Best friends, Two and Nine, have spent their entire lives within the Academy’s barbed wire fences and tall brick walls. Deep in the San Juan Mountains, they have lived in absolute isolation with the other subjects, trained so that one day they may be integrated into the outside world.

Two dreams of becoming the perfect military leader the Academy wants to groom him into. However, when he learns that Nine is leaving the Academy, he realizes that his future is meaningless without her. With time running out, he hatches a plan for them to escape together — even if it means going against the brutal overseers of the project he was born into.

Project Pandora was hands down one of my most compelling reads last year, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this novella.  At least it will tide me over for a while until Project Prometheus is released.  Maybe (but I doubt it).

Hades is my favorite character in Project Pandora – he’s cunning, dangerous, and a trained killer, but underneath all that lies a boy who’s been hurt many times over and desensitized to nearly every emotion.  Hades Rising explains his evolution from a young child into an assassin, and it’s a chilling and heartbreaking story.  His relationship with Two (Elizabeth) is the most important thing in his life, and when that’s ripped away from him, it’s easy to understand his transformation – but I still believe there’s good in him yet.

I’d highly recommend reading Project Pandora before reading this novella.