Herald

In a fantasy world where God has been killed and eaten and his angels hunted down for the same fate, a young girl from a backwater village finds herself on an unexpected quest to set the world right.

The world building in this is fantastic and the premise is an extremely compelling one. What if God was known to have existed, but was killed? What if feasting on an angel's flesh gave you strength, longevity, and powers? But it falls extremely short of delivering on that interesting idea for several reason.

First, and one of the most obnoxious parts that seems to be agreed upon by many, was that this book was an absolute slog to read. It wanted for an editor so badly. It needed to be trimmed. It feels like it wants to be Lord of the Rings, but there's so much redundancy at times. I frequently see "about 200 pages" as what is quoted to be removed and heartily agree. If this had been a shorter book, my review would have been more forgiving. It also had way more typos than any other book I've read lately.

Secondly, most of the characters are not that likeable. The main character is so naive that the charm wears off and it just becomes irritating. The book is also full of her constantly questioning things--things that are happening and philosophical questions, and it feels like at no point do answers manifest themselves. But neither does she make any effort to find those answers. She is one of the most passive protagonists I've met in a great while. Infuriatingly, at one point, she even takes note of this and... just wishes it were otherwise? None of the supporting cast are that great either.

There's some interesting philosophical questions to be had in here, but they feel shallow. The author seems to be asking you to ponder on these questions but then never really offering a solid in-universe or narrative viewpoint to contrast against. It has all the depth of someone posting to social media, "Does anyone really have the right to judge another? :think::think::think:"

There's also a twist and it's the kind I hate the most: important characters feel shocked and hoodwinked but so does the audience. The narrative goes out of its way to trick you. Hell, at one point, I was going to complain about how much it wink-wink-nudge-nudges the reader over points of dramatic irony--which was all in service to tricking the reader. I'm not a fan of that, personally. I can recognize some people might be, but I despise twists that have almost no way of being puzzled out by a keen-eyed reader.

The book is meant to be the first in a series (a trilogy I believe?) and despite being left with an enormous lack of answers to questions raised in this book, I don't intend to read it. Fool me once.