Dio in the Dark by Rizwan Asad

Overall Rating: **** (4 stars)

Dio in the Dark is an urban-fantasy novella, centered on the lives of the Greek pantheon in the modern world.

The protagonist of this story is Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, although in the modern day he prefers to be called simply “Dio” to blend in. Dio, and the other Olympians, live in present-day Toronto. They retain a few of their divine powers, but the modern world has moved on from their active worship, reducing them to shadows of their ancient selves. Zeus works as an eccentric sanitation worker, Apollo is a musician with a preference for fine electric guitars, and Dio spends most of his time at bars and clubs.

At the beginning of the story, Dio is at odds with Zeus, holding a long-standing grudge for the fate of his mortal mother Semele. Zeus, on the other hand, is concerned with a threat only he foresees, a so-called “Darkness” that he fears may be coming for the Olympians. Soon Zeus disappears, and Dio is left to solve a mystery. Where has Zeus gone? Who or what is the Darkness? Can the Olympians survive?

What follows is a clever urban-fantasy tale, well-informed by the details of Greek myth. I was very impressed by Rizwan Asad’s prose style; it’s very clean, with almost no copy-editing or line-editing problems that I could find. The story snaps, with plenty of truly audacious moments in the plot, and I found myself pulled along with ease.

About the only complaint I had was with respect to pacing. A major plot development comes in the middle of a time-skip that isn’t well demonstrated to the reader. There are also a few odd interquel chapters that are interesting, and that develop Dio’s character, but that seem to intrude into the plot. These are minor quibbles! By and large, the story is well written and tightly plotted.

I very much enjoyed Dio in the Dark, and I’m going to be looking out for more from this author. Highly recommended if you enjoy urban fantasy steeped in the intricacies of ancient Greek myth.