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yandu 's review for:

The God Is Not Willing by Steven Erikson
5.0
adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

One of the most believable & relevant fantasy scenarios driving the events of the book & the motives of its characters I've ever read. 

This is a story about climate change. About imperialism, colonization, & native peoples. About growth, change, and consequences, told from an individual & humanist perspective. All woven together with threads of empathy and compassion.

It isn't a book that asks you to ignore or forgive the atrocities of its characters, but to understand the systems that led people to violence & conflict. To see the people within those systems as people. It's challenge then, is to at once view the character's actions relativistically & individually. It doesn't tell you what to think, but presents a conflict within which you can ascribe your own meaning to. It's up to you as a reader to judge or not, to condone or reject, and all throughout view the characters as people of value who are operating within a broader system pushed by currents they don't control.