mateyy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
jesster642's review against another edition
3.0
Different take on a desolate world, with middle Eastern themes and technology and magic based around bugs
benehime's review against another edition
3.0
In short: overall recommend if you like grimdark and are looking for something with explicitly darksin characters. Don't go in with crazy high expectations and you will be entertained for a day!
The Good:
Bug! Magic! Wish we had gotten more Rhys POVS that went deeper into the workings of those bugs, expect for vaguely "reaching out" and doing... Something? It is after all a brilliant concept merging magic and science, so I kinda whish we had gotten to see more of the magic system fleshed out. It's everywhere, in cars (which I cannot imagine to be anything else than a VW Käfer btwl) in healing, radio, bombs, contagions, so I'd have liked to see more of how magicians operate. It was and stays confusing trying to figure out how this works and takes away from the story. We learn that Rhys is a mediocre magician, but never really why or what even makes a good or bad magician
The supporting cast are all compex characters. Except Anneke, she somehow doesn't really get a character development other than "following Nyx unquestionably". I mean the guy she's been working for more than a decade gets killed of and she just is a bit... Meh.
On that note: Taine, Teine? Was lovely and I now want to read a book about him.
I loved Rhys. Hated him at the first POV, but when he stopped being a sexist shit it was great. Everyone not being an über genius at what they are doing was good too! Let your characters be mediocre.
The grimdark elements are very well done. It never strays into the tasteless circlejerk of utterly mindless violence that some authors mistake for quality storytelling. So that is a plus point!
Representation for BIPOC and queer characters. I only have one issue with this, which I will get into in a minute.
The bad:
Kill your (only) gay, happy characters is a trope that needs to die. Thank you, next.
More information about the "aliens". We never get background information on the space region. It's explained with the fact that they have shot down anyone trying to come to the planet, but, like... Why? And wouldn't you still have basic information about who else is out there? Why are they so ill prepared for anyone trying to contact them when they themselves are not really native to the planet?
The war. Okay, I get it, the nation's are at war for religious reasons and have dedicated their entire male population to this war. But, for over 300 years? With no shortages of any kind? No famines, no problems farming, no problems producing literally anything? No massive depopulaion, uprisings and refugees? For 300 years? And everyone is just okay with that? Doesn't add up in my mind, but all right.
The Good:
Bug! Magic! Wish we had gotten more Rhys POVS that went deeper into the workings of those bugs, expect for vaguely "reaching out" and doing... Something? It is after all a brilliant concept merging magic and science, so I kinda whish we had gotten to see more of the magic system fleshed out. It's everywhere, in cars (which I cannot imagine to be anything else than a VW Käfer btwl) in healing, radio, bombs, contagions, so I'd have liked to see more of how magicians operate. It was and stays confusing trying to figure out how this works and takes away from the story. We learn that Rhys is a mediocre magician, but never really why or what even makes a good or bad magician
The supporting cast are all compex characters. Except Anneke, she somehow doesn't really get a character development other than "following Nyx unquestionably". I mean the guy she's been working for more than a decade gets killed of and she just is a bit... Meh.
On that note: Taine, Teine? Was lovely and I now want to read a book about him.
I loved Rhys. Hated him at the first POV, but when he stopped being a sexist shit it was great. Everyone not being an über genius at what they are doing was good too! Let your characters be mediocre.
The grimdark elements are very well done. It never strays into the tasteless circlejerk of utterly mindless violence that some authors mistake for quality storytelling. So that is a plus point!
Representation for BIPOC and queer characters. I only have one issue with this, which I will get into in a minute.
The bad:
Kill your (only) gay, happy characters is a trope that needs to die. Thank you, next.
More information about the "aliens". We never get background information on the space region. It's explained with the fact that they have shot down anyone trying to come to the planet, but, like... Why? And wouldn't you still have basic information about who else is out there? Why are they so ill prepared for anyone trying to contact them when they themselves are not really native to the planet?
The war. Okay, I get it, the nation's are at war for religious reasons and have dedicated their entire male population to this war. But, for over 300 years? With no shortages of any kind? No famines, no problems farming, no problems producing literally anything? No massive depopulaion, uprisings and refugees? For 300 years? And everyone is just okay with that? Doesn't add up in my mind, but all right.
gothicglasses's review against another edition
5.0
So what do I choose for a book to read after not reading for an entire year? This this evil book. This isn't a book for a novice reader. This book makes you think. This book draw from us as a population. This book hurts you it tears you up and throws you away with all the other trash of this world. I liked it and think others should try it just don't go looking for a happy book.
whammajamma's review against another edition
I understand that this is a sci-fi book, but it's got some messed up idiosyncrasies about race for a book written by a white person.
