The gods are fickle things in Middren. They are always greedy for worship and devotion, as you might expect, but the rapacious gods of Middren will turn on their faithful in the blink of an eye to snatch a stray prayer. It’s little wonder, then, that the king has declared war on the gods when they started to tear the kingdom apart. Our protagonists, Kissen and Elogast, helped win that war. Godkiller, by Hannah Kaner, begins some years after the gods were defeated. Kissen kills small gods for coin, while Elogast has given up the sword entirely.
Neither Kissen nor Elogast survived the war unscathed. They carry physical and emotional scars. Kissen ruthlessly hunts down every god she can find before they can become as powerful as the god that murdered her family and took her leg. Elogast, meanwhile, has had enough of bloodshed. His hands shake every time he starts to remember what he was asked to do during the war. Their careful routines are spectacularly when two things happen. First, Kissen comes across a child who is somehow bonded to a small god, Skediceth, the god of white lies. Killing this god will kill Inara, and Kissen has firm rules about harming innocents. Second, King Arren asks Elogast to go on one last mission to the city where the final battle was fought. The gods-given magic that saved Arren’s life is failing; his only hope is in the city Elogast swore he would never return to.
I can’t express how much I adore an original fantasy that doesn’t fall victim to old ludicrous clichés and tropes. While quite a bit of this book is spent journeying to Blenradden, there is so much plot, multidimensional characters, and wonderfully unique world building that I absolutely devoured this book. How can you not love a god that looks like an antlered rabbit with wings? Or a city built over a bridge that has strict ordinances about dancing and weight limits so that it doesn’t crash into the river below? And characters who make big mistakes while trying to do what they think is the right thing? Delicious!
Kaner doesn’t rush the plot. Instead, we learn that things are very wrong in Middren once Elogast and Kissen start to trust each other enough to share information about who they really are and what they’re up to on the old pilgrim’s road to Blenradden. Religion and faith were supposed to have been wiped out during the war, with Arren’s strict rules suppressing any potential cults. These laws are failing utterly. The closer Kissen and Elogast get to Blenradden, they see just how much of a hold the gods and their powers have over the people of the kingdom. It’s awful hard to be an atheist when mothers can remember a midwife god who saved the lives of laboring women and their babies in exchange for prayers, or when a small god of white lies can smooth one’s way through a suspicious mob. Kaner spins out enough story and details to keep us going, but keeps enough hidden than the climax will completely steal your breath.
This book was dazzling and I am very much looking forward to finishing the trilogy.