"Patrick Adkins is a natural-born storyteller. . . . The man knows how to spin a tale of wonder."  —Mike Resnick"A most entertaining fantasy story, with a great deal of originality."  —Poul Anderson"Patrick Adkins has inherited the dawn-dipped, phoenix-feather quill of Thomas Burnett Swann." —Roger ZelaznyFor untold ages before the birth of Zeus, Kronos, Lord of the Titans, ruled the world. A giant among giants, the most powerful and revered of all the gods, his unmatched strength and intelligence forged a Golden Age among the Immortals. But that was long ago. Brooding and increasingly unpredictable, he rules now through fear and unsurpassed cunning, his magnificent palace atop Mt. Olympos rife with whispers of madness and horror.Only Proteus, the shape changer, Proteus's precocious little sister Metis, and her “pet” humans can pierce Kronos's web of deadly intrigue and prevent a disastrous war of the gods from being unleashed across the earth. A fast, gripping, and sometimes funny tale of adventure, love, and intrigue among the elder gods and goddesses of Greek mythology, Lord of the Crooked Paths is also a vivid, authentic reconstruction of a lost mythological era—the Age of the Titans. First published as two separate books, the complete story appears here for the first time as originally intended by the author."Intriguing . . . Adkins has done an excellent job of bringing together the names of legend and giving them character and motivation." —LOCUS