Book Review
Jul. 8th, 2025 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariGodkiller
by Hannah Kaner
This fantasy novel is set in a world rife with gods. These gods can be wild or grow into being out of human desires and needs. The gods grow powerful through human love and prayers, and can grant favors in return for sacrifices. These relationships can be and often are beneficial, but they can also grow toxic when a god or humans become greedy. After too many toxic relationships with the divine threatened the kingdom of Middren, leading to a devastating war, gods have been banished and outlawed. The king now employs godkillers to destroy rogue gods.
Godkiller Kissen, whose family was murdered by a fire goddess, finds herself a bodyguard to Inara, a young noble who is mysteriously bound to Skediceth, the god of white lies. Inara and Skedi are traveling to Blenraden, a fallen city that they hope holds the knowledge and power needed to understand and perhaps undo their bond. Along the way, Kissen, Inara, and Skedi join up with Elogast, a knight turned baker who is journeying to Blenraden for reasons of his own. Along the way, they face curses, demons, treachery, and several lingering gods.
This novel was really enjoyable. I really liked the concept of gods and their relationships with humans. The way they coalesced around either elements of nature or human desires was fascinating, and I liked how the human-divine relationships worked for both good and ill.The characters were great. I especially liked Kissen, who was tough as nails and kept her feelings tightly controlled but still had a lot of warmth and softness to her. Elogast was a little more opaque to me, but I liked his quiet resolve and his slow-burn feelings for Kissen. Inara had a lot of determination, and her relationship with Skedi and the way it developed over the course of the book was interesting. I enjoyed having characters whose motivations were clear - the tension comes from working out how those motivations overlap and combine. Since this is the first novel in a trilogy, the plot is still developing and the narrative was more about putting things in motion than anything else. I can't wait to see where it all goes.
by Hannah Kaner
This fantasy novel is set in a world rife with gods. These gods can be wild or grow into being out of human desires and needs. The gods grow powerful through human love and prayers, and can grant favors in return for sacrifices. These relationships can be and often are beneficial, but they can also grow toxic when a god or humans become greedy. After too many toxic relationships with the divine threatened the kingdom of Middren, leading to a devastating war, gods have been banished and outlawed. The king now employs godkillers to destroy rogue gods.
Godkiller Kissen, whose family was murdered by a fire goddess, finds herself a bodyguard to Inara, a young noble who is mysteriously bound to Skediceth, the god of white lies. Inara and Skedi are traveling to Blenraden, a fallen city that they hope holds the knowledge and power needed to understand and perhaps undo their bond. Along the way, Kissen, Inara, and Skedi join up with Elogast, a knight turned baker who is journeying to Blenraden for reasons of his own. Along the way, they face curses, demons, treachery, and several lingering gods.
This novel was really enjoyable. I really liked the concept of gods and their relationships with humans. The way they coalesced around either elements of nature or human desires was fascinating, and I liked how the human-divine relationships worked for both good and ill.The characters were great. I especially liked Kissen, who was tough as nails and kept her feelings tightly controlled but still had a lot of warmth and softness to her. Elogast was a little more opaque to me, but I liked his quiet resolve and his slow-burn feelings for Kissen. Inara had a lot of determination, and her relationship with Skedi and the way it developed over the course of the book was interesting. I enjoyed having characters whose motivations were clear - the tension comes from working out how those motivations overlap and combine. Since this is the first novel in a trilogy, the plot is still developing and the narrative was more about putting things in motion than anything else. I can't wait to see where it all goes.
