On Ovid, Myth, and Historical Imagination There is a question every novelist must answer, if only to themselves: why this story, and why now? For me the answer arrived not gradually but all at once, in the final lines of a myth I had known for years without truly seeing. Ovid tells Atalanta‘s story across […]
Why a Novel About Atalanta? Read More »
Asterios and the Labyrinth (Mythos of Knossos) by Edmond Thornfield transports readers back to the time of ancient Greek power, of mythical beasts, sorcerers, and the battle for royal succession. Upon the death of King Minos, his son Asterios must succeed to the throne before the various warlords tear the kingdom apart in their quest
Asterios and the Labyrinth | Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers’ Favorite Read More »
There is a mountain that watches over the plain of Neméa from the north—flat-topped, unmistakable, rising above the valley with the quiet authority of a place that has been looked at for a very long time. I first saw it in April 2019, at the end of forty kilometers on a bicycle, with the Temple
Perseus and the Altar on Mount Apesas Read More »
If you have ever read a novel set in the ancient world and found yourself wondering how much of it is true—how the author knew what a Mycenaean palace smelled like, or how a Minoan priestess dressed, or what Linear B actually says—then you have already crossed the threshold from reader into something more. You
Five Works of Classical Scholarship Every Historical Fiction Reader Should Know Read More »
The objects in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion are not merely remnants of Minoan civilization; they are among the most important surviving works of Bronze Age art anywhere in the world. What each taught me about the Minoan world Even before I knew that one day I would write a novel set in the
The Archaeological Museum of Heraklion: Thirteen Objects That Changed My Writing Read More »
Edmond Thornfield’s novel, Asterios and the Labyrinth (Mythos of Knossos), is a reimagined, action-packed mythological and historical story, set in ancient Krete (Crete) during the period of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization. When King Minos dies, his son Asterios succeeds him as the ruler of the Kingdom of Labrys. Prince Phaistos of Archanes is commander-in-chief
Asterios and the Labyrinth | Reviewed by Saifunnissa Hassam for Readers’ Favorite Read More »
There are journeys one spends a lifetime preparing for without knowing it. Mine to Archaia Neméa began, as so many things do, in childhood—with a book. I was perhaps seven years of age when my beloved Madrinha Ionyr placed in my hands a children’s volume of the Twelve Labours of Hēraklēs on my birthday. I
Following in the Footsteps of Hēraklēs to Archaia Neméa Read More »
(Posted by Literary Titan on January 23, 2026. To read this and other reviews there, click here.) Asterios and the Labyrinth follows a grieving prince of Knossos as he battles political treachery, invading powers, and ancient prophecy, risking his crown and life to fight for the man he loves and the legacy he must protect. What
Telling the Prince’s Tale in Asterios and the Labyrinth Read More »
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
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In the vast pantheon of Greek mythology, sorcery is rarely a solitary gift. It runs in bloodlines, transmitted from divine parent to mortal child like the color of eyes or the timbre of a voice. No mythological family demonstrates this more powerfully than the daughters of Hēlios, the Sun God, and the Oceanid Perseis, for
Pasiphaë & Kírkē: Mighty Sorceresses of the Bronze Age Read More »
