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Godkiller by Hannah Kaner


 

Don't find yourself walking past this book just because you don't like fantasy novels, because this may be the one that changes your mind.  At the time of writing it's riding high in the best seller charts and is already destined to be the first of a series.  Place your bets on how long it takes before it becomes a Netflix film or box set.

Set in a dark world filled with vengeful gods, the book begins with a whole family thrown into cage where they will be burnt as a sacrifice to Hseth, a god of fire.  Kissen is still a young girl but she is determined to free herself from the ropes that bind her and then free her family so they can escape this painful death.  She undoes her own ropes, but by the time she has fought with the knots holding her father, the flames are reaching higher and the building around them is collapsing.  The roof falls in, trapping Kissen's leg, and although her father is free to run he stays to free Kissen from the wreckage by severing her leg, then offers his own life to a god of the sea in return for saving his daughter.

The rest of the family are killed in the fire, but after her father throws her in the sea, Kissen is washed up on a foreign shore badly burnt and mutilated, but she is taken in by a woman who puts injured children to work by forcing them to make money for her from begging.  This harsh life makes Kissen strong, and despite her disability, when she is grown she sets off on her own and learns the skills of a godkiller to help her avenge the deaths of her family.

Kissen becomes well known for her knowledge of the gods and a young girl, Inara, comes to her seeking advice because a small god has attached itself to her mind and she is looking for a way to separate from him without killing them both.  The small god has a physical presence in the shape of a hare with wings, and small antlers on his head, and he seems benign, but as a god he is capable of many things.  Kissen can do nothing about the god, but after the Inara's home is burnt to the ground and her mother killed, she and Kissen begin a quest to find a powerful god to help them.

The setting of the book has medieval and Celtic overtones, with a few nods to ancient Roman war craft and religious beliefs.  It is a powerful combination and the quality of the writing is so good that I had no difficulty in visualising the forms of the different gods and spectral beings they encounter on their journey.  The fight scenes work well and somehow everything becomes perfectly believable, which must be difficult to achieve over a fairly long book.  It is around three hundred pages in length, but the paperback I read has very small print so could easily be a hundred pages more in another edition, so long enough to become immersed in the concept.  I will certainly look out for the sequel, Sunbringer, that I'm sure won't be far behind it.
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