gary henry

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gary henry rated a book it was amazing

Little Pawny

by Doctor Chess

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gary henry said: " Little Pawny is a charming story with a surprisingly meaningful lesson about teamwork, humility, and believing in abilities that others may overlook. I especially enjoyed watching Little Pawny grow from being underestimated to becoming someone the en ...more "

Aug 21, 2026 02:50PM · see review

gary henry rated a book it was amazing

The Last Games (The Leandros Trilogy Book 1)

by Yannis Delis (Goodreads Author)

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gary henry said: " Okay, I finished The Last Games last night, and I will be honest I didn't sleep well. Not because it was scary, but because I couldn't stop turning the ending over in my head. I picked this up thinking I was getting a typical historical adventure set Okay, I finished The Last Games last night, and I will be honest I didn't sleep well. Not because it was scary, but because I couldn't stop turning the ending over in my head. I picked this up thinking I was getting a typical historical adventure set in ancient Greece, you know, maybe some philosophical debates, a little action, a love story. But this was something else entirely. This was quiet. And that quietness is exactly what wrecked me.

The book drops you straight into Athens in 392 CE, right at that miserable, suffocating moment when Emperor Theodosius is systematically erasing everything that made Greece Greek. No big battles. No dramatic speeches from emperors. Just the slow, terrible sound of temple doors creaking shut and the dust settling on abandoned running tracks.

What got me the most was Leandros. God, that poor guy. I found myself genuinely aching for him. Watching him drag himself to the Lyceum every day to train alone, knowing full well the Olympics are banned and nobody cares about his athleticism anymore it broke my heart. It’s such a painfully human thing to do, to keep performing a ritual that has lost all its meaning, just because letting go of it feels like letting go of yourself. I caught myself rooting for him to just stop, to save himself the pain, but also desperately wanting him to keep running because his stubbornness felt like the last bit of dignity left in that dying city.

And then there’s Stefanos. Look, I wanted to hate him. I really did. It would have been so easy for the author to make him a smug, self righteous convert. But he didn't. Delis makes Stefanos's choice feel painfully reasonable given the changing world, which made the rift between him and Leandros so much worse to read. It’s not a dramatic shouting match; it’s just this heavy, suffocating silence that grows between them. It made me think about friendships I have had that just drifted apart because of politics or beliefs, and honestly, it hit way too close to home.

And Eirini I almost wish we had gotten even more of her. She represents something that often gets ignored in books about this era. While the men are arguing about which god is real, she's trapped in the domestic sphere, fighting for the right to even have a choice about her own future. Her struggle feels incredibly modern, and yet utterly tragic, because in a society turning inward and rigid, she’s the one with the least room to breathe. There was one moment in the middle section where I just wanted to shake her family, but that's the mark of good writing I was invested.

If I have one tiny critique, it’s that the pacing in the first third is incredibly slow. I mean, glacially slow. You really have to settle into it. It takes a while for the plot to move, but somewhere around the "Price of the Dream" section, I realized the slowness was deliberate. The author wants you to feel the boredom, the waiting, the decay. By the time the "Wind from the North" hit, I was completely swept up and couldn't put it down.

It’s so rare to find a historical novel that dares to zoom in on the nobodies the ordinary people caught in the gears of history. This book won't give you sword fights or epic sieges. It will give you a deep, aching sense of what it means to outlive your own era. When I closed the final page, I felt like I had watched the ancient world take its very last breath.

If you like character driven stories that make you feel a little bit hollow (in a good way) and a lot more thoughtful about the world we're building right now, please pick this up. Just make sure you have a quiet evening ahead, because this one demands your full attention, and it deserves it.

Highly recommended. I will be first in line for the sequel. ...more "

Aug 19, 2026 08:19PM · see review