Author: Mika Mathews
Genre: Fantasy
Year Published: 2022
Nerdection Rating:
“Nerdection Must Read”
A powerful protagonist with rare magic is what usually happens in fantasy. Not in The Silver Coin though. Mika Mathews’s first installment of the Oaths of Dante series takes the opposite approach to Greek mythology. Here you will find a protagonist without any magic, he’s also a mortal and that definitely doesn’t help when a war is brewing among magical beings. But determination surpasses your shortcomings, or so Dante learns in this excellent fantasy intended for middle-grade and young adults.
Continue reading the synopsis of The Silver Coin (The Oaths of Dante#1).
Spoiler-Free Plot of The Silver Coin
The Greek gods after ceasing the war occurring in their realms, descend on Earth. Only, they find that humans aren’t willing to obey them. Furious and indignant, they wipe out almost half of the human population on Earth. Then repopulate it with their descendants: demigods, priests, and priestesses.
However, Dante is a mere mortal kid without any magic or blessed blood whatsoever. Painfully aware of the dangerous war brewing among the gods yet again, he invokes the goddess of magic and witchcraft — Hecate — and wishes for magical powers. Hecate grants him a silver coin enabling Dante to wield magic. There’s but one catch: Dante will have to prove his worth if he wants to have permanent magic. Or else, the silver coin, and his powers, will perish by the next moon.
But Dante is brave and selfless. He doesn’t shy away from danger. Impressed by his chivalry, Hecate chooses Dante as her priest and then her personal ambassador to put an end to the raging war. But the gods won’t be willing to listen to a mortal kid. And the whole world is at stake if they don’t.
In this heartwarming mythological fantasy, Dante will sacrifice parts of his soul to harness rare magical powers and set things right. Together with Hecate and his resurrected friend Christopher, they will negotiate peace with the gods and unearth the mysteries of their pasts.
My take on The Silver Coin
The Silver Coin tackles a unique approach to the otherwise widely tried-and-tested genre of Greek Mythology.
The Greek gods in The Silver Coin were like the same you read everywhere — arrogant, powerful, and devastatingly beautiful to look at. Yet there was more to them than this. Hecate was thoughtful and considerate, and that’s why I loved her. Persephone, the abducted queen of the underworld, was generous and a little heartbroken. Helios, keeper of oaths, was strong-minded yet softhearted.
Of course, there were others who were born and made to be loathed (that would be you, Hera). Yet the approach was refreshing in a genre otherwise well worn out by the many similar plots out there.
But most of all, I loved the character development. Aside from the gods I already talked about, the other characters were also easily likable. Especially Dante. He’d been through some pretty rough spots in his life, so yes, he was kindness incarnate. It was all very heartbreaking to read, the way he didn’t flinch at pain because he had been through worse. How he was determined enough to save others at the cost of his soul.
The Silver Coin was also heartwarming, readers get a glimpse of a comforting friendship between characters, one that you’ll easily come to adore.
I wasn’t a fan of some of the more descriptive scenes in The Silver Coin, but blissfully they were few and far between, and mostly you can enjoy the story without any lengthy monologues or histories. Told in the third person narrative, this is an amazing tale of a hero made, not born.
Mika Mathew’s writing style is vividly clear yet lyrical. It’s the kind of book you’d want to read comfortably curled up on your sofa with your mind traveling afar in The Silver Coin’s fantasy world.
Richly imbued with Greek mythological beings and loveable characters, The Silver Coin by Mika Mathew is a tale of a legend made through fierce determination and by contravening the limitations set since birth.
Content Triggers
No explicit content or language concerns. The Silver Coin has some LGBTQ content. I’d recommend it for ages 12+.
About The Author Of The Silver Coin
Originally a fanfiction writer, the award winning Mika Mathews used the experience he gained and started to craft his own stories involving magic and mythology. Through years of writing and reading obsessively, he has crafted a unique style that aims to be free from cliche and the constant push towards the same tired patterns so frequent in other stories. Mixing old and new, he aims to make his mark on the Young Adult and Adult Categories, as well as in the Romance and Fantasy Genre.
He is also the author of several novellas such as A Dance Among Equals, Born Mistakes and a variety of other titles some of which intersect with his Oaths of Dante series! It is a goal to make waves in the mythology and romance genre, showing healthy examples of love and relationships in magical and mundane settings!
A favorite pastime of his is to retell old stories, such as the Persephone/Hades myth and many others to offer a new perspective on old, tired stories!
