Luke Costello: The Angel/Demon of Olympus by Lucas T Stocks is the first book in the Luke Costello Series. There are currently five books in the series.
Luke Costello has a mind of his own, but he also has these other two characters and their voices living inside of him.
Unfortunately, this is how my mind works because of my dissociative identity disorder. Lucas, the sarcastic voice, always has something to say… Lucan is more reserved. He’ll usually think about things before giving his opinion.
– Excerpt from the book
Every time I started to describe this book, I got as confused as Luke Costello is in his mind.
This book is not difficult to read, and it is not psychological deep or chockful of intrigue, and still, it is difficult to describe.
Luke is a teenager who doesn’t know that he and several other students are actually demigods, offspring of gods who live in Olympus.
The light fades away. I’m in some sort of throne room. The walls around me are pulsing red. No… that’s not it. They are literally on fire. Flames are dancing along all four walls. The flames appear intense, but I don’t feel any heat at all.
– Excerpt from the book
Luke also has hallucinations or visions. He doesn’t understand what is happening in these visions but his body mates, Lucas and Lucan, aren’t part of them. He has to explain to them what he saw and heard if he feels like telling them.
Luke is an orphan who lives in an orphanage and attends Highland Academy with other several other students who are also orphans. Not all the kids are orphans but the ones he is friends with are orphans, some that used to but no longer living at the orphanage for various reasons.
There’s some teen stuff that happens right off, basic school things, tests, grades, boyfriend/girlfriend stuff.
And then demons attack the school.
Before anyone can escape, the biggest figure, Croatoan, blows fire toward the right exit, trapping everyone on that side. The one called Judas places his hand on the left wall. The doors and windows on the wall disappear as if it had been one solid wall the entire time.
Hellhounds are scattering around the room. They’re sniffing the floor like they’re looking for something.
– Excerpt from the book
Luke and the other orphans learn that some of their teachers and the bus driver are actually angelic beings watching over them, protecting them in a sense, chiefly Gabriel and Elijah.
The demons proceed to destroy the school and kidnap a couple orphans.
Luke and the saved orphans are extracted and taken to Olympus where they learn that they aren’t actually orphans but offspring of Greek gods.
“What you have in your hands is the box of Pandora. It has a few wood chips recovered from Moses’ staff smelted into the metal.” I look at him like he’s crazy.
He sighs,” Don’t give me that look. I know how it sounds. That’s what happens when the Greek god of metalworking Hephaestus, goes on one of his tinkering sprees. You shouldn’t even have that thing.”
– Excerpt from the book
I’m guessing you get the idea from these excerpts what a wild ride this is.
The story moves quickly from scene to scene. It doesn’t linger long on anything. Situations happen fast, there’s resolution, and it moves on. There’s nothing emotional or descriptive. The author tells you what the author wants to tell you and gets onto the next thing.
As a reader, I couldn’t identify with any of the characters including Luke Costello. He’s just the main character driving this fast-paced car forward, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
You won’t finding anything meaningful or insightful in this book, but I don’t think that was the author’s intention. I could be wrong, don’t quote me.
The author throws dozens of characters at the reader from mythology as well as the Bible, and yet you never truly feel lost.
These characters serve a useful purpose at the moment, but there is no reason to remember them other than for their purpose.
It’s not that kind of book that needs you unraveling deeper hidden meanings and truths.
“Those demons will be back, and they won’t stop until you’re all captured or dead.”
– Excerpt from the book
But the story doesn’t stop there.
The orphans learn who their absentee parents are and begin training to become the warrior demigods they are.
Luke Costello, however, is different than the other orphans, and there are no identifying markers of his parentage.
Luke is therefore taken to see Paean, the Physician.
“Luke was stabbed next to his left shoulder by the demon Baal. While Luke was dying, Baal was enjoying his handiwork. A shadow formed from the wound in his shoulder and attacked Baal. Baal cried out the name Beelzebub shortly before being cut down. Luke soon awakened, and the shadow disappeared,” Elijah explains.
– Excerpt from the book
During the demon attack on the school, Luke was stabbed and something dangerous and shady came out of the wound and defended him.
Paean uses something called David’s Stone to speak to Beelzebub, who speaks through Luke without Luke passing out. Luke recognizes the deep voice as Lucas, one of his other voices.
I’m not going to go much further with the review of the story. It continues on in much of the same way.
Luke encounters others most notables along the way, names most people will know. Aphrodite. Zeus. Hera. Hades. Samson.
Luke also learns that his internal inhabitants have wings which he can let out as the reader sees on the cover art of the book.
Olympus is run like an office on earth with people writing reports, an HQ to answer to. There are a lot of the creature comforts like tv sets.
Luke is eventually taken to Bathsheba of all people. She lives in Eden and teaches him how to fight.
You can deal with that one anyway you want. I was confused but amused.
“What Elijah is trying to say, Luke, is that we don’t know if what Lucifer is planning is possible or not. It’s the age-old question of can God make a mountain so large that He cannot move it,” Bathsheba says.
– Excerpt from the book
It is finally decided to send a task force into Hell itself to release the captive demigods and possibly kill Lucifer.
How do I rate this book?
I enjoyed reading it. It was fun to read. There’s a lot to like about this book especially if you want something that reads fast, has easily identifiable, mostly one-dimensional characters and never gets heavy with emotion, dialogue, clarification of situations or explanations beyond the top layer.
I honestly don’t remember much of what I read. It went from there to here to there to here with so many characters, remembering it doesn’t seem too important. It’s the kind of book you look back at and say, that was fun, but what happened? There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for somethings that occured, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t have to ruminate and search for meaning.
It’s a roller coaster in book form.
I can see myself coming back to read the second book one day, but I usually read books with more epic tellings, multi-layered, full of intrigues, detail and substance.
This book is good for a lark. Read it if you want something unserious that will make you smile. 3 stars.
Allen M Werner is the author of the epic dark pentalogy The Crystal Crux Series.
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