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A review by river24
Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
4.25/5
People like me don't change the world. We just survive it.
Thank you HarperCollins for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.
I adored Godkiller, it's an incredible debut and one of my favourite releases of the year, and the sequel, Sunbringer, (releasing February 2024) doesn't disappoint. Although it isn't quite as brilliant as the first book, it sets up the larger, looming plotline to come very well and expands on our beloved characters.
I shall now attempt to review this sequel without spoiling the first book! (Reviewing books in series is so difficult because of this reason!)
With little tools you make battle with gods, but you still cannot fight faith.
Kissen is my favourite of the characters, although I think in this book Inara shines most brightly. I enjoyed Kissen's chapters as she's abandoned in a land that is at once both foreign and familiar to her. I adored seeing the threat on the horizon through her eyes in these chapters and loved the various settings this new land gave us. Kissen's will is tested with brutal precision as she realises this is not a fight she alone can win. She may be a godkiller, but she cannot kill faith.
(I do wish we got to see a little more of her, but I might be biased!)
As I mentioned before, Inara was my favourite in this particular book. She's incredible! She has already grown so much from the scared little girl with a secret we met at the beginning of the series, and it's fascinating to watch this growth continue as she finds her own identity in the mess of swirling colours she is made to reckon with. When her will, and all she is, is so attached to another being, who does that mean she truly is? What can she become? Inara wants answers, as she always has, but now she also wants to be able to choose what to do with those answers. She's brave and unyielding and she wants to prove this. She wants to fight for the ones she loves and she wants to avenge them.
Elogast is broken, that much he already knows. Guilt haunts his every step, betrayal encroaches on his heart and anger mixes with his every breath. His relationships are fractured, grief plagues him in many forms, and yet he is more determined than he has ever been. He, at last, knows what must be done. He dons his armour once again and becomes the blood-soaked man of his past, willing to sacrifice his gentle being and gentle life. He cannot go back to his bakery. He's known that for a very long time.
Why does it always come to this? That power changes, and knowledge burns?
I loved being in the city of Lesscia, the centre of all knowledge in Middren. It was a phenomenal setting for the main events of the story, not as overrun with gods as Blenraden, but alive with ancient history seeping out of every crack in the walls. The old gods still find shadows to hide themselves away in, loved in secret, sustaining the city they love in silence.
I adored how atmospheric and comforting Kaner's prose always was, the city sang with every step the characters took.
I do think this book felt a little less integral to the story overall, but it's a hard thing to explain because technically there were many aspects that were important to the plots weaving throughout the series, however I think because most of the story is spent with our main characters apart it felt as if we were continuously waiting for something. I knew, whilst I was reading, that these characters needed to find their way back to one another to tackle the main threat of the series, and so I couldn't help but feel as though we were, at times, sitting still.
However, this isn't a big criticism, I still massively enjoyed this book. I only say this because I recognise how much this book is setting up for the third one and I cannot wait to get my hands on it!
No wonder humans made gods: everything they desired and feared just spilled out of them, staining everything they touched.
I adore this world and all the characters in it so incredibly much, it's all astoundingly comforting.
In my review for the first book, I wrote about how much it feels like the comforting aspects of The Witcher and I do agree with that statement, however it is also something uniquely its own.
It's a world of contradictions. It's a world of gods who are both forbidden and desperately needed. It's a character who is at once a godkiller and a protector of gods. It's someone who is both man and god, and, perhaps, underneath it all, something even worse. This is a land that is broken and healed and broken all over again. It's a world of jagged edges, full of jagged people all trying to navigate their way through it as best they can.
It's phenomenal and I hope you love it as much as I do!
Even gods have their time to die.
People like me don't change the world. We just survive it.
Thank you HarperCollins for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.
I adored Godkiller, it's an incredible debut and one of my favourite releases of the year, and the sequel, Sunbringer, (releasing February 2024) doesn't disappoint. Although it isn't quite as brilliant as the first book, it sets up the larger, looming plotline to come very well and expands on our beloved characters.
I shall now attempt to review this sequel without spoiling the first book! (Reviewing books in series is so difficult because of this reason!)
With little tools you make battle with gods, but you still cannot fight faith.
Kissen is my favourite of the characters, although I think in this book Inara shines most brightly. I enjoyed Kissen's chapters as she's abandoned in a land that is at once both foreign and familiar to her. I adored seeing the threat on the horizon through her eyes in these chapters and loved the various settings this new land gave us. Kissen's will is tested with brutal precision as she realises this is not a fight she alone can win. She may be a godkiller, but she cannot kill faith.
(I do wish we got to see a little more of her, but I might be biased!)
As I mentioned before, Inara was my favourite in this particular book. She's incredible! She has already grown so much from the scared little girl with a secret we met at the beginning of the series, and it's fascinating to watch this growth continue as she finds her own identity in the mess of swirling colours she is made to reckon with. When her will, and all she is, is so attached to another being, who does that mean she truly is? What can she become? Inara wants answers, as she always has, but now she also wants to be able to choose what to do with those answers. She's brave and unyielding and she wants to prove this. She wants to fight for the ones she loves and she wants to avenge them.
Elogast is broken, that much he already knows. Guilt haunts his every step, betrayal encroaches on his heart and anger mixes with his every breath. His relationships are fractured, grief plagues him in many forms, and yet he is more determined than he has ever been. He, at last, knows what must be done. He dons his armour once again and becomes the blood-soaked man of his past, willing to sacrifice his gentle being and gentle life. He cannot go back to his bakery. He's known that for a very long time.
Why does it always come to this? That power changes, and knowledge burns?
I loved being in the city of Lesscia, the centre of all knowledge in Middren. It was a phenomenal setting for the main events of the story, not as overrun with gods as Blenraden, but alive with ancient history seeping out of every crack in the walls. The old gods still find shadows to hide themselves away in, loved in secret, sustaining the city they love in silence.
I adored how atmospheric and comforting Kaner's prose always was, the city sang with every step the characters took.
I do think this book felt a little less integral to the story overall, but it's a hard thing to explain because technically there were many aspects that were important to the plots weaving throughout the series, however I think because most of the story is spent with our main characters apart it felt as if we were continuously waiting for something. I knew, whilst I was reading, that these characters needed to find their way back to one another to tackle the main threat of the series, and so I couldn't help but feel as though we were, at times, sitting still.
However, this isn't a big criticism, I still massively enjoyed this book. I only say this because I recognise how much this book is setting up for the third one and I cannot wait to get my hands on it!
No wonder humans made gods: everything they desired and feared just spilled out of them, staining everything they touched.
I adore this world and all the characters in it so incredibly much, it's all astoundingly comforting.
In my review for the first book, I wrote about how much it feels like the comforting aspects of The Witcher and I do agree with that statement, however it is also something uniquely its own.
It's a world of contradictions. It's a world of gods who are both forbidden and desperately needed. It's a character who is at once a godkiller and a protector of gods. It's someone who is both man and god, and, perhaps, underneath it all, something even worse. This is a land that is broken and healed and broken all over again. It's a world of jagged edges, full of jagged people all trying to navigate their way through it as best they can.
It's phenomenal and I hope you love it as much as I do!
Even gods have their time to die.