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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
NB: ARC received from netgalley
Well. That was amazing. The first thing that told me this book was going to be right up my alley was the code-switching. Which, for those of you who don't know, is a linguistic thing where people's phrasing and grammar order etc changes between situations. It's particularly prevalent among multi-lingual cultures. I loved how Okungbowa writes Davids speech without trying to explain it. The book is unshamedly Nigerian and this is just one of the ways it does this.
Then there is the worldbuilding. Long story short, a whole bunch of gods have been thrown into the human world and this is causing some major conflict. The main character is a half-god who is something of a pest control except fr supernatural creatures wreaking havoc called godlings. I really loved how Okungbowa wrote the gods and provided an explanation for the different pantheons and how they interact.David's mother is a god of war and is claimed by different pantheons, which actually plays a role in the character's development and the plot. So that was really cool.
As for the characters, they paled a little in comparison to the worldbuild, and felt mmm slightly superficial? Outside of David, I never got much of a feel for other characters. We get a bit of a history on Papa Udi, but nothing much on Fatoumata or Onipede or even his mother. Part of this is perhaps because of the way the book is staged. I've seen some people say it's really three stories published as one, but it's more like three acts. And each act has a bunch of new characters introduced so the characters that show up later have less of a chance to stand out.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this novel. It's about found families and communities, it's about coming together when the world is on the verge of ending, it's about finding home where you can and the cost of greed.
Well. That was amazing. The first thing that told me this book was going to be right up my alley was the code-switching. Which, for those of you who don't know, is a linguistic thing where people's phrasing and grammar order etc changes between situations. It's particularly prevalent among multi-lingual cultures. I loved how Okungbowa writes Davids speech without trying to explain it. The book is unshamedly Nigerian and this is just one of the ways it does this.
Then there is the worldbuilding. Long story short, a whole bunch of gods have been thrown into the human world and this is causing some major conflict. The main character is a half-god who is something of a pest control except fr supernatural creatures wreaking havoc called godlings. I really loved how Okungbowa wrote the gods and provided an explanation for the different pantheons and how they interact.
As for the characters, they paled a little in comparison to the worldbuild, and felt mmm slightly superficial? Outside of David, I never got much of a feel for other characters. We get a bit of a history on Papa Udi, but nothing much on Fatoumata or Onipede or even his mother. Part of this is perhaps because of the way the book is staged. I've seen some people say it's really three stories published as one, but it's more like three acts. And each act has a bunch of new characters introduced so the characters that show up later have less of a chance to stand out.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this novel. It's about found families and communities, it's about coming together when the world is on the verge of ending, it's about finding home where you can and the cost of greed.
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In the aftermath of a civil war amongst the gods - The Falling - David Mogo, half-divine godhunter, must fight for what he believes in and battle his own demons to find his identity in a crumbling Lagos.
A diverse cast of characters and a fun engaging story. The pacing works if you think of this as a series of three novellas in one book. I really liked the found family vibes and the strong sense of place, along with what seemed to be a deft weaving of the Yoruba pantheon into the story. As a white UK reader with Nigerian colleagues, it seemed to fit with the feel of what they had told me about living in urban Nigeria. I really liked the use of local dialect too, and the shifting between registers felt appropriate based on the situations the characters found themselves in.
Content warnings for blood magic, torture, and child-parent tension.
A diverse cast of characters and a fun engaging story. The pacing works if you think of this as a series of three novellas in one book. I really liked the found family vibes and the strong sense of place, along with what seemed to be a deft weaving of the Yoruba pantheon into the story. As a white UK reader with Nigerian colleagues, it seemed to fit with the feel of what they had told me about living in urban Nigeria. I really liked the use of local dialect too, and the shifting between registers felt appropriate based on the situations the characters found themselves in.
Content warnings for blood magic, torture, and child-parent tension.
DNF @ 33%
While "David Mogo, Godhunter" started off on the right foot with a Nigeria-set "Phillip Marlowe meets 'American Gods'" atmosphere, I was put off by many of its writing decisions that became more and more obstrusive as it went along.
