You know how it goes, the world is crapsack, some gods have fallen, and a few strangers are drawn together to set things on a better path. In the world of Fiatera, the gods who have fallen are referred to as “The Twins,” (Fratarro and Sorrora) children of the ruling Parents (Patharro and Metherro) who dared to have ambition and attempted to create things of their own. This event in the world is known as “The Fall,” adding to the list of Named Things. For this ambition, “The Twins” were cast out and bound and to avoid their escape or unbinding, every pair of twins in the Fiatera (the setting of the series) are killed immediately after their birth – which lends the crapsack/grimdark air to the novel. In this dark world, Rachel Dunne introduces readers to a fascinating cast of characters who are equal parts original and familiar and launches The Bound Gods trilogy with In the Shadow of the Gods.
With In the Shadow of the Gods, Rachel Dunne makes her breathtaking debut with this first book in a dark epic fantasy trilogy, The Bound Gods, in which a mismatched band of mortals led by a violent, secretive man must stand against a pair of resentful gods to save their world.
Eons ago, a pair of gods known as the Twins grew powerful in the world of Fiatera, until the Divine Mother and Almighty Father exiled them, binding them deep in the earth. But the price of keeping the fire lands safe is steep. To prevent these young gods from rising again, all twins in the land must be killed at birth, a safeguard that has worked until now.
Trapped for centuries, the Twins are gathering their latent powers to break free and destroy the Parents for their tyranny—to set off a fight between two generations of gods for control of the world and the mortals who dwell in it.
When the gods make war, only one side can be victorious. Joros, a mysterious and cunning priest, has devised a dangerous plan to win. Over eight years, he gathers a team of disparate fighters—Scal, a lost and damaged swordsman from the North; Vatri, a scarred priestess who claims to see the future in her fires; Anddyr, a drug-addled mage wandering between sanity and madness; and Rora and Aro, a pair of twins who have secretly survived beyond the reach of the law.
These warriors must learn to stand together against the unfathomable power of vengeful gods, to stop them from tearing down the sun . . . and plunging their world into darkness.
Dunne builds up her story at a measured pace, providing readers with chapters broken out as POV chapters from her cast of characters, who at first seem to be on separate paths. Of course, seasoned fantasy readers realize these characters will eventually connect with each other, at least most of them. Knowing that a thing will unfold, in this case, takes very little if anything away from the enjoyment of watching it unfold.
To break down the characters a little more, because this novel is largely a setting-the-series novel in terms of characters and world we have a pair of twins – Aro and Rora – who are basically fugitives who escaped from their own death primarily on Rora’s cunning and the inner strength (possession?) she found early on. Her brother Aro is the softer of the two, with Rora definitely the dominant personality of the twins. I found myself fascinated by her growth into young adulthood over the course of the novel.
Next is Scal, the barbarian who was a Northman as a small child, then wasn’t when the Northmen’s enemies found him on a field of battle and took him and, then was a Northman again when his native people came back once again to pillage. His thoughts, which are probably the character whose thoughts we are given the deepest insight, were formed by the priesthood / enemies of Northmen who took him in. Through much of the narrative, his recounting of the powerful words of the priest who initially raised him echo and provide the impetus for his actions. His second life, as he calls it, at the hands of the tribe of Northmen harden him into a powerful swordsman. I found Scal almost as intriguing as Rora, but I got the sense that he is maybe the closest the novel has to a central protagonist. I don’t doubt that the Norse parallels and resonance between Scal was a mistake.
Then we have Joros, the priest who seems to be the architect of the action of the trilogy as a whole. It isn’t easy to cast him as a protagonist or an antagonist because what he seems to be doing may be in reaction to the Parent gods (who seem to be dark gods), but what he does isn’t always virtuous. For example, his practical enslavement of the mag Anddyr is anything but benevolent, but the long term goal seems like it could have a good outcome. Lastly, the devout Kieros gets limited time, but appears to be setting larger events of the trilogy as a whole in motion. There’s almost a sense that Kiero and Joros may be on opposing sides.
There’s a five year jump between the ending of the first third and beginning of the second third while an eight year jump is between the second and final third of the novel. Through these time jumps we see these characters as they are first introduced and shaped into the people they become when they eventually meet and find themselves on a singular path. This storytelling choice/device allows Dunne to lend an epic sweep to the novel with a sense of gravitas, having it take place over several years, without a physically weighty narrative.
If I haven’t made evident, Dunne brings many interesting things to the table in her debut. The compelling characters coupled with the dark mythology that balances fresh and evocative all wrapped up in immersive prose amounts to a debut novel that I found quite impressive. In fact, the novel feels more polished and with a more mature voice than most debuts often have.
In the Shadow of the Gods is a novel that can be lumped into the Grimdark category for sure, but it is thankfully not quite as unrelenting in its cynicism and nihilism as some of the Grimdark I’ve read over the past couple of years. I don’t know that I could say there’s a hopefulness to the novel and the world, but there does seem to be more of positivity about the story. This is very much a first novel in the series, and as I said, as good a first-novel-in-a-series as you’ll likely to encounter. As a fan of Epic Fantasy, this novel worked extremely well for me – offering a secondary world that with intriguing characters that has me very happy that book 2 is waiting to be read on my personal Mount To’Be Read.
© 2018 Rob H. Bedford
June 2016 | Harper Voyager
Trade Paperback | 387 Pages
http://racheldunne.com/
Sample: https://aerbook.com/books/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Gods-87948.html?social=1&retail=1&emailcap=0
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
