Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by shilohskye
God of Fire by Ryan Campbell
5.0
I'll have you know, I finished this book series last night, and I only cried for 20 minutes.
As I said in my overly dramatic review of The Forest Gods, the gay subtext in these books hits hard. God of Fire takes that to another level, and even had the time to introduce new themes and messages to make things all the more impactful. But unlike The Forest Gods, this is the last book in the series. Things actually get wrapped up this time, and there's closure to be had. That helps somewhat with the emotional anxiety these books seem intent on ravaging me with.
Doto and Clay are such a shockingly relatable couple at this point in their journey, that it makes what they go through in this book all the more crushing. There's a maturity to how their relationship is depicted that I think only people in committed relationships will truly resonate with. That, for me, was the star attraction of this book. The graduation from a young, tumultuous love to grown-up, tumultuous commitment here is stellar. I cannot stress that enough. Their relationship really has evolved brilliantly over the course of the trilogy.
The use of subplots to commentate on religious and societal faults and fallacies is also a highlight. Cloud's journey to Bogana, and Mirage's struggle with his past actions may seem unnecessarilly long to some, but I found them very effective at portraying the stakes of the disorder amongst the gods, and in representing the extreme danger that absolute certainty in one's faith and prejudices can bring. Plus you can't really have a story with heavy gay subtext without also including how downright unstable and threatening much of human society is.
I'd also like to point out how hard Zhivago went on the art for this book. The cover, first of all, is absolutely gorgeous. The best in the series, in my opinion. But there are a few images in the book itself that I desperately want prints for. The image of Clay and Doto just chilling in their sanctuary was especially beautiful. The one of Doto and Clay in the swamp gave me oh so many feelings.
But what really got me about this book was the fragility of everything bright and beautiful in it. And more importantly, how that relates to the real world. Let's face it, a lot of the things that allow Doto and Clay's relationship to survive, and a lot of the things that allow the people of the Savannah to survive, come down to the absolute wire. There are so many points at which everything good could have fallen completely apart in this story. That makes it all the more heartwrenching. In the real world, high stakes situations don't work out like this. The Dotos and Clays of our world burn. The people of the Savannah in our world are sacrificed. So, this book sort of makes real life feel incredibly tragic to me. It's unrealistic. Idealistic. And that may be a criticism for many. But I think it's what makes stories like this important and effective. They highlight things in the real world that crush good stories and happy endings. This book says "look how good our story could be if we just accepted our uncertainties, valued hope more than faith, and committed to empathy instead of violence". To me, that's what makes this story so emotionally tumultuous. It speaks to a deep yearning for a stable and accepting world where love is allowed to flourish and happy endings aren't so often extinguished.
Clearly, it's been a wild and emotional ride for me. I've never had a book rock me to the core like these books have. I didn't expect this level of quality when I started reading, but here I am utterly blown away.
As I said in my review of The Forest Gods, the author deserves a feather.
As I said in my overly dramatic review of The Forest Gods, the gay subtext in these books hits hard. God of Fire takes that to another level, and even had the time to introduce new themes and messages to make things all the more impactful. But unlike The Forest Gods, this is the last book in the series. Things actually get wrapped up this time, and there's closure to be had. That helps somewhat with the emotional anxiety these books seem intent on ravaging me with.
Doto and Clay are such a shockingly relatable couple at this point in their journey, that it makes what they go through in this book all the more crushing. There's a maturity to how their relationship is depicted that I think only people in committed relationships will truly resonate with. That, for me, was the star attraction of this book. The graduation from a young, tumultuous love to grown-up, tumultuous commitment here is stellar. I cannot stress that enough. Their relationship really has evolved brilliantly over the course of the trilogy.
The use of subplots to commentate on religious and societal faults and fallacies is also a highlight. Cloud's journey to Bogana, and Mirage's struggle with his past actions may seem unnecessarilly long to some, but I found them very effective at portraying the stakes of the disorder amongst the gods, and in representing the extreme danger that absolute certainty in one's faith and prejudices can bring. Plus you can't really have a story with heavy gay subtext without also including how downright unstable and threatening much of human society is.
I'd also like to point out how hard Zhivago went on the art for this book. The cover, first of all, is absolutely gorgeous. The best in the series, in my opinion. But there are a few images in the book itself that I desperately want prints for. The image of Clay and Doto just chilling in their sanctuary was especially beautiful. The one of Doto and Clay in the swamp gave me oh so many feelings.
But what really got me about this book was the fragility of everything bright and beautiful in it. And more importantly, how that relates to the real world. Let's face it, a lot of the things that allow Doto and Clay's relationship to survive, and a lot of the things that allow the people of the Savannah to survive, come down to the absolute wire. There are so many points at which everything good could have fallen completely apart in this story. That makes it all the more heartwrenching. In the real world, high stakes situations don't work out like this. The Dotos and Clays of our world burn. The people of the Savannah in our world are sacrificed. So, this book sort of makes real life feel incredibly tragic to me. It's unrealistic. Idealistic. And that may be a criticism for many. But I think it's what makes stories like this important and effective. They highlight things in the real world that crush good stories and happy endings. This book says "look how good our story could be if we just accepted our uncertainties, valued hope more than faith, and committed to empathy instead of violence". To me, that's what makes this story so emotionally tumultuous. It speaks to a deep yearning for a stable and accepting world where love is allowed to flourish and happy endings aren't so often extinguished.
Clearly, it's been a wild and emotional ride for me. I've never had a book rock me to the core like these books have. I didn't expect this level of quality when I started reading, but here I am utterly blown away.
As I said in my review of The Forest Gods, the author deserves a feather.