Mythos Academy Books In Order

Publication Order of Mythos Academy Books

The Mythos Academy series is a six-book urban fantasy created by Jennifer Estep. The series is about a 17-year old Gypsy girl, Gwen Frost, who has a special gift that allows her to see things just by touching objects. Gwen has a normal life as any teenage girl with strange abilities that make her a misfit in the real world can have, until a freak accident involving a hair brush lands her in Mythos Academy. Mythos academy is no ordinary school. It’s a school for insanely rich and powerful descendants of ancient warriors.

It’s a story that could very well be described as a modern day version of Clash of the Titans mixed up with Xena – The Warrior Princes. In fact, Estep has these two as being the major inspirations behind the story. She notes her fascination with how gods, humans and monsters interact with each other in all mythologies across different cultures of the world. What if mythology crossed over into the modern day realm? What if a spunky, yet snarky and awkward high school girl who at first does not really believe in the ancient world of gods, warriors and magic somehow found herself the unlikely heroine in the ultimate battle between good and evil? These questions are what formed the character of Gwen Frost. Since the first release of Book 1, the author has gone on to pen 6 books about Gwen from when she realizes her powers to when she comes face to face with the evil that wants to rain chaos into the world. Estep has had a prolific life as a writer of Young Adult urban fantasy with some of her books making it into the New York Times’ Bestsellers list and drawing a new generation of young adult readers who like her, are captivated by myths and legends.

Gwen Frost has always known she had a special gift. She could touch an object and know its exact history. She would have flashes of images and emotions from the people who had touched the object. As a 17-year old high school girl, she uses this gift to make a bit of money finding lost keys and cellphones for kids in her school. She reckons it is better than flipping burgers at some fast-food restaurant, but then again, Gwen is a curious girl, sometimes too curious for her own good. When she touches a friend’s hairbrush one day after gym practice, the most horrifying images fill her mind and she goes into uncontrollable screaming that lands her in the hospital, and eventually, into Mythos Academy.

That fateful day starts a chain of events that will draw her and put in her the middle of some ancient war with the Reapers of Chaos and their diabolical lord, Loki, the Norse trickster god.

Gwen doesn’t know it yet, that her mother, who also had a touch of the same power she has, was killed by a Reaper and not some drunk driver as she was first led to believe. The reason is that the reapers believed that Gwen’s mother had hidden a precious artefact known as the Helheim dagger. This dagger was one of the 13 ancient artefacts that were used by the Pantheon, a group of gods, goddesses, warriors and mythological creatures who had banded together to fight and defeat Loki in the first Chaos war. Now Loki was safely locked away for all eternity, but the dagger is the only thing that can set him free. Loki’s Chaos Reapers are looking for the dagger and they know that Gwen would know or ultimately lead them to it.

Strange things start to happen around her. People get killed and Reapers try to get her at every turn. As she keeps getting attacked, Logan Quinn a Spartan warrior comes to her rescue on several occasions. Now, Gwen cannot help but fall for Logan, besides being her constant knight in shining armor, he is also devastatingly handsome. Unfortunately, every girl at Mythos Academy wants Logan and he is only happy to oblige the Amazon and Valkyrie beauties who are falling over themselves for him. He doesn’t seem to want to be with the Gypsy girl with no warrior powers. Gwen has to find a way to survive, avenge her mother’s death and somehow keep the love of her life from chopping her head off while saving the world.

This story has a lot of interesting characters. Mythos Academy itself is incredible. From outside it looks like your normal prep school where the rich send their trust-fund kids to prepare them for a future ivy league education. Things are quite different when one gets past the walls. For one thing, the kids are not just your everyday normal kids, although they pretty much act like it. They are descendants of ancient mythical warrior races. There are Spartans, Romans, Vikings, Celts, Amazons, Valkyries, Samurais, Ninjas and more from different cultures across the globe. These kids aren’t there to learn calculus and algebra so they can take the SATs, they are there to learn mythological history, to hone their powers and learn skills they can use in battle to protect or save the world. Besides her psychometry gift, Gwen has no innate warrior abilities or magic that can melt a person’s insides, all she has are a couple of friends, including Logan and her obnoxious talking sword, Vic. She has to learn to wield Vic in battle and her friends try to help her to learn to fight and kill Reapers. As things get weirder and more Reapers keep coming for her, Gwen inadvertently frees Loki putting herself, the school and all the people she has come to love in mortal danger. It does not help that she has to deal with the usual teenage petty jealousies and the Protectorate.

Estep ended the series with the sixth book “Killer Frost” released in February 2014. She is said to be working on a spin-off of Mythos Academy with a new heroine – Gwen’s cousin Rory Forseti who appears in books 5 and 6 of the original. The spin-off is set for release sometime in 2018 and fans cannot wait to read what happens next at Mythos.