Against All Gods: The Age of Bronze: Book 1

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Thank you to Hachette Book Group and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review! Honestly it hurt a little to finish this book knowing there are no others in the series completed yet. The whole idea was to bring certain chosen characters together, but it took 250+ pages to get there and nothing REALLY happened up to that time. He tries to pull from Mesopotamian, Greek, and Egyptian cultures, and I applaud him for it, it just wasn't always coherent and melded into a fully fleshed world. The tales of the Olympian gods, and before them the strange, capricious and harsh deities of Sumer and Akkad, have lingered in the mind of western civilizations through to the modern day, and arguably taken new form in the narratives of our modern deities and demigods: superheroes.

She is a natural leader but needs other leaders not to lead, even when they have palpably more and more relevant experience? Terry Pratchett in the Bronze Age with the shameless and naughty bits exposed, what can possibly go wrong in an upstart war declared on the gods in heaven? For the first 15-20% I really considered DNFing this - it's an incredibly slow start and it doesn't really pull you in. There is also an underlying conflict running through this book between the "old gods" and "new gods", so that adds a special dimension to this already multi-layered fantasy epic and got me even more invested as I progressed through each chapter. I really wanted Against All Gods to be this amazing story that would take me away to the Bronze Age.

This aspect of the world-building is felt throughout the story, and still tinges all godly interactions, which I found fascinating. I still feel like I have no idea how some characters feel about each other because I barely saw them interacting. There is some irony in Cameron turning away from that familiar, best-selling, setting then given his accomplishments there. Imagine a human who barely survived some idiocy gods or their representatives on Earth put them through watching a carnage before them and than they mutter:"Fucking Gods.

If you want a smaller selection, including the famous Gilgamesh, check out Dalley’s Myths from Mesopotamia. There is chilling foreshadowing however, that should the audacious mortals somehow manage to survive, and in fact succeed in their quest, will they simply become that which they despise, providing more of the same sort of cruelty and capriciousness, if they manage to supplant their divine masters?The sea people analogue is intriguingly terrifying, the Thera style set-piece is cinematic, who – or what – are the gods? Cameron has created another fascinating world and filled it with characters that I loved to read about. And perhaps the aged sellsword the most: Zos is a typical hero who's past his prime and who's seen countless battles.

Cameron’s vivid descriptions make the reader feel like they are living in the time when gods walked the earth, bred mortals, and made half-god children.This prolific, best-selling author of over 40 novels, has penned one of my top ten fantasy series ever: "The Traitor Son Cycle". For example, the story opens with Author's Note that because novel is being set in a fantasy version of the Bronze Age there is no steel, no standardised measure system, it's barter economy, etc. Modern sci-fi/fantasy falls flat so often because it is entirely without connection to any tradition.

But some parts of world-building were so epic and interesting: like, Zos was a slave trained to be a bull-leaper- it's a type of gladiators who are supposed to jump at a charging bull and there is a whole legend about this and references to their fearlessness. Unlike most moderns, Cameron has produced work (under both guises) which show a clear appreciation and understanding of the medieval, from Fiore dei Liberi to Froissart; from the rules of amour Courtois to tying one’s points. Believe me though, it is most certainly worth the wait and you will be glad that you decided to start this wonderful journey. I had to keep flicking back through the pages to see who was who or who had just done what action recently.There’s a real feel of the classic fantasy ensemble story, but with a fresh and engaging perspective on the genre which blends mythology, historical accuracy and a modern tone of voice.