Nikolas and the Pantheon Trials by Dallas Graham

386 pages

Somewhere in the mix of immortals, gods, thieves, giants, angels, charioteers, mythical beasts, saints, dwarves, and demons, the boy-thief, Nikolas, awakens from his unbelief to witness the Pantheon Trials—a dangerous, yearly competition of excellence between the gods of this world. And they are all there: the sun gods, the moon gods, the healing gods, and the trickster gods, the gods creating war and the gods calming the seas. But when Nikolas’ talent is discovered by a secret order of thieves among the gods, he begins to make critical choices that—for better and for worse—will follow him for the rest of his life. Nikolas and the Pantheon Trials is the first book in a new series (Nikolas, Night Thief) about the mythical, secretive origins of the boy-thief that will become known as Santa Claus. -Amazon description

I didn't get much reading done over the holidays and I think I read something in between The Boys in the Boat and this one, but now that I'm 40 my memory's crap and I can't remember!

My brother-in-law gave me this book to read. It's written by someone that they know, which I forgot until I talked to him about it after I was done. Keeping that in mind, I will be a little less critical and really my only criticism is that there were quite a few typos and errors in this book. That always bugs me because it usually implies that it was sent to press faster than it should have been and didn't get the proper proof-reading.

Having said that, overall this was an entertaining book. I don't read much mythology--I think the last I read in this genre was Percy Jackson so I could talk about it with my kids and that probably doesn't really count--so it was good to get a little refresher course in who some of the gods are. The author keeps you guessing about Nikolas's parentage, especially who his mother was and his father is pretty vague and aloof. There were enough other unknowns in this book to pique my interest and make me want to read the next one. I didn't know until reading the Amazon description that this is a Santa Claus origin story so that intrigues me as well. Well done for a new author.

I lent my brother-in-law Allegiant a year or two ago and I just barely got it back so I joked with him that he'll get this back sometime in 2018.