Fire and Fate

Hades never asked to rule the dead. After he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeat their father Cronus and his Titans in a war that lasts years, Zeus divides the world in three. Zeus takes the Sky, Poseidon takes the Sea, and Hades, the eldest, is given the Underworld.

Hades takes his duties seriously and tries to make the best of a lonely post. Eternity in a domain he did not choose is a long time, though, and his family keeps ignoring and shaming him. The book follows what happens to a god who is treated like a villain by the people closest to him, and how easily he might start to act like one.

The pressure builds until three living witches, the Odd Sisters, make their way into the land of the dead. Bored and isolated, Hades befriends them. Together they strike a bargain, and because Hades is a god, its effects reach well beyond his own life and into other stories.

This is a retelling of Greek myth from the point of view of the god of the Underworld, told as a character study of resentment and loneliness with a darker, brooding mood.