During the course of the novel, Evie meets the mysterious and seemingly immortal Alex and a cast of magical characters. As it turns out, Evie's family have been guardians of a secret treasure trove called the Storehouse for over three thousand years, ever since after the fall of Troy. It was a fun scene when Evie first stumbles upon the Storeroom in her father's basement. The literature student in me was delighted at catching all of the mythological objects and references, the Golden Fleece, Herme's sandals, etc. The main plot of the novel centers upon the Greek goddess Hera and her attempts to obtain the Apple of Discord from the Storehouse. If she succeeds it is sure to have dire consequences to the already fragile world.
Interspersed with Evie's narrative are sections involving Alex or Sinon as he is originally known. Sadly, even though these were secondary stories, I found them more interesting than Evie's story. I wanted to see more of Alex and his interactions with Apollo and the other gods.
There are also two other narrative arcs that run throughout the book, but they felt rather superfluous. The first involves Bruce, Evie's illustrator from the comic book series they write. Every now and then he shows up just to remind the reader how bad the world situation is. However, it's hard to feel any tension or sympathy for him as a character because he's barely in the story. His girlfriend Callie gets mentioned and how worried he is for her, but again it's hard to share his feelings. I could have done without Bruce's sections.
And finally there is the narrative within Evie's narrative. In order to cope with the supernatural events happening around her, Evie turns to writing a draft of a novel based on the characters from her comic, the Eagle Eye Commandos. Specifically, she writes about Tracker, a female commando who we are explicitly told is based on Evie. I think it would have worked a little better if the reader had to infer that Tracker was Evie's subconscious projections. Either way, these sections of Evie writing drag on for far too long. Since the reader knows that the Eagle Eye Commandos are fictitious, there's nothing really compelling about them. I would have read a novel that starred them as characters, but I wasn't thrilled to read a novel about Evie writing about the commandos.
I need to point out that Discord's Apple is a very quick read. I started it on Friday night and finished it by Saturday night. It's very light prose, and you won't have to reread sections in order to decipher their meaning. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, by any means. It all depends on what you're looking for in your novels. Somebody who's looking for deep philosophical issues might want to turn elsewhere.
For the most part, the novel's a light, entertaining fantasy read set in very near future America. However because it tends to race through its plot, some of the impact gets lost. I wish there had been just a tiny bit more exposition about what was actually happening in the world. During Evie's conversations with Bruce, the reader finds out that there's some sort of fighting going on between Russia, India, and China, but none of it is very fleshed out. And the same thing happens with the ending. Now it could be that Vaughn wanted to leave things open for a sequel, but after all this buildup leading toward the final confrontation with Hera, there is surprisingly little payoff. The reader really doesn't find out what happens as a result of the final events of the novel. I ended the book with a slight sense of disappointment.
Is Discord's Apple my new favorite urban fantasy novel? No. Did I enjoy reading it? Yes. The novel could have done with a little bit more explicit world building, and the plot could have slowed down a bit to actually show more of the aftermath of certain events. However none of these things are deal breakers. I can easily recommend this book to lovers of fantasy and to people who are looking for something to ease them into the genre.
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