I finally finished this series by Robert Jackson Bennett! Only, what? 6 years after I started? Something like that.
Admittedly, I did need a bit of a refresher on the first book before diving into the second book a few months ago. But when I realized I had a gap in my book club schedule and the chance to read whatever I wanted, I lost no time in picking up this book.
It’s so good, and I’m so sad this series is over! I love these characters so much. And while we didn’t get to see Mulaghesh as much as I had thought we would based on the ending of City of Blades, she does get some priceless cameos, and I think every one features the F word at least one.
This book asks the question: what if the gods had children? And what if the gods hid those children before they themselves were killed?
It’s not much of a spoiler to say that Shara dies in this book because that happens in the first chapter. Sigrud (who has been in hiding since he killed a whole bunch of soldiers towards the end of the second book) hears about this and decides to investigate who killed his friend.
Turns out the guy who killed Shara used to work with Sigrud, so tracking him down and killing him isn’t as hard as it would otherwise have been. The hard part is finding the guy who paid him to kill Shara.
This is where the children of gods come into play. It turns out the guy who paid to have Shara killed, Nokov, is one such child of the gods and his domain is darkness, which means he can appear anywhere there is darkness or shadow. Speaking his name also summons him, so the characters can’t even say his name for most of the book.
Nokov was abducted, kept prisoner, and tortured and questioned by Shara’s aunt, Vinya Komayd, when she was prime minister, which is why he has it out for Shara. Also, Shara had been in the process of finding as many godlike children as she could and giving them a safe place to stay. Nokov can’t have that because he needs to eat his siblings in order to gain strength and become a full-fledged god.
Kolkan cast a spell on all the gods’ children so that they wouldn’t remember they were gods. They find a family to adopt them and raise them as human until people in the neighborhood start wondering why the child isn’t getting any older. Then the child simply leaves to find another family. In the process, they forget about their previous family and their family forgets about them. The cycle repeats itself until the child encounters a traumatizing event, in which case they suddenly remember they are gods and they come into full possession of their powers. Only then can Nokov find and consume them.
It doesn’t take long for the reader to figure out that the little girl Shara adopted at the end of the first book (now a teenager) is one such divinity, although it turns out Shara didn’t know that at first. Even though her mother was killed and the news was everywhere because she was such a public figure, the girl is sheltered enough that it’s not traumatizing enough for her to remember who she is. That doesn’t happen until the end of the book, but there are definitely signs before then that she can see things other people can’t.
This book is just as much fun as the rest of the series. There’s action, humor, great dialogue, and a lot of gods. It also wrestles with the idea of whether anything ever really changes. Shara has worked her whole life to make the world a better place, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that she has succeeded. When the gods existed, the Continent ruled the world and abused the citizens of Saypur. Once the gods were killed, Saypur wasn’t any kinder to the Continent. Shara tried to change that, and her reward was getting forced out of office.
Similarly, Nokov tries to start the world over so he can make it a better place, but that just means starting back at square one and inflicting his own trauma onto the world.
So, if you’re looking for a book with an uplifting message about the good that lies in everyone, this is not it. But it is fun, action packed, hilarious at times, and full of great dialogue. I don’t know when I’ll have time to read other books by RJB, but I’ll have to make the time if they’re anything like this trilogy.