Review: A seamless blend of the ancient and modern world
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 1, 2014
Phevos, without fully realizing how and most importantly why, finds himself along with his younger sister in modern-day Athens--some 2,000 years ahead of their time. The only advice his father gave them before shipping them off to an unknown world was to "follow the signs". With this single phrase as a guide and the friendship-turned-love of Xenia, a modern-day girl who is personally invested both in Phevos and his quest, the young couple embark on an exciting yet treacherous journey that will lead them to magical artifacts, feuding Gods and eventually to solving ancient puzzles that, unbeknownst to them, have shaped their very existence.The Necklace of Goddess Athena is a fantastic novel--literaly and figuratively. I'm usually wary of time-traveling stories, but Effrosyni Moschoudi has managed to blend the ancient and modern world in such a seamless way, using the right locations, the right vernacular and character-development process, she manages to stay clear of jarring or conflicting situations. But what Ms Moschoudi's writing truly exudes is "ethos"; ethos of the kind that has been common among humans throughout history, but which you rarely see being an integral part of a plot nowadays.  Also nostalgia. I don't know if it were the purity of the story's locations (Plaka is a settlement built right over the residential area of ancient Athens) the inherent goodness of her characters or the heart-warming interactions, but this is a world I'd really like to experience again. That said, I wouldn't want to downplay the book's pure fantasy moments brimming with the wrath of ancient Gods, where Ms Moschoudi's writing is at its best. Needless to say, I already look forward to this wonderful new writer's next novel.