Early Review: Daughter of Chaos (The Dark Pantheon #1)

Daughter of Chaos (The Dark Pantheon #1) by AS Webb

Published By: Penguin
Publication Date: January 16, 2025
Date Read: December 23, 2024
Genre: Adult – Epic Fantasy
Source: ARC from Penguin
Format: Paperback
Pages: 468

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FOR MORTALS TO RISE THE GODS MUST FALL.

In ancient Greece, the twelve gods demand the ultimate tribute – food, treasure, even human sacrifice.

There are some mortals who cling to a desperate prophecy – telling of one to come who’ll set them free. But few truly believe it.

Until Danae, a fisherman’s daughter, eats a mysterious golden apple. And suddenly, her life unravels and a strange and dangerous path unfolds before her.

Chased from her home, she neither understands nor fully controls her future. One which will find Danae walking the winding roads of heroes. There, she encounters and befriends the mighty demi-god, Heracles. Together, they will seek out monsters to battle.

But Danae’s destiny is not to fight beasts.

She will hunt the gods.

She will drag them screaming from Olympus . . .

Daughter of Chaos was one of my most anticipated Fantasy releases of 2025, so you can imagine my utter joy and excitement when I managed to snag an ARC of this at YALC in November. Naturally, it was one I had to dive straight into and I have to tell you this is a fantasy debut that is not to be missed. This was one of the books that surprised me the most… in a very good way! I really enjoyed this way more than I thought would.

Daughter of Chaos has been dubbed ‘Godkiller‘ meets ‘Priory of the Orange Tree‘ and honestly that made me a little apprehensive. As much as this was one of my most anticipated reads, I rated both of these books 3 stars, so I liked them but didn’t love them. I needn’t have worried though… I loved Daughter of Chaos. I can’t lie, going into this book I thought that it was going to be a bit more of a Romantasy. I can’t even tell you why I thought that, maybe it’s the beauty of the cover… it just has a typical romantasy look to me. Well, if you’re thinking of picking this book up for a fantasy romance, let me be the first to tell you… don’t! This book is in no way, shape or form a romantasy… and I freaking loved that. This is hardly a whiff of romance anywhere in this book. There’s a tiny bit of a connection way way into the book but even still, I wouldn’t call it romantic. This is an epic fantasy, focused more on the mythology and the adventure more than anything.

Daughter of Chaos is probably the slowest paced book that I’ve read in a while, and while usually I get bored with slower paced books, I really enjoyed everything about this book. Although it is slow (hardly anything plot wise happens before the 100 page mark), the writing just kept me so enthralled and I really didn’t want to put the book down. I really enjoyed the development of this fantastical world, filled with characters from all of the common Greek myths. Honestly reading this made me realise I don’t know the Greek Myths as well as I thought I did. There’s characters that popped up in this book that I had vaguely heard of but knew nothing about so it’s really made me realise I need to read up more on the Greek Myths.

Although this book was slow paced, I really enjoyed every minute. It’s slow developing but it is filled with pockets of action every so often. This book is a slow burn of world and character development, and I really loved it. It made me laugh in areas and cry in others. I really went through such an emotional rollercoaster reading this book. It was so much better than I ever imagined it would be. I honestly cannot wait until I can get my hands on book 2 and see what happens. If you’re looking for a good new epic fantasy to dig your teeth into, I highly recommend Daughter of Chaos.