I confess at the outset that my experience of other kinds of readers is limited, and what little I have is not encouraging. My dearest friend Yolis, whose loyalty and warmth I would not trade for anything this world has to offer, finds my novels a considerable trial. She endures them when I give her […]
Why Historical Fiction Readers Are the Best Readers To Write For Read More »
Set on the island of Crete during the Minoan Bronze Age some 3,500 years ago, Asterios and the Labyrinth (Mythos of Knossos) by Edmond Thornfield is a tale of gods, kings, heroes, revolts, and magical powers. The Minoans, a wealthy people known for their farming and commerce, experienced some turbulence following the death of King
Asterios and the Labyrinth | Reviewed by Leonard Smuts for Readers’ Favorite 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 »
Novelist Edmond Thornfield explains why literary travel is essential to writing historical fiction, from Knossos and Mycenae to Florence and Cortona. There is a question I am sometimes asked, usually by readers who have noticed something in the novels that feels too precise to be invented. How did you know what the road from Knossos
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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
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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 »
(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 »
In the summer of 1952, a young English architect and philologist named Michael Ventris made one of the most extraordinary announcements in the history of scholarship. He had deciphered the writing on the clay tablets recovered from the ruins of Knossos, Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns—tablets inscribed with a script that had resisted decipherment for half
Speaking Bronze Age: Linear B and the Language of Mycenaean Greece Read More »
