Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar

They took his daughter, so Micah comes to take their kingdom. Fifty thousand gun-toting paladins march behind him, all baptized in angel blood, thirsty to burn unbelievers. Only the janissaries can stand against them. Their living legend, Kevah, once beheaded a magus amid a hail of ice daggers. But ever since his wife disappeared, he spends his days in a haze of hashish and poetry. To save the kingdom, Kevah must conquer his grief and become the legend he once was. But Micah writes his own legend in blood, and his righteous conquest will stop at nothing. When the gods choose sides, a legend will be etched upon the stars.

There is something missing, the start was nice, new perspective, new characters, new world, then the Siege of Kostany, I think this was the point where my reading lagged a bit, the battle reminded me of the Constantinople, where British Knights sieged the abovementioned City, Paladins, Jannisaries, still it was interesting, Magic or Magus were a surprise mix, again it bogged down, I was looking for more excitement(???!!). The whole time it was like that, highs and lows.

Maybe the characters were just mediocre for me, base on experience, I know how it feels to want to exact vengeance on a person or a group of people, but not to the extreme of what I read, it came out as melodramatic, but reading the first part of the book, there were nothing of that sort, sometimes it felt that two writers wrote the book.

The mythology was a mix of Chtonian Christian and Indian belief, I was more interested with these, also the battle between the two armies was noteworthy.

All in all a fascinating read, the difference between the start and last few chapters was really exciting and boring at the same time, the characters were ok but prone to dramatics, the mythology, suffice to say my 3* rating was for this one, ohhh also the battles. Should I recommend this one, ABSOLUTELY YES, I want to see what others think.

On to Book Two!!!

This was a brilliant read. It has taken me an age to finish it (because, life just got in the way!), but it was excellent.

I loved the world building and (some!) of the characters. I loved Kevah and Sadie, who I hope we'll see more of in the second book.

It was very well written and I can't wait to get stuck into Book 2, Conquerer's Blood.

Thank you so much to Zamil for the eARC of the book.

What use is winning if we lose everything in the process, even ourselves? This is the question that runs central to Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar. We see a war brought to the doors of Sirm; one that has been hundreds of years in the making led by a man, Micah, who is driven as much by vengeance as faith. On the other side, we have Kevah, a retired Janissary famed for his daring victory over a deadly mage ten years prior to the events in Gunmetal Gods. Both Kevah and Micah have lost loved ones, both have suffered and among all the parallels between them it is hard at the start of the book to know who to root for.

To read my full review, please head over to Black Dragon Books: https://www.blackdragonbooks.co.uk/review-gunmetal-gods/