Finishing Off the Hugo Packet
It’s done! All voted! Reviews of the last two here. Right now I’m reading some comics, but then I have two 2024 books I got in the Nebulas book bag to go through…a collection and a novel. I’m not thinking the latter is up my alley, but we’ll see.
Review: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
Kaner takes the philosophical concept that gods are made by human faith…in some very interesting directions.
King Arren has made gods and their worship illegal. Kissen is a veiga, a godkiller, somebody who takes coin to take care of troublesome gods. Gods can die, although they sometimes come back. It requires special metal (which Kaner doesn’t go into).
Elogast is Arren’s former knight commander (and may love him, in many ways).
And Inara is a child with a god bound to her, the last survivor of House Craier. In fact, we find out she’s even more than that.
The three pursue a fairly classic quest narrative. Elogast is looking for a way to save his dying king. Inara is looking for a way to get unbound from the god so both can go about their existence. Kissen just can’t let the kid go off on a quest on her own.
They start to form something of a family, but the king is not the good man he once was, and the goddess that Kissen was almost sacrificed to is on the move.
This is pretty much a classic quest narrative. Kissen is an antihero of an archetype more often masculine, which I like. Inara is a bit too Chosen One for me, though.
There’s also magic, but we don’t learn so much about that…the focus is on the gods and their powers and on a journey to a place where worship is still legal.
But what happens in a world where faith makes gods when people start to worship a man?
Kaner is a promising voice for this type of fantasy and this debut is quite enjoyable. Recommended to people who like their fantasy road trips.
Review: The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
I’m typically very, very picky about vampire stories. Dean’s vampires don’t drink blood, though. For the most part, they eat books. This allows them to absorb the book quickly and thoroughly. But some of them are born with a different target…minds.
The book eaters also have a fertility problem. For whatever reason…perhaps because their creator (they clearly aren’t natural beings) wanted to control the population, they produce fewer daughters than sons, and their women all suffer from premature ovarian insufficiency. Most eater women produce two children, rarely three, sometimes only one.
The fertile women are forced into term marriages, carefully arranged to minimize inbreeding, and have to leave their children at the age of three to be raised by the father’s family. Kids don’t really know their mothers and may or may not be told who their fathers are.
And the mind eaters, called dragons, face a darker fate as slaves.
I was arguing with myself whether this was horror or dark fantasy. Tor is classing it as fantasy, though, so that’s what I’m going to go with. Reviewers are also referring to it as a gothic, which it kind of is, although not enough of the book takes place in The House for it to be a truegothic.
I’m picky about vampire books, but I enjoyed this one. Sunyi Dean is a new author and that shows in a few places…this book is a little rough and immature, but there’s the promise of more and better in the future. The protagonist is driven to desperation (but definitely not insanity) by her love for her children and also by the enforced heteronormativity of her two “marriages.” Her preference is most definitely for the distaff side.
I don’t see a mention of a sequel, but the door is definitely open for it. It’s ambitious for a debut…and Dean doesn’t always pull off the time jumps.
Still, if you like gothic fantasy and weird takes on the vampire legend, this might well be for you. I certainly enjoyed it well enough.