An Indie Review - Gunmetal Gods - Zamil Akhtar



4.5/5 - Gunmetal Gods is a very good saga opener that comes with the promise of more to offer.

Akhtar does a fantastic job of keeping the reader engaged through an overarching atmosphere of mystery and intrigue, giving just enough away to keep you coming back, but not too much that you can see his plot twists coming.

This book based loosely on the religious crusades follows the viewpoints of Kevah, a warrior slave trying to escape his former glory and battlefame and Micah, a religious zealot, famous commander and all round ruthless nutcase as they manoeuvre against each other and their allies to take control of a holy city. Both characters are well written and developed as the story progresses, there's an obvious good and bad going on but both characters could be classed and flawed and morally grey. The supporting cast are also enjoyable and while I didn't invest in them in the same way I did Kevah and Micah, I didn't feel anyone was just written in for the sake of it.

The only think I wasn't huge on was the pacing. Not enough for it to be an outright criticism or a negative with the book but the pace is relentless and it feels like there were points of the book where the story needed to breathe. It meant a few of the relationships in the book felt like they developed unnaturally quickly. That being said I listened to this on audio book and finished it in 3 days so that could just be my own perception.

Overall this is a really good start to an interesting world filled to the brim with mystery and I cannot wait to get back to it.

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