The Face of Apollo

The Face of Apollo is a real thriller that catches the mind, another fantastic novel by Fred Saberhagen. I enjoyed the twists and turns in the plot line and the wide array of characters. It was nice to see a story brake from the mundane of an already high ranking character achieving glory. The farm boy Jeremy who works tending to the grape fields brings back a placid side to the development. The main characters journey threw the story was well plotted and executed so the reader wasn't bombarded with too much all at once. The ascending ideas broiling up instead until they spilled over in an array of Greek mythology and medieval fantasy. Bravo to Saberhagen and this superb novel. I'd recommend this for anyone who enjoys descriptive writers and has a flair for unique circumstances.

Fine by me as a matter of fact, I love this guys good. Good basic story the classic everyman or boy in this case finds a mask that endows him with the powers of the God Apollo. He doesn't know what to do so he decides after much soul searching and warring with the new presence in his head to take it to Mount Olympus. Overall-What you have here is basically a solid adventure story but I do have one problem the ending like most Saberhagen endings is just a little too metaphysical for me. I hate books that leave it up to the reader to decide what is meant by them. A little resolution is all I ask for.

I recently read The Face of Apollo by Fred Saberhagen, this book deals with mythology and gods. The main character in this book is Jeremy Redthorn a farmboy who lives with his uncle and aunt. Jeremy hates farmlife so when he meets a beautiful wounded woman who he falls in love with he is willing to give up his farmlife and go on a great journey. The wounded woman gives Jeremy a mask which he is supposed to take to a place called the Academy. Little did he know that the mask he was carrying wasn't a mask it was a face fragment that had magical powers. Jeremy heads out on this dangerous mission downstream, he must go through a series of traps and challenges to get to the Academy, but he is determined. This book has all of the most famous gods, The Sun God Apollo, Dark Hades Lord of the Underworld, Thanatos, the Personification of Death; the enigmatic Trickster; and Hephaestus the Smith, the wonderworker of magical technology. I really don't like to read because it is hard for me to find a book that intersts me, but this one did. This is the first Fred Saberhagen book that I have read but it won't be the last.

Authors who write very long and successful series, like the Swords series (all really good, btw!), often start a new series that's only a slight rework of their original (Eddings, Feist, etc). It's understandable - they're under a lot of pressure from publishers to get something out fast, and hey, why ruin a winning formula? At the same time, I prefer to shell out my hard earned bucks for something that I *haven't* read before, and Fred Saberhangen delivers just that!Saberhagen keeps some of the themes from the Swords, namely that Gods who walk the earth are not actually "gods" but somehow enhanced humans. In addition, there are "items of power" which are often sought out by individuals, but sometimes acquired just by luck. In the other series it was Swords, here it's Masks. Other than sharing that same starting point...NOTHING is the same, which I love! Kudos, Fred!The topography of the land is totally different, as are the personalities of all the major characters. This storyline is quite unpredictable and engaging too! This looks to be a great new series, and I highly recommend it.

I loved it. I drove my parents absolutly nuts talking about it. Fred Saberhagen has done it again. From the author of Merlin's Bones comes a new novel about the Greek gods and the struggles between them. The main character, Jeremy, inadvertantly enters the world of the gods when he puts on the face of Apollo. Driven by the god who he now shares his body with, Jeremy learns to harness his magic so he may ultimitly confront the Lord Hades. The best thing about this book is that you don't actually need to know anything about the Greek gods to understand what is going on in the story.