Synopsis
Jessica: a modern woman, thrown back into the bronze age, alone among a strange and violent people.
Amir: a nomad warlord, leading a hopeless battle against monstrous invaders, looking for a miracle.
To Amir, the beautiful stranger is a sign from heaven. And Jessica, though no warrior, has hidden talents even she does not appreciate. When Jessica recruits other women abducted through time, they band together to fight back against the seemingly invulnerable Spawn
The future of humanity is at stake, and Jessica’s supposed friends may be more dangerous than her enemies..
You’ll love this epic fantasy driven by characters facing the challenge of becoming what they could only dream.
Review
WAR OF THE GOD QUEEN by David Hambling is a fantastic time-traveling fantasy adventure that is quite a bit far removed from his Harry Stubbs series despite the fact that they (theoretically) take place in the same world. Specifically, they’re both set in the Cthulhu Mythos but separated by a few thousand years time. This is a sequel to The Dulwich Horror but you don’t need to have read that book to understand what is going on here and it functions fine as a standalone.
The premise is that Jessica is an Edwardian scholar who was hurled back in time to the Bronze Age. It is not the Bronze Age of actual history, though, but a Hyborian Age of strange cultures as well as horrifying monsters. Jessica is hardly the protagonist of A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court because she has no experience as an engineer, metallurgist, or other professions that would elevate her. Worse, it’s almost never a good time to be historically a woman in terms of rights and especially not so when one predates Rome.
Hurled back into the past by supernatural forces, Jessica finds she is just one of many women who have been kidnapped across time and are being kept for terrible purposes by the Spawn of Cthulhu. The Spawn of Cthulhu are attempting to rewrite time by using their powers to increase their numbers in the past so they can wipe out humanity. What follows is Jessica gathering together the other sacrifices and proceeding to establish themselves as a united front against the enemy as well begin a divine war against the Spawn of Cthulhu.
As a longstanding fan of Red Sonja, I enjoy a good feminist reinterpretation of the Hyboirian Age and this certainly includes a lot of elements regarding such. It also avoids the relentless fanservice that put many people off of Red (not me for perhaps biased reasons). Jessica is surrounded by quite a few other interesting women and I wonder if this book might have been better if it had multiple perspectives ranging from people after the Edwardian Era and before trying to work together beyond just slaying the monsters. LGBTA fans will note that there are some characters who are of such persuasion among the heroic resistance as well.
Do I have any complaints about the book? Some mild ones. The Spawn of Cthulhu are a rather one-dimensional collection of kidnapees and while the horrific implications are left as subtext, they’re still there as in Lovecraft. I would have preferred some more development of what exactly their goals and culture is even if there’s not really any way to portray them as something other than horrifically evil given the premise.
War of the God Queen is a quick read despite the fact it is 387 pages and I managed to get through it in a couple of days due to the fast pace as well as straight forward plot. It’s a good plot classic fantasy plot and all about reaching your full potential regardless of the circumstances you’ve found yourself in.
Leave a Reply