C-
Genre: LGBTQIA, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Theme: Mythology
We are here, the end of the series. It’s been a fun time. But did the final climax (i.e. this book) live up to the promised drama suggested in the preceding books?
I made a critical error with this installment. I’ve been more active on social media lately and I let myself get swept up by the hype around Shattered Gods so my hopes were impossibly high. It is a very rare story that can live up to the hype I saw, which focused on the high drama present in the book, suggesting that this was a fitting climax for a series that had been building up to the final showdown between Circe and the Thirteen for nine books with a significant portion of the tension of those nine books relying on the threat of Circe. Shattered Gods is an average, okay story. Nothing that set my world on fire, but eminently readable.
It is with a heavy heart that I share that the first part of Shattered Gods suffers from something other books later in the series have also suffered from: a slow pace with not much happening plot-wise but lots of heightened emotion. This gets a bit boring after a while. Fortunately, it didn’t take too long for things to take a turn and then I tore through it at a rapid rate.
I won’t discuss plot specifics at all in this review. All you need to know is that there is a reckoning for the Thirteen and it heavily features Circe, Hermes and Atalanta.
Aside from the pacing issue I spoke about, sometimes I felt like the ‘Olympus must fall’ plot was curtailed by it being a romance. There were so many more boundaries that could have been pushed and actions that could have been taken with this particular part of the plot to make the emotional intensity match the intensity of the plot. By that I mean that the Thirteen’s take on Circe’s plans involve them feeling a lot of very intense emotions around the promised threat to their safety and the safety of their loved ones. We spend a lot of time (as in preceding books) with the Thirteen on high alert, but they don’t do much about it. So the rather uneventful plot in the first half doesn’t live up to the heightened emotions of the characters anticipating Circe’s actions. I say that knowing that I, myself, might not have survived a more suspenseful second half, but it is well-established that I’m not the bravest soul when it comes to suspense.
As with all the newly formed polycules in this series, I struggled with what felt like insta-love between some of the polycule – who, prior to meeting, had been enemies. But that’s a problem that I have with the trope and not necessarily a failing of the book.
Something that I’m not sure I have put forward in my reviews of the series so far is that these books are ridiculous, in mostly a good way. Mostly this is around the perpetually heightened emotions and the – at times – significantly less dramatic plot. When you’re in it and reading it, it’s easy to forget that because the story often pulls you along. If you enjoy high emotional drama in your reading, then this ridiculousness will hold tremendous appeal!
Overall, I’m glad I completed the series, especially the earlier books. Do I recommend this book? Absolutely read it if you’ve been invested in the series. Do not attempt it without reading the rest of the series first. But is it enough of a high point to end a series on? Hmmm, I’m not sure. As I said, my expectations were very high due to the publicity and promotion of the book, and ultimately, it was just okay. My expectations were also sky high because of how the Thirteen had been fearing the moment that Circe was in Olympus. Yes, the second half is faster paced than the first, and yes there are some very dramatic moments in the plot, but days later, it feels kind of flat to me. YMMV here I think.
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