K. Makansi

3,5 stars

I have to confess I hadn’t heard about the Oracle of Delphi before this and I realized how little I actually know about ancient Greece.

Althaia is a privileged young woman from Athens but thanks to her lenient and loving father she’s had more rights than most women. She has knowledge to perform an autopias on a dead body, which becomes handy when a dead woman is found.

I liked Althaia, Theron and her two slaves. Praxis was almost like a brother to her even though he was a slave and it was nice to see their close relationship. Althaia was very likeable character: strong, compassionate and quite outspoken for that time. We get another perspective of her from the point of view of Nepthys, her personal slave.
Little by little we learn more about their past and how they became to each other’s lives.

I loved reading about the Oracles of Delphi because there the women could have power and be quite independent since women didn’t have much rights in Ancient Greece. And many of the women were born peasants and they could still be powerful.… (más)

My original The Sowing audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

The Sowing by K. Makansi is the first novel in a trilogy called Seeds. The story follows two young adults, Remy Alexander and Valerian Orlean, who are on two different political sides of the Okarian Sector government in a post-apocalyptic world. After years of wars and famine, the world has finally stabilized and the government has a tight control over the food production with the hope of ensuring the continued survival of the human race. Remy Alexander and her family fled the Okarian Sector to join the Resistance when her sister was murdered. The Resistance works to find against the control the Okarian Sector political elite have over the population. Valerian Orlean is the son of two leaders of the Okarian Sector. As Valerian works to protect the Sector and its ideals, he must fight against the Resistance and Remy, the girl he once loved.

This is a great novel. The world building is seemingly effortless. While it seems like a natural issue in a post-apocalyptic world, I haven’t come across a novel focused on food and seed production before. I also really like that there was a lot of focus on the science. It is well explained and distributed in dialogue throughout the novel, so it’s not confusing. The characters, especially Remy and Valerian, had natural voices, which made it easy to relate to them and to like them. While focused on two main points of view, each of the characters has a diverse group of friends and colleagues that create a great dynamic to dialogue and activity throughout the novel. The banter among the character groups was comfortable, believable, and well-paced. Similarly, the plot has a great distribution of action and explanations. The end comes has a good stopping point in the story, but leaves the plot open for the next novel.

The narration by Ivy Tara Blair is excellent. The characters are well voiced and distinguishable. The voices also seemed aged well. The teenagers sounded like teenagers without having the worst kind of whiny teenage voices. The production quality is also great as well. I would recommend this novel to another who likes a young adult science based post-apocalyptic story.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.… (más)

Althaia of Athens is on a pilgrimage to fulfill her deceased father's last wishes. However, when they arrive in Delphi, the body of a young women is found upon an alter and Althaia's tutor, Theron is asked to investigate. Althaia, trained in Egypt in the art of autopsia, assists with the cause of death. When it is discovered that the woman was connected to the Pythia of the Oracle of Gaia, Althaia, Theron and her slaves and plunged into the ongoing conflict between the Oracle of Apollon and the Oracle of Gaia. Althaia has also been having a disturbing dream about a young man; when she meets the young man in her dreams, Nikos, the pieces start falling together for the mystery of the woman left on the alter.

My favorite part of this historical mystery was Althaia's character. She is an intelligent, spunky and does not allow her position as a woman in her time to get in her way. Althaia also had a very modern voice and way of thinking which made it easier to connect with her. The history behind the Oracles of Delphi engaged me more than the mystery in this story. The Oracles were once real women, usually a peasant woman, chosen for the Gods to speak through, the parts of the story concerning the traditions of the women surrounding the Oracle were what really transported me back to ancient Delphi. The mystery in the story took a back seat for me, it was a little slower moving and didn't hold as much mystique as the characters trying to solve it. However, in the end, the solution did surprise me and I ended up loving how the guilty parties were revealed.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.… (más)