A brand new adventure series, set in
a time of myth and monsters
When a headstrong teenage girl and her loyal twin brother are among those chosen to be the sacrificial victims to a monster in a labyrinth, they wrestle with how to face their deaths honourably or fight to escape and live.
Meanwhile, the twins’ mother, suspecting her children’s selection is not as random as first supposed, sets out to find the truth and bring down those responsible.
BUY PAPERBACKBUY EBOOKThe legend
When Prince Androgeos of Krete tragically dies during the Panathenaic Games in Athens, rumour spreads that it was no accident. Androgeos’s father, King Minos, driven by revenge and armed with mighty Zeus’s support, sets sail, altering the destiny of Athens and her people forever.
A bitter war, a failed siege and a cursed plague all lead the citizens of Athens to one terrible resolution: the sacrifice of fourteen of its young to a monstrous creature housed in a dark, underground labyrinth. And it is the archons, the king's governors, who oversee the ceremony to select the sacrifices, where the children of the city are chosen by lot.
Only this year, the archons have decreed that the children from the surrounding townships are also eligible. Suddenly those who had been safe for all those years no longer are. So when it transpires that the most unlikely outcome occurs - that both a sister and brother are chosen together - it sets into motion a fight for justice and survival.
The setting
Theoi. Hemitheoi. A world of gods, demi-gods - and their beastly monstera, while mortals exist forever at their mercy.
1100 BC, the lands of the Aegean Sea Athens, the once thriving city of Attika, has been ravaged by war and plague. Though the city was spared annihilation, able to withstand the brutal siege from King Minos’s army, its people struggle in the aftermath, forced to submit to the demands of a more powerful kingdom’s vicious ruler.
Across the sea, on the island kingdom of Krete, the king’s immense and resplendent palace of Knossos holds a dark secret - the entrance to an underground labyrinth, home to the half-bull monster who feeds on human flesh. But the beast is not the only prisoner: Daedalus, the master engineer who designed the labyrinth is forbidden to leave, along with his son, Ikaros. So when a young noblewoman steals into the palace with a plan to see the engineer, the slim possibility of escape for him and the fourteen Athenian children becomes real.
The characters
athens
Alexa - a seventeen year old girl from the deme of Korydallos. She lives with her family on their horse farm on the slopes of Mount Aegelaos.
Ariston - Alexa's twin brother. He helps run the horse farm with his father.
Daedora - the twins’ mother. She helps run the farm after the plague.
Heron - the twins’ father. He’s a horse-breeder and trainer.
Lysander - young man in training (ephebe). Ariston’s friend and Alexa’s lover.
Krataios - archon of Athens and father to Lysander.
Pyrrhus - the youngest boy chosen as one of the Athenian sacrificial tributes.
KRETE
Kythereia - a young noblewoman from Heraklion. She is Alexa and Ariston’s old childhood friend.
Princess Ariadne - teenage daughter to King Minos, she is charged as keeper of the labyrinth.
Daedalus - designer and engineer of the labyrinth. He is kept imprisoned at the palace with his son, Ikaros.
Atusa - royal physician and healer.
about the author
K. J. Verma is a writer of historical fiction for over twenty years. Taking inspiration from mythology and fantasy, her stories focus on the interplay of family and the larger community, as well as the intense conflicts and dynamics that such elemental settings provoke.
Her belief is that ancient historical settings portray how universal our experiences are as humans, no matter which century we find ourselves in. 'Children of Athens' is her debut novel. 'Prince of Athens' will be the next instalment in the 'Blood of Athens' series.
