Godkiller

Slightly above 3 ⭐️ but not enough to be 3.5

The problem with high expectations is that it's not enough to simply enjoy something. You need to enjoy it as much as you anticipated. And let's face it, that's damn near impossible.

This book was one of my most anticipated new releases for 2023.

Did I enjoy reading it? Absolutely! There's a lot to like about it.
1. World building and atmosphere - I think this was the book's biggest asset. The author has crafted a very beautiful and cosy (if slightly gruesome) world.
2. Characters - The cast was colorful, sometimes literally (you'll see when you read Inara's pov chapters), interesting and likeable. I had a lot of fun following them around.
3. Quest - I loved the quest aspect of this story. It was nicely done with some good downtime and teamwork, with picturesque and interesting locations.

I really enjoyed reading this book and am looking forward to continuing with the series.

But there are a few things this book lacks.
1. Depth - There were many things in this book that felt unfinished. As though I was reading an abridged version of the story. From some of the vague world building and back story, to a few barely there plot lines and character motivations. Speaking of which...
2. Weak character motivation - Some of the characters had either weak, or undeveloped, or outright nonsensical motivation to be where they were or to be doing what they did.For example, the 3 old ladies' reason for going to Blenraden made no sense whatsoever. So you mean to tell me that 3 old women would risk a dangerous illegal journey, to go beg peaceful death from a bunch of unreliable gods that might be super hostile?? No good poisons in this vast magical world? Come on... Or Arren turning on the gods, specifically the ones that helped them. It made no sense to do this, considering he accepted their help initially. I'm not saying it's impossible for him to have done that, I'm saying it was not developed enough to be believable.
3. Continuity and grammar - this is not a big minus as there wasn't anything too egregious. Just a few grammatical errors and at least one instance where a character, in their thoughts, referred to a stranger by her name, before they knew it.
4. Writing style - the author seems to have a slight inclination towards opting for fancy sentences that walk the line of not making sense. Though, to be fair, considering this is her first published book, there is room to grow, just like with every author.

I honestly think this book would've benefited by being (maybe even more than) slightly longer. Though I do understand the appeal of a shorter fantasy book. So, I can't be mad.

All that being said, should you read this book? Yes! Because despite its shortcomings, it is interesting and a great first book for this author. It's also fun and I believe most people will enjoy it quite a bit.

this was a fun read!

engaging characters, incredible world I want to know more off and the gods– i was laughing on occasions.

the characters all leapt off the page, and I love the disability rep in this. even the characters I didn't particularly like I ended up liking by the end.

the more I think about this book, the more I like it.

it was a straightforward story, one I had fun reading.

Cover and prologue were awesome.  But the story just felt meh and some illogical moves by characters. If I want to protect a God, why go to a godkiller.  If I need to travel fast to a city, why seek out a group to go with and not go alone as I am a knight and already traveled to one city alone.  4 povs in a 300 page novel that are interlaced does not stand up well.  Would much have rather one pov that goes in depth would be much better. 

I am obsessed...

When I started reading this book, my dumbass went on TikTok and saw some people either say they didn't enjoy the book or outright dnf it. I can't sympathize with that. The criticism that I see is that it starts of great, but slows down at some point. I again, cannot sympathize with that. The pacing of the book was perfect, the characters were interesting and flawed, yet weren't obnoxious or unnecessary.

The world building had me longing for more information throughout the book, keeping me excited everytime I learned something new. Especially towards the end, when the characters get to the place they were going. I didn't expect to get creeped out as I did, but it makes sense considering the state of the world the characters exist in. The mystery of who cursed Elo and why Inara's house and the people in it were burned down were welcome side plots to saving the King and finding out why Inara was bound to a seemingly unknown god who lost his memories. They didn't distract as they were intertwined to the main plot, but seemed throughout the story to be side occurrences.

I knew that going into this book that the romance wasn't going to be as heavily present like in books in the ACOTAR series. The romance was more like the one in the Folk of Air Trilogy, present, but does not take up much space. To be honest, I first started reading this book assuming that Kissen and Skedi were the romantic pairing, considering that she is a godkiller and he a god. It would've made the prefect enemies-to-lovers story. Instead, she is paired with Elo, a knight, which still works because Kissen doesn't like Knights. While I would've loved more romantic scenes and moments between the two, the scenes and moments given throughout the book had me squealing like never before. I cannot wait to see how their relationship moves forward in the next book.

