God's War | 
#12DaysofChristmas
I read several really good books in January, but God‘s War was my favorite. I‘m kind of miffed with myself that I didn‘t pick up the next book in the trilogy yet. Maybe in January 2024.
pickThese are two short stories set in the world of the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy. They come before the first book (tagged) chronologically, but I suggest reading them after. They are only about 20 pages each so there is not a lot of room for world building or explanation. Seams is about a group of boys in the war and After is about Nyx‘s mother. I enjoyed both!
pickJanuary Reviews
"She had already been to hell. One prayer more or less wouldn't make any difference."
I meant to read this in 2022 as my pick for non-patriarchal society, but ran out of time. I‘m so pleased I didn‘t set it aside, because I loved this!
It‘s also really hard to summarize. The planet is still fighting a centuries-long war. Nyx, formerly a queen‘s assassin, is a bounty hunter who will take any job. She has a team of mercenaries.⬇️
Still in love with Hurley's stuff. The bugs, virus and queered gender roles, things that made me interested when I first read Into the Future was really cool to see again in a full novel, and while the characters occasionally (rarely) felt like actors playing out rehearsed scenes, I can't really fault anything else.
Muslim city-states run by women because all men are drafted as children to fight in never-ending Holy War - an elite force of warrior women known as bel dames who hunt down deserters and take their heads - a persecuted minority of mutant shape-shifters - a society where all tech is insect based and magicians can summon flesh beetles or wasp swarms on command - and all of this on a strange desert planet of giant bugs and blood-eating sand
On the Muslim planet Umayma, the Queen of one of the many feuding tribes uses her Bel Dames to collect the heads of deserters from an endless Holy War.
Nyxnissa is a former Bel Dame, now bounty hunter, and she teams up with Rhys, a pacifist who can controls insects (a common talent in this “bugpunk” future) for a dangerous mission that could change the world.
This is my #ThrowbackThursday recommendation ‘cause I‘m gearing up for the sequel.
pickWeird bugs, weird gender stuff, all in a Muslim-ish world on a planet out in space? Hells yeah. Full review up on GR.
#alreadydownloadedthesequel
"Life is what you did with what was done to you."
"I made myself."
#readingwhileconfident
#damntruth
Reading under the covers both warms my body and my nostalgic heart.
"She had already been to hell. One prayer more or less wouldn't make any difference." ????
I'm just over half way through this first book in the trilogy and can't possibly imagine what the next two books have waiting for me. This book is mind-blowing. Hurley deftly weaves history, religion, and sociology into the world she's created.
