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Against All Gods: The Age of Bronze: Book 1

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Despite his previous work, Cameron is not just doing a riff on the Greek Bronze Age, there are hints of Mesopotamia, Anatolia/Syria, and Egypt here. The bronze age trappings are fantastic -- this is a secondary fantasy world but you can feel the Greek-like trappings. Gamash of WeshWesh- the old warrior mage hero who fought bravely on behalf of Gods only to lose his daughter in an act of casual cruelty of a young god. All of them are carefully led to a position to strike at Enkul-Anu, current God in charge, and his Pantheon, but they just kind of realized they had enough of Gods' games and decided to do their own thing and overthrow them all together.

I love mythology and books that mix fantasy, history, and mythology in particular and was excited to read this book! The gods are also characters in their own right, affecting the course of the plot just as much as the mortals; it does not feel at all like a deus-ex-machina situation, though, because a lot of the time the pantheon knows only as much as or even less than the humans do, so they tend to make things worse by interfering, which is greatly entertaining! Cameron has created another fascinating world and filled it with characters that I loved to read about. But some parts of world-building were so epic and interesting: like, Zos was a slave trained to be a bull-leaper- it's a type of gladiators who are supposed to jump at a charging bull and there is a whole legend about this and references to their fearlessness.I think if the cast of protagonists was slimmed down a bit, I could have spent more time getting to know some of the POVs and ultimately, feel more invested in their part to play. It was a fresh and unique setting for a fantasy novel, combining elements of many historical cultures to create a diverse and interesting world. Mortals curse the gods, gods curse the ineptitude of other gods, and it’s all very mythological except it’s delivered in deadpan modern vernacular which somehow feels totally appropriate and often drily funny.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The final 5-10% was actually really good and if that was the same throughout the whole book then it would have resided with me on a 4* level I think. Because, as we have learned throughout history, absolute power can corrupt absolutely (or “eternally” as the cover of the book notes), as the saying goes.

I have done ever since I saw the 1980s Clash of the Titans when I was 7 years old and I still love reading stories inspired by that time period so I was in my element reading Against All Gods. There are a lot of characters in play here (as evidenced by the four-page dramatis personae at the beginning), but Cameron largely keeps to four point of view characters – an aged magos out for revenge, a grieving dancer acclimatising to an unexpected responsibility, a young scribe coming to terms with betrayal and a broader truth, and a cynical warrior uncomfortably aware that he’s past his best. In addition, the book kickstarts Gamash's journey by having his pregnant daughter die, which is another trope that tends to be a bit overused, where women die for male characters' growth.

I liked the world building and how descriptive the author was but I felt like I truly had to work for the reward at the end. But can a bunch of misfit gods, a lost constellation and a mortal boy stand up to the daemon hordes? As stereotypical as ragtag group of misfits in this scenario sound, it's exactly what I enjoyed about it.In his dreams a blue woman brought him bolts of silver lightning, and he gave them to the most unsuitable people: a slave with a bull's head tattoo, a dancing woman; a warrior; a scribe, but most of all a smith and his apprentice. AGAINST ALL ODDS is just his latest success story and here are my thought upon finishing the book late last night. The combination of old world values with new gods, of the familiar mixed with christian/Mike's incredible world, and indeed heaven building creates a new world that you can at once feel familiar with, and yet instantly want to know more.

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