Review: Deathless by Rob J. Hayes
Blurb:
Seven were the Godless Kings who took their war to Heaven.
King Ertide Hostain was once known as the Crimson Prince. He fought side by side with angels and pegasi and defended the Sant Dien Empire against monsters. But his pact with Heaven has become strained. He has grown old, his body rots, and he has yet to choose which squabbling prince will be his heir.
The Hostain dynasty has ruled over the empire for millennia, but when Ertide finds cryptic notes from his dead father, he realises not all is as it seems. Has history been rewritten? And if so, what is heaven hiding?
Immortality has a price, and it is paid in blood.
Review:
The God Eater Saga is a trilogy of trilogies by Rob J Hayes. Deathless follows the first of the companion trilogies (Annals of the God Eater) set 1000 years before Herald. I genuinely think that reading Herald first made Deathless a compelling experience. Knowing all the twists, secrets, and chunks of information that Herald gave me, Deathless was a bittersweet experience.
Deathless follows Ertide Hostain, THE Godless King who orchestrated the first act of heresy which would lead to the humans killing God and overthrowing God’s empire. But, how could I enjoy Deathless when I had already revealed a lot for myself through Herald?
Well, the God Eater world is much more complex and expansive than Herald let on. Where Herald gave us glimpses into ages past, Deathless shows us the Golden Age, while giving us glimpses into ages forgotten.
WHAT I LIKED:
Unlike Herald, Deathless was a political fantasy in the spirit of Game of Thrones. Seeing Ertide Hostain in his winter years was both fascinating, and heartbreaking. I know I had some issues with the characters in Herald, but the treatment of Ertide Hostain is so empathetically done that I felt like I knew him as a distant relative. Right off the bat, you see him having doubts regarding the Angels and God’s Empire, which slowly ossify into reveals that change everything. I don’t want to spoil what he finds out because even though I had some doubts about that reveal, just having it confirmed here was positively satisfying.
The air of mystery is thick throughout the book, with Ertide’s declining faith mirrored in his declining health. Every time you discover a piece of the forgotten past, you can’t help but root for Ertide to finally do what we know he will go down in history for. It’s not that he killed and ate Angels, rather how he came about to do it which is such a fascinating journey. With each reveal, the argument for killing and eating Angels—never thought I’d write that line—grows stronger and convincing. Yet, when the act is finally committed, it comes with a bittersweet lump in your throat. As much as there is triumph for the humans finally throwing away their metaphorical shackles, there is also a sense of loss knowing what miserable fate awaits the world.
Another issue I had with Herald was the lack of scenes with Angels in all their glory. With Deathless, that balance is just perfect. We get enough of the Angels to see what the Golden Age is like. We get some very compelling scenes with Moon, who I hope we’ll see more of in the later instalments. And lastly, the finale—the actual killing of an Angel. Hayes makes his characters work for it. Even the weakest of the Angels is so difficult an adversary, and her fight with the humans is so visually imaginative and stunning, it would make for gold-standard TV/anime.
And finally, the world-building. With Deathless, we get mentions of a time that was forgotten by the ages. There are several easter eggs for what I’m sure I’ll discover when I read Demon, and they expand the scope of the God Eater world beyond what Herald already set up. Seriously, reading all the book 1s of God Eater feels like reading a Stormlight book, where every timeline, every part, and every interlude, is a reminder that the world is exponentially larger than you had earlier imagined.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:
If I really have to pick, then there was only one complaint with the book—the pacing. The book is slow for the first few chapters, an intriguing political fantasy for the next few, followed by rapid reveals, and then an action-packed finale which transitions into a relatively abrupt ending. Every part of what I mentioned is enjoyable in its own right, but the time jumps were a bit jarring, and felt off-balance. They didn’t spoil my experience because I was too invested in Ertide and his plot.
All in all, this book is another 5/5 for me. Again, having read Herald first made Deathless a captivating read.
TL;DR:
WHAT I LIKED: Ertide Hostain, the mystery around what the Angels lied about, the reveals and world-expansion
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: Odd pacing, abrupt ending
