University of
Ottawa in 2008.
For a glimpse into her body of work, see the links below:
https://uottawa.academia.edu/MarisolC...
https://www.facebook.com/MarisolCharb...
https://www.facebook.com/ArcanaCreations
https://arcanacreations.com/Arcana-El...

Reviews

[Leela Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an extremely interesting read as it was a very different take on the Gods of Olympus. Nevertheless, Charbonneau manages to properly explain all the Greek Gods, myths and Titans so that those who don't know much about Greek mythology can easily follow along. At the same time, she explains all things related to Greek mythology in a way that is fun for those (like me) who are very familiar with Greek mythology.

I really like the way Charbonneau chose to portray the Greek Gods, it made me really love Eris, Hades and Apollo. And I really hated Zeus.

The only negative aspect I found while reading this book was that there were a couple of grammatical errors.

[Guenevere Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited to pick this book up. I love Greek mythology and science-fiction, so it seemed like a no-brainer. The book is set in the near(ish) future, when humanity has begun fleeing to the stars as the planet dies. The gods meanwhile are holding onto the glory days in Mount Olympus, ignoring the plight of humanity.

My first impression is that Mother of Mortals was written by someone who truly loves the Greek gods. The mythology, along with all its contradictions and historical inacuracies, are brought up in the text to give a richness to the story. I especially love how she included adjectives like 'pallas' and 'white-armed' to describe the gods. This is something done in classic Greek writing (as anyone who's read the Iliad or the Odyssey can tell you). Marisol Charbonneau definitely did her homework.

That being said, the beginning of this book feels like doing homework. Literally the first third of the book is just back story and exposition. You have to read through chapter after chapter of character introductions, along with all the history. It was like an extended 'previously on' at the beginning of a TV episode. It felt unnecessary for a couple reasons. The first being that most people who pick up this book are already familiar with the Greek gods, so this information will be redundant to them. The second is that no one wants to read an info-dump that takes up a third of the book. There had to have been a more creative way of introducing this information. Some of it could have been cut, or turned into a flashback/dream-sequence.

I also wish the characters had gone more places. There are exactly three locations in this book. Mount Olympus, the arctic base, and Tartarus. I guess because they started the book discussing a voyage into space I was expecting, I dunno, a voyage. I'm hoping if this series does continue that they go on a proper journey.

Once you get past that one-third mark, you really do get to the meat of a very interesting novel. The basic plot revolves around Hera. After meeting with Prometheus, and becoming interested in helping the humans reach the stars, Hera realizes that she has lost an important memory. As she digs into her past to uncover the truth (because just when you thought you were past the exposition - here come more!) Zeus becomes increasingly unhinged, leading Hera to also question the legitimacy of her union to the King of Mount Olympus.

I can't say more than that without a lot of spoilers. I do highly recommend this to anyone who loves Greek Mythology, although sci-fi fans should know there's not a whole lot of sci-fi involved. Just get past the beginning and you're in for a novel (the first in a series) that feels very much like it belongs with the Greek mythos.