I unfortunately forgot to download the e-book on my kindle before it was archived and/or lost interest in the book because it’s been on my tbr for way too long, so I wasn’t able to read and review it (on time). Since I Must give a star rating, I’ve given it 3 stars to stay neutral/in the middle. Sorry to the publisher for not having gotten around to actually read it. I never request a book without the best of intention to read it and review it, since I know how important it is to the authors in particular. But sometimes life happens and/or reading preferences change so much that you just don’t always get around to read a certain book anymore, even though at the time of requesting I was definitely planning to actually read it of course.

DNF. I found it interesting at first but then it started to feel very tedious to me. It might have just been the wrong time for a high fantasy. I may try again later.

Epic battles, grey characters, heroic women, and shady deities, this book has got it all. The world-building is pretty decent too and the book contained a good amount of violence as befits its grimdark status. The book has suitable tropes too, i.e., the believer-who-loses-his-way and the old-hero-who-comes-back-to-fight. Loved the decidedly Ottoman flavor that one of the empires in this book had.

I don't know exactly what turned me off but I do have some ideas, which I'll mention below:
Could not connect with any of the characters. I felt like I was viewing them from afar, which is why whatever happened to them didn't affect me.
Micah's on-screen entry was as a devout believer. While he didn't go all-in when it came to believing in all divine decree, he did have his own set of principles. His fall from grace and the rapey, incestuous reason for it made no sense at all!
One of the king's bastard princesses was dropped into the story very suddenly and became the rallying cause for one of the parties involved. Another thing that didn't work for me.
The descriptions of the hidden and dark all-powerful goddess seemed overtly sexual rather than horrifying.

If you like grimdark and epic fantasies, this book may be more to your liking than it was to mine.

Brilliant! The writing was very smooth, a perfect frame for the type of story the author wanted to tell. I found it a bit slow in the beginning, but then it picked up pretty quickly!

I have been sitting here for the last 4 days struggling to convince myself to put my thoughts to paper. Honestly, I think that just perfectly sums up how I feel about Gunmetal Gods.

Gunmetal Gods is set in a completely different world from ours. Imagine the Middle Ages, but set in the Middle East (at least from what I could gather). They have a weird version of a monarchy that I would struggle to explain here, since I still do not fully understand it myself. But then in another kingdom is another monarchy who have been at a tentative peace with each other. All of this changes overnight by complete luck.

The writing style did not draw me in. I found myself lost more often than I would like to admit, and things seemed to jump around way too much. I was unable to get invested in any of the characters partially due to this, the other part is I just was constantly questioning their actions. There did not seem to be any consistency in what occurred from chapter to chapter.

Gunmetal Gods started off very slow for me, I almost put the book down around half-way through it. Fortunately for this book, I was on an airplane home so I decided to just continue with it as otherwise I do not believe that I would have completed it.

Considering how much I love science fiction and fantasy, I am sad to say that this did not live up to my expectations.

ARC from NetGalley

I don't think I can give it an objective star review.

DNF @ 49%

This isn't a bad book, but it is a bit too dark for me. Once I got to the place where the one guy was raped by his demon daughter, I couldn't anymore. The writing is fine. The story is fine if you like it dark. I was having a hard time getting into it before I hit this point, but this was the final nail for me.

TW: psuedo incest? Sexual situations etc.

I really enjoyed this book. I love books that divert from normal [and mainly WHITE] in the fantasy genre. I loved the borrowing of the crusades, the Ottoman, Byzantine and Persian history that was mixed together for this adventure.

I loved the contrast between Micah and Kevah as men and warriors. I loved how neither was 100% good. I liked that Kevah’s story is about becoming a hero again and that Micah’s was about temptation.

When people say this is an “epic” and like GOT, they aren’t kidding. This book was sooo long it feels almost unnecessary. Almost. It does speed up and the characters face a lot in the book so its acceptable.

There is one main reason I can’t give it 5 stars…. I loved that Micah was tempted, however the person who tempted him is disgusting. I don’t want to include any spoilers, but readers should be aware that there is a kind of incest scene that is very graphic and uncessary. It could have been something else ANYTHING else than what happened.

I also did not enjoy the epilogue. But, I find myself to be one of those readers who never enjoys epilogues, so take that with a grain of salt. Epilogues feel forced and unnecessary to me and the one in this story did as well.

However, I would recommend this to fantasy lovers. This is an awesome book your missing out on if you don’t give it a try!


**I was provided an ARC for an honest review.**


#GunmetalGods #NetGalley

I thought the premise of this sounded interesting, then I stumbled across the author talking about it on Reddit, and some of the influences that had gone into it which further piqued my interest.

