The Gods Below

July 8, 2024
Stewart (The Bone Shard Daughter) explores how blood ties can strain against the ties of friendship in this stirring first volume of a new epic fantasy trilogy about sisters separated by divine intervention. Hakara and Rasha, orphans fleeing the god Kluehnn’s “restoration,” a process that alters or vanishes half the human population, wind up on different sides of a magic barrier. Hakara spends the next 10 years exploiting her sensitivity to magic to earn passage back to her sister. Meanwhile Rasha, who has been transmuted by restoration, adopts Kluehnn as her patron and trains to become one of his special agents, known as godkillers. Politics complicate their separate plans as human rulers plot to forestall restoration and the other gods work to stay hidden from Kluehnn’s agents. While the duplicity of Kluehnn is never in doubt, Stewart maintains a good balance between the sisters and their competing goals, creating a fascinating level of moral ambiguity so that readers will feel that each character is justified in making her choices. This promises good things for the series to come. Agent: Juliet Mushens, Mushens Entertainment.

July 26, 2024

A war between gods has left the world and its occupants in ruins. To ensure its survival, humanity has made a pact with the god Kluehnn for restoration--but the cost may be too great to bear. As Kluehnn magically terraforms the lands, the people are transformed into strange and sometimes monstrous beings, if they even survive. Hakara and her younger sister Rasha, like many others, flee to the borders of a neighboring kingdom to escape, but a tragic separation leaves Hakara across the border and Rasha abandoned to her fate. Forced to work as a miner to uncover gems for Kluehnn, Hakara discovers she can use the magic within them and falls in with rebels determined to destroy the God Pact formed long ago. The revelations do not stop: Rasha is alive, transformed and fighting for Kluehnn's god killers. Can sisters on the opposite sides of a war find their way back to each other? VERDICT In this series launch full of rich worldbuilding and invested characters, Stewart (The Bone Shard War) creates a story of families broken and reformed, magic, and the capriciousness of gods.--Kristi Chadwick

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
When the world was scorched from centuries of misuse, a mortal named Tolemne went to the underworld and begged the gods to intervene. Only one said yes. Kluehnn would restore the world, but in exchange, mortals would help him rid the world of all other gods. More than 500 years later, the black, churning wall of Restoration is speeding towards sisters Hakara and Rasha. As it spreads, it will remake half the population--and sacrifice the rest. This awe-inspiring fantasy-trilogy starter is everything fans of high fantasy have been looking for. Its characters are compelling, its world is vivid, new, and visceral. Reminiscent of N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy, Stewart's new series (after The Bone Shard War, 2023) features a world powered by terrifying yet fascinating forces, from the unbreathable aether border that rings each realm to the mysterious gems that sinkhole miners risk their lives to obtain for Kluehnn. But while Godkillers and Unanointed clash and battle at unimaginable scales, the plot is driven by its characters, from brooding, winged Thassir, who will do anything to protect his stray cats, to talkative, impulsive Hakara, who will do anything to get her little sister back at her side.

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September 1, 2024
The first installment of Stewart's Hollow Covenant trilogy is set in a fantasy world where humans have destroyed the planet's sustainability--and magic--and feuding gods do battle to restore the world. After humans selfishly consume much of the magic on the planet, the Shattering changes everyone who lives in its various realms. Kluehnn--who called himself the "one true god"--makes a pact with his followers after hunting down and killing most of the other deities. He will systematically restore each realm back to its pristine environmental state, but half the population will be "altered to suit the new landscape." The other half will be destroyed, their matter used to reshape the terrain. As the country of Kashan is being forcibly restored by a relentless black wall sweeping over the land, chaos ensues as people attempt to escape. Fifteen-year-old Hakara desperately tries to save herself and her little sister, Rasha, but they are separated in the turmoil. Hakara awakes safely in the neighboring realm, but her sister's fate is unknown. An environmental cautionary tale blended with an impressively intricate fantasy backstory, the premise here is strong, as are the multiple intertwining storylines exploring a diversity of perspectives. The problem is with the major plot thread revolving around the two sisters' search for one another--particularly Hakara's obsession with crossing the barrier to the transformed Kashan to find Rasha, who may be dead or altered. The intensity is initially high, but it loses power quickly as secondary characters and storylines take over. Compared to fully realized and impressively complex characters like Thassir, an emotionally scarred god in disguise; Mullayne, an explorer in search of Unterra, the mythical subterranean home of the gods before the Shattering; and the courageous Sheuan Sim, who must use her wits and savvy to survive an impossible situation that puts her entire clan at risk, the sisters are unremarkable. Intriguing worldbuilding can't compensate for two-dimensional lead characters and a lackluster primary storyline.

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