What worked: the setting and world-building. The story takes place in modern-day Nigeria a few years after an event called The Falling, when gods had been kicked out of their pantheon and are now forced to roam the surrounding the region of Lagos. David Mogo is a demigod (half-human, half god) with a mysterious past who is a bit of a black market bounty hunter, solving the problems that the fallen gods have wreaked on the populace. Modo's voice and description of the setting gave off a noirish feel, and the story initially felt a bit like a Raymond Chandler novel.
What didn't work: a LOT of exposition and info dumps. The author subscribes to the "tell" instead of "show" format, and it quickly became tiresome. At one point, the antagonist's plans are revealed through painful speechifying and mustache-twirling, needlessly sharing all the details of his nefarious plans to the captured hero. The explanations are so on-the-nose and there is little to no subtlety in the writing. Everyone is declaring their plans and intentions in explict and oft-unnecessary detail, and the book doesn't give the reader any breathing room to piece together any implications themself.
This torrent of information is oddly juxtaposed by the spoken Nigerian dialect, which is extremely different than the Western voice that David uses in his first-person narration. It was off-putting to read David's thoughts and descriptions in one voice while the rest of the dialogue was written in a completely different voice. This dialect sometimes changed dramatically depending on who was talking to whom, and when the conversation was taking place. Context clues helped me figure out what was being said, but there's certainly a substantial amount of speech that went over my head. I appreciate the authenticity the author was trying to bring to the story, but it was an odd choice to leave the dialogue vague while hitting some other plot points way too hard.
I enjoy reading speculative fiction & SFF set in Nigeria, as I explored some of Nnedi Okorafur's catalog over the past year. Suyi Davies Okungbowa clearly has some interesting ideas to explore, so I hope that its execution might be improved in future works.
While "David Mogo, Godhunter" started off on the right foot with a Nigeria-set "Phillip Marlowe meets 'American Gods'" atmosphere, I was put off by many of its writing decisions that became more and more obstrusive as it went along.
What worked: the setting and world-building. The story takes place in modern-day Nigeria a few years after an event called The Falling, when gods had been kicked out of their pantheon and are now forced to roam the surrounding the region of Lagos. David Mogo is a demigod (half-human, half god) with a mysterious past who is a bit of a black market bounty hunter, solving the problems that the fallen gods have wreaked on the populace. Modo's voice and description of the setting gave off a noirish feel, and the story initially felt a bit like a Raymond Chandler novel.
What didn't work: a LOT of exposition and info dumps. The author subscribes to the "tell" instead of "show" format, and it quickly became tiresome. At one point, the antagonist's plans are revealed through painful speechifying and mustache-twirling, needlessly sharing all the details of his nefarious plans to the captured hero. The explanations are so on-the-nose and there is little to no subtlety in the writing. Everyone is declaring their plans and intentions in explict and oft-unnecessary detail, and the book doesn't give the reader any breathing room to piece together any implications themself.
This torrent of information is oddly juxtaposed by the spoken Nigerian dialect, which is extremely different than the Western voice that David uses in his first-person narration. It was off-putting to read David's thoughts and descriptions in one voice while the rest of the dialogue was written in a completely different voice. This dialect sometimes changed dramatically depending on who was talking to whom, and when the conversation was taking place. Context clues helped me figure out what was being said, but there's certainly a substantial amount of speech that went over my head. I appreciate the authenticity the author was trying to bring to the story, but it was an odd choice to leave the dialogue vague while hitting some other plot points way too hard.
I enjoy reading speculative fiction & SFF set in Nigeria, as I explored some of Nnedi Okorafur's catalog over the past year. Suyi Davies Okungbowa clearly has some interesting ideas to explore, so I hope that its execution might be improved in future works.
DNF at 21%
I could'nt connect with any of the characters, let alone the MC. I was mostly confused and lost half the time, and because of that i got bored. Things happened, but i felt it happened too fast and the characters didn't have time to grow on me.
