#Indieapril Author Spotlight and Book Tour: Graham Austin-King

The Lore of Prometheus by Graham Austin-King won first place in the BBNYA competition. Many of my fellow panelists loved this book, and even beyond the panel, fantasy fans are loving his books. Check out the 2020 BBNYA winner!

Graham Austin-King

Graham Austin-King was born in the south of England and weaned on broken swords and half-forgotten spells. A shortage of these forced him to consume fantasy novels at an ever-increasing rate, turning to computers and tabletop gaming between meals. He experimented with writing at the beginning of an education that meandered through journalism, international relations, and law. To this day he is committed to never allowing those first efforts to reach public eyes.

After spending a decade in Canada learning what ‘cold’ really means, and being horrified by poutine, he settled once again in the UK with a seemingly endless horde of children.
To date he is the author of five novels, drawing on a foundation of literary influences ranging from David Eddings to Clive Barker.

Lore of Prometheus

Summary
John Carver has three rules: Don’t drink in the daytime, don’t gamble when the luck has gone, and don’t talk to the dead people who come to visit.

It has been almost five years since the incident in Kabul. Since the magic stirred within him and the stories began. Fleeing the army, running from the whispers, the guilt, and the fear he was losing his mind, Carver fell into addiction, dragging himself through life one day at a time.

Desperation has pulled him back to Afghanistan, back to the heat, the dust, and the truth he worked so hard to avoid. But there are others, obsessed with power and forbidden magics, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth of his gifts. Abducted and chained, Carver must break more than his own rules if he is to harness this power and survive.

When we got to the final round of BBNYA, we had a chance to say which books we didn’t want to read, either because of bias, previously read, or trigger warnings. I declined this one because of the trigger warnings. I knew I’d rate it low because of it and I didn’t want to do that for the competition. I also had to protect my own mental health. And that’s why I didn’t continue reading it at 50%. I wanted to finish it, but I just couldn’t.

Let me explain why. The writing is good. I can see why people like the story and Austin-King’s writing is as good as any traditionally published book. The main character is well-written, the world dangerous but still real. I can see why it earned first place.

But the setting and the torture put me off. Anything military or war-related books are usually on my ‘will never read’ list, especially when it centers around a soldier or veteran. This is a personal preference but it’s important when you’re reading for enjoyment. So reading this, with a vet soldier going back to what’s basically a warzone, I didn’t enjoy it, at all. I forced myself to keep reading. And then came the scenes with torture. I really can’t stand these kinds of situations and reading about them made me very anxious. That’s when I stopped reading. I can guess where it’s going, but I’m never going to get past these chapters.

If you don’t mind gory violence, a military setting with a touch of paranormalcy, The Lore of Prometehus can easily be a new favourite of yours, but it’ll never be one of mine.

I received this book to read and review as part of the 2020 BBNYA competition and the BBNYA tours organised by the TWR Tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest. Please check back later for more reviews of other finalists.

BBNYA is a yearly competition where Book Bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors. If you are an author and wish to learn more about 2021 BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website www.bbnya.com or twitter @bbnya_official and follow this link to enter! Please make sure to carefully read our terms and conditions before entering.