Content Warnings
Extensive racial microaggressions, both towards the "enemy" in the book and towards the protagonist
biblialex's review against another edition
3.0
Really enjoyed the cool world building-the desert, the politics, the religion, the magic, the technology-but not so much the bloody severed heads and bugs crawling in wounds type stuff.
jefffrane's review against another edition
4.0
I had a tough time starting God's War but gave it some effort. After a couple of chapters I was all on board for Hurley's strange Islamofuturist, post-multiple apocalypses, Noir tale of bugs, dust and gore. Before I'd gotten to the end I had ordered copies of the next two books in the series.
Judging by her own comments and bio, I think Hurley knows a lot about facing death and brings that authenticity to every page.
Judging by her own comments and bio, I think Hurley knows a lot about facing death and brings that authenticity to every page.
itabar's review against another edition
I wanted to like it 'cause I read something on her blog which I liked a lot. The writing and world-building is good, but......
DNF. Too brutal, grim and depressing for me. I can handle that if I cared about a character or if the grimness is leavened with a dollop of humor. I coudln't find any in the first 2 hours (of 12) so gave up. Might be able to read it 'cause I could skim.
DNF. Too brutal, grim and depressing for me. I can handle that if I cared about a character or if the grimness is leavened with a dollop of humor. I coudln't find any in the first 2 hours (of 12) so gave up. Might be able to read it 'cause I could skim.
epeorus's review against another edition
just wasn't for me. it was too gritty and visceral
xoa's review against another edition
1.0
I'm struggling thinking of how to properly articulate my thoughts on this one. I did not like anything about this book, it took me a very long time to read, and I physically rolled my eyes multiple times. At the same time, I don't think it's a bad book, per se.
There is a particular genre of sci-fi TV show which at this point makes up almost all sci-fi on the Syfy channel: a ragtag group of space criminals/bounty hunters who are hardened killers but have a special bond with each other and mean well deep down. As far as I can tell, Firefly is the root cause of this - ironic considering it got canceled.
God's War hews very closely to this formula; it even has a scene where Nyxnissa, the hardboiled whiskey-drinking captain, is asked to disarm and produces a comedic number of hidden weapons from her person, a gag that I have seen repeated so many times since I was a child that it has long since stopped being funny to me.
I hate this subgenre of science fiction.
God's War also takes quite a bit of inspiration from Space Westerns (which I hate) and from dieselpunk and steampunk fiction (which I hate). It has a central M/F romance, which I hate.
So, even setting aside the specifics of God's War and its execution, writing, story, etc: at its core, this is not a book for me. I don't think there's any meat that could be added onto the skeleton of this book that would have pleased me, so it's hard to feel like my more specific complaints are particularly meaningful.
That said, I have a lot of specific complaints.
The protagonist Nyxnissa is supremely unpleasant. I don't think a main character has to be good or nice or likable! I don't think "the protagonist is deeply flawed" is an inherently bad thing and it is often something that I enjoy very much. However, there are certain circumstances and plot structures in which a Very Terrible protagonist is not a good fit.
Nyx's crew have no reason to be loyal to her. No one has any reason to even tolerate her; she insists frequently, out loud and in the narrative, that she is very good at her job, but this isn't shown to be the case at all. We see her fail a job spectacularly and get fired and then arrested, fail another job, get kidnapped twice, and get several people around her kidnapped and murdered due to sheer incompetence. In one scene she thinks to herself that she is very good at driving and then immediately crashes her car into a tree.
It's hard to believe that anybody would want to hire her for anything important when she is not only demonstrably bad at her job but also really really obnoxious and an alcoholic. It's unclear why anyone would agree to work for her in the first place besides being extremely desperate, and it's even more unclear why they would remain loyal to her or have any affection for her whatsoever.
The only gay character, Taite, is brutally murdered; his murder is not particularly plot-important, because he is not particularly plot-important. There are plenty of bi characters who don't get murdered, but there isn't actually any f/f or m/m romance besides Taite and his one-scene boyfriend.
The brutal and cruel binary gender system in the book would be a really interesting framework in which to explore transness and gender nonconformity, but it doesn't come up ever.
The pacing of the book is clunky and strange. There's a whole long sequence at the beginning before Nyx gets arrested that is totally unnecessary and out of place, which is a weird way to start a book.
People spit on the floor a lot. Like, a lot? It got to be distracting, actually, how often people were spitting all over the place. There was also a lot of people drinking whiskey and putting their boots up on tables; it's that kind of thing. I was strongly reminded of a dieselpunk piece I once tried to read in which the main character would flick his cigarette onto the ground multiple times a scene just to establish how GRITTY and NOIR the whole thing was. Very tiresome.
The worldbuilding wasn't explained much and I didn't understand a lot of how things worked, but most of it wasn't especially important, so... whatever, I guess? It was still distracting how often details or elements of the world would be referenced and then not explained. A particularly egregious one was the revelation that Taite's mother made a habit of fucking dogs?? Shapeshifters having sex with animals while in animal form was not otherwise mentioned before or after this, it's implied by the context that her dog-fucking is somehow related to her "political beliefs" (???????), and Taite specifically mentions it as something he doesn't think is particularly bad or weird. Like... WHAT? It is never brought up again, so I guess it wasn't important?? SEEMS IMPORTANT TO ME?