I loved the character development of the characters and they were so well paced alongside the main plot. It allowed characters to have flaws that either are removed over time as they grow and mature further, or changes in a way that they become something positive and necessary for their survival. The characters are all so different from one another, each coming from a different walk of life (including wealth class), but they learn to love and care for each other. They didn't say it explicitly, but I do consider their story together as a “Found family” trope.

Another thing that I love is that the book doesn't end on a huge cliffhanger, but leaves enough plot points open that keeps you curious for more. Who is Inara Craier. Why did her mother do what she did? What will happen to the King? How long will it take for Kissen to reunited with Inara and Elo?

I cannot wait to read the sequel and look forward to future book of Miss Kaner.

Kissen barely survived the sacrificial burning of her family. As her father pulled her from the fire, she lost a leg, and soon after, her father’s life in return for her own. Anger filled the void she felt from the loss of her family. Anger she turned towards the gods and dedicated herself to their destruction. Now a godkiller she takes jobs to eradicate them. Until she finds one god she cannot kill. Skedi, bound to the human girl Inara. To do so would be to harm the girl as well. And Kissen will not kill humans. Together they must journey to Blenraden, to seek out answers from the wild gods. But even the smallest request will cost them.

Kissen is a hard-edged and torn character. Due to her horrific past her mental health can be a challenge. To push through the hardest times she creates an angry wall around herself. When Skedi and Inara enter the picture, she regretfully takes them on and it will mark the start of her evolution as a character. Were it not for Inara, Kissen would have slain Skedi and moved on. Yet she has no choice but to try and separate the two first. And the more time spent with the pair, the higher risk she runs of growing attached.

Inara and Skedi make quite the duo as they travel to Blenraden. Despite warnings from Kissen, Inara sees Skedia as her best friend. It’s hard not to with the little God being her constant companion. But venturing out into the world will see their friendship and trust put to the test. One small taste of power can lead to craving more. And in the thick of want and emotion, the best people can make the wrong decision.

And amidst the stories of Kissen and company, there is one final character who slides into the plot. Elogast, an ex-knight, journeys to Belnraden to save his best friend. Having given up a life of battle to become a baker, he picks up his sword for one last quest. Yet the answer that waits for him, will be nothing he envisioned. It will turn his entire world upside down.

Godkiller will come full circle in a brilliant display of battle. The Gods are never easy to work with. They will always demand a high price. Each character will have to decide if the price is worth what they desire most. And for some, what the gods demand will rock their very cores. Readers who enjoy high-stakes dark fantasy should give this book a read.

another great book completely annihilated by shitty romance that doesnt make any fucking sense
someone tell me why the lgbtq+ tag is on this again.... i literally read it for the gay, the the male main charas that couldve been gay, his boy turns out to be the bad guy
and the girl is VAGUELY mentioned to be bisexual. literally any lgbtq is in the side charas we dont care about. another author that felt like she needed diversity bc its 2023. sigh.
for the first time in my history of reading books, for me the ONLY interesting perspective was the child loll and her god. they were great. id prefer the book if it was just them. 

I didn't realize that when the blurb on the back said it was for fans of Gideon the Ninth that it meant that Gideon's long-lost cousin was gonna be one of the main characters.

I was a little amused (and salty) when she tried to sacrifice herself. Thankfully it looks like she lived.

Great book, wonderful characters, loved the dynamic between the trio. The sorta-romance didn't feel forced (though a little rushed), Elo wasn't a toxic broody bad boy (just a little dumb in a not-necessarily-bad way), Kissen wasn't some frail whiny petite thing you see way too often in fantasy, and Inara is gonna be a fascinating force of nature in later additions.

I do feel like it could've been a little longer, to flesh out some of the finer details of the worldbuilding. And the ending felt rushed, with the big reveal and final battle sequence all coming and going way, way too fast.

Definitely looking forward to the sequel!

I had a good time with this book but expected more.  I don't know if it was becuase I was reading this on a long flight, but I had trouble following along certain scenes. 

The descriptions and world building was so creative and engaging. I'm a huge fan of moral ambiguity and Godkiller is overflowing in it. Imagine a world where gods are fickle, duplicitous, and can grant your deepest wish...for a price. I can eat this up all day! 

Something else that really bothered me, was the terrible “romance” subplot. I deeply wish the author didn't add that in. It felt so inauthentic to the characters and the story. It was like a last minute addition to satisfy a checklist so this could be considered a romantasy...when it's so clearly not a romance story. 
Despite all of that I'll definitely continue the series. Especially with that cliffhanger, there's more to this story that I need to know. 

