Fallen Gods continues the fast, chaotic, and horrific tale of a world close to total destruction. James A. Moore taking his modern sword and sorcery epic upward and outward, exploring this sprawling land, tightening the hopelessness around our protagonists’ hearts, deepening the gloom and doom, and stoking the flames of this devilish concoction of vengeful gods, devious demons, inescapable Undying, and a world-ending flood to a fever pitch, leaving humankind desperately casting about for salvation.

Returning to the spotlight is Brogan McTyre and his companions; these people the most wanted men and women in the world. Everyone seems to be coming for them, desperate to take them alive and sacrifice them to the enraged gods who are set on flooding the world in retribution for the defilement of their holy places. But Brogan doesn’t give a damn one way or another. His mind has been twisted into a dark place where all he dreams of is revenge on these gods who took his family as unwilling sacrifices, and he is determined to raise an army, discover a means, and then destroy the very gods themselves!

Swirling around Brogan and his band are many, many other characters. There are the people of the gods traveling across the flooding world to do the bidding of the divine. There are slavers attempting to survive another day. There are demons and their fiendish henchmen out to take the world from everyone. All of them moving onward and upward across the Five Kingdoms, as behind them the flood waters keep rising, the apocalyptic storms grow larger, and civilization crumbles under the encroaching wave of destruction. Humanity itself certain to become extinct unless someone finds a way to appease the gods, kill them, or take away their power.

As always, James A. Moore delivers a genre blending tale, mixing elements of fantasy and horror together into a tangy elixir of grimdark-esque action and adventure. The pacing is blistering fast and demanding, forcing a reader to keep up and keep track of everything which is going on, never letting up from first page to last. Every point of view character getting a chance to take their place front-and-center. Each of these morally ambiguous people developed enough for a reader to understand the diversity of the group, their differing motives and desires, and understand that they are all being affected by the coming apocalypse; each individual forced to make tough choices, which they might have misgivings about, but which, under the circumstances, they feel are their only hope to find salvation in a world gone mad. And it is in this development of the characters where the author triumphs this time around.

This does lead directly into my one criticism of the book, specifically the multitude of point of view characters. Book one had quite a few to keep track of: each group very distinct and busy with their own business. However, with Fallen Gods, James A. Moore adds even more point of view characters into the mix, turning a large cast into a huge one. And it does get literally insane at times. The multitude of individuals running around hard to keep straight in your head. Some may enjoy that sort of ongoing struggle to keep your head afloat in a rising tide of names and such, but it took a toil on my enjoy of the story as a whole, because sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.

Overall, Fallen Gods was an entertaining installment of The Tides of War series, fully capturing the gloomy, chaotic nature of a world-wide calamity and showing the personal struggles of the people caught up in an event which threatens their very way of life with extinction. And while I did have some issues with it, the novel once again demonstrates why James A. Moore’s is at the forefront of the modern masters of sword and sorcery.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

So... I read and reviewed the first book in this series not too long ago and enjoyed it enough to jump right in to this volume.

Author James A. Moore picks up where he left off, which is helpful to those of us who've read the first book (but will it be confusing to those who are starting with this volume?). Brogan McTyre is a wanted man. He and his family were chosen by the gods to be sacrificed, but Brogan broke custom and challenged this sacrificial offering to the Grakhul and he has continued to challenge the gods at every turn. What's the worst that will happen ...? The death promised by the sacrifice? Brogan and his allies build an army to fight off whatever the gods send. But the gods aren't too happy and it could mean Armageddon.

Moore delivers this book in short bursts - hitting the reader with a series of literary rabbit punches instead of looking for one knock-out punch. Each chapter is told from multiple points of view. Normally I don't care for this too much, but Moore has included a large cast of characters, made each of them unique in some way, but best of all, he has me liking most of them so that I <em>want</em> to read about each one.

Moore also finds just the right balance of action, drama, and humor, often using the different character/story lines to provide the reader with the needed boost of humor/action/drama at just the right time.

This is still a wild adventure with plenty of action and bloodshed and just as with the first book, we have a conflict on a grand scale - mortal men against the gods - which keeps the stakes high and exciting. But it is the immediacy of the present characters - their journeys and squabbles - that draw us in and have us turning pages.

Moore is clearly a talented story-teller. The action and characters here are throwbacks to Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber and the epic-ness of the story is not unlike Tolkien. It's all-around excitement.

And for all that there is one small issue with this.... This is not a complete story. You MUST plan to buy the entire series to get the full story. This book doesn't end so much as it builds a bridge to the next book. Do I want to read it? Absolutely! But do I like being suckered in to it this way? I do not. I'll buy a book based on my enjoyment of reading an author, not because s/he left a story unfinished.

Looking for a good book? Fallen Gods by James A. Moore is the second book in The Tides of War series - and that's important to know. It's thrilling, bloody, and fun, but you'll really need to know what happened in the first book to get the most from this volume.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

"The gods took my family from me! They deserve nothing but death and destruction!"

"Tell your gods I'm coming for them! Tell your gods that I'll see them dead for what they did!"

Brogan McTyre and his friends are wanted alive. The gods demand these men be sacrificed or they'll end the world. Brogan has other ideas. Thanks to the help of his friend's wife who studied under the Galeans, he has learned there is a way to kill the gods. Brogan is determined to find this weapon and kill the gods.

Fallen Gods is a strong story set in a hopeless world. I can't get over the overwhelming weight of the hopelessness. At any moment the gods through their servants the Undying can demand nearly any person as a sacrifice. They offer compensation that may appease a slaveowner whose slave was taken, but never the husband or father who just lost their wife or children like Brogan McTyre. Strangely enough it's revealed that rules are established by the gods that no more than one person should be taken from a kingdom in any month so as to avoid the very scenario Brogan found himself in where his entire family was taken. Gods do as they wish it seems, but actions have consequences and I do love to see horrid people get their comeuppance whether they are men or gods.

The author does a great job displaying how different people are dealing with the end of the world. Many are hunting Brogan despite not faulting his actions, some wish him dead, and most simply want life to return to normal. I enjoy the diversity of characters in that they all come from different walks of life. The addition of point of view sections from the king's was strong as the gods are no more fair or caring with them than they are anyone else.

Fallen Gods was quite enjoyable, I look forward to the conclusion, and I hope to see these ravenous gods be sacrificed for the good of all.

4 out of 5 stars