Book Review: Godkiller

Kissen kills gods for a living, and she enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skediceth, god of white lies, who is connected to a little noble girl on the run.

Elogast fought in the god war, and helped purge the city of a thousand shrines before laying down his sword. A mysterious request from the King sends him racing back to the city he destroyed.

On the way he meets a godkiller, a little girl and a littler god, who cannot find out about his quest.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner is a strong fantasy debut set in a world plagued by gods.

Book Review: The World We Make

Potential Spoilers Ahead: The World We Make is the last book in the Great Cities duology. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous book. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

Every great city has a soul. A human avatar that embodies their city’s heart and wields its magic. New York? She’s got six.

But all is not well in the city that never sleeps. Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading–and destroying the entire universe in the process–the mysterious capital “E” Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and “law and order” may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction.

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin is the eldritch finale to her Great Cities duology, a triumphant ode to great cities, culture and New York. It fixes some of the flaws of the first book, but the struggles have even stronger parallels in the real world than last time, which may make this a difficult read for some.

Book Review Roundup: Catching Up on August, Pt 2 (and more…)

Where I round up some quick reviews of books I don’t have the time or inclination to give a full review for. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Various things have caused me to avoid writing reviews, so these will be pretty brief in all likelihood!

Book Review: The Godbreaker

Potential Spoilers Ahead: The Godbreaker is the last book in the God-King chronicles trilogy. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous book/s. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

As the Black Keep Council prepares for war, journeying far to protect their lands and friend, The God-King and his sister try to keep Narida together in the face of betrayal while the Splinter King remains at large.

The Golden and his hordes of raiders press their advantage and sweep across the land with unholy powers.  

Sacrifices will be made, and not everyone will make it back to Black Keep alive… 

The Godbreaker by Mike Brooks is a solid conclusion to the God-King Chronicles, bringing together the themes and wider story arcs to a mostly satisfying finish. I have some quibbles about execution, but those were overwritten by how enjoyable a read it was overall.

Book Review: Priest of Crowns

Potential Spoilers Ahead: Priest of Crowns is the last book in the War for the Rose Throne series. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous book/s. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

Gangster, soldier, priest. Governor, knight, and above all, Queen’s Man.

Once, Tomas Piety looked after his men, body and soul, as best he could. Then those who ran his country decided his dark talents would better serve in the corridors of power.

Crushed by the power of the Queen’s Men and with the Skanian menace rising once more on the streets of Ellinburg, Tomas Piety is forced to turn to old friends, old debts and untrustworthy alliances.

Meanwhile in the capital city of Dannsburg, Dieter Vogel is beginning to wonder if the horror he has unleashed in the Martyr’s Disciples might be getting out of control.

With revolution brewing and tragedy and terrorism running rife in the cities, Piety and Vogel must each weigh the cost of a crown.

Priest of Crowns by Peter McClean is a comfortable finale to the War for the Rose Throne series. It does pretty much everything you’d expect from this gritty, distinctively voiced fantasy crime series, and barely a lick more.

Top Ten Favourite Standalone Books (2022)

Here’s a top ten list I’ve been planning to do for a while, but I’ve been waiting until I read enough standalone speculative fiction to make a list that only featured books I truly loved. As it happens, I’ve probably had enough books to go on this list for several months now, but it’s never a bad thing to make the books fight for your love!

For my purposes, standalone books generally means books that aren’t part of a series, although in this list I stretch it a little to a book that’s a standalone spin-off to an unfinished series I don’t intend to read, and another book that stands alone but will have other books written in the same world. It’s all a bit fuzzy, as there are plenty of great books in wider series that do stand alone, but for the most part those would be captured in my Top Ten Favourite Series lists. At some point I might do a ‘Top Ten books in series that aren’t in my Top Ten Favourite Series list’, but that’s a list for another time! Onwards to great books.

Book Review: The Book Eaters

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn’t always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds. 

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean is a strange but grounded tale that exposes the darkest side of humanity through a species not quite human. I was often off kilter while reading it, but some themes are well delivered through some powerful lines, and I’ve never been quite so hungry at the idea of eating a book before.

Book Review: Ship of Magic

On the northernmost point of the Cursed Shores lies Bingtown, a bustling hub of exotic trade and home to a proud merchant nobility famed for its extraordinary vessels.

Only Bingtown liveships can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River and plunder the riches found upstream, but such vessels are made from the most precious commodity in the world – a material with the ability to become sentient – and so are extremely rare.

The fortunes of one of Bingtown’s oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. But the fate of Vivacia – and the Vestrits – may ultimately lie in the hands of the dark and charming pirate, Kennit, who lusts after such a ship and has plans of his own . . .

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb is a slow moving start to the beloved epic Liveships trilogy, full of complex characters, foreboding events, and nautical endeavors. Hard to get into, but hard to put down once you do.

Book Review: The Discord of Gods

Potential Spoilers Ahead: The Discord of Gods is the fifth and final book in the A Chorus of Dragons series. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous books. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

The end times have come.

Relos Var’s final plans to enslave the universe are on the cusp of fruition. He believes there’s only one being in existence that might be able to stop him: the demon Xaltorath.

As these two masterminds circle each other, neither is paying attention to the third player on the board, Kihrin. Unfortunately, keeping himself classified in the “pawn” category means Kihrin must pretend to be everything the prophecies threatened he’d become: the destroyer of all, the sun eater, a mindless, remorseless plague upon the land. It also means finding an excuse to not destroy the people he loves (or any of the remaining Immortals) without arousing suspicion.

Kihrin’s goals are complicated by the fact that not all of his “act” is one. His intentions may be sincere, but he’s still being forced to grapple with the aftereffects of the corrupted magic ritual that twisted both him and the dragons. Worse, he’s now tied to a body that is the literal avatar of a star – a form that is becoming increasingly, catastrophically unstable. All of which means he’s running out of time.

After all, some stars fade – but others explode.

The Discord of God’s by Jenn Lyons is the explosive finale to her Chorus of Dragons series. The final stage is set as godlike powers come into play, with the stakes being the fate of the souls of almost everyone in the world.

Book Review: The House of Always

Potential Spoilers Ahead: The House of Always is the fourth book in the A Chorus of Dragons series. As such, the blurb for this book and the following review will inevitably have some level of spoilers for the previous books. I’ve tried to keep those spoilers to a minimum, but you have been warned.

What if you were imprisoned for all eternity?

In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed.

The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed to stop Kihrin’s enemies, who are moving forward with their plans to free Vol Karoth, the King of Demons. Kihrin has his own ideas about how to fight back, but even if he’s willing to sacrifice everything for victory, the cost may prove too high for his allies.

Now they face a choice: can they save the world while saving Kihrin, too? Or will they be forced to watch as he becomes the very evil they have all sworn to destroy.

The House of Always by Jenn Lyons is an ambitious and mostly successful penultimate entry in the Chorus of Dragons series. Lyons capitalises on the readers familiarity with the characters to tell a tighter story that forces them to confront their own mistakes.