This book was fantastic! Being the author's debut, I can't wait to see what Hanna will bring us next! One thing is certain though, Hanna is a great addition for the fantasy genre, and will surely secure a place among the greatest.

I loved everything about Godkiller:
- cover: I don't usually comment on this but I couldn't ignore this one. It's stunning! And the texture? I don't know if the regular edition has the same feeling but the illumicrate one is so soft that I just don't want to stop touching the book (and I read it on kindle

An engaging story full of found-family dynamics and vengeful gods (and humans). I went into this thinking it was a standalone, but as the ending approached, it became clear that several major plotlines were still unresolved. Despite this, the story still delivered a satisfying conclusion. I’m hopeful the next book will keep up the momentum.

Damn, who would have thought I'd finish it in this lifetime.

Soooo, this was fun? I guess. Maybe?
The thing is, I enjoyed many parts. In theory.
The world building wasn't fully fleshed out but intriguing. Especially in the first chapters when we got to know how Gods in this realm behave and what rules they are bound to.
Truth be told, lore is like my elixir of life.

The cast of characters was diverse and lovingly created.
But the character development, if there was any, was so unbelievably slow and too insignificant throughout. We have a lot of interesting scenes between our protagonists, but it often felt like they weren't used to their full potential.

The stakes of the story were HIGH but they got delivered without any real impact. I didn't care as much about the outcome of their quests as I might have should.

But even though I have a lot of criticism, I have to say that it was a fairly enjoyable read. (And a fast one if you aren't me.)
I'm looking forward to the next instalment and hopefully see improvement in Kaner's writing as this has only been her debut.

GODKILLER BY HANNAH KANER3.5-4/5 Stars* Medium Spoilers As different strangers on different quests come together to unite, we are treated to a glimpse into their magical, downtrodden world and their lives: (my reading experience was elevated by the ending, which might be bringing the star rating higher than it otherwise would be) _________________Godkiller by Hannah Kaner is a quest-heavy fantasy that focuses on the adventure and journey to the end goal than the end goal itself. To me, this is a rather cozy book; there is little within that will surprise you (besides one little thing at the end, maybe) and it doesn't offer many thrills beyond the action-packed prologue and ending, both of which can quickly get your adrenaline spiking. Two of the major criticisms against this book that I've seen so far is that the characters' voices are samey and that the pacing is slow; as someone who liked this book, both complaints are true. This book, after the prologue, does slow its pace almost immediately, continuing the prologue's action with a small fight that is quickly resolved–something characteristic of most conflicts within this story. If you are looking for action and that's what you enjoy, this is not the book for you. Likewise, if you have a hard time remembering POVs, the multiple perspectives we encounter here can be a bit confusing.Pesonally, while I agree that the POVs weren't too distinct or full of personality, I do think that this aids with ease of reading. I'm trying to get out of a pretty much life-long reading slump and this book, unlike many others, was very easy to read. The language isn't necessarily simple, but the prose flows in a way that is simply wonderful for me. It balances description and action and dialogue very well, still painting a vivid image of the world without being bulky or pretentious. This may come at a cost of voice and continuity. I do not mind the lack of characteristic voices, as the book is in third-person POV at all times and we never use the pronoun ‘I', and thus are always more disconnected from the characters than in some other stories. However, there is a small issue with this POV; sometimes we seem to detach from the characters mid-chapter for a line or so to get a glimpse into the others' thoughts and feelings and backstories, or somehow know more than a character would realistically be aware of. This isn't too egregious since it doesn't happen all too often, but it is something I noticed happening (especially in later chapters) that did make me pause and ask the characters “how the fuck do you know that?”While the pacing is slow, I think that the readers who care about character dynamics more will still find this book very interesting. There is a big focus on the world, its history, and its people, but this is by and far a book where character dynamics are at the forefront. The cast of main characters are in close-quarters all the time, and thanks to the head-hopping we're able to explore each. Not to mention there is a good amount of banter and interactions that I find to be well-written enough to get me very much invested; if not in the characters themselves, then in the relationships between them. I don't like kids much, so Inara didn't grow on me much, and because Skediceth has to be hidden a lot (and gets the least POVs I'm pretty sure), he also didn't get to be on the page much. Still, I like them thanks to how they interact and play off of each other and the two protagonists I did grow to care a lot about, Kissen and Elogast. I love that Kissen is allowed to be flawed and a pain in the ass, someone bitter and angry yet still full of love and capable of vulnerability. I love that she is strong both physically and mentally, willing to make mistakes and own them and move through them. Elogast has one of the most compelling emotional states to me personally, a man bound by guilt and duty to his ‘brother' to a point where he is willing to sacrifice himself to keep his family alive. The characters are absolutely the highlight of this story, and I didn't find fault in them even though their voices weren't completely unique. I didn't really have issues remembering who's POV we were in, but I do know that some reviewers were, so do keep that in mind if you're interested in the book.The world, and especially the way the gods worked, are very interesting. The magic system is very much wishy-washy, but as someone who completely prefers hard magic over soft magic, I found that I didn't mind the lack of explanation here. After all, the magic is contained to the gods; our characters cannot pull magic out of their ass (for the most part) and Skediceth, the god that *does have the most obvious magic powers, is only a very small god of white lies; of course he cannot do much. This lack of magical characters made it easy to not care about the lack of a proper explanation or rigorous limits for magic, since the magic was exclusively divine, and there were very many compelling reasons as to why the characters neither turned to gods and why the gods would not have answered their prayers.While this book is very enjoyable, and the ending is, i find, a good and exciting one, this is in no fucking way a surprising novel. If you keep your brain turned on whilst reading, you will most likely be able to predict many, many things this book throws at you. There aren't many surprises once you pick up the hints, so I found myself very coming up with theories about what may be going on with Inara and her fatherlessness, as well as with Inara and Skediceth, and there simply weren't that many mysteries beyond that. The one thing that surprised me was revealed at the end, with Arren, Elogast's kind-of adopted brother. Because we know nothing of him and see him on page once, his later involvement and betrayal did come as a surprise to me. I completely forgot he existed (kind of; I obviously knew he existed and sent Elogast on his quest, but I kind of forgot he mattered). So the surprise was both ‘oh, Arren is here?' and ‘oh, Arren is here'. It did feel like it came a little bit out of the blue, though to be honest, I also just was not reading this book critically or even all that closely. Regardless, there was an element of surprise mostly because of how little we know Arren. He's such a minor character in the beginning, basically there for a couple of pages before he's gone, that him being The Big Bad is just very out of the blue. The only hint that there's more to him than meets the eye is his fiery hearth-heart, but him being powered by divine magic as a result of his foolishness and the desperation of Elogast doesn't really count as foreshadowing or hinting for me. Overall it's just kind of out of the blue. Especially for me, to whom Arren didn't really exist.I do think this book is overall very solid. The ending especially god my blood pumping and I am definitely going to read the sequel once I get my hands on it. However, this is not a fast-paced book, and it is not a particularly thrilling book, nor does it have that much fighting in it. If those are the things one looks for in a novel, then this one's better skipped But if you are a reader that enjoys characters and character dynamics, and that likes to see and explore the setting, I think you will find this book to be a cozy read with some fun scenes thrown in to spice things up. It was enjoyable for me, at least!