I found the beginning of the book to be above adequate. I was interested, I was not bored, but I also wasn't compulsively turning page after page. There was a bit of a slow simmer in the first third of the book as the world building was done, the players introduced, and the stage set. Note, the POV changes from chapter to chapter. I have mixed feelings about this, but I did not find it detrimental in this instance.

Zamil did a great job of slowly ramping the tension and stakes up, so by the time I got about halfway through I WAS neglecting some other responsibilities to see what would happen next and how the plot would conclude. One of the really interesting aspects of this book was that with the alternating POVs that were of characters that were completely at odds with one another, there was not completely a sense of which was protagonist and which was antagonist. I definitely found myself leaning in one direction, but I could see how another reader might be inclined the other.

Overall, I found it a worthwhile read, and hope to see more someday.

An epic story with persian/ottoman and roman/christian influences: a solid story with fairly well-sketched characters, a bit lacking in world-building. Sometimes the pacing was a bit stilted, hence only 3 stars.

“Faith fills their bellies when food runs out”

Gunmetal Gods jumps right into the action from the first pages. The contrast between Micah the Metal and Kevah, the two main characters, is intriguing to see. One is driven by a desire to conquer the world in the name of his faith. The other is a war hero known for performing a feat once thought impossible, slaying a “magus” or sorcerer. No longer driven to fight, he is called to the battlefield once again to face Micah the Metal and his forces as they come to conquer the city of Kostany.

The story pulls on the history of the Ottoman empire, with the use of elements like janissaries and sultans. The incorporation of magic along with more modern weapons like guns made for dynamic battle scenes that I haven’t seen in other books. The world-building in this novel was phenomenal. I appreciate the level of development for Micah the Metal and Kevah. Yet, I would have liked it if Akhtar went into the backstory of characters like the princess or the Ethosian a bit more than he did.

I definitely recommend this for anyone who loves a page-turning fantasy read. I would have appreciated some more breaks in the action, as it seemed to be fast-paced throughout the entirety of the novel. However, I enjoyed the book immensely. This is edited extremely well, so props to the author and their team in that regard. Crossing my fingers for a second book!

I appreciate NetGalley giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Ok, I admit, I like the tropes.

This book is a series of eye-rollingly obvious tropes, but I like how they're used. By dumping obvious characters in (old has-been has to save the day again vs guy who starts out righteous before going against his morals to complete the mission) the story is free to work around the characters and let them grow.

My favorite part was when I was disappointed... there was an allusion to someone being the long-lost so-and-so, good lord do we really need this and then they died AND IT WAS AWESOME. I was expecting this arc conclusion and was denied like no story I can remember. So thank you Akhtar for that.

Overall, a good read.

**I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me first talk about nice things about this book; the way this book portraying of men who would do anything for their loyalty and faith is so fascinating. I love Kevah's snarky comments, while I think of personality of Micah as a delusional and blinded by his faith. Aschere is a fascinating and strong character. She is my favourite.

The world building in this book was so fascinating and interesting to read especially the political tension between the royalties of this book. I like how the characters ambition and interests wrote really good.

Now, this book was so disappointing. Despite of having fascinating world I don't have any idea what the narrator are saying sometimes. Like the word "khatun", "zabadar" etc. They don't have a clear explanation what it fucking mean. What i'm also hating in this book was the way male characters see the female characters. Like they are a little sexist. But what it pushed me to DNF this is that there this particular scene that really makes me feel so uncomfortable.

I need a fucking decent or acceptable explanation for it immediately. So, I keep reading and keeps saying to myself "Keep reading. There's probably a better explanation for it". But the explanation wasn't given to me. The scene was so questionable and the narrator keeps going on in the plot without having a reasoning to that uncomfortable scene. I mean, I deserved to know what the fucking hell is that. But none was given. So here I am writing this review of how the book was so disappointing.

So yeah, 2 stars. I am very angry and disappointed.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review through Netgalley.com.

The story description drew me in for this one, even though I had mixed feelings about the length of the book. The story started off being told from the POV of two characters, and slowly their backgrounds and the worldbuilding picked up. About a third of the way through the story, I started to lose some interest. I stumbled through a section that seemed very slow, and I didn't see much in the way of why it was needed. At this point I admit I started skimming more that reading. Then I started skipping whole pages. Finally I did read the last 20 pages or so, and of course, by that time I had lost much of the details of who was where, and what was going on. I tried to go back a bit to recapture some of it, but I just couldn't.

I did enjoy the early part of the story, the character and world building. Definitely was the stereo-typical characters, each with their flaws and strengths. I would recommended this to anyone that does enjoy a longer, slow to build story line.

Original piece of independent fantasy literature. I enjoy reading it and would be interested in reading more from this author. I will recommend to my fantasy geek friends!

i really enjoyed reading this book, I thought the premise was unique and the characters were great. I look forward to more from the author.