Daedalus is free from the grip of King Minos but still grieving the death of his son, Icarus. When he dies due to an accident, he finds himself in the one place where he might be reunited with Icarus - the Underworld. But Daedalus will have to face many obstacles, including imprisonment in Tartarus at the hands of a spiteful Minos, forgetfulness washed over him by the River Lethe, and a still-hungry Minotaur.

I'm not normally a fan of standalone novellas because they often feel like they're lacking in character development and world building. However, since this draws on existing characters from mythology, it didn't feel like it needed added length to create depth.

The story centers around Daedalus after his death, as he tries to reconnect with his son Icarus in the Underworld. The story jumps between the present timeline and his life on Crete, mostly during and immediately following when he built the Labyrinth to house the Minotaur. Between the twisting timelines and the author's prose, the story had a bit of a labyrinthine feel to it that felt perfectly suited to this story, but that I could see some readers not enjoying.

One of my favorite parts of this book was getting to unravel Daedalus as a person throughout the story. It's told from first-person POV so we only get to see Daedalus's side of events. As the story nears its end, it becomes apparent that Daedalus has made himself the hero of his own story (don't we all?), but I doing so, he might not be remembering or presenting certain things as they actually happened.

Read if you like:
Daedalus/Minotaur myth retelling
Single-POV
Father's grief
Imprisonment / claustrophobic setting
Non-linear timeline
Unreliable narrator

Daedalus Is Dead by Seamus Sullivan (book cover is in image) is the story of the architect of the Gods, Daedalus, and his journey through his grief in an attempt to understand and cope with his son's, Icarus' death.

The narration by Peter Ganim only enhances this lyrical reimagining of the tales of Icarus, through the grieving Daedalus is stunning and is a must read for those who love mythological reimaginings.

Thank you @torbooks, @tordotcompub, @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and listen to this ALC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 5 Stars
Pub date: Sept 30 2025

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Daedalus is Dead by Seamus Sullivan is a lyrical, often moving story that packs a hefty punch despite its slim length (under 200 pages). And appropriately enough for a story about the designer of the labyrinth that housed the Minotaur on Crete, it’s filled with twists and turns and its fair share of monsters.

The story mostly begins after Daedalus has died (no spoiler given the title) and follows his desperate search to reconnect with his son Icarus in the Underworld, mostly out of a father’s abiding love but also to answer the question that has tormented him much of his life: why did Icarus ignore his warnings and fly too close to the sun? To find his son he will have to evade imprisonment (again) by Minos, made judge in the Underworld by his father Zeus; bargain with Persephone, Queen of the Underworld and also its prisoner; avoid the cold eye of Hades its king; and face off against the shade of the Minotaur (with the help of Theseus), who has been consuming the Underworld’s “minor heroes.”

As we move forward in time with Daedalus’ search, we also move backward via his memories, exploring how he came to be Minos’ architect and prisoner, what happened to his wife, his relationships with his son Icarus and Princess Ariadne, the construction of the labyrinth, the imprisonment of the young child-bull Asterion (before he gets the name “Minotaur”) within it, and Daedalus’ audacious plot to escape with Icarus. But, and here are those twists and turns mentioned above, as we move both forward and backward it becomes ever more clear that our narrator is not necessarily a reliable one.

I won’t say much about that so as to avoid spoilers, but the whole “heroic genius victim” is overtly called into question as we see Daedalus engage in moments of active cruelty, some passive complicity, rationalization, or some willful ignorance so as to avoid responsibility. Here, for instance, is him explaining to Icarus (a young child at this point) why he shouldn’t worry too much about Asterion’s imprisonment:
“He cries like a boy,” you said.
“He’s not like other children,” I said. “Don’t trouble yourself.”
“He must be lonely.”
“He’s part god, park king, and part wild creature. Loneliness is his lot in life …”
“You’re kind to him, aren’t you, Father?”
“Or course we are,” I said.


Arguments can be made that Daedalus is a prisoner of a tyrant who holds not just Daedalus; life in his hands but Icarus’ as well and so Daedalus is doing what parents do: protect their children at all costs. Whether that works here as a reason or excuse I’ll mostly leave to the reader, as any detailed argument I make would of necessity involve spoilers. I will point out however that history is replete with “justified” atrocities.