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I did not know this was the start of a trilogy when I began the book, I'm glad I found that out before I got to the ending. I wouldn't put this in irritating cliffhanger territory, a lot is accomplished, explained, revealed in this first book, but you can clearly see an overarching plot that has a ways to go. With that in mind, I'm very glad from a pacing, character developer, world-building and plot development POV that this is one of three books, and it is under 300 pages, rather than some 900 page mammoth fantasy, it really works, all on on its own. I don't think I can say much more without getting into spoilers, I am invested in each of the character's stories, I love the lore as it is presented, I'm eager to get my hands on the next book in the series. Thankfully I seem to have come to this at the best possible time, because the second book is out and it looks like from my library's 'on order' status that the third will be published soon in 2025. Here's to epic fantasy feel without the page count, the intimate scale of focusing on three people (and a god or two), even as the fate of many hangs in the balance, helps remove that overwhelming factor as well. ♥️☺️ Oh, and huge props for disability and queer rep, and dealing with trauma and PTSD seamlessly woven into main characters identities. 👏🏻

Godkiller is a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre, offering a unique storytelling world and an intricately designed magic system that feels entirely its own. With political intrigue woven into its core, it delivers an exciting mix of enemies to friends to hesitant lovers, murder, betrayal, and found family, all told through multiple points of view that make the story feel dynamic and full. The character arcs are complex, and the plot is layered with depth, keeping you invested from the start. However, I can see why some readers DNF’d this book. Kaner does an excellent job of capturing boredom and mundanity, but placing a slow, mundane chapter directly after a vicious, action-packed scene creates an abrupt change in pace that can be jarring. It almost disrupts the flow of the book. Despite that, it’s still a refreshing and well-crafted novel, though the one thing missing is open-door smut, which would’ve given it that extra edge for romance readers.