The synopsis and the idea was very good! I just got lost and confused, alot.
I could'nt connect with any of the characters, let alone the MC. I was mostly confused and lost half the time, and because of that i got bored. Things happened, but i felt it happened too fast and the characters didn't have time to grow on me.
The synopsis and the idea was very good! I just got lost and confused, alot.
Great interesting supernatural thriller. At first it seems like it is going to be another story in the tradition of The Dresden Files & Supernatural but it goes much deeper exploring the history and culture of Nigeria and touching on numerous themes as well as being fantastically written.
4/5 stars — a vivid adventure of self-discovery as one man faces off against the Yoruba orisha
"War is blood, fire, and iron, and you are all three."
David Mogo lives in Lagos, Nigeria, a state now gripped by supernatural dangers that range from the mostly annoying godlings to full-blooded orisha: gods of legend with little affection for humankind. David is a demigod, although he doesn't know his divine mother; he uses his ability to sense godessence for small-time jobs like removing godling pests. When he takes a high-paying gig kidnapping a pair of gods for a powerful wizard, even being a demigod won't keep him safe.
For the most part, I enjoyed this novel. It's told in first-person present tense, which makes the action visceral, the threats immediate. David is a lightly voicy narrator whose observations of the world and the people around him are insightful and sometimes amusing. He's a demigod with mysterious powers who hunts orisha on a motorbike. What's not to love? Further, the narrative turns on themes of family, community, and peace versus power, chaos, and destruction, setting up for major late-story emotional impact.
The first act lays down a lot of interesting worldbuilding surrounding the magic system used by wizards like David's surrogate father, Papa Udi, and the charmcasting used by high gods. The magic is innovative, requiring ingredients based on qualities like scent, sound, and texture. In the second act, the pacing drops off as David gains allies in his fight against some of the hostile orisha. (However, would have liked to see more time spent on David undergoing training to use his godly powers, because his proficiency felt like it came on too suddenly.) The third act is my favorite part. The action/fight scenes are incredible, and I enjoyed how many female characters got a chance to shine toward the end.I also loved David's line "He tried to kill my father and my sister," because it signifies David finally, in a moment of pain and fear, acknowledging Papa Udi as his father. (Also, David practically adopted Fati as his sister the moment he laid eyes on her, which is adorable.)
David grows immensely as a character over the course of the book, which contributed greatly to how much I enjoyed his story. Not only did he become even stronger and more powerful, he developed emotional ties to augment his strength and allow him to become a valuable leader and a more well-rounded person. If there are sequels to this, I'm definitely picking them up.
A few things that didn't make it into the review proper that I liked a lot:
- there's a really sweet f/f side-character couple!
- David's commentary on police/government corruption in Lagos even before the orisha arrived
- the line "Shit. I'm the fucking god of war now, dammit."
In short, this is definitely a novel worth picking up, particularly for fans of pantheon-based mythology and badass characters who can go toe-to-toe with gods. It's post-apocalyptic without being too terribly dark, which hits all the right notes for me. If you were a Percy Jackson kid, this book is for you! Same goes for fans of the "God of War" video game franchise or Hellboy (either the comics or the movies). Also, that cover art! It's by Yoshi Yoshitani and it's absolutely stunning.
** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. **
"War is blood, fire, and iron, and you are all three."
David Mogo lives in Lagos, Nigeria, a state now gripped by supernatural dangers that range from the mostly annoying godlings to full-blooded orisha: gods of legend with little affection for humankind. David is a demigod, although he doesn't know his divine mother; he uses his ability to sense godessence for small-time jobs like removing godling pests. When he takes a high-paying gig kidnapping a pair of gods for a powerful wizard, even being a demigod won't keep him safe.
For the most part, I enjoyed this novel. It's told in first-person present tense, which makes the action visceral, the threats immediate. David is a lightly voicy narrator whose observations of the world and the people around him are insightful and sometimes amusing. He's a demigod with mysterious powers who hunts orisha on a motorbike. What's not to love? Further, the narrative turns on themes of family, community, and peace versus power, chaos, and destruction, setting up for major late-story emotional impact.
