Hall of Smoke

This book takes the unreliable gods motif to its extreme! Set in a vaguely Norse related world where the gods are in effect pretenders against some more ancient gods, this story follows a Priestess who has failed to carry out her gods command to kill someone, and the consequences of that failure.

The mythology created here is very impressive, with an impressively well realized pantheon of gods who are petty and fickle. Our priestess embarks on an almost odyssey like journey across the lands of different gods to try and find and kill the person she initially failed to kill. The plot meanders a bit and some of the characters are not as fleshed out as others, but this is a solid and intriguing start to a series. Ultimately it is the gods and their mythology that steal the show here