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A review by llmacrae
The Broken God by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
4.0
This is… a different review than I thought I would be writing. For 3/4 of the novel this was an easy 5 star. I ADORED The Gutter Prayer. It is one of my favourite reads of all time. The second book I was less enamoured with. But this one seemed a return to form and I really enjoyed the new situations.
It had been quite a while since reading book 2, though, so my memory of certain details was somewhat fuzzy, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. We have Cari as a main POV character again (YAY!) outside the infamous city of Guerdon (also YAY!), and her chapters were brilliant. Like settling down under a warm blanket.
I mean, she goes through hell, of course. There are unspeakable terrors out there and she faces them all with gusto.
The Godswar is still very much going on. There are saints and miracles and destruction everywhere (this is NOT a world I ever want to visit), and the vividness of these are beyond incredible.
The new POVs we have are back in the city - Rasce and Baston. For the most part, I enjoyed Rasce’s chapters. He is chosen of the dragon (oh yes, did I mention we have dragons featuring prominently in this book!?), a sort of arrogant prince. I won’t go into details due to spoilers, but he makes a connection with Spar (another character I love), and those parts of the book were some of my favourites. The descriptions of a mind unravelling, genuinely lost in thought, were absolutely brilliant. I get goosebumps even now just thinking about them.
Baston was a kind of…neutral party? He’s mostly on his own side. Until he isn’t. He was okay. I didn’t love him, I didn’t hate him. He was just kind of… there, doing stuff for Rasce. I’m still not entirely sure why he does some of the things he does, and this is why I’m giving this four instead of five stars.
The about-turns of characters seems… very abrupt. And confusing? Perhaps it’s me, missing something in the text, but in the last quarter of the book or so, certainly in the final 100/150 pages, all the characters seem to behave in ways that are unexpected? It felt almost like they were just making these random changes to be in certain places for various plot stuff to happen.
Even Lord Rat, whose appearance I loved, was treated in a similar way.
I’m not sure whether there will be four or five books in this series. I will read the next one and I am looking forward to it, but I am a little more tentative.
Still a very enjoyable read. The prose is hauntingly beautiful and twisted in equal measure. There are horrors in these pages, undeniably so. But they are fed by an incredible story with excellent world building and characters. I do recommend this series!
It had been quite a while since reading book 2, though, so my memory of certain details was somewhat fuzzy, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. We have Cari as a main POV character again (YAY!) outside the infamous city of Guerdon (also YAY!), and her chapters were brilliant. Like settling down under a warm blanket.
I mean, she goes through hell, of course. There are unspeakable terrors out there and she faces them all with gusto.
The Godswar is still very much going on. There are saints and miracles and destruction everywhere (this is NOT a world I ever want to visit), and the vividness of these are beyond incredible.
The new POVs we have are back in the city - Rasce and Baston. For the most part, I enjoyed Rasce’s chapters. He is chosen of the dragon (oh yes, did I mention we have dragons featuring prominently in this book!?), a sort of arrogant prince. I won’t go into details due to spoilers, but he makes a connection with Spar (another character I love), and those parts of the book were some of my favourites. The descriptions of a mind unravelling, genuinely lost in thought, were absolutely brilliant. I get goosebumps even now just thinking about them.
Baston was a kind of…neutral party? He’s mostly on his own side. Until he isn’t. He was okay. I didn’t love him, I didn’t hate him. He was just kind of… there, doing stuff for Rasce. I’m still not entirely sure why he does some of the things he does, and this is why I’m giving this four instead of five stars.
The about-turns of characters seems… very abrupt. And confusing? Perhaps it’s me, missing something in the text, but in the last quarter of the book or so, certainly in the final 100/150 pages, all the characters seem to behave in ways that are unexpected? It felt almost like they were just making these random changes to be in certain places for various plot stuff to happen.
Even Lord Rat, whose appearance I loved, was treated in a similar way.
I’m not sure whether there will be four or five books in this series. I will read the next one and I am looking forward to it, but I am a little more tentative.
Still a very enjoyable read. The prose is hauntingly beautiful and twisted in equal measure. There are horrors in these pages, undeniably so. But they are fed by an incredible story with excellent world building and characters. I do recommend this series!