Against All Gods: The Age of Bronze: Book 1

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The gods here are very much in the Greek mold and -- as the title suggests -- a major part of the plot. He had to tell you about their voluptuous bodies, their big breasts, their dark eyes luring some poor man in. Despite his previous work, Cameron is not just doing a riff on the Greek Bronze Age, there are hints of Mesopotamia, Anatolia/Syria, and Egypt here. And so it goes, with energy, surprises, casual brutality but also redemption and retribution, as the heroes from the first part unite to depose the gods, or at least that's what they think they want and are meant to do; but of course, things are not as simple.

For me, every book begins with the characters, and the characters in this book were absolutely fabulous. The individual strands of woven deftly together by the end of the book and seeing our fellowship assembled and proceeding with their task will be a major draw for the sequel.I sure nobody would appreciate my going through the book and pointing out parallels with real world bronze age cultures and I have given enough to convey my impression of the world, I think. Against All Gods is a distinctive and powerful read that takes multiple fantastic characters on an epic adventure through a great new fantasy landscape. It’s nothing like The Traitor Son Cycle, with its chivalric romance story, which makes it stand out even more. There were times in the book where I was a little unsure just what was happening, but by the end I was hooked. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

In his dreams a blue woman brought him bolts of silver lightning, and he gave them to the most unsuitable people: a slave with a bull's head tattoo, a dancing woman; a warrior; a scribe, but most of all a smith and his apprentice.I cannot say that any is entirely likeable (though I do love Druku), but all are fascinating, right from the opening scene in ‘Heaven’ where the gods dwell, and we witness the wrath of the Storm-God upon his not-so-competent subjects. Cameron has drawn from a number of the mythologies present in our own history, but the pantheon he has created is entirely unique, and each deity bursts with character. The setting is an interesting melange of historical cultures, literary tropes, and genre influences (there is even some Lovecraftian in the mix) and is populated by interesting characters. And these are the ‘New Gods’ who, a thousand years before, overthrew the ‘Old Gods’ in a great and violent war. Gamash turns to a mysterious blacksmith and his apprentices for aid, to fashion weapons made of a substance that can possibly slay a god.