The first act lays down a lot of interesting worldbuilding surrounding the magic system used by wizards like David's surrogate father, Papa Udi, and the charmcasting used by high gods. The magic is innovative, requiring ingredients based on qualities like scent, sound, and texture. In the second act, the pacing drops off as David gains allies in his fight against some of the hostile orisha. (However, would have liked to see more time spent on David undergoing training to use his godly powers, because his proficiency felt like it came on too suddenly.) The third act is my favorite part. The action/fight scenes are incredible, and I enjoyed how many female characters got a chance to shine toward the end.
David grows immensely as a character over the course of the book, which contributed greatly to how much I enjoyed his story. Not only did he become even stronger and more powerful, he developed emotional ties to augment his strength and allow him to become a valuable leader and a more well-rounded person. If there are sequels to this, I'm definitely picking them up.
A few things that didn't make it into the review proper that I liked a lot:
- there's a really sweet f/f side-character couple!
- David's commentary on police/government corruption in Lagos even before the orisha arrived
-
In short, this is definitely a novel worth picking up, particularly for fans of pantheon-based mythology and badass characters who can go toe-to-toe with gods. It's post-apocalyptic without being too terribly dark, which hits all the right notes for me. If you were a Percy Jackson kid, this book is for you! Same goes for fans of the "God of War" video game franchise or Hellboy (either the comics or the movies). Also, that cover art! It's by Yoshi Yoshitani and it's absolutely stunning.
** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. **
Three interlinked stories bring the action in a post-apocalyptic god-ridden Lagos
Im grateful that speculative Nigeria seems to be showing up on UK and US bookshelves - and on my personal TBR - more and more often. Not long after my experience with (the very different) The Half-God of Rainfall, Suyi Davies Okungbowa's debut brought me back to the world of Orisha and their dealings with mortals - and those whose identities lie somewhere between the two.
Speaking of things being in-between: Okungbowa's novel actually fits somewhere in the space between being a single story and a set of three interlinked novellas, and while I haven't tracked down its writing history, there's hints - particularly in the opening of the third section - that it was written as the latter before becoming a novel. Normally main characters don't feel the need to reintroduce themselves to the audience at a novel's two-thirds mark, is all I'm saying. It lends itself to an unorthodox tension structure, with three distinct climaxes, but weirdness and very occasional repetition aside, it works well as a single volume, largely due to the driving force of the main character's development, which definitely benefits from being told in a single narrative, regardless of the episodic nature of what happens around it.
That main character, it will not surprise you to hear, is David Mogo, Godhunter. David lives in a version of Lagos which has been subjected to the Falling: a war which has caused thousands of Orisha to rain down on the city and take up residence. A half-god himself, David was abandoned by his mother and raised by a foster-father who also happens to be a wizard, wielding magical talents which David's divinity keeps him from using in the same way. Instead, when we meet David he's trying to throw himself into a bounty hunting existence with as much amoral abandon as possible, taking on a job from far more shady wizard Ajala for "roof money" while trying to suppress the sense that he should be acting with slightly more principle. Tasked with capturing twin gods for Ajala, David's job goes horribly wrong when the second twin, Kehinde lets him in on the realities of what his employer is trying to achieve, and he instead teams up with her, his foster-father and a teenage girl called Fatoumata to try and take him - and the Orisha Aganju, who might just have gotten them all into this mess in the first place - down. Parts two and three of the story skip ahead to deal with the fallout from those first events and to dive deeper into the world's mythological underpinnings while steadily increasing the stakes (and body counts) for each subsequent showdown.
