Book Review: Forgotten Gods
Forgotten Gods is an alternate history story set in
1745 Scotland. Scottish rebels are at war with the British Empire, but they are
not doing very well and defeat seems to be inevitable. In desperation, the
rebels decide to call upon the daione
sidhe, known to others as the fairies. The Fair Folk say that they will
help out in the war on one condition: that they be allowed to roam free in the
human world. The rebels, who are in dire need of as much help as they can get,
agree to the terms. The daione sidhe
make good on their promise and soon they turn the tides of war. However, the daione sidhe are the fairies of old, the
sort of fairies that people told horror stories about how they kidnapped humans
to warp and twist for their amusement, the sort of fairies that devour the life
force of humans. And now they have free reign to move around among humans…
What I really liked about this story is the atmosphere and
the characters. The fairies’ arrival invoked a lot of mixed feelings within the
characters, as well as instill a feeling of paranoia. Some hate the fairies for
preying upon their people, while others argued that the war would’ve been lost
without the aid of the daione sidhe;
in fact, some of the conflicts stem from the fact that people can’t agree on
whether or not the fairies helping out is a good thing or a bad thing. Add to
the fact that many people still believe that fairies are a thing of stories and
legend and you have a situation where people are under attack by forces that
they cannot understand and there becomes a growing desperation to figure out
just what is going on.
The book has no shortage of characters and focuses on a
couple on both sides of the war to give readers a wide range of perspectives on
the whole ordeal. Most of the characters have an intriguing character arc that
not only shows us how they deal with the madness of the arrival of the Fair
Folk, but also provides different perspectives on the toll that the war has on
them. Some of the more important characters include Marian Cameron who
possesses the ability of astral projection, the Scottish soldier Robert Wardlaw-Maxwell
who was present when the deal with the daione
sidhe was made, Englishman Alfred Grayson who finds his own situation getting more
and more desperate as the Fair Folk lay waste to the English armies, and Ina
Bruce who finds herself getting acquainted with some of the Fair Folk while not
realizing just how dangerous some of them can be.
If there is one problem with this book, it is that
viewpoints switch so much that sometimes it becomes a little hard to keep track
of what is going on. Most of the characters have storylines that are easy to
follow, but occasionally the transition between character arcs can be a bit
disorientating for reader. Some of the characters also stay out of the
spotlight longer than others, meaning that readers might forget some of the
plot details from their stories and have to reorient themselves. There aren’t
that many action scenes for a book about a war, so fans of battle scenes might
be a bit disappointed. The daione sidhe,
despite being the key element of the plot, do not show up as much as one may
think. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; their actions are always
memorable and their presence continues to cast a great shadow over the setting,
their strange behaviors and great powers creating characters that are
intriguing to read about yet menacing enough to put readers on edge whenever
they decide to act.
Forgotten Gods is a book that any lover of
supernatural creatures should pick up. The cast is filled with interesting
characters that all have their individual worries and thoughts about the daione sidhe, and the daione sidhe themselves provide
interesting supporting and antagonistic characters that serve as great
callbacks to how people used to view fairies before the ‘winged pixie’ versions
became popular. It is an experience that readers will not soon forget or
regret.
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