Unfortunately this was a convoluted read, with the switching POVS and the plot despite not much happening for most of the book. I usually enjoy epic fantasy but this was not the case for this one.

A free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Having escaped the destruction of the Thera/Delos analogue (which was the seat of the previous pantheon deposed by the current bunch), our heroes split into 2 bands. One band heads to the Egypt analogue meeting up with the Tiamat analogue (released by the eruption) on the way, and then end up raiding the seat of the current pantheon. They liberate an insectoid hive enslaved by the pantheon to produce resin - which is used to create ambrosia to power themselves.

The second band travels to the North to find more sky metal - which is poisonous to the gods. Here we find an Aztec culture and possibly a Norse culture (maybe a sub-Arctic shamistic culture?)

I'm actually enjoying this a lot, although I think adding the New World cultures into the mix may be a bit too much of a stretch. The fight scenes are believable (not surprising as Cameron is a re-enactor), and despite the cinematic plot, it does not read like a script (as many novels do seem to now). Hesiod is coming through more strongly - I'm ashamed to say I didn't quite pick up on that for a while; at least 3 of the characters may be proto-Olympians.

Recommended, and I'm eagerly waiting for book 3.

Where to start!

There was so much happening in this story. It was more enjoyable than the first book as there was more story and less worldbuilding.

There is still a lot of characters to keep up with, trying to remember which character is a god or a dragon or a bull leaper.

The story is set over a lot of locations, like most epic fantasys it is a lot to get your head around when you're reading it but it was a lot easier to read than the first book.

I like how the plot to overthrow the gods ends up happening but it takes an awful lot to get there.

Thanks to the publisher for a gifted arc copy of this.

Miles Cameron's fantasy novel are always gripping and original. This isn't the story that change my opinion as it's action packed, fast paced, and well written
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Why do I do this? Why do I wait so long before finally sitting down and writing out a review, leaving to chance that I may save from my ever-entropic memory some semblance of the facts and impressions of the book? Perhaps it is a kind of test. If it is, then this book passes the test indeed.

This is the second book in a planned trilogy, I have previously reviewed the first book. Indeed, common sense and decency says that both writer and reader (re)read that review before embarking on this one lol.

We can talk about the previous book’s climax now. It ended in a great combination of the eruption of Thera and what I am going to loosely call the god vs the serpent mytheme. Don’t worry, I will keep this brief, I just want to throw out some of the parallels so that we can see what Cameron is working with here. In this mytheme, and it is found all over the world, a god contends with a serpentine beast which in older academic literature was seen as an allegory for nature.[1] Just search for the term chaoskampf. Anyway, Greek is unusual in having at least two of these.[2] In the context of the bronze age the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Elish, the contest between Marduk and Tiamat must have been the most famous. Certainly, Cameron’s retelling retains some sense of that epic explosiveness. But Cameron manages to riff-on without exploiting or, worse, “deconstructing” the myth and his twist is a welcome one. The second book continues in this vein, drawing from the world’s bronze age mythologies and cultures and adding to them the kind of character driven writing that helps make the world feel alive.

This is book is Cameron’s Two Towers moment, in that the fellowship once gathered is now sundered.[3] I’ll sketch out some impressions without going too much into the plot. On one hand we have Zos along with scribe Polon and mystery child Daos. Zos, as I might have said before, ought to be boring. After all he is he closest to a cookie character sword and sorcery character and his backstory seems played out to Tartarus and beyond…and yet…and yet you can’t help but be charmed by him.

The other team is led by Era who, as I am keen to reiterate, is certainly not poorly written (and her relationship with Dite in this book adds something to her character) but she just continues to be quite a bit shit. All that time in the previous book jockeying for position only to endlessly complain. It feels churlish to refer to her and hers as the B-team, especially since what they get up to is so much more epic in scope. They still have everyone’s favourite insectoid desert hermit, they have a magic donkey AND a bear, they travel to this world’s versions of Britain (the tin isles) and the new world etc.

I suspect we will be seeing more of the new world in the next book. It is an interesting analogue with the expected flora (tobacco) and fauna (jaguar knights, oh my) and the human built environment seems to draw from diverse inspirations. Absolutely love that one guy has an Aztec war club.

There is a third character stream here, arguably the best. Meniaten rules Narmer (our Egypt analogue) which needs must be one of the most powerful states. It certainly seems analogous to Ramessid Egypt (they own territory abroad, love chariots, and are quite war-like). She is clearly inspired by female pharaohs like Cleopatra and Hatshepsut,[4] but Cameron wisely avoids the totemic hagiography such figures attract in modern mass media. She understands the double edged sword of authority, unlike Era, and she is aware of but not beholden to her sexuality, unlike Sypa. We meet someone whose back is up against the wall – who typifies the Roman ideal of ruling an imperium being, essentially, to hold a wolf by the ears – but who is consistently trying her best. She’s a great character and a wonderful excuse for Cameron to write what must be the best chariot battle scene I have ever read. It makes you realise how truly insanely awe-inspiring Qadesh must have been.