The plot is compelling and tense, with a sense of fervent urgency driven not by a ticking clock plot but by Daedalus’ fierce desperation to see his son one more time. Sullivan’s use of mythos is both generally faithful and stimulatingly original, whether it be Daedalus’ imprisonment in and escape from Tartarus, the new palace he builds for Persephone and Hades, the brief tour we get of the Underworld’s various regions, or a short look at the gods’ home on Mt. Olympus. One of my favorite parts was the description of how Daedalus and his surveying team “traversed the chained body of Prometheus the Titan, who made the first men. We make base camp at his navel and a day’s hike gets us to his breastbone.” And while much of the story is full of grief and pain and sorrow, Sullivan tosses us the occasional bone of humor, as when Daedalus, discussing his Underworld renovation project, tells us “I content myself with gilding the edges of Elysium, since it’s filled with preservationist cranks who like things as they are. I settle for a statue here, a temple there.”

By the end, the designer of the labyrinth is himself caught in a maze of his own making — his own life with its intentional shadows and false paths. Whether he escapes this perhaps final imprisonment I won’t spoil, but will note that I found the ending, which won’t be to everyone’s taste, both fulfilling and moving. Strongly recommended.

I really thought this book would be for me because I love the original myth. I enjoyed the interactions with the gods and the descriptions of the Minotaur. However, I found it to be quite confusing at times with the switching back and forth between timelines. I thought the idea of a father dealing with grief and what it said about “goodness” was interesting but not executed as well as I hoped. Ultimately, it just didn’t grab me and I couldn’t read more than 20 pages at a time.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and the author for the e-ARC.

Retellings of stories from Greek mythology seem to be all the rage currently, but finding an actual good one is easier said than done. Let me tell you, I am SO glad I took a chance on this one.

This short novella follows Daedalus, famous for building the labyrinth that held captive the Minotaur and subsequently watching his son Icarus die when he flew too close to the sun. As he seeks to reunite with his son in the Underworld and get answers to his heartburning questions, he walks a journey that reveals more about himself (whether he wants to or not).

I would go so far as to say this is a love story to his son. The story is in fact written in the 2nd person, with the addressee being Icarus himself. It is beautifully well-written. However, my one (small) gripe with the book is the way the chapters alternate between Daedalus's present in the Underworld and his past under King Minos' rule. I LOVED reading about him building the labyrinth, but the notation between "Present" and "Flashback" chapters was literally not there which made the transition feel clumsy and confusing.

That being my only complaint, the book is wonderful, and I HIGHLY recommend for any fan of Greek mythology and it's reimaginings, especially when it comes to lesser-explored characters.
4.5 stars!

Absolutely heartbreaking! I loved this debut and can’t wait to read more from this author! The story of Daedalus and Icarus has always been one of my favorite myths, and this was an amazing twist on the story.

The amount of times I cried while reading this novella. Stellar writing that connected you deeply with Daedalus that when his story begins to unravel you feel betrayed yet still want him to have some bit of mercy. A great continuation to the story of Icarus that doesn't undo or rewrite - because it is a continuation - but adds depth and heartache that the original myth had.

Daedalus Is Dead is a Greek myth retelling of the story of the famous inventory of the Labyrinth and his search for his son through the Underworld. This book with appeal to fans of Jennifer Saint's Ariadne and Susanna Clarke's Piranesi.

This was haunting and devastating in the most beautiful way; a fever dream of myth and memory, grief and guilt. The prose is deliriously poetic, the kind that leaves you breathless, and the mythology is reimagined with a brutal intimacy that makes old stories feel painfully new. Absolutely gripping, emotionally harrowing, and unforgettable.

If Piranesi pulled you in with its eerie, enclosed atmosphere, Daedalus is Dead will feel familiar: a haunting, introspective journey through grief, memory, and myth.

Told as a letter to Icarus from the afterlife, this retelling doesn’t just revisit the myth, it refracts it. Daedalus becomes both architect and unreliable narrator, building a story as layered and shifting as the Labyrinth itself. Most effective to me was the subversion of expectations with our classic Minotaur and the development of that character relationship.

The prose leans lyrical, the structure hypnotic. It doesn’t chase clarity, it invites reflection. For readers who enjoy myth through a psychological, poetic lens, this one quietly burrows in and stays.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the early e-ARC copy!