Okungbowa's version of Lagos is positively post-apocalyptic and it feels like there's a lot of horror influence in how most of the city's supernatural creatures behave: a lot of mindless minion-creatures and supernatural experiments which lead to zombie-like offensives with super high body counts and the constant threat of the heroes being overwhelmed. As the threats mount, so David and his allies end up travelling to more parts of this post-apocalyptic Lagos (which, as Okungbowa reminds us through David's narration, wasn't the most functional city to begin with), meeting absentee security forces, other gods both benevolent and antagonistic, and the folks still trying to live their lives in an increasingly unstable situation. Despite being generally well written, however, I sometimes found myself less engaged than I expected in some of the high action scenes, especially if I'd had to put down the book halfway through a "part" and then try and slot back in to the particular set of circumstances being faced. Because the tension structure is more of a "three stories in one" than a single novel, it feels like things can go from zero to one hundred very quickly (unnecessary character reintroductions notwithstanding), and with the goals and alliances regularly changing it can be hard to remember what everyone is trying to achieve at any given moment. No doubt readers who come at this as a "lazy weekend afternoon" book rather than a "half an hour at a time on the commute" book will have a different experience in that regard, but it did inhibit my enjoyment of plot elements I am already somewhat picky about.
Full review on Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2019/07/microreview-book-david-mogo-godhunter.html
Im grateful that speculative Nigeria seems to be showing up on UK and US bookshelves - and on my personal TBR - more and more often. Not long after my experience with (the very different) The Half-God of Rainfall, Suyi Davies Okungbowa's debut brought me back to the world of Orisha and their dealings with mortals - and those whose identities lie somewhere between the two.
Speaking of things being in-between: Okungbowa's novel actually fits somewhere in the space between being a single story and a set of three interlinked novellas, and while I haven't tracked down its writing history, there's hints - particularly in the opening of the third section - that it was written as the latter before becoming a novel. Normally main characters don't feel the need to reintroduce themselves to the audience at a novel's two-thirds mark, is all I'm saying. It lends itself to an unorthodox tension structure, with three distinct climaxes, but weirdness and very occasional repetition aside, it works well as a single volume, largely due to the driving force of the main character's development, which definitely benefits from being told in a single narrative, regardless of the episodic nature of what happens around it.
That main character, it will not surprise you to hear, is David Mogo, Godhunter. David lives in a version of Lagos which has been subjected to the Falling: a war which has caused thousands of Orisha to rain down on the city and take up residence. A half-god himself, David was abandoned by his mother and raised by a foster-father who also happens to be a wizard, wielding magical talents which David's divinity keeps him from using in the same way. Instead, when we meet David he's trying to throw himself into a bounty hunting existence with as much amoral abandon as possible, taking on a job from far more shady wizard Ajala for "roof money" while trying to suppress the sense that he should be acting with slightly more principle. Tasked with capturing twin gods for Ajala, David's job goes horribly wrong when the second twin, Kehinde lets him in on the realities of what his employer is trying to achieve, and he instead teams up with her, his foster-father and a teenage girl called Fatoumata to try and take him - and the Orisha Aganju, who might just have gotten them all into this mess in the first place - down. Parts two and three of the story skip ahead to deal with the fallout from those first events and to dive deeper into the world's mythological underpinnings while steadily increasing the stakes (and body counts) for each subsequent showdown.
Okungbowa's version of Lagos is positively post-apocalyptic and it feels like there's a lot of horror influence in how most of the city's supernatural creatures behave: a lot of mindless minion-creatures and supernatural experiments which lead to zombie-like offensives with super high body counts and the constant threat of the heroes being overwhelmed. As the threats mount, so David and his allies end up travelling to more parts of this post-apocalyptic Lagos (which, as Okungbowa reminds us through David's narration, wasn't the most functional city to begin with), meeting absentee security forces, other gods both benevolent and antagonistic, and the folks still trying to live their lives in an increasingly unstable situation. Despite being generally well written, however, I sometimes found myself less engaged than I expected in some of the high action scenes, especially if I'd had to put down the book halfway through a "part" and then try and slot back in to the particular set of circumstances being faced. Because the tension structure is more of a "three stories in one" than a single novel, it feels like things can go from zero to one hundred very quickly (unnecessary character reintroductions notwithstanding), and with the goals and alliances regularly changing it can be hard to remember what everyone is trying to achieve at any given moment. No doubt readers who come at this as a "lazy weekend afternoon" book rather than a "half an hour at a time on the commute" book will have a different experience in that regard, but it did inhibit my enjoyment of plot elements I am already somewhat picky about.