I still don't really know what "reconstituting" means and why Nyx seems to have been brought back from the dead but nobody else who dies gets brought back. I assume that beheading someone means they can't be "reconstituted," and that bugs are involved somehow.
I could probably go on indefinitely, as there was really not anything I liked about this book, but I don't really... uh... care? I finished it and I won't be continuing the series.
I've got a couple of other Kameron Hurley books on my to-read list that seem like they'll be more up my alley, and I'm still going to get to those.
There is a particular genre of sci-fi TV show which at this point makes up almost all sci-fi on the Syfy channel: a ragtag group of space criminals/bounty hunters who are hardened killers but have a special bond with each other and mean well deep down. As far as I can tell, Firefly is the root cause of this - ironic considering it got canceled.
God's War hews very closely to this formula; it even has a scene where Nyxnissa, the hardboiled whiskey-drinking captain, is asked to disarm and produces a comedic number of hidden weapons from her person, a gag that I have seen repeated so many times since I was a child that it has long since stopped being funny to me.
I hate this subgenre of science fiction.
God's War also takes quite a bit of inspiration from Space Westerns (which I hate) and from dieselpunk and steampunk fiction (which I hate). It has a central M/F romance, which I hate.
So, even setting aside the specifics of God's War and its execution, writing, story, etc: at its core, this is not a book for me. I don't think there's any meat that could be added onto the skeleton of this book that would have pleased me, so it's hard to feel like my more specific complaints are particularly meaningful.
That said, I have a lot of specific complaints.
The protagonist Nyxnissa is supremely unpleasant. I don't think a main character has to be good or nice or likable! I don't think "the protagonist is deeply flawed" is an inherently bad thing and it is often something that I enjoy very much. However, there are certain circumstances and plot structures in which a Very Terrible protagonist is not a good fit.
Nyx's crew have no reason to be loyal to her. No one has any reason to even tolerate her; she insists frequently, out loud and in the narrative, that she is very good at her job, but this isn't shown to be the case at all. We see her fail a job spectacularly and get fired and then arrested, fail another job, get kidnapped twice, and get several people around her kidnapped and murdered due to sheer incompetence. In one scene she thinks to herself that she is very good at driving and then immediately crashes her car into a tree.
It's hard to believe that anybody would want to hire her for anything important when she is not only demonstrably bad at her job but also really really obnoxious and an alcoholic. It's unclear why anyone would agree to work for her in the first place besides being extremely desperate, and it's even more unclear why they would remain loyal to her or have any affection for her whatsoever.
The only gay character, Taite, is brutally murdered; his murder is not particularly plot-important, because he is not particularly plot-important. There are plenty of bi characters who don't get murdered, but there isn't actually any f/f or m/m romance besides Taite and his one-scene boyfriend.
The brutal and cruel binary gender system in the book would be a really interesting framework in which to explore transness and gender nonconformity, but it doesn't come up ever.
The pacing of the book is clunky and strange. There's a whole long sequence at the beginning before Nyx gets arrested that is totally unnecessary and out of place, which is a weird way to start a book.
People spit on the floor a lot. Like, a lot? It got to be distracting, actually, how often people were spitting all over the place. There was also a lot of people drinking whiskey and putting their boots up on tables; it's that kind of thing. I was strongly reminded of a dieselpunk piece I once tried to read in which the main character would flick his cigarette onto the ground multiple times a scene just to establish how GRITTY and NOIR the whole thing was. Very tiresome.
The worldbuilding wasn't explained much and I didn't understand a lot of how things worked, but most of it wasn't especially important, so... whatever, I guess? It was still distracting how often details or elements of the world would be referenced and then not explained. A particularly egregious one was the revelation that Taite's mother made a habit of fucking dogs?? Shapeshifters having sex with animals while in animal form was not otherwise mentioned before or after this, it's implied by the context that her dog-fucking is somehow related to her "political beliefs" (???????), and Taite specifically mentions it as something he doesn't think is particularly bad or weird. Like... WHAT? It is never brought up again, so I guess it wasn't important?? SEEMS IMPORTANT TO ME?
I still don't really know what "reconstituting" means and why Nyx seems to have been brought back from the dead but nobody else who dies gets brought back. I assume that beheading someone means they can't be "reconstituted," and that bugs are involved somehow.
I could probably go on indefinitely, as there was really not anything I liked about this book, but I don't really... uh... care? I finished it and I won't be continuing the series.
I've got a couple of other Kameron Hurley books on my to-read list that seem like they'll be more up my alley, and I'm still going to get to those.