The world

What about the mysteries the author hinted at in the last book? It is a testament to how well drawn the setting is that one cares. We have already spoken of the introduction of iron but C’s surface level use of that faerie trope hides some interesting little threads. I still want to know what is going on with those stone hammers. What about the old gods? At one point Pollon draws a stone arrow and you lean forward into your book expectantly…and still we are denied. We learn a bit more resin and the dry ones. I am still wondering exactly what the other gods meant about Anzu – here a lion, not a bird – being a relic from the old gods. There is much here of the Lovecraftian theme promised by the word chitinous.

The world here feels lived in because, I suspect, the author has so obviously lived in it. Let’s ignore the action sequences. Fight scenes are like sex scenes – it’s about who can write them the least poorly. Cameron clearly knows his stuff here, as anyone who has read his Chivalry series can attest,[5] and is capable of conveying what is happening without taxing the reader or coming off self-indulgent.[6] Leave such scenes I aside, what I mean is the word lives in the smaller details. Early on there is a scene or two where one of our heroic teams (Zos’) go to parley with someone. This is not a trivial trip and requires some camping. It is easy enough to miss the little details in what is already a great scene full of character development and lore exposition, but the worry of heating the clay pot without cracking it (gradually!), the careful lighting of the taper for the fire, the improvised tongs, the particular bronze tool used to make spoons…the scene comes alive a way they seldom do in genre fiction. Cameron has clearly been there and done that and it shows. One wonders how many clay pots he has ruined by scraping too hard.

Nor is this the only such scene. He knows that certain bows need thumb rings (learn that lesson once) and there is something familiar in the way he describes the back pain you get when you’re knee to wearing armour. It is not the only scene, but it typifies the book for me.

I hope I haven’t wasted too much timing pointing out historical/archaeological/mythic parallels. Even so, I have only mentioned a few of them. There is much more to the books than check-box site-seeing and you will note I have avoided the bugman term “world-building”.

The Netflix in the room.

Sword and sorcery stuff is, I think, still in vogue despite whatever happened to the last season of Game of Thrones.[7] Netflix has tried and failed to launch a series of competitors, based on books (The Witcher, Shadow and Bone, Letter for the King). These were all abject failures.[8] But here in Cameron’s new series is a gift from the chitinous pseudo-gods. The bronze age is under-explored territory as it is and the infusing of magic and fantasy makes this into a particularly evocative pastiche. It would look especially good on screen. All the tick-boxes demanded by idiots around conference tables are here! You get the mainstream appeal of the Greek/Near-Eastern/Egypt analogues with all the additional diversity you can handle. Your strong female lead is baked in. A living breathing world that is just asking for spinouts both spatial (what else is happening in Vetulania?) and temporal (show us the old gods). You can move between sci-fi and fantasy or character study at will. For the rest of us, there is simply the fact that it is a great story.

I do not in any way suggest that Cameron has been mercenary in his composition, but simply that if any modern series is deserving, it is this one. This novel is well worth your time.
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[1] No doubt the people of the 19th century were influenced by the weight philologists gave to Sanskrit, and to RV 1.32 in particular.
[2] At least. The St. George motif could arguably represent a late third. Perseus, Bellerophon additional ones to the Zeus and Apollo stories…
[3] Jackson’s moving the death of Boromir from TTT to TFOTR is perhaps his one and only improvement on Tolkien. But then Tolkien himself was ardent that he wrote one book, not three, so I suppose it matters not.
[4] The latter may well be the reason we refer to Egyptian kings as pharaohs (metonymy for “great house”).
[5] I also quite enjoy the idea of Fiore dei Liberi being portrayed like some Glenn Gould savant but for swords.
[6] I think Cameron must have popularised phrases like “making a cover” and I know I have started to colloquially explain riposting from posta di finestra as “rain off a roof”…
[7] I did not watch, sorry.
[8] Did not watch, either, sorry.

Storming Heaven is the second book in Mikes Cameron’s bronze age trilogy. The first book ‘Against All Gods’ was a favourite of mine last year.

I feel like this time around the book isn’t as strong as its predecessor. I didn’t feel as connected with the events of the story or the characters. However the quality of the writing as ever is just brilliant, so I found sections where I became bogged down passed over very quickly and the story moved on/

Hopefully book 3 sees the send off this series deserves.

Miles Cameron is an amazing author. What a fascinating continuation to the series - I loved the characters and the pacing was perfect. Fantastic!