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cmadler 's review for:
Age of Myth
by Michael J. Sullivan
Since time immemorial, humans have worshipped the gods they call Fhrey, truly a race apart: invincible in battle, masters of magic, and seemingly immortal. But when a god falls to a human blade, the balance of power between men and those they thought were gods changes forever. Now, only a few stand between humankind and annihilation: Raithe, reluctant to embrace his destiny as the God Killer, Suri, a young seer burdened by signs of impending doom, and Persephone, who must overcome personal tragedy to lead her people. The Age of Myth is over; the time of rebellion has begun.
The first novel of a six-book fantasy series by Michael Sullivan, Age of Myth begins with a man killing a god – or rather, a “god”, one of a race called the Fhrey. The book then shifts between the story of the “God Killer”, the political machinations set in motion by the death, and the villagers of the town where they’ll all eventually collide.
One issue I had with this book what that it took quite a while to figure out who was who, and to keep the humans and Fhrey straight. Rather than taking time to thoroughly introduce each character and setting before adding another, the book jumps from location to location rapidly right from the beginning, and because of that it took me a while to really get into it. That said, this book is set in the same world as other series Sullivan has written, and it’s possible that it would have made sense sooner if I had read any of those. Certainly once I started to get a sense of the characters, somewhere around chapter 7, I really enjoyed this book.
My other complaint about Age of Myth is that many of the characters lack depth; for the most part, the characters are one-dimensional. This is fine for minor characters, but the pro- and antagonists ought to have a little more complexity than this to really make it interesting.
Overall I found this a moderately enjoyable book. I might read the next book in this series, but it would have to show improvement for me to keep going beyond that; I didn’t get enough out of this novel to make me think I’d want to read the entire six-volume series.
**I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.