Whom the Gods Love by M.M. PerryMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I always go into self-published books with a healthy skepticism and low expectations. Maybe that's a pretty harsh generalisation, but it's so easy for people to publish their work online these days that they've often neglected vital editing processes, making for books of a lower quality. Not always, but more often than not.
So with that in mind, this was actually a surprisingly entertaining read. There's plenty of action and the pace is fast, and I ended up getting through it much faster than I anticipated. It's full of fantastic creatures like Harpies, Ogres and Djinn and the main characters are a dynamic bunch with plenty of stories to tell. (view spoiler)
It does read like amateur work, though. There's such a great story here but it's more like a roughly detailed sketch than a full-colour mural. We have this great cast of characters: a snobby king, a grumpy old woman with her young, eager-to-please 'nephew', an enchantress, and two warriors - one the big, manly, 'brawn' type and the other the female leader of the troupe. They have great dynamics between themselves but it never feels like any of the characters are properly fleshed out. Take, for example, the romance between our two warriors, Cass and Gunnarr. There's zero build up and no romance, but we're supposed to automatically believe how in love they are with one another. It's spoken about on several occasions but there's never really any dedication to making us feel the depth of the relationship, or the strength of their commitment to one another. We barely get to know them as individuals, let alone as a couple.
Callan was probably my favourite character because he was the closest to being grey. He's this spoiled rich dude who can't stand bugs and orders people around, but he's also willing to sacrifice himself for his 'commoner' wife. That's a pretty freaking noble thing to do. I was a bit disappointed with how little effort went into fleshing this guy out because I could easily have formed a book-crush on him. He's got so many layers but is never properly explored, and that's just such a shame. Same goes for Nat, our budding wannabe-warrior, and Viola, the enchantress. Both are never really given an opportunity to shine, with the action being mostly carried out by the two warriors. For a woman who can use magic, Viola was poorly utilised as she performed very little magic at all. Nat was never given a chance to step up and have his big development moment, and even though there's still another two books in the series I really feel like he was a missed opportunity here. There's just nothing that really creates empathy and connection to the characters. You kind of just observe them going about their (rather mild) adventure without ever becoming truly invested in it.
I liked the variety of the action but it was all pretty tame, with no one ever seeming to be in any real danger. (view spoiler) They were often covered in grime, but there were no bumps and bruises, no scrapes and scratches along the way. There was very little sense of danger at any time. (view spoiler)
What I did really enjoy though was the storytelling. I liked the momentary diversions from the present, and they were short and sweet adventures with interesting characters. (view spoiler) There's a rather creative world here full of magic and legends, and gods who interact on the earthly plane. I think it just took a little adjusting to because there were a lot of gods to remember and, quite honestly, I lost track of who did what etc.
This is a fantastic, creative story but it's very raw and there is so much more that could have been expanded on to make this a really captivating story. With more characterisation and exploration of themes I think this would have been hard to put down.
As it stands, Whom the Gods Love is an entertaining frolic in a new fantasy world and M.M. Perry has the potential to become a strong writer in the fantasy genre. Her gift for storytelling is evident, and I look forward to seeing her writing mature.
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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