THUS BEGINS THIS TALE FROM THE MINOAN BRONZE AGE, an era as dim in record as it is radiant in myth, its soul arisen from the bedrock of ancient Krete, where palatial walls once gleamed with the splendor of Labrys-bearing kings and queens, and where legend has woven the names of Europa, Minos, the enchantress-sisters Pasiphaë and Kírke, and the dread Minotaur into the everlasting tapestry of Western memory.
Yet Asterios and the Labyrinth is no retelling of Theseus’s quest. It is the imagining of a world that might have been, in which succession crises spill into bloody revolt, statecraft and sorcery entwine, and love dares stake its claim amid the clash of bronze and desire. Aye, I have taken liberties—but with reverence, not disdain—for the myths and ruins upon which this world is founded have long withstood the passage of time. Even so, I have neither stretched nor distorted names, lineages, or timelines beyond what may be gleaned from Homer, Hesiod, and the fragments that endure.
This is a song of betrayal, loss, survival, vengeance, and a love that defines one’s purpose for living. Prince Asterios’s struggle, within and without, is one of inheritance, not only of rule, but of burdens borne, monsters faced, and bonds too sacred to sunder. His is a journey through labyrinthine trials not unlike those we all must tread, though ours be less often paved with spells, shafts, and spears.
May your heart prove steadfast to fare forth through these pages and lead you unto that which is dearest: the freedom and flame to live true unto yourself.
Rio de Janeiro, Winter of MMXXV
- Publisher : Ethorn Publishing
- Publication date : September 20, 2025
- Language : English
- Print length : 366 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-6501697420
