The Hades Calculus

I’m spoiler free

My opinion spoils themes of the book, go read it blind if Olympus gods with mechs sounds cool to you (it is). Glance over the content warning if you know some themes may trigger you please.

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Content Warning

The book is very violent and I don’t feel very comfortable recommending it without mentioning some themes that are explored in it: gore, violence, cannibalism, parental/family abuse, incest

I do contain spoils and opinions

This is a beautiful book. It shook me, it made me feel violence, horniness and wide variety of very intense feelings. And all this intensity felt very new to me in a book.

I’m not really used to sex in fictions in general, I tend to skimp over them and find them distracting, here it worked. It felt beautiful, it made sense for the characters, I could understand why they would want that and what it meant for them.

If I had to describe the book in a word to me it’s desire that comes immediately. The book is about a wide variety of desires, some beautiful, some darker and everything in between. The way the book transported me into this intense journey exploring my own desires of violence, of being wanted, of being desired, of desiring others was soo unique but also disturbing in a way. And that’s why I’m still thinking about it, a lot ! I think that is totally intended and authors made an excellent job at pulling the reader into darker parts of themselves, parts more unpolished, less explored.

It may feel strange to only now speak about the fact that’s it a sci-fi mecha book with a retelling of the Olympus mythology but this really was the part of the book that I expected and knew I would like. And the book, to its credit, leverages all this context, characters and sci-fi elements to explore this notion of desire that really spoke to me. Another great thing is that really: you haven’t read a retelling any close to that. The gods are like never before, queerness in the general sense is front and center and in that sense the book is a celebration of joy also.

I read the short stories and they were in the direct continuation of the main book so I liked those as well. I’m just starting book 2 and I’m really looking forward to what it’s going to offer me.