Book Review — “Fire and Fate:” A Tale Told By The God Of The Underworld

Following in the footsteps of prior Disney villains including Captain Hook, Ursula and Maleficent, the god of the Underworld, Hades from Disney’s Hercules, now takes his turn appearing in author Serena Valentino’s villains universe in Fire and Fate.

Fire and Fate is Book #10 in Valentino’s Disney Villains stories which shed new light on old characters in an entertaining, thought-provoking way. For a full list of the books in the series and the appropriate order in which to read them, please see the below list at the bottom of this article.

What is Fire and Fate about?

The latest book in the New York Times bestselling Villains series takes a dive into the Underworld, exploring Hades’ views and goals as both god and villain.

The myth has been told for centuries: Brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades waged a years-long war against their father Cronus and his tyrannical Titans. Upon their mighty victory, Zeus split the world into three. For himself, he claimed the Sky and what fell below it. To his brother Poseidon, he assigned dominion over the Sea. And his oldest brother, Hades, would rule the Underworld.

While Hades tries to make the best of a lonely situation, eternity proves a long time to be forced live in a role—a domain—he never wanted. And the part of the story no one tells is that when your family treats you like a villain, it is far too easy to become one.

Years of being ignored and shamed by his family reach a fiery head, when three perfectly alive witches find their way into the land of the dead. Bored and lonely, Hades befriends these mysterious Odd Sisters and makes a bargain that will change the course of fate. But when you’re a god, making a deal has the potential to rewrite more stories than just your own.

Hades takes center stage in the Book of Fairytales

Fans of the series know that the Odd Sisters are the primary authors of the Book of Fairytales, however Hades, along with his confident quirk and charm, takes the lead in telling this story and his version of events.

Valentino captures Disney Hades' jovial, bombastic personality and voice in Fire and Fate, which is bolstered by various easter eggs (but not overkill) from Disney’s Hercules. (In fact, I think Fire and Fate relies least on the Disney film compared to its earlier novel counterparts.) However, contrary to what we might suspect of Hades’ nature, he comes to harbor a deep love and sentimentality for the Odd Sisters and their kin. Hades’ Achilles heel is his loneliness, although his immediate affection for the Odd Sisters and subsequent heartbreak over their situation seemed a little underdeveloped and unfounded. Hades is not as staunchly self-serving or cunning in this tale as I hoped he would be, although the story does reveal a great scheme and plot twist regarding the infamous Titan battle fans first see in Disney’s Hercules.

What I missed most in Fire and Fate was a rich and original character backstory. While perhaps restricted to foundational Greek mythology which does provide some general context in this book, there was no Valentino “va-voom” injected into Hades’ beginnings. It lacks the sort of thought-provoking emotional punch that leaves the reader feeling haunted and satisfactorily sad for the character. I applauded the deep dive, thought and detail which achieved this bittersweet result in the likes of Fairest of All, Evil Thing and Never, Never but was left wanting more in this one. Beyond Hades’ fallout with Zeus, his rejection from his family, and his overwhelming loneliness at effectively being banished to the Underworld, there was nothing more I (or Cerberus and his three heads) could really chew on in terms of an original twist on a renowned origin story.

Valentino usually combines compelling origin stories with clever and daring crossovers between Disney villains and the author’s original behind-the-scenes tale and characters. Fire and Fate is much more a crossover story heavily embedded in Valentino’s original universe. While the storytelling is consistent across all the novels in the series to date, Hades’ tale is mostly Valentino-universe backstory and commentary over cups of tea (literally).  

A word of caution to this tale: Fire and Fate readers who are new to the Valentino villains series may get lost in the whirlwind of history, dark magic, time and space in this universe. It is a lot to digest and may be overwhelming if the reader is not familiar with the lay of the land from earlier novels. However, Valentino does a good job of countering this with the lengthy dialogue and tea party scene-setting in many of the chapters in Fire and Fate in which the characters are re-introduced and readers reminded where they all fit in. Many snippets of events from other stories are provided, and many questions answered that were posed in earlier books.

The partnership between Valentino’s writing and John York’s narration ultimately made for a very pleasant audiobook reading experience. Despite the missed opportunity for a rich backstory, Fire and Fate is a warm return to the Deadwoods and successfully pieces together more of the Odd Sisters’ tale through Hades’ eyes.

Fire and Fate will be released on audiobook on July 15, 2023 followed by the physical copy and Kindle release on July 18, 2023.

Author Serena Valentino has taken the world by storm with her New York Times best-selling Disney Villains novels published by Disney Publishing Worldwide. Not only do Valentino’s stories give readers the opportunity to explore villains they know and love, readers are also introduced to new characters that operate behind the scenes of classic Disney plots, giving tales-as-old-as-time a bewitching new twist.

The books in the series are as follows and are best enjoyed if read in this order: