Status
Available
Call number
Description
Nyx had already been to hell. One prayer more or less wouldn't make any difference... On a ravaged, contaminated world, a centuries-old holy war rages, fought by a bloody mix of mercenaries, magicians, and conscripted soldiers. Though the origins of the war are shady and complex, there's one thing everybody agrees on-- There's not a chance in hell of ending it. Nyx is a former government assassin who makes a living cutting off heads for cash. But when a dubious deal between her government and an alien gene pirate goes bad, Nyx's ugly past makes her the top pick for a covert recovery. The head they want her to bring home could end the war--but at what price? The world is about to find out.
Pages
288
DDC/MDS
| 813.6 |
Language
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 2011)
Locus Award (Finalist — First Novel — 2012)
Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2012)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 2014)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2013)
Series
User reviews
LibraryThing member nnschiller
I really liked this book. I liked it so much I don't really trust my review of it, because I'm well aware that I'm blind to the book's flaws.
I'm especially fond of the character Nyx. She is balanced in a place that I find absolutely fascinating. She's not a complete femme fatale a la Linda
This innate stubbornness and unwillingness to accept her limitations is key to who she is. It has its best expression in her relationship with Rhys. Rhys is another character worth his weight in gold. He's a coward and plays the kind of role usually relegated to the pretty girl in a boy's adventure story. He's pretty and smart, but a little delicate and not quite strong enough to get by on his own, so he needs someone like Nyx to look out for him. I really liked reading how Hurley wrote him. In this classic reversal of gender roles, she writes the "princess" character better than all those boys writing their rescue fantasies.
The plot was also good, and I enjoyed the film noire type twists and turns at the end, but what really sold me on this book and the Bel Dame Apocrypha in general was the characters of Nyx and Rhys and how they move around each other in the world.
I'm especially fond of the character Nyx. She is balanced in a place that I find absolutely fascinating. She's not a complete femme fatale a la Linda
Show More
Fiorentino's Wendy Kroy in The Last Seduction, but she isn't female hero in the mold of Buffy Summers or Sookie Stackhouse who balances her strength with her vulnerability. Nyx operates only from a position of strength and refuses to acknowledge her own weakness and vulnerabilities. What makes this particular character so fascinating is that she still *has* weaknesses and vulnerabilities and the flaws in her approach are apparent. Nyx is aware of her limitations, but is just too stubborn to give up. She is who she is This innate stubbornness and unwillingness to accept her limitations is key to who she is. It has its best expression in her relationship with Rhys. Rhys is another character worth his weight in gold. He's a coward and plays the kind of role usually relegated to the pretty girl in a boy's adventure story. He's pretty and smart, but a little delicate and not quite strong enough to get by on his own, so he needs someone like Nyx to look out for him. I really liked reading how Hurley wrote him. In this classic reversal of gender roles, she writes the "princess" character better than all those boys writing their rescue fantasies.
The plot was also good, and I enjoyed the film noire type twists and turns at the end, but what really sold me on this book and the Bel Dame Apocrypha in general was the characters of Nyx and Rhys and how they move around each other in the world.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TadAD
Remember those popsicle stick bombs you made as a kid? Five sticks held together by pressure? They were kind of interesting for a couple of minutes then, inevitably, they flew apart under their own tensions and became just popsicle sticks. Yeah, that's the way I felt about this book: it was kind of
The premise goes something like the following. On the planet Umayma, two particular Muslim factions are locked in a war that has raged for centuries. Every single male must fight until age 40 or dead (almost always the latter), or be executed. Women run everything, including the war and the execution part. Our main character, Nyx, is a former government assassin whose job was to execute deserters. She has left the service under a bit of a cloud when she gets sucked into a big conspiracy. Her skills are a bit less than she might like and her luck is atrocious, so things go wrong. So far, so good.
However, we also have the planet mutating humans (for reasons that are not fully explained) into "shapeshifters" and "magicians". The former are pretty typical lycanthropes without the whole moon thing. The second are able to control the insect life native to the world via what the book implies is pheromone emission (except that it doesn't seem to be that). And the insects in the world—either naturally or through human intervention, the story is not clear—can do pretty much everything from communicate via radio waves, to acting as remote viewing devices, to powering a car. Hmmmm.
Now throw in biological and chemical sciences so far in advance of what we know today that new viral attacks are whipped up routinely and lobbed at the enemy...with countering immunizations following almost as quickly. However, despite space travel, the physical sciences are somewhat retarded so that nuclear attacks, or even things like rail guns, don't figure into the story.
Stir in some teleportation devices (mentioned but not explained or exploited, either by the story or the war), a big thing about organ bootlegging, breeding farms for producing more men, an inter-stellar conspiracy, some racial genocide, huge quantities of sexual politics, and the kitchen sink...wait, I'm kidding about the last...and you have an idea of what Hurley has attempted.
It's too much for 288 pages. After a while, you move beyond the fact that she has some real abilities at world-building and realize that she bit off way too much. In other words, it flies apart.
It's unfortunate because Hurley is one of the more inventive world-builders I've encountered in a while. And the one or two characters she takes the time to develop grow on you. And her prose is edgy and exciting. And she's fearless about tackling gender, racial and social issues in her incredibly dark, grim and violent world. I haven't made up my mind whether I'll continue on to the sequel, Infidel. I guess I'll wait until the numbness in my brain fades to decide.
Show More
interesting but it flew apart from its own tension.The premise goes something like the following. On the planet Umayma, two particular Muslim factions are locked in a war that has raged for centuries. Every single male must fight until age 40 or dead (almost always the latter), or be executed. Women run everything, including the war and the execution part. Our main character, Nyx, is a former government assassin whose job was to execute deserters. She has left the service under a bit of a cloud when she gets sucked into a big conspiracy. Her skills are a bit less than she might like and her luck is atrocious, so things go wrong. So far, so good.
However, we also have the planet mutating humans (for reasons that are not fully explained) into "shapeshifters" and "magicians". The former are pretty typical lycanthropes without the whole moon thing. The second are able to control the insect life native to the world via what the book implies is pheromone emission (except that it doesn't seem to be that). And the insects in the world—either naturally or through human intervention, the story is not clear—can do pretty much everything from communicate via radio waves, to acting as remote viewing devices, to powering a car. Hmmmm.
Now throw in biological and chemical sciences so far in advance of what we know today that new viral attacks are whipped up routinely and lobbed at the enemy...with countering immunizations following almost as quickly. However, despite space travel, the physical sciences are somewhat retarded so that nuclear attacks, or even things like rail guns, don't figure into the story.
Stir in some teleportation devices (mentioned but not explained or exploited, either by the story or the war), a big thing about organ bootlegging, breeding farms for producing more men, an inter-stellar conspiracy, some racial genocide, huge quantities of sexual politics, and the kitchen sink...wait, I'm kidding about the last...and you have an idea of what Hurley has attempted.
It's too much for 288 pages. After a while, you move beyond the fact that she has some real abilities at world-building and realize that she bit off way too much. In other words, it flies apart.
It's unfortunate because Hurley is one of the more inventive world-builders I've encountered in a while. And the one or two characters she takes the time to develop grow on you. And her prose is edgy and exciting. And she's fearless about tackling gender, racial and social issues in her incredibly dark, grim and violent world. I haven't made up my mind whether I'll continue on to the sequel, Infidel. I guess I'll wait until the numbness in my brain fades to decide.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Fence
War is hell. Especially on a planet torn up between warring religious countries. Nyx has done her time at the front, been a hero and had her body rebuilt. Then she joined the bel dame, government mercenary/bounty hunters to you and me. A sister-hood of the elite to them. But she has been doing
I really wanted to enjoy this book. It has so much going for it. First off, it is not your usual sci-fi war story. It isn’t set at the front, for one thing. War is the back-drop and makes everything all the more dangerous, but there are no battles here. Gun-fights and boxing matches, sure, even a bit of torture. But no all out battles. There is bug powered magic though. With wasps set to attack and bugs powering vehicles. That is pretty damn cool I’ll be the first to admit.
And it is set in a Muslim-esque future. Makes for a nice change from the usual.
Unfortunately it is a little bit too dark and gritty for me. I like to like at least one of the characters. Nyx has a lot going for her in terms of being an interesting woman, but she sure isn’t likeable. And the rest, well, many are supporting characters so we only get flashes and hints, I think I may have liked some of them if we’d had more time with them, but as it is, we didn’t.
It is a very interesting book though. All about how war messes you up, messes society up. Especially a religious war.
I also enjoyed the gender politics. Nasheen is dominated by women. Ruled by a queen and, almost as much, by its bel dames. The boys get drafted and sent off to the front. Few return. Their enemies, the Chenjen are male dominated. Although they likewise send their men off to fight, unless you are head of household that is.
Race, sexuality, religion; its all here, and so well done and believable.
But I need me some nice characters! And I didn’t get them, so I can’t love this book. I can like it, and find it interesting, and I can even recommend that you read it! But I can’t love it :) I will be totally reading the sequel, Infinity though.
Show More
black work for extra money and now her sisters are after her.I really wanted to enjoy this book. It has so much going for it. First off, it is not your usual sci-fi war story. It isn’t set at the front, for one thing. War is the back-drop and makes everything all the more dangerous, but there are no battles here. Gun-fights and boxing matches, sure, even a bit of torture. But no all out battles. There is bug powered magic though. With wasps set to attack and bugs powering vehicles. That is pretty damn cool I’ll be the first to admit.
And it is set in a Muslim-esque future. Makes for a nice change from the usual.
Unfortunately it is a little bit too dark and gritty for me. I like to like at least one of the characters. Nyx has a lot going for her in terms of being an interesting woman, but she sure isn’t likeable. And the rest, well, many are supporting characters so we only get flashes and hints, I think I may have liked some of them if we’d had more time with them, but as it is, we didn’t.
It is a very interesting book though. All about how war messes you up, messes society up. Especially a religious war.
I also enjoyed the gender politics. Nasheen is dominated by women. Ruled by a queen and, almost as much, by its bel dames. The boys get drafted and sent off to the front. Few return. Their enemies, the Chenjen are male dominated. Although they likewise send their men off to fight, unless you are head of household that is.
Race, sexuality, religion; its all here, and so well done and believable.
But I need me some nice characters! And I didn’t get them, so I can’t love this book. I can like it, and find it interesting, and I can even recommend that you read it! But I can’t love it :) I will be totally reading the sequel, Infinity though.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Dejah_Thoris
Kameron Hurley’s God’s War is probably not a book I would have picked up had it not been recently nominated for a Nebula Award. Even then, I probably wouldn’t have read it had I not seen that Nyx, the main character, was one of a group of government sanctioned female assassins known as the
Some science fiction and fantasy novels gently introduce you to their world, carefully explaining the magic systems and politics through semi plausible conversations and interactions. God’s War does not fall into this category. The reader is dumped into a complex world and explanations are not readily forthcoming. I’m usually a fast reader but I read this book, particularly the early parts, very slowly; I focused closely on each word, trying to grasp what was going on. There are hints that Nyx’s world was settled before it had been completely terraformed, the colonists forced to struggle in an inhospitable environment. In addition, a religious war between two nations which appear to follow variants on Islam, has been waged for centuries, long enough that most people no longer remember exactly why they’re fighting. Young men are, archaically put, cannon fodder, and relations between the genders have altered. In addition, some people on this world have acquired inherited traits like shapeshifting and magic. The former are disliked, despised or disenfranchised depending on what nation they’re in and the latter, employed. Technology and magic are centered around insects: bug tech. Insects swarm in this novel; it is not for anyone with a bug phobia.
This book is dark, violent and casually brutal. The characters are damaged and struggle, not only to survive, but to interact with others. I have a limited tolerance for dystopian fiction and do not enjoy reading about bleak worlds lives, so the fact that I not only finished God’s War but intended to read sequel, [Infidel] says a great deal about the skill with which I believe the author handled ugly subjects. This work is not going to be for everyone, but if it sounds at all interesting, it’s worth giving a try; it is incredibly well done.
Show More
bel dames. Once I saw that, I had to read it; I’m a sucker for poetry references.Some science fiction and fantasy novels gently introduce you to their world, carefully explaining the magic systems and politics through semi plausible conversations and interactions. God’s War does not fall into this category. The reader is dumped into a complex world and explanations are not readily forthcoming. I’m usually a fast reader but I read this book, particularly the early parts, very slowly; I focused closely on each word, trying to grasp what was going on. There are hints that Nyx’s world was settled before it had been completely terraformed, the colonists forced to struggle in an inhospitable environment. In addition, a religious war between two nations which appear to follow variants on Islam, has been waged for centuries, long enough that most people no longer remember exactly why they’re fighting. Young men are, archaically put, cannon fodder, and relations between the genders have altered. In addition, some people on this world have acquired inherited traits like shapeshifting and magic. The former are disliked, despised or disenfranchised depending on what nation they’re in and the latter, employed. Technology and magic are centered around insects: bug tech. Insects swarm in this novel; it is not for anyone with a bug phobia.
This book is dark, violent and casually brutal. The characters are damaged and struggle, not only to survive, but to interact with others. I have a limited tolerance for dystopian fiction and do not enjoy reading about bleak worlds lives, so the fact that I not only finished God’s War but intended to read sequel, [Infidel] says a great deal about the skill with which I believe the author handled ugly subjects. This work is not going to be for everyone, but if it sounds at all interesting, it’s worth giving a try; it is incredibly well done.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CourtneySchafer
Amazing worldbuilding and a truly kick-ass, take-no-prisoners female protagonist - if you like dark, brutal novels like Joe Abercrombie's (which I do!), go buy this book right now. It's an unflinching look at the terrible cost of war, and the difficult choices faced by those who struggle to break
Show More
free of their cultural expectations. Highly recommended to anyone who likes their sf edgy and thought-provoking. Show Less
LibraryThing member texascheeseman
God’s War
Author: Kameron Hurley
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published In: San Francisco, CA
Date: 2011
Pgs: 286
_________________________________________________
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Holy War, never ending, centuries long. A ravaged world contaminated to the point of being almost
_________________________________________________
Genre:
Adventure
Aliens
Androids
Apocalypse
Disaster
End of the World
Fiction
Pulp
Quirk
Science fiction
Space opera
War
Why this book:
A post-apocalypse assassin who has to hunt down an alien geneticist who the government wants dead. I’m in.
_________________________________________________
Favorite Character:
Nyxnissa reminds me of Aeon Flux in an even more f’ed up world. She can’t make up her mind about Rhys. What happens to her sister tears away one of her few humanizing characteristics. She does care about her team though. Nyx is so damned gruff. I want to like her. She is cold blooded. And oh so damaged. I may be in love. Her character comes across as having a plot hole in it during the middle portion of the book, but it closes nicely.
Rhys grows on you after you get through his, long winded, introduction as he joins Nyx’s team and grows into his own. Rhys is my favorite character. He’s got depth, or rather apparent depth. Could be a front or a put-on to allow him to survive the world he lives in.
Least Favorite Character:
Rasheeda. She’s a scenery chewer.
Character I Most Identified With:
The Feel:
2 pages in, main character has sold her womb and is walking the desert on some penance driven bounty hunt. Grim, dark, horrible, and beautifully written.
I like the feel of the story, but the every single stroke leads to a trap and everyone knows what they are up to gets old, worst covert action team in the history of covert action teams.
Favorite Scene / Quote:
Whenever there is a burst going off and they instinctively look up at it and wonder if it's the one that is going to kill them. Real Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads stuff there.
When Nyx gets jumped on the road to the coast as she’s going to check on her sister.
The sequence where Nyx has been taken by the bel dames in Chenja, when her team comes after her.
Didn’t even think about how families must react when boys are born in this matriarchal world, where boys are cannon fodder for the draft. Looks like it hits the team hard, this team of hardasses who are in over their heads, talk tough, and, then, get a soft edge when a baby boy is born. Really sad when taken in context.
Pacing:
Early parts of the book, the pace is slow. Very much, read a couple pages and break to consider what happened and the background. Page 100+ the pace picks up as they receive their assignment from the queen and set out across the border.
Hmm Moments:
Flesh magicians, organic vehicles that run on roaches, aliens fighting a Holy War, and a matriarchy where men are to be used up and cast aside.
Are the Mhorians another sect of humanity or are they alien shapeshifters? Not clear. So, the shifters aren’t aliens. They’re another subset of humanity that emigrated from the moons of Umayma. The “aliens” seem human too. The shifters and the magicians weren’t shifters and magicians before coming to Umayma. Wonder if the genetics plot that is bubbling under the surface here is another subset of humanity about to be brought into their holy war.
Rhys and Nyx appear to be circling closer to one another across a cultural veil that may be unpierceable. Does Nyx have feelings for Rhys, or is he a ghost to her, a ghost of the friend she couldn’t get across the borderline the last time a mission took her inside Chenja.
There is a bit of a sinking feeling running underneath the character interactions after they get their note from the queen and before they cross into Chenja. Nyx trying to convince herself that she can get all of her team back across the Chenja-Nasheen border is filling the text with foreboding. She’ll be permanently lost if she loses them, whether she managed to return to the bel dame after his or not.
What I perceived as an out-of-character stretch in the book came into much better focus.
Really didn’t expect there to be unexplored depth in “that” meathead character. An unexpected villain turn.
WTF Moments:
The bugs are everything motif is both awesome and oogie inducing.
Crossing Nyx leads to one opponent’s penis being cut off. Wow. Just wow.
Gave me a “No, don’t go you damned fool” moment. Very nice.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
If certain religious folk were to read this book and put two and two together, I wonder if they’d issue a fatwa or two based on the bastardized alien religion that exists in these pages.
Hope there isn’t betrayal in the wind for Nyx’s team.
Could every single move they make, maybe, not lead to a trap of some kind. Again, the worst covert ops team in the history of covert ops. They must show up in a city and it get broadcasted across the net or whatever passed for the net in their bug-tech world. Or maybe they’ve got words written all over their burnous that give away who they are and why they are there, but they can’t see the words and everyone else can.
I cared what happens to the characters, but there was a long stretch of no hope. Seemed that they were being piled on in an unrealistic fashion, everything that can go wrong, went wrong. Was afraid that the story was headed down a rabbit hole that only a deus ex machina could save it from. Thankfully, I was mistaken, but it was a hard section to read through.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Could be awesome. Afraid that regardless of how well it was done thought, that it would fall on the sword of nerdrage and social justice warrioring, and a bit of John Carter and Jupiter Rising and it wouldn’t matter how well the movie is. That looks like Islam, there goes part of the audience. That looks like Mad Max, there goes part of the audience. That’s not how men and women act, there goes part of the audience. Etc, etc, etc. Maybe I’m just getting cynical...lol, getting.
Casting call / Dreamcasting:
I keep trying to come up with an actress who could communicate Nyx’s gruff, cold blooded, and damaged psyche on film and i’m not finding anyone. Maybe Zoe Saldana. The character, at base, is similar to her character in Columbiana. Saldana has said she doesn’t want to do sci-fi and fire guns anymore. Hopefully, the interview where she said that was in error.
Chiwetel Ejiofor would be awesome as Rhys. But he’s too old and recently played a mage in Dr Strange anyway. Though Marvel movie magic and the bug magic of Hurley’s world don’t have anything in common with one another. Who would be a young Chiwetel? Maybe Don Glover. I could see Don Glover as Rhys. Maybe Wilson Jackson Harper who plays Chidi Anagonye.
Jason Momoa as Khos, the shape shifting Mhorian.
Devin Aoki as Anneke, Nyx’s second.
Would love to see David Twohy direct it. There is a bit of a Pitch Black feel here.
_________________________________________________
Last Page Sound:
Victory wrapped in tragedy. Finishing this on the day I saw Rogue One was a double dose of sadness.
Well done, despite the sky is falling aspects of the challenges that rained on the “hero” team. Not sure that hero is the right appellation for them.
Author Assessment:
Loved the story.
The Afterword held some gold. The author said that she “wrote most of this book during the year she was dying.” And the final quote of the book,
“Finally, many thanks to my long suffering parents...who told me...that they would be happy to encourage their dorky kid’s writing career, as long as I knew I’d always be poor.
Over the years, I found out that poverty wasn’t such a catastrophe. The real tragedy woudl have been dying before I’d ever published a book.
There are some things worth coming back for.”
I would read more from Kameron Hurley.
Editorial Assessment:
Editor should have challenged the unrelenting darkness chapters of the book where it seemed that there was no hope and the main characters were being outplayed at every single turn. Their being professionals, themselves, seems like they should have had more small, at least, victories along the road to the climax, win or lose.
Knee Jerk Reaction:
really good book
Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
South Campus
Irving, TX
Dewey Decimal System:
F
HUR
Would recommend to:
genre fans
_________________________________________________
Author: Kameron Hurley
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published In: San Francisco, CA
Date: 2011
Pgs: 286
_________________________________________________
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Holy War, never ending, centuries long. A ravaged world contaminated to the point of being almost
Show More
unlivable. Nyx is a former assassin. She walks the world between the warring sides. Her ugly past makes her the go-to person to collect the head of a alien pirate who got on the wrong side of the government. Her price, considering what this alien’s head represents, is going to be expensive, though not necessarily monetarily._________________________________________________
Genre:
Adventure
Aliens
Androids
Apocalypse
Disaster
End of the World
Fiction
Pulp
Quirk
Science fiction
Space opera
War
Why this book:
A post-apocalypse assassin who has to hunt down an alien geneticist who the government wants dead. I’m in.
_________________________________________________
Favorite Character:
Nyxnissa reminds me of Aeon Flux in an even more f’ed up world. She can’t make up her mind about Rhys. What happens to her sister tears away one of her few humanizing characteristics. She does care about her team though. Nyx is so damned gruff. I want to like her. She is cold blooded. And oh so damaged. I may be in love. Her character comes across as having a plot hole in it during the middle portion of the book, but it closes nicely.
Rhys grows on you after you get through his, long winded, introduction as he joins Nyx’s team and grows into his own. Rhys is my favorite character. He’s got depth, or rather apparent depth. Could be a front or a put-on to allow him to survive the world he lives in.
Least Favorite Character:
Rasheeda. She’s a scenery chewer.
Character I Most Identified With:
The Feel:
2 pages in, main character has sold her womb and is walking the desert on some penance driven bounty hunt. Grim, dark, horrible, and beautifully written.
I like the feel of the story, but the every single stroke leads to a trap and everyone knows what they are up to gets old, worst covert action team in the history of covert action teams.
Favorite Scene / Quote:
Whenever there is a burst going off and they instinctively look up at it and wonder if it's the one that is going to kill them. Real Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads stuff there.
When Nyx gets jumped on the road to the coast as she’s going to check on her sister.
The sequence where Nyx has been taken by the bel dames in Chenja, when her team comes after her.
Didn’t even think about how families must react when boys are born in this matriarchal world, where boys are cannon fodder for the draft. Looks like it hits the team hard, this team of hardasses who are in over their heads, talk tough, and, then, get a soft edge when a baby boy is born. Really sad when taken in context.
Pacing:
Early parts of the book, the pace is slow. Very much, read a couple pages and break to consider what happened and the background. Page 100+ the pace picks up as they receive their assignment from the queen and set out across the border.
Hmm Moments:
Flesh magicians, organic vehicles that run on roaches, aliens fighting a Holy War, and a matriarchy where men are to be used up and cast aside.
Are the Mhorians another sect of humanity or are they alien shapeshifters? Not clear. So, the shifters aren’t aliens. They’re another subset of humanity that emigrated from the moons of Umayma. The “aliens” seem human too. The shifters and the magicians weren’t shifters and magicians before coming to Umayma. Wonder if the genetics plot that is bubbling under the surface here is another subset of humanity about to be brought into their holy war.
Rhys and Nyx appear to be circling closer to one another across a cultural veil that may be unpierceable. Does Nyx have feelings for Rhys, or is he a ghost to her, a ghost of the friend she couldn’t get across the borderline the last time a mission took her inside Chenja.
There is a bit of a sinking feeling running underneath the character interactions after they get their note from the queen and before they cross into Chenja. Nyx trying to convince herself that she can get all of her team back across the Chenja-Nasheen border is filling the text with foreboding. She’ll be permanently lost if she loses them, whether she managed to return to the bel dame after his or not.
What I perceived as an out-of-character stretch in the book came into much better focus.
Really didn’t expect there to be unexplored depth in “that” meathead character. An unexpected villain turn.
WTF Moments:
The bugs are everything motif is both awesome and oogie inducing.
Crossing Nyx leads to one opponent’s penis being cut off. Wow. Just wow.
Gave me a “No, don’t go you damned fool” moment. Very nice.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
If certain religious folk were to read this book and put two and two together, I wonder if they’d issue a fatwa or two based on the bastardized alien religion that exists in these pages.
Hope there isn’t betrayal in the wind for Nyx’s team.
Could every single move they make, maybe, not lead to a trap of some kind. Again, the worst covert ops team in the history of covert ops. They must show up in a city and it get broadcasted across the net or whatever passed for the net in their bug-tech world. Or maybe they’ve got words written all over their burnous that give away who they are and why they are there, but they can’t see the words and everyone else can.
I cared what happens to the characters, but there was a long stretch of no hope. Seemed that they were being piled on in an unrealistic fashion, everything that can go wrong, went wrong. Was afraid that the story was headed down a rabbit hole that only a deus ex machina could save it from. Thankfully, I was mistaken, but it was a hard section to read through.
Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Could be awesome. Afraid that regardless of how well it was done thought, that it would fall on the sword of nerdrage and social justice warrioring, and a bit of John Carter and Jupiter Rising and it wouldn’t matter how well the movie is. That looks like Islam, there goes part of the audience. That looks like Mad Max, there goes part of the audience. That’s not how men and women act, there goes part of the audience. Etc, etc, etc. Maybe I’m just getting cynical...lol, getting.
Casting call / Dreamcasting:
I keep trying to come up with an actress who could communicate Nyx’s gruff, cold blooded, and damaged psyche on film and i’m not finding anyone. Maybe Zoe Saldana. The character, at base, is similar to her character in Columbiana. Saldana has said she doesn’t want to do sci-fi and fire guns anymore. Hopefully, the interview where she said that was in error.
Chiwetel Ejiofor would be awesome as Rhys. But he’s too old and recently played a mage in Dr Strange anyway. Though Marvel movie magic and the bug magic of Hurley’s world don’t have anything in common with one another. Who would be a young Chiwetel? Maybe Don Glover. I could see Don Glover as Rhys. Maybe Wilson Jackson Harper who plays Chidi Anagonye.
Jason Momoa as Khos, the shape shifting Mhorian.
Devin Aoki as Anneke, Nyx’s second.
Would love to see David Twohy direct it. There is a bit of a Pitch Black feel here.
_________________________________________________
Last Page Sound:
Victory wrapped in tragedy. Finishing this on the day I saw Rogue One was a double dose of sadness.
Well done, despite the sky is falling aspects of the challenges that rained on the “hero” team. Not sure that hero is the right appellation for them.
Author Assessment:
Loved the story.
The Afterword held some gold. The author said that she “wrote most of this book during the year she was dying.” And the final quote of the book,
“Finally, many thanks to my long suffering parents...who told me...that they would be happy to encourage their dorky kid’s writing career, as long as I knew I’d always be poor.
Over the years, I found out that poverty wasn’t such a catastrophe. The real tragedy woudl have been dying before I’d ever published a book.
There are some things worth coming back for.”
I would read more from Kameron Hurley.
Editorial Assessment:
Editor should have challenged the unrelenting darkness chapters of the book where it seemed that there was no hope and the main characters were being outplayed at every single turn. Their being professionals, themselves, seems like they should have had more small, at least, victories along the road to the climax, win or lose.
Knee Jerk Reaction:
really good book
Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
South Campus
Irving, TX
Dewey Decimal System:
F
HUR
Would recommend to:
genre fans
_________________________________________________
Show Less
LibraryThing member pwaites
Opening line: “Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert.”
I really liked this one, but a few issues hold it back from being a four star or higher book.
The planet of Umayma has been settled for roughly three thousand years. For the last few centuries, it
Nyx is a former bel dame, a government assassin who takes the heads off deserters. She is mostly focused on her own survival, but when aliens come to Umayma claiming to be able to end the war, Nyx becomes wrapped up in something she never expected.
I loved the setting and world building. Umayma is a hostile planet, full of harsh sunlight and strange diseases. Its residents regularly have to get cancer scraped off, and replacing body parts is a matter of course. The planet was originally settled by Muslim colonists as a haven to practice their faith, and three thousand years later Islam still has a large impact upon the world.
Centuries of holy war have also shaped the world. The country Nyx hails from has become a matriarchy, since there’s hardly any men around given that the vast majority are forced to the war front. God’s War uses the constant warfare to explore how both societies react and as part of its larger exploration of gender and sexuality (the protagonist, Nyx, is bisexual).
The technology is based of controlling insects, and the people with this talent are known as magicians. Besides the fact of its existence, this skill was not explained, and I wish that it could have been explored to a greater extent.
One of the strongest aspects of God’s War is its characters – they all feel like living breathing people, complete with character flaws. Nyx herself is a wonderful anti-heroine who’s making it onto my lists of all time favorite protagonists. She’s been through hell for duty and honor and now will only risk her life for cold hard cash.
“Nyx had wanted to be the hero of her own life. Things hadn’t turned out that way. Sometimes she thought maybe she could just be the hero of someone else’s life, but there was no one who cared enough about her to keep her that close. Hell, there was nobody she’d let that close. No one wanted a hero who couldn’t even save herself.”
While Nyx was the central character, other’s also had POV chapters. Rhys was the most significant of these. In many ways, he served as a foil for Nyx. While he had a tendency to be holier-than-thou, I liked him overall and found his POV interesting.
However, God’s War wasn’t simple to read. The world is radically different from our own (and often unexplained) and something about the writing doesn’t really facilitate an easy reading. I was constantly reading back over paragraphs and lines to make sure that I understood them. There was another section where I skimmed over a few times to try and figure out if a character was present.
The plot was also thin or confusing in places. I’m still not entirely sure what happened or how certain events were significant.
I would not recommend this for anyone unfamiliar with science fiction. You’ve got to have practice diving into a very different world and trying to pick up context clues to figure it out when it goes unexplained. I just can’t see someone who doesn’t read a lot of science fiction or fantasy having a good time with it.
On the other hand, if you’ve already got practice reading genre works, you may very well want to pick up God’s War. It’s got a brilliantly inventive setting and a diverse cast of well realized characters.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I really liked this one, but a few issues hold it back from being a four star or higher book.
The planet of Umayma has been settled for roughly three thousand years. For the last few centuries, it
Show More
has been consumed by a holy war between two of its countries. It’s an all consuming sort of war that sucks in the vast majority of young men through a mandatory draft and spits out bodies and scarred survivors.Nyx is a former bel dame, a government assassin who takes the heads off deserters. She is mostly focused on her own survival, but when aliens come to Umayma claiming to be able to end the war, Nyx becomes wrapped up in something she never expected.
I loved the setting and world building. Umayma is a hostile planet, full of harsh sunlight and strange diseases. Its residents regularly have to get cancer scraped off, and replacing body parts is a matter of course. The planet was originally settled by Muslim colonists as a haven to practice their faith, and three thousand years later Islam still has a large impact upon the world.
Centuries of holy war have also shaped the world. The country Nyx hails from has become a matriarchy, since there’s hardly any men around given that the vast majority are forced to the war front. God’s War uses the constant warfare to explore how both societies react and as part of its larger exploration of gender and sexuality (the protagonist, Nyx, is bisexual).
The technology is based of controlling insects, and the people with this talent are known as magicians. Besides the fact of its existence, this skill was not explained, and I wish that it could have been explored to a greater extent.
One of the strongest aspects of God’s War is its characters – they all feel like living breathing people, complete with character flaws. Nyx herself is a wonderful anti-heroine who’s making it onto my lists of all time favorite protagonists. She’s been through hell for duty and honor and now will only risk her life for cold hard cash.
“Nyx had wanted to be the hero of her own life. Things hadn’t turned out that way. Sometimes she thought maybe she could just be the hero of someone else’s life, but there was no one who cared enough about her to keep her that close. Hell, there was nobody she’d let that close. No one wanted a hero who couldn’t even save herself.”
While Nyx was the central character, other’s also had POV chapters. Rhys was the most significant of these. In many ways, he served as a foil for Nyx. While he had a tendency to be holier-than-thou, I liked him overall and found his POV interesting.
However, God’s War wasn’t simple to read. The world is radically different from our own (and often unexplained) and something about the writing doesn’t really facilitate an easy reading. I was constantly reading back over paragraphs and lines to make sure that I understood them. There was another section where I skimmed over a few times to try and figure out if a character was present.
The plot was also thin or confusing in places. I’m still not entirely sure what happened or how certain events were significant.
I would not recommend this for anyone unfamiliar with science fiction. You’ve got to have practice diving into a very different world and trying to pick up context clues to figure it out when it goes unexplained. I just can’t see someone who doesn’t read a lot of science fiction or fantasy having a good time with it.
On the other hand, if you’ve already got practice reading genre works, you may very well want to pick up God’s War. It’s got a brilliantly inventive setting and a diverse cast of well realized characters.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ladycato
This book first came to my attention as a Nebula nominee earlier this year and then was recently selected as a book club read. I found God's War to be completely different from my usual reads: aggressively dark, defying all genre conventions, and fascinating at every turn.
This is science fiction in
This use of bugs also lends itself to the incredible darkness of the book. Nyx collects heads for bounty. Death is everywhere. Torture is commonplace. The war is a nefarious, constant presence. There are points where it verges on horror, because the scenes are so gruesome and intense. Yet I kept reading. Why? I typically like my heroes and heroines as good guys. Nyx is not. She's terrifically complicated. Rhys--I loved Rhys, the God-fearing Chenyan with haphazard magical skills. The rest of the team is equally vivid and diverse. The plot is fast-paced, like a thriller, with threats at every turn. My curiosity about the world pulled me in, and the characters wouldn't let me go.
God's War is daring, dark, and amazing. I will definitely look for more by this author.
This is science fiction in
Show More
that it takes place off Earth, but on a world that was colonized 3,000 years before by Muslims. At this point, faiths have diverged amongst different nations, with some more conservative than others and many tenets of Islam recognizable in an evolved form. The fantasy element is that this is also a world with magic--bug-based magic. That's right. Magicians manipulate bugs to heal wounds, transmit poison, or even as an energy source for vehicles.This use of bugs also lends itself to the incredible darkness of the book. Nyx collects heads for bounty. Death is everywhere. Torture is commonplace. The war is a nefarious, constant presence. There are points where it verges on horror, because the scenes are so gruesome and intense. Yet I kept reading. Why? I typically like my heroes and heroines as good guys. Nyx is not. She's terrifically complicated. Rhys--I loved Rhys, the God-fearing Chenyan with haphazard magical skills. The rest of the team is equally vivid and diverse. The plot is fast-paced, like a thriller, with threats at every turn. My curiosity about the world pulled me in, and the characters wouldn't let me go.
God's War is daring, dark, and amazing. I will definitely look for more by this author.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dgold
Okay, so this book isn't perfect. The war it depicts is simply logically unsustainable, particularly on the planet it takes place on. But really, such points are quibbles, for this is an outstanding work of science fiction. Hurley's world building is outstanding, her characterization if her leading
Don't think that this is an easy book to get into, it really isn't. Like Mieville's Perdido Street Station, it confronts the reader rather than welcomes you in. It is hugely rewarding to the careful reader who allows their mind to inhabit the world of Nyxnyssa and her band of violent murderers. Outstanding.
Show More
cast is powerful, her narrative is sparking.Don't think that this is an easy book to get into, it really isn't. Like Mieville's Perdido Street Station, it confronts the reader rather than welcomes you in. It is hugely rewarding to the careful reader who allows their mind to inhabit the world of Nyxnyssa and her band of violent murderers. Outstanding.
Show Less
LibraryThing member patrickgarson
I was pleasantly surprised by Infidel, an accomplished scifi debut. Hurley has managed decent enough plot but really it is the characters and intriguing setting that put the novel above average.
Nyx is a former Bel Dame, a government assassin, now forced to freelance on the war-riven planet of
I really enjoyed the creativity in God's War. Hurley has created a Muslim-orientated planet, which is unusual enough, but populated it with all kinds of humanoids, technologies and magic. Umaya felt real and detailed in a way that I don't see very often, and there's plenty of locales and cultures for the sequels, as well.
The most immediate thing that struck me, was Hurley's creation of a matriarchal society. It's so simple in some respects, but the changes are so wide-ranging. It also forced me to confront my own biases and expectations when the sergeant is a woman, the boxers are women, etc etc. I thought it worked tremendously well, and Hurley didn't overplay it, either, or drag down with sententious allegory. It gives the novel an originality that lasts the whole duration.
The is consolidated by her characerisation, which I really enjoyed. Like anyone who's been through war, her characters have their own issues, and their likability - especially Nyx's - is questionable at times. However the rich back stories, complex motivations, and regular displays of compassion, loyalty and fear as well as aggression, cruelty, paranoia, built up three dimensional people with a lot more story to tell.
The plot itself is okay, though a bit MacGuffin-ish at times. It excelled in propelling the cast into interesting situations, but in itself it didn't hold great interest for me. Thankfully, amongst all the action (Infidel is a violent book) Hurley never got too bogged down in.
This was a strong, creative debut, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
Nyx is a former Bel Dame, a government assassin, now forced to freelance on the war-riven planet of
Show More
Umaya. Her latest commission may be her last, though, as it sets her against her former bosses, and her country's sworn enemy. I really enjoyed the creativity in God's War. Hurley has created a Muslim-orientated planet, which is unusual enough, but populated it with all kinds of humanoids, technologies and magic. Umaya felt real and detailed in a way that I don't see very often, and there's plenty of locales and cultures for the sequels, as well.
The most immediate thing that struck me, was Hurley's creation of a matriarchal society. It's so simple in some respects, but the changes are so wide-ranging. It also forced me to confront my own biases and expectations when the sergeant is a woman, the boxers are women, etc etc. I thought it worked tremendously well, and Hurley didn't overplay it, either, or drag down with sententious allegory. It gives the novel an originality that lasts the whole duration.
The is consolidated by her characerisation, which I really enjoyed. Like anyone who's been through war, her characters have their own issues, and their likability - especially Nyx's - is questionable at times. However the rich back stories, complex motivations, and regular displays of compassion, loyalty and fear as well as aggression, cruelty, paranoia, built up three dimensional people with a lot more story to tell.
The plot itself is okay, though a bit MacGuffin-ish at times. It excelled in propelling the cast into interesting situations, but in itself it didn't hold great interest for me. Thankfully, amongst all the action (Infidel is a violent book) Hurley never got too bogged down in.
This was a strong, creative debut, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ChrissyChris
Purchased this as a book of the day on Barnes & Noble. While an interesting premise and great world building, I could not generate a bit of care for any of the characters. Not clicking with any of them keeps me from reading any of the rest of the books in this series.
LibraryThing member rrainer
I really liked this book, but wow was it harsh. So harsh. The main difficulty I had, and the reason why it's a low four and not higher, is that I really just didn't like any of the characters. I found them fascinating and compelling, deeply damaged as they were, but didn't have that someone to root
Show More
for. But the worldbuilding makes up for a lot of that--it's so refreshing to see a colony/world that's not based on or descended from a Western culture. And the system of magic--in which the magic/technology line is extremely blurred--is so different I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. Despite my lack of fondness for the characters, I certainly seem to have developed an emotional attachment because I really desperately want to know what happens next. Show Less
LibraryThing member faganjc
Terrific protagonist: Nyx is not admirable, but she is interesting, tragic, and empowered. Secondary principal character Rhys is not completely likable and is hardly inspirational, but he is 100% himself. The other characters are not that deep, but they add good flavor and are likewise true to
Show More
themselves. This book would make a great Zoe Saldana movie. Noir elements. Creative world-building; magic and technology are interwoven with a religious war context. Even though some of the trappings are like our world, mostly this setting stands apart. Show Less
LibraryThing member Mav.Weirdo
This is a dark, stark novel of war, religion, and bugs. In tone it reminded me a little of Gene Wolfe's "The Shadow of the Torturer". Most of the story takes place in lands hot and gritty, blighted by generations of war.
This is not the type of book I typically choose for myself, but it came so
The story itself is about grand events seen from a personal level, by someone with limited power. There is no shortage of violence, but nearly any injury that does not kill a person can be repaired, for enough money, or influence.
I'm not sure that "enjoy" is the right word for this book. I am glad I read it and found the ending to be a satisfactory conclusion.
Disclaimer: I received this book as a free giveaway at ChiCon 7.
This is not the type of book I typically choose for myself, but it came so
Show More
highly recommended I thought I should give it a try. The "technology" of this world is bugs. Genetically engineered to replace of electronics, bugs are the engines, circuit boards, and weapons of this world. Those who can manipulate them are called magicians.The story itself is about grand events seen from a personal level, by someone with limited power. There is no shortage of violence, but nearly any injury that does not kill a person can be repaired, for enough money, or influence.
I'm not sure that "enjoy" is the right word for this book. I am glad I read it and found the ending to be a satisfactory conclusion.
Disclaimer: I received this book as a free giveaway at ChiCon 7.
Show Less
LibraryThing member VeronicaH.
On a planet with two suns, two nations have been at war with each other for almost as long as each has existed. Centuries of war have affected each country differently, though both continually loose generations of men to the endless war. In Nasheen, women rule; The Queen’s word is God’s word,
It’s a situation Nyx will find herself in many times throughout God’s War, Kameron Hurley’s bloody take on religious wars and the damage they inflict on those who suffer them. The titular god bears significant resemblance to the god of the Qur’an, which in Hurley’s world is called the Kitab (which means book in Arabic; kitabullah is also used in the book, and this is a direct reference to the Qur’an as kitabullah means “the book of God” in Arabic). No one remembers why the war started, but it continues to be fought over religious and ideological differences (different interpretations of the Prophet’s words) between the two nations. None of this really matters to Nyx; the only thing that matters to her is bringing in her notes, assassination contracts handed out by the bel dame council and sometimes even the Queen herself. The main story takes place several years after the opening sequence and concerns a note handed out by the latter behind the back of the bel dame council. Nyx takes the note in hope of redemption, but instead opens a can of worms that could obliterate Nasheen’s enemy, Chenja, or even Nasheen itself.
Speaking of worms, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the tech on this world is mostly organic and relies almost entirely on the use of bugs by magicians and others who can manipulate organic matter. Cars have organic, living hoses and are powered by red beetles. Organic filters surround entire cities and act as doors, but are tailored to let only certain organic matter through. The war is largely fought with organic bursts, biowarfare that unleashes plagues, disease, and other contagens on anyone not inoculated or caught outside the filters (God help them if something explodes inside the filters). Nyx’s world is harsh, and anything organic is profitable, including, and sometimes especially, genetic material or body parts (hence the womb). Also on this world are shifters, people who can shape-shift into various animals. Explaining some of this is worth while because like any good SFF writer, Hurley drops you into the middle of Nyx’s world and you had better hit the ground running if you want to make heads or tails of anything. She also uses exposition only when necessary, and parsed out in as little space as possible. A line or three here and there, rarely a whole paragraph. And yet it’s easy to inhabit Nyx’s world; Hurley is thorough without being pedantic. Nyx is a completely likable yet frequently feckless anti-hero. In this she reminds me a bit of Mal from Joss Whedon’s excellent but short-lived tv series, Firefly. She’s a lot harder than Mal, but just as bumbling sometimes. She’s aslo pretty damn kick-ass; just the kind of SFF heroine I like.
While I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying that gender politics is a main point of Hurley’s story, it plays a significant role. But the novel isn’t as skewed as one might expect as she gives voice to the Chenja view of women and the world in the character of Rhys, a Chenjan magician hiding out in Nasheen. The narrative form used allows for Hurley to explore multiple perspectives, and while the novel is certainly tilted in favor of Nasheenian views of women and the world through Nyx, it was nice to be given multiple views. If Hurley can anywhere be accused of too much exposition, it’s in the sections from Rhys’s POV, mainly because he frequently comments on the differences between Chenjan women and Nasheenian women.
This book stayed with me long after I finished it, and I frequently found myself thinking of Nyx’s various horrible situations-how she could get out of them, etc. After I finished God’s War, I immediately downloaded the next in the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, Infidel. I just finished God’s War today, and I’m already half-way through Infidel. The third book in the trilogy will be released in early November, but I’ve got a NetGalley advance of it, so come back for a review of the next two books soon. This is exactly the kind of hard SF with a female heroine I look for and rarely find. I highly recommend the Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha.
Show More
and her laws are carried out by highly skilled female assassins known as bel dames. In Chenja, women are the veiled property of men who are to be cared for by fathers, brothers, or husbands. Each country has specialized breeding compounds to provide a continual stream of fresh bodies for the war, but In Chenja, a woman doing anything other than staying at home and veiled is considered indecent and punishable by laws seemingly based on Sharia law. The women in Nasheen at least get to choose what they will do with their life: breed or fight. Nyxnissa so Dasheem has chosen the latter. A stint at the war front left her half dead, but she was “reconstituted” and joined the law and order of the bel dames, carrying out government-contracted bounties and assassinations. The book opens with her crossing from Chenja to Nasheen after a failed contract kills her partner, selling her womb (quite literally) for a ticket across the border. She is broken, bleeding, and completely out of options.It’s a situation Nyx will find herself in many times throughout God’s War, Kameron Hurley’s bloody take on religious wars and the damage they inflict on those who suffer them. The titular god bears significant resemblance to the god of the Qur’an, which in Hurley’s world is called the Kitab (which means book in Arabic; kitabullah is also used in the book, and this is a direct reference to the Qur’an as kitabullah means “the book of God” in Arabic). No one remembers why the war started, but it continues to be fought over religious and ideological differences (different interpretations of the Prophet’s words) between the two nations. None of this really matters to Nyx; the only thing that matters to her is bringing in her notes, assassination contracts handed out by the bel dame council and sometimes even the Queen herself. The main story takes place several years after the opening sequence and concerns a note handed out by the latter behind the back of the bel dame council. Nyx takes the note in hope of redemption, but instead opens a can of worms that could obliterate Nasheen’s enemy, Chenja, or even Nasheen itself.
Speaking of worms, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the tech on this world is mostly organic and relies almost entirely on the use of bugs by magicians and others who can manipulate organic matter. Cars have organic, living hoses and are powered by red beetles. Organic filters surround entire cities and act as doors, but are tailored to let only certain organic matter through. The war is largely fought with organic bursts, biowarfare that unleashes plagues, disease, and other contagens on anyone not inoculated or caught outside the filters (God help them if something explodes inside the filters). Nyx’s world is harsh, and anything organic is profitable, including, and sometimes especially, genetic material or body parts (hence the womb). Also on this world are shifters, people who can shape-shift into various animals. Explaining some of this is worth while because like any good SFF writer, Hurley drops you into the middle of Nyx’s world and you had better hit the ground running if you want to make heads or tails of anything. She also uses exposition only when necessary, and parsed out in as little space as possible. A line or three here and there, rarely a whole paragraph. And yet it’s easy to inhabit Nyx’s world; Hurley is thorough without being pedantic. Nyx is a completely likable yet frequently feckless anti-hero. In this she reminds me a bit of Mal from Joss Whedon’s excellent but short-lived tv series, Firefly. She’s a lot harder than Mal, but just as bumbling sometimes. She’s aslo pretty damn kick-ass; just the kind of SFF heroine I like.
While I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying that gender politics is a main point of Hurley’s story, it plays a significant role. But the novel isn’t as skewed as one might expect as she gives voice to the Chenja view of women and the world in the character of Rhys, a Chenjan magician hiding out in Nasheen. The narrative form used allows for Hurley to explore multiple perspectives, and while the novel is certainly tilted in favor of Nasheenian views of women and the world through Nyx, it was nice to be given multiple views. If Hurley can anywhere be accused of too much exposition, it’s in the sections from Rhys’s POV, mainly because he frequently comments on the differences between Chenjan women and Nasheenian women.
This book stayed with me long after I finished it, and I frequently found myself thinking of Nyx’s various horrible situations-how she could get out of them, etc. After I finished God’s War, I immediately downloaded the next in the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, Infidel. I just finished God’s War today, and I’m already half-way through Infidel. The third book in the trilogy will be released in early November, but I’ve got a NetGalley advance of it, so come back for a review of the next two books soon. This is exactly the kind of hard SF with a female heroine I look for and rarely find. I highly recommend the Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha.
Show Less
LibraryThing member MarFisk
There is little simple or sweet about this book. It is a bloody, no holds barred, look at long term, devastating conflict with racial and religious foundations that are largely propaganda or misunderstandings. As if that weren't enough, the different groups also hold harsh beliefs about gender,
Before you get the idea that this is a sociological rant, though, know that it is personalized through the lead characters, each of which has a different stake in how this all comes into play. You see the world and the war through the eyes of a character who has been on many different levels of the conflict, and whose rare viewpoint lets her take people on their own grounding despite race and gender. Which is not to say she has no prejudices, nor that she is not a product of her culture. She suffers from as many internal clashes of culture and duty as external, a process that is both fascinating and traumatic to watch.
No, God's War is not an easy read. It's neither light entertainment nor fluffy, politically correct, feel good literature. What this novel does is offer a look at flaws that exist in our world through the window of another planet where everything is an extreme. It makes you think about things that are swept under the rug and provides a level of realism that is both horrifying and compelling.
I said it was not light entertainment and I hold to that, but there is no question that God's War is entertaining, compelling, and illuminating thanks to rich, complicated characters who are feeling their way around as much as we readers are, and who I wanted to get to know better and hoped for a happy ending. Oh and there are even 'aliens'--off-world splinter races--and something along the lines of magic, and the setting is more Middle Eastern than Western European, for those of you seeking to expand your reading cultures.
P.S. I got this book through NetGalley but the opinions are all my own.
Show More
sparked by being on a planet where survival is difficult even without an ongoing war.Before you get the idea that this is a sociological rant, though, know that it is personalized through the lead characters, each of which has a different stake in how this all comes into play. You see the world and the war through the eyes of a character who has been on many different levels of the conflict, and whose rare viewpoint lets her take people on their own grounding despite race and gender. Which is not to say she has no prejudices, nor that she is not a product of her culture. She suffers from as many internal clashes of culture and duty as external, a process that is both fascinating and traumatic to watch.
No, God's War is not an easy read. It's neither light entertainment nor fluffy, politically correct, feel good literature. What this novel does is offer a look at flaws that exist in our world through the window of another planet where everything is an extreme. It makes you think about things that are swept under the rug and provides a level of realism that is both horrifying and compelling.
I said it was not light entertainment and I hold to that, but there is no question that God's War is entertaining, compelling, and illuminating thanks to rich, complicated characters who are feeling their way around as much as we readers are, and who I wanted to get to know better and hoped for a happy ending. Oh and there are even 'aliens'--off-world splinter races--and something along the lines of magic, and the setting is more Middle Eastern than Western European, for those of you seeking to expand your reading cultures.
P.S. I got this book through NetGalley but the opinions are all my own.
Show Less
LibraryThing member newskepticx
I really want to like this book more than I did, but something just didn't do it for me, and I won't read the rest of the series. Interesting but not compelling for me.
LibraryThing member ReginaR
This is not a full review as I read this books months ago, it is sort of a remembering. I just learned it is a nominee for the 2011 Nebula Awards, so I thought the book deserved some write up. This book and the world written about in this book is unlike anything else I have ever read. The world
The setting is in a desert like location reminscent of the middle east, but it appears to be a planet settled centuries ago.
The story told is a dark, brutal story. There is not much light in it. There is no love, no romance, there is loyalty among team members -- but the team members themselves are brutal and cruel people. I have purchased her next book in this series and do plan to read it.
If you can handle dark and brutal (and I mean brutal) stories and enjoy complex world building, then you likely would enjoy this story. It is not for those who are squeamish about bugs, violence or if same-sex sexual relationships bother you.
Show More
building was fantastic and so unique. Magic and technology run on bugs. Control of bugs gives individuals more power. The society is devoid of men because they are at war; fighting has been going on for centuries. As the result of war society of both countries fighting has been devistated socially and environmentally. Each country at war has reacted differently. One is oppresive to women and the other country, due to the lack of men, is oppressive to men. But that is a simplistic description of the social dynamics in this book, it is much more complex. What is clear in this story is that war is devistating and the violence in people's lives destroys their humanity. The setting is in a desert like location reminscent of the middle east, but it appears to be a planet settled centuries ago.
The story told is a dark, brutal story. There is not much light in it. There is no love, no romance, there is loyalty among team members -- but the team members themselves are brutal and cruel people. I have purchased her next book in this series and do plan to read it.
If you can handle dark and brutal (and I mean brutal) stories and enjoy complex world building, then you likely would enjoy this story. It is not for those who are squeamish about bugs, violence or if same-sex sexual relationships bother you.
Show Less
LibraryThing member rivkat
On the Muslim (plus a few thousand years of cultural drift) world of Umayma, a mercenary navigates between warring states, with bonus shapeshifters and magicians who can control biological functions and the insects that operate machines, surveil people, and otherwise provide technology. There’s a
Show More
lot of blood and a lot of politics. It wasn’t to my taste, but if you like noir and people who spit blood in the faces of other people who are about to kill them, you might enjoy it. Show Less
LibraryThing member crazybatcow
Firstly, the world is completely foreign. Not only because it is an alien world (actually, we are never told if the inhabitents are even human - or originally from earth), but because the world is based on some interpretation/manipulation of Islam.
The war, the 'sides' in the war, the response to
I did not try to learn the 'rules' of this world, but just accepted them as they came, and by the end of the novel, it all made sense. Sure, the first time I read the description of their 'cars' I was completely baffled, but as time passed, it made more sense. And by the end, I was comfortable with how the world is so different, and why. There are genetic deviations that are very sci-fi in nature, but it is a sci-fi book, so it was easy enough to suspend disbelief and go along with them.
Was there a plot? Yes, but it got hidden under the novelty of the world-building just a bit too much. And sometimes the characters were difficult to keep straight (there are a lot of them )... I am not sure if it was because of their names, or because there were just too many factions in play.
Anyway, it was interesting, violent, depressing and dark. I will be reading more in the series.
The war, the 'sides' in the war, the response to
Show More
off-worlders, the gender roles, the power of rule... actually, everything... came from a distinctly non-Western perspective. And I don't mean that it was just the 'bad' guys, or the 'other' guys who were non-Western - everything was. That, and it is a world where biology/ecology, and bio/eco-warfare, has been taken to an almost incomprehensible level. Yes, this warfare was still believable, just very extreme.I did not try to learn the 'rules' of this world, but just accepted them as they came, and by the end of the novel, it all made sense. Sure, the first time I read the description of their 'cars' I was completely baffled, but as time passed, it made more sense. And by the end, I was comfortable with how the world is so different, and why. There are genetic deviations that are very sci-fi in nature, but it is a sci-fi book, so it was easy enough to suspend disbelief and go along with them.
Was there a plot? Yes, but it got hidden under the novelty of the world-building just a bit too much. And sometimes the characters were difficult to keep straight (there are a lot of them )... I am not sure if it was because of their names, or because there were just too many factions in play.
Anyway, it was interesting, violent, depressing and dark. I will be reading more in the series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lexilewords
I'm not even sure where to start with this honestly. That's a good thing! This book surprised me and terrified me and rewarded me for moving past my initial distaste for a book dedicated to packing as many bugs per a page as GOD'S WAR seemed to be. I have a deep abiding fear of bugs that borders on
I read elsewhere that Hurley describes this as 'bug-punk' which is an accurate description as any. Bugs make this world go round; they power the vehicles, are lanterns, medical helpers, food source and so entrenched in the magic system that the magicians have bugs constantly fluttering around their heads or crawling on their bodies. The descriptions made me itchy at times.
Beyond the bugs is the world mythology rooted in the Muslim religion, which I know practically nothing about (to be fair I know practically nothing about most monotheistic religions). There are two factions fighting a continuous religious War against each other. The Nasheen and the Chenja, both of whom pray the exact same way--in the same language, with similar wording and rituals--but who interpret the religious texts vastly different.
The Nasheen have a more liberal view of the religious texts; women are the driving force, with the men forced to serve on the front lines. The bel dames, sanctioned and funded by the government, are their bounty hunters pretty much. They track down draft dodgers, deserters, or other bel dames who have gone rogue. Nasheen women are much freer, more aggressive.
The Chenja are more like the conservative Muslims you hear about. Their women stay covered and are subservient to the men. Families must send all able-bodied sons to the front lines to fight, except for heirs to the family name. Heirs are only sent to fight if they have magic.
Rhys is a Chenjan male who left his home when it became apparent that he would be sent to fight on the front lines as a mage. Taken in by Yah Reza to be taught in a Nasheen magician's school, Rhys bided his time until he could go. But in a country where 'racist' is not a word, but practically a religious mandate, he finds himself trapped with Yah Reza.
Until Nyx. Nyx who was a bel dame, but who went rogue, came back and got caught for a hefty bounty. Sent to jail she emerges and carves out a life for herself, taking Rhys with her.
And that's about all I'm going to say on the matter.
Hurley doesn't shy away from heavy topics--religious morality, morals in the time of War, sexuality and human decency, these are all put into play along with violence and a dark twist of humor at times. There isn't innocence to be found in this book, just a shade of 'slightly better then you' amongst Nyx and Rhys. The book centers around Rhys and Nyx's hate/love relationship. Despite being in Nasheen for a decade or there abouts, Rhys is determined to live his life as close to the way his people (the Chenjans) worship as possible. He can't leave Nyx though. And Nyx, who alternately wants to punch Rhys and clings to him out of a desperate need for some constant in her life, is never quite certain why she wants him around.
The book is filled with complex plots and schemes. No one, and I do mean no one, is without some sort of endgame idea. They dance around each other, offering only small bits of themselves, because its safer. Whether you die in an explosion or because you piss off the wrong person at the wrong time by living, Nyx's crew is made up of outcasts to their society. They're a loyal group to each other, when it serves their interests at least.
This is closer to a 4.5 and I'll be honest a whole lot of my problems stemmed from the fact Hurley did too good of a job describing all the critters in the world. The world used bugs for everything--food, lighting, magic, transportation--and thus Hurley seemed to take almost gleeful delight in describing all the different beetles and centipedes and such. Which made it difficult for me to read since I constantly felt like they were crawling all over my skin.
Show More
paranoid delusions that they have a conspiracy to behead me.I read elsewhere that Hurley describes this as 'bug-punk' which is an accurate description as any. Bugs make this world go round; they power the vehicles, are lanterns, medical helpers, food source and so entrenched in the magic system that the magicians have bugs constantly fluttering around their heads or crawling on their bodies. The descriptions made me itchy at times.
Beyond the bugs is the world mythology rooted in the Muslim religion, which I know practically nothing about (to be fair I know practically nothing about most monotheistic religions). There are two factions fighting a continuous religious War against each other. The Nasheen and the Chenja, both of whom pray the exact same way--in the same language, with similar wording and rituals--but who interpret the religious texts vastly different.
The Nasheen have a more liberal view of the religious texts; women are the driving force, with the men forced to serve on the front lines. The bel dames, sanctioned and funded by the government, are their bounty hunters pretty much. They track down draft dodgers, deserters, or other bel dames who have gone rogue. Nasheen women are much freer, more aggressive.
The Chenja are more like the conservative Muslims you hear about. Their women stay covered and are subservient to the men. Families must send all able-bodied sons to the front lines to fight, except for heirs to the family name. Heirs are only sent to fight if they have magic.
Rhys is a Chenjan male who left his home when it became apparent that he would be sent to fight on the front lines as a mage. Taken in by Yah Reza to be taught in a Nasheen magician's school, Rhys bided his time until he could go. But in a country where 'racist' is not a word, but practically a religious mandate, he finds himself trapped with Yah Reza.
Until Nyx. Nyx who was a bel dame, but who went rogue, came back and got caught for a hefty bounty. Sent to jail she emerges and carves out a life for herself, taking Rhys with her.
And that's about all I'm going to say on the matter.
Hurley doesn't shy away from heavy topics--religious morality, morals in the time of War, sexuality and human decency, these are all put into play along with violence and a dark twist of humor at times. There isn't innocence to be found in this book, just a shade of 'slightly better then you' amongst Nyx and Rhys. The book centers around Rhys and Nyx's hate/love relationship. Despite being in Nasheen for a decade or there abouts, Rhys is determined to live his life as close to the way his people (the Chenjans) worship as possible. He can't leave Nyx though. And Nyx, who alternately wants to punch Rhys and clings to him out of a desperate need for some constant in her life, is never quite certain why she wants him around.
The book is filled with complex plots and schemes. No one, and I do mean no one, is without some sort of endgame idea. They dance around each other, offering only small bits of themselves, because its safer. Whether you die in an explosion or because you piss off the wrong person at the wrong time by living, Nyx's crew is made up of outcasts to their society. They're a loyal group to each other, when it serves their interests at least.
This is closer to a 4.5 and I'll be honest a whole lot of my problems stemmed from the fact Hurley did too good of a job describing all the critters in the world. The world used bugs for everything--food, lighting, magic, transportation--and thus Hurley seemed to take almost gleeful delight in describing all the different beetles and centipedes and such. Which made it difficult for me to read since I constantly felt like they were crawling all over my skin.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kaipakartik
Great world building and conflicted characters here.
All technology is driven by bugs. There is a very obvious feminist slant here which also leads to some interesting conversations between the characters.
The ending was a tad disappointing. The villains were surprisingly stupid at the end. They won
Will definitely be reading the rest of the series.
All technology is driven by bugs. There is a very obvious feminist slant here which also leads to some interesting conversations between the characters.
The ending was a tad disappointing. The villains were surprisingly stupid at the end. They won
Show More
and then did something really stupid and lost.Will definitely be reading the rest of the series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
It took a looooong time to find its pace - this book definitely starts too early, and would not suffer from losing everything before "Part II" - but once it did I was hooked. Nyx is one of those rough, nasty anti-heroes you don't like so much as respect, and Rhys is remarkable for keeping his
Show More
composure while having to live with her. The setting feels an awful lot like the trailers for the new Mad Max movie. The bug-based technology and magic is pretty gross, but it all fits together into one messy, cohesive whole. I finished it and said out loud, "I'm really glad there are two sequels." Show Less
LibraryThing member Strider66
Pros: unique, diverse cast, interesting world and politics
Cons: limited description, slow beginning
Nyx used to be a Bel Dame, a government sponsored assassin sent after deserters from the war with Chenja. But after a bad job she's stripped of her membership and left doing dirty mercenery work. Her
Described by the author as being a book about "Bugs. Blood. Brutal women." and "bugpunk at it's best" this was a... unique read. Heavily influenced by middle eastern culture, the book takes place on a planet colonized by several groups of people, all followers of the book. Each group interprets the book differently though, which has led to a centuries long war among the Nasheenians and the Chenjans. The politics, both between the nations and within Nasheen (where most of the book takes place) are fascinating.
The characters themselves are interesting, each having their own reasons why they've left their homelands to live in Nasheen, and why they're working for Nyx. There's a good balance between action and development, so you get the chance to really know what motivates each of her team members.
I would have appreciated more description and deeper world building. I had to look up what a burnous was (a long cloak with a hood that everyone in the book wears) as there was no proper description of it (I got that it was worn over clothing and had a hood and pockets, but didn't know it was a cloak rather than a jacket). Neither bug magic nor bug tech are explained at all, nor how this planet develped them. The same goes for shape shifters, who you learn were created, but not why or how (though this didn't play into the novel as much as the bug magic and tech so I can understand why the author wouldn't want to focus on it).
I also found the opening a bit slow. Not in terms of action (there's a LOT of action), but in terms of plot. The opening scenes set up things for later, but you don't realize that until you're several chapters into the book.
There's a lot of violence, and a fair amount of gore (several people are tortured and replacing body parts is one of a magician's talents, which gets used a lot in this book).
If you're looking for something very different from what's out there and like kick-ass women, you've found it. If you've got a weak stomach, look elsewhere.
Cons: limited description, slow beginning
Nyx used to be a Bel Dame, a government sponsored assassin sent after deserters from the war with Chenja. But after a bad job she's stripped of her membership and left doing dirty mercenery work. Her
Show More
team consists of misfits escaping one thing or another: a Ras Tiegan communications man, a Mhorian shape shifter, a gun loving local (poached from a former boss) and a Chenjan draft dodger, whose magical abilities of controlling bugs are limited. When they're offered a well paying - but dangerous job, Nyx takes it, not realizing it would pit her against the toughest, most dangerous women in Nasheen.Described by the author as being a book about "Bugs. Blood. Brutal women." and "bugpunk at it's best" this was a... unique read. Heavily influenced by middle eastern culture, the book takes place on a planet colonized by several groups of people, all followers of the book. Each group interprets the book differently though, which has led to a centuries long war among the Nasheenians and the Chenjans. The politics, both between the nations and within Nasheen (where most of the book takes place) are fascinating.
The characters themselves are interesting, each having their own reasons why they've left their homelands to live in Nasheen, and why they're working for Nyx. There's a good balance between action and development, so you get the chance to really know what motivates each of her team members.
I would have appreciated more description and deeper world building. I had to look up what a burnous was (a long cloak with a hood that everyone in the book wears) as there was no proper description of it (I got that it was worn over clothing and had a hood and pockets, but didn't know it was a cloak rather than a jacket). Neither bug magic nor bug tech are explained at all, nor how this planet develped them. The same goes for shape shifters, who you learn were created, but not why or how (though this didn't play into the novel as much as the bug magic and tech so I can understand why the author wouldn't want to focus on it).
I also found the opening a bit slow. Not in terms of action (there's a LOT of action), but in terms of plot. The opening scenes set up things for later, but you don't realize that until you're several chapters into the book.
There's a lot of violence, and a fair amount of gore (several people are tortured and replacing body parts is one of a magician's talents, which gets used a lot in this book).
If you're looking for something very different from what's out there and like kick-ass women, you've found it. If you've got a weak stomach, look elsewhere.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jamestomasino
Really solid. Deserves a longer review when I'm not on mobile.
Publication
Night Shade Books (2011), 288 pages
Media reviews
Overall the book is a compelling read, feeling like a future-flung, bio-magic version of the Gulf War; The God’s War has all the brutality and futility of a conflict with no winners, in which both external and internal landscapes are broken and bereft.
Are you frustrated with Mary Sue heroines? Well, here comes God's War to rock your face off.
... the story is highly engaging once it starts, and Hurley smoothly handles tricky themes such as race, class, religion, and gender without sacrificing action.
Original language
English
Original publication date
2011-01
Physical description
288 p.; 9 inches
ISBN
159780214X / 9781597802147