This... was something. It intrigued me at first because that OPENING gripped me by the throat and promised to not let go, but the swirling delirious storytelling lost me about 30% of the way in. I love the myth/story of Daedalus and the Labyrinth, so I was intrigued enough to keep going, but I don't think I really got anything from it on the backside. I think people who read Piranesi have a chance of liking this one, because it feels very claustrophobic and as though Daedalus is stuck in the Labyrinth the whole time, and Piranesi has a similar vibe stuck in that never ending house. I loved Piranesi, but can't say the same about this one, unfortunately.

Glad I read it though, it did some interesting stuff with the myth and characterization of Daedalus for sure.

Hated this. The prose was way too purple and I could not care about anything. The most pretentious way possible to tell this story. Which is a shame because I actually think the concept is quite good.

Thank you Netgalley!

Wow, I was incredibly impressed by this. The prose was beautiful and this interpretation of Daedalus is incredible. The story is told as Daedalus speaking to his deceased son Icarus after they’ve both died, with Daedalus recounting the events that brought them there and the efforts Daedalus made in the Underworld to reunite with his son. Slowly we start to realize that Daedalus is not recounting events honestly and is actually a pretty bad person—and that Icarus in life had realized that about his father right before his death. Daedalus LOVED his son, but that still didn't make him a good father. It was so incredibly done and I loved it.

Something I particularly loved was how it was repeatedly highlighted that Asterion, the Minotaur, was just a little boy. The contrast between how Daedalus loved his own son and how he aided in the mistreatment of Asterion was incredibly poignant and one of the earliest signs that Daedalus was an incredibly unreliable narrator.

I’m not usually a fan of open endings, but in this case I loved it. The story is one big letter to Icarus that ends, presumably, right before they reunite. We never actually get to see Icarus or hear his response to Daedalus and it feels so poignant.

Going back to Icarus and Asterion, the way I personally interpreted the ending is that Icarus and Asterion were the same person. We know Icarus’s soul went through the River Lethe and reincarnated sometime, somewhere, into something. Icarus loved and dreamed of being a hero, whereas Asterion consumes the thing that makes heroes, heroes. As Daedalus cries and bargains for the return of the son, the Minotaur appears on more than one occasion. The Minotaur chases Daedalus, but never attempts to harm him, something that makes Daedalus remark “I made you.” It seemed so obvious to me that I was certain it was going to be the reveal, however, the open-ending didn't disappoint me in the slightest.

Everytime I thought this book was done stabbing my heart, a new and sharper blade awaited on the next page.

This has been a great year for mythological retelling and renovating.

Daedalus is Dead takes a unique and unforgettable approach to the classic myth of Icarus and his wings. It speaks of fatherhood and creation, to forgetting and forgiving, and the impossibility of true understanding.

I don't think it would be possible for the emotional core of this novella to be any stronger than it is.

Myths retellings are all the rage now. And so, this debut, rather impressively, takes on a story of the man who made both the famous wings and the labyrinth. The former melted and the latter became a slaughterhouse, so you better believe he has some regrets. In life and in death.
This slim novel (or chunky novella) follows him in both, alternating timelines to reveal the "real story" behind the known story.
Daedalus is a dedicated father and a brilliant inventor, but also so much more, his fate inextricably tied to his masters, Minos, his daughter Ariadne, and his son, the Minotaur.
The more Daedalus story unravels, the more his metaphorical wings melt, until he's just another man, faulted and flawed and crashing down.

At first, I thought it was downright courageous of someone to write (and someone to publish) a book with a male protagonist in this day and age in the genre that usually sees female retellings. But as the book progresses, it becomes clear that this was only permitted to dismantle the protagonist, which is, frankly, tiresome and cliched, this "every man's a villain" thing that's happening in fiction.
Still, the story is clever, the writing is lovely (and only slightly overdone in purple), and this is a rather impressive debut. And, it stands to mention, an absolutely stunning cover. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I'm really excited for this book to get published because of how good it is. There's been a huge trend of books retelling old Greek myths but I rarely ever see Daedalus's story told.

Sullivan does a great job of telling this heartbreaking story through the eyes of Daedalus. He may have been a genius architect in Greek mythology but that doesn't make him a good father. I also liked how Sullivan left us wondering about Icarus's last thoughts. The readers and Daedalus are left to decide if we think Icarus was trying to not only escape his prison but also his father as well.

I think this book will be getting a lot of hype when it's released. It really delves into some common themes in Greek mythology while also exposing a side of Daedalus that is never talked about. Overall, great read!