Name: The Gods Below
Author: Andrea Stewart
ISBN: 9780316564908

About the book

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.

ISBN9780316564908

PublisherOrbit

Publication Date07/08/25

Pages544

selfonashelf

192 Followers

4.5

With this being the second fantasy series by Andrea Stewart I have read, I am very convinced that she is unparalleled in worldbuilding with the most creative magic systems.

Here it involves gods, a war, transformations, altered humans, jewels and restoration. And all of this spanning centuries and told from five different POVs. With all that complexity, Andrea Stewart still makes it seem effortless and manages to bring the reader into the world without the need for info dump after info dump. On the contrary, I was eager for more lore and history. On the other hand, and this worldbuilding and POVs takes a bit away from character building. While they are all very interesting and definitely deserve their own chapters, it's a bit hard to really root for them and not just see them as people moved across this rich world purely for plot reasons. I'm just saying this though because usually I enjoy my character driven stories more. But here I was so enthralled by the world that I didn't mind very much. I have high hopes for the next books in the series, and even deeper lore and character arcs. 4,5/5 stars Thank you @netgalley and @LittleBrownBookGroup_UK for the eARC! #TheGodsBelow #Netgalley #Bookstagram