Full review on Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2019/07/microreview-book-david-mogo-godhunter.html
Ones creators does not hold supreme power over the created: such is the freedom of being...
I am not completely sure about my feelings about this book on one hand it is a post apocalyptic urban fantasy set in Nigeria. The premise is a solid one and I quite enjoyed it, the Orisha's (gods of the Yoruba Pantheon) fell to earth and they brought destruction with them.
We follow our protagonist David Mogo who is a demigod and hunt the gods hence the name god hunter. the world building is also very interesting.
The problem comes with the execution of this book,the authors descriptions are very short and this type of storytelling is better when adapted into a movie sort of thing rather than a novel.
I did not care for any of the characters and even for a while I thought our protagonist was a young adult only to discover later that he was close to 30 years old I swear from the narrative voice you couldn't tell.
The side characters felt very fake, in that they were there to solve issues for the protagonist rather than help him solve the problems. I also didn't like that they 'healed' a character who in the beginning had a disability but by the end she was healed by divine power.
The motivations of everyone were very vague and didn't even make sense for them to make big decisions with such motivations and lets not even talk about the caricature like villains.
Anyway it was a good idea it just could have done better with a whole lot of other changes. I will still definitely read other works by him.
I am not completely sure about my feelings about this book on one hand it is a post apocalyptic urban fantasy set in Nigeria. The premise is a solid one and I quite enjoyed it, the Orisha's (gods of the Yoruba Pantheon) fell to earth and they brought destruction with them.
We follow our protagonist David Mogo who is a demigod and hunt the gods hence the name god hunter. the world building is also very interesting.
The problem comes with the execution of this book,the authors descriptions are very short and this type of storytelling is better when adapted into a movie sort of thing rather than a novel.
I did not care for any of the characters and even for a while I thought our protagonist was a young adult only to discover later that he was close to 30 years old I swear from the narrative voice you couldn't tell.
The side characters felt very fake, in that they were there to solve issues for the protagonist rather than help him solve the problems. I also didn't like that they 'healed' a character who in the beginning had a disability but by the end she was healed by divine power.
The motivations of everyone were very vague and didn't even make sense for them to make big decisions with such motivations and lets not even talk about the caricature like villains.
Anyway it was a good idea it just could have done better with a whole lot of other changes. I will still definitely read other works by him.
Absolutely genius idea--the gods have come to Lagos and they aren't very nice. David Mogo is a half orisha half human godhunter, who starts off trying to deal with the weird godling creatures that infest the city, and ends up getting into a full blown war.
The worldbuilding, steeped in both Nigerian and other African myth and in Lagos itself, is fantastic and the dialogue in particular terrifically vivid. I love the different gods, and the way David's found family grows around him. I kind of wanted more of the personal side, since David is very isolated, but he's isolated because he's a demigod so this is what it's about.
The plot is a pretty uncomplicated throughline--David takes on gods of increasing power, discovering hs own--although that's not obvious for much of the book because the worldbuilding is so wonderfully dense and chewy. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to what the author does next. (Publisher needs to do a significantly better job on proofreading though.)
The worldbuilding, steeped in both Nigerian and other African myth and in Lagos itself, is fantastic and the dialogue in particular terrifically vivid. I love the different gods, and the way David's found family grows around him. I kind of wanted more of the personal side, since David is very isolated, but he's isolated because he's a demigod so this is what it's about.
The plot is a pretty uncomplicated throughline--David takes on gods of increasing power, discovering hs own--although that's not obvious for much of the book because the worldbuilding is so wonderfully dense and chewy. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to what the author does next. (Publisher needs to do a significantly better job on proofreading though.)