The Gods Below
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In this sweeping epic fantasy comes a story of magic, betrayal, love, and loyalty, where two sisters will clash on opposite sides of a war against the gods.
A divine war shattered the world leaving humanity in ruins. Desperate for hope, they struck a deal with the devious god Kluehnn: He would restore the world to its former glory, but at a price so steep it would keep the mortals indebted to him for eternity. And as each land was transformed, so too were its people changed into strange new forms - if they survived at all.
Hakara is not willing to pay such a price. Desperate to protect herself and her sister, Rasha, she flees her homeland for the safety of a neighboring kingdom. But when tragedy separates them, Hakara is forced to abandon her beloved sister to an unknown fate.
Alone and desperate for answers on the wrong side of the world, Hakara discovers she can channel the magic from the mysterious gems they are forced to mine for Kluehnn. With that discovery comes another: her sister is alive, and the rebels plotting to destroy the God Pact can help rescue her.
But only if Hakara goes to war against a god.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stewart (The Bone Shard Daughter) explores how blood ties can strain against the ties of friendship in this stirring first volume of a new epic fantasy trilogy about sisters separated by divine intervention. Hakara and Rasha, orphans fleeing the god Kluehnn's "restoration," a process that alters or vanishes half the human population, wind up on different sides of a magic barrier. Hakara spends the next 10 years exploiting her sensitivity to magic to earn passage back to her sister. Meanwhile Rasha, who has been transmuted by restoration, adopts Kluehnn as her patron and trains to become one of his special agents, known as godkillers. Politics complicate their separate plans as human rulers plot to forestall restoration and the other gods work to stay hidden from Kluehnn's agents. While the duplicity of Kluehnn is never in doubt, Stewart maintains a good balance between the sisters and their competing goals, creating a fascinating level of moral ambiguity so that readers will feel that each character is justified in making her choices. This promises good things for the series to come.
