Godkiller by Hannah Kaner Series: Godkiller #1
Published by Harper Voyager (1.19.2023)
Genres: Adult, High Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Source: Library
Kissen kills gods for a living, and she enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skediceth, god of white lies, who is connected to a little noble girl on the run.
Elogast fought in the god war, and helped purge the city of a thousand shrines before laying down his sword. A mysterious request from the King sends him racing back to the city he destroyed.
On the way he meets a godkiller, a little girl and a littler god, who cannot find out about his quest.
My thoughts
This was one of my most anticipated 2023 releases! I wanted SO badly to get on the Illumicrate sub for this book, but I was on the waitlist for months and missed it (I missed Song of Silver, too *cries*). Then, after it was released, I had a hard time getting my hands on it. There’s no audio available in the US (which is odd)… I guess it doesn’t release here until September. There’s no ebook, either (also not out til September, wtf). I have a strong aversion to purchasing books I’m not 100% sure I’ll love, so I requested for my library to order it (my library is awesome, I’m so grateful for it). It took a while, but I finally got my hands on it!
And it was pretty good, but it wasn’t as epic as I hoped it’d be. It took a really long time for it to pick up enough for me to be into it. I was a little bored in the beginning and I outright hated Elo’s chapters. It didn’t start picking up enough for me to be invested until about 100 pages in, which is not great considering this book is only 300 pages long. That’s my main complaint: the pacing. I found some parts to be a little wordy – some of the descriptions or actions were a little unnecessary (i.e. what they were eating or wearing, doing mundane things that have nothing to do with plot movement, etc). The main thing that kept me going in the beginning was the premise, and Skedi! I loved Skedi!
I enjoyed the MC, Kissen. She’s a bit of a curmudgeon, and I loved how prickly she was! It was heartwarming to see her slowly warm to Inara, Skedi, and Elo. She put on a tough facade because of her past, but inside she was a big marshmallow. It’s also got disabled rep – Kissen has a prosthetic leg!
I adore the whole older-person-gets-strapped-with-plucky-apprentice type trope, and the relationship between Kissen and Inara was fantastic! Actually, pretty much all of the characters are grudgingly stuck together, but turn into found family (which is another fave trope of mine). I also appreciated that there was very little romance in the book. It’s sort of enemies to lovers, and takes the whole book to develop, which was great; however, I never felt the chemistry between Elo and Kissen. Maybe in the next book!
The concept was awesome! I am a huge fan of gods stories, so I enjoyed the world and all of the gods. Especially Skedi, like I mentioned above. I was intrigued by him from the start, and I loved the bond between Skedi and Inara. He disappointed me there for a while, but overall he was my favorite character. View Spoiler » I am dying to get his backstory!
It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I’m pretty bummed that there’s not a second book even listed on Goodreads yet. Which means it’ll probably be quite a wait to find out what happens next. Womp, womp.
Overall Assessment
Plot: 4/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 3.5/5
Originality: 4.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
World-building: 4/5
Pace: 2.5/5
Feels: 3/5
Cover: 4/5
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