Book Title: Mortal Gods
Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Goddess War #2
Date Started: February 7th 2024
Date Completed: February 24th 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three Stars
Review:
The Goddess War series has such a fun concept. Placing these immortal figures in a place of complete vulnerability in the modern world as they slowly die to the things that used to give them power (Athena chokes on owl feathers, Ares begins bleeding from every cut he ever lived through, Artemis is hunted by her own hounds) is such an original idea that plays with these characters in a way beyond the shallow and loose interpretations I’m used to in contemporary reimaginings. This year, I’m working to finish some of the series I started as a teenager - but only the ones I care enough about. The Goddess War trilogy is firmly in that category.
While this book is mainly filler, the filler itself is engaging enough. There are a lot of ways these kinds of retellings can fall apart, and the main one is dependant on how much the author actually understands the source material they’re working with (not just the stories and the names, but the nuance of culture, honour, how different Ancient Greek values were to our modern ones - the stuff that thematically pulls everything together to feel real). It’s so refreshing to be able to say Kendare Blake really knows her stuff. Her background knowledge is adept, but so is her characterisation and where she grows it.
The characters are the really fun thing, and this book is basically just about them ahead of what I expect will be a more action-packed finale in Ungodly. I personally find the mortals more interesting as they grapple with their previous reincarnations starting to blend with their current lives and destinies. The gods who are slowly becoming mortal are often more intriguing in concept than their actual actions on the page. This was also the series that made me love Cassandra of Troy as a historical figure. I’d really hoped she’d get a little more screen time and development in this book considering she’s the pivotal anchor for the plot, but forward progression was slow in general. I’m willing to wait for her arc to resolve in the final book.
Not a lot happens in Mortal Gods - suspect this could’ve just been a duology like Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood series - but it’s fun and a real show of creativity around the ideas of myth, immortals, pain, legacy and new beginnings. I’ll happily be paying to get an out of print copy send over from the US and hope that a UK publisher will rediscover this little series and bring it back here.
