Review: The Godsblood Tragedy by Bill Adams

Synopsis

An orphan, without a trueborn name, returns to the city of her birth to uncover her past. Hounded by the servants of the Dark God and dying from the poisonous mist that covers the land, her path leads to one of the magical seals protecting the holy ruin of Eminence.

A father, murdered and reborn, aims to bring down the floating fortress hovering over his homeland. Burdened by loss, he’s willing to sacrifice his soul to free his city and get revenge for the destruction of his family.

A mother, captured and bonded to a daemon, kills in the name of the Dark God so she can free her tortured daughter. Relentless in her vengeance, she hunts the one person who could end her suffering: the man who would destroy her vile master.

A drake, the banished hatchling of a failed advisor, seeks his father’s stolen horns. Untested, he desires to right his father’s wrongs in the eyes of the gods and restore his family’s honor.

As all converge in the occupied desert city where the world’s fuel source is mined, one family’s bond will be tested. Old betrayals will resurface, anger and resentment will flourish, but one thing remains clear: blood rules all.

Review

The Godsblood Tragedy by Bill Adams is an ambitious chonk of a book that defies all attempts to categorize it. Is it fantasy? Is it sci-fi? Yes. Is it epic? Most assuredly, yes.

The Godsblood Tragedy is set in a magi-tech laced, intrigue-filled metropolis filled with a wide variety of characters, and all the while, looming large over the entire city is a floating island that is kept in place with chains. 

This is not a book that holds your hand or eases you into the beginning. The prose and description are rich and detailed and information comes at you at a rapid pace. More than once I found myself asking: Who are these people? What do they want? What is even happening? 

Patience. 

Too often we rush into books without giving them the chance to breathe. The meticulous work Adams did with the setting and story structure pays dividends in the end, but only if we let it. So take it in as it comes. Explore the decrepit streets of Drenth. Wonder at the true identity of the “Gutter King.” Let the interesting worldbuilding and lore envelop you as we go from blood bath to literal bloodbath.

While I tend to find myself more drawn to stories with restrained magic and sparse descriptions, once this book clicked for me, I finished it quickly. I particularly loved the tension between characters that we had only grown to know slightly before digging into their pasts. There was a lot there even for a reader like myself who focuses more on emotion and subtlety than overt displays of fantastic trappings. 

And can we talk about villains? The Fallen and Solanine stand as among the most evil, sadistic, and vile I have encountered in recent memory. Their iniquity oozes off the page in every scene they are in. I found myself wanting to know more about that pair and their backstory and I hope further books reveal more of the egomaniacal past that still holds sway over the events of Drenth during the current time.

As I was reading, I found myself not only getting vibes similar to Wheel of Time and other sprawling classic Fantasy, but I also found things that reminded me of my favorite Final Fantasy games and even Chrono Trigger to a lesser extent. The thing that I found surprising was just how MUCH there was to this book. Even now, I’m considering a reread so I can fully appreciate all the little intricacies that I missed.

So is this book for you?

This is a book for people who want the worldbuilding of Sanderson with the intrigue and complexity of something like Malazan. You are rewarded for making educated guesses and keeping track of shifting alliances, and the end is particularly engaging as we see the culmination of multiple plot threads converge in a glorious showdown.

And the best part?

A talking demon sword named Strix. What could have been a cheesy device quickly became one of my favorite characters in a story filled with a unique and varied cast. I also particularly loved Cardianna and Emre, but there are many characters with unique aspects to them.

So there you go. A book that defies explanation that exceeds my expectations. Even for an avowed low-fantasy reader, I’ll be thinking about this one for quite a while.