With this being the second fantasy series by Andrea Stewart I have read, I am very convinced that she is unparalleled in worldbuilding with the most creative magic systems.

Here it involves gods, a war, transformations, altered humans, jewels and restoration. And all of this spanning centuries and told from five different POVs. With all that complexity, Andrea Stewart still makes it seem effortless and manages to bring the reader into the world without the need for info dump after info dump. On the contrary, I was eager for more lore and history.

On the other hand, and this worldbuilding and POVs takes a bit away from character building. While they are all very interesting and definitely deserve their own chapters, it's a bit hard to really root for them and not just see them as people moved across this rich world purely for plot reasons.

I'm just saying this though because usually I enjoy my character driven stories more. But here I was so enthralled by the world that I didn't mind very much.

I have high hopes for the next books in the series, and even deeper lore and character arcs.

4,5/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @LittleBrownBookGroup_UK for the eARC!

#TheGodsBelow #Netgalley #Bookstagram

Now this is how you start a new fantasy series!!

I was hooked from the very first chapter and didn’t want the story to end. Hakara is one of the best protagonists that I have ever read and I was rooting for her from the very beginning.

The magic systems are intricate and fascinating, I cannot wait to see how it plays out in the next one.

I’m obsessed.

The world is Shattered.
One God has taken it upon himself to restore the world from the devastation that the mortals have inflicted, one realm at a time. But is all as it seems?
All the while, the mere mortals that caused the Shattering, are scraping by. When Restoration comes, if caught, they will either disappear or be Altered.
The story follows sisters, Hakara and Rasha, separated when their realm was Restored.
One Altered and the other a mortal. Will they find each another?

I did struggle slightly getting into the story for the first 3/4 of the book, but that could have been due to things going on in my personal life.

This is the first Andrea Stewart book I’ve read and I enjoyed the world building and will be looking forward to the next instalment of The Hollow Covenant series.

Big thanks to NetGalley and The Little Brown Book Group for this eARC.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬 & 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬: adult Asian inspired fantasy, dystopian world, gods, war between a god an human kind, lqbtq+ romances and characters, magic system used as gems, multi pov and storylines, two timelines

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Gods Below is the first book in a new Asian inspired fantasy trilogy centring around the two sisters Rasha and Hakara, who at that a young age end up on opposite sides of an ancient war between a powerful god and the humankind.

The novel is set in a world with a dystopian character to it and has a distinct focus on the themes of resource depletion, climate change and global warming as well as the impact humans have on the earth. Apart from those concerns the characters in this novel are also faced with the threat of a force field similar to the Fold that either kills or transforms people into mammal, winged or reptile like human beings called altered.
The environmental themes were also cleverly used as a part of the world building, which was an aspect I really liked since it also paired well with the magic system establish in this book. Said magic system uses gems (god gems to be specific) as a method to enhance a person’s physical strength or even beyond that with the help of holding your breath and a bonded altered partner.
Overall, I´ve found the magic system quite interesting however my only complaint would be that I didn’t fully understand the necessity of the “holding your breath” aspect of it.

Apart from the battles the two sisters and the characters surrounding them must fight above the ground, The Gods Below also takes the reader on a doomed expedition underground to find the ancient and abandoned realm of the gods together with another set of characters. This storyline was probably my favourite of the novel, and I hope we get to explore it more in the next book.

Overall, The Gods Below was a great start to a new series that not only gave a good introduction to its characters, world and magic, but also nicely blended together fantasy, dystopian with a tiny bit of sci-fi as well.
Lastly, some little aspects and elements of this book that I really liked were the nice chapter lengths, the small The Bone Shard Daughter easter egg and that it had some great plot twists.

Up until this point I had heard a lot about Andrea Stewart's work but had only read one of her short stories in an anthology. I was eager to read one of her novels, and The Gods Below did not disappoint. Everything is wonderfully detailed, and each of the narrators help the reader explore the world fully.

What I found especially unique and entertaining was that this book is both apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic. In The Gods Below, the world was split into many realms so that they could be "restored", an event that dramatically changes the environment and results in some people changing into humanoid creatures or disappearing from reality entirely. The being behind the restoration, a god, can only restore the realms one at a time. The book starts with one such realm being restored, and then follows the story of characters from that realm.

By doing so, Stewart shows us the before, after and the current terrifying situation of living in a place that could disappear at any moment. Some narrators are from the realm that has just been restored, while others are in the next realm. Sometimes books with multiple narrators feel too heavy, the focus split too much. But I felt that Stewart had just the right amount of balance in this book. I also thought it was very inventive to have one of the narrative voices tell the story of the past and how the current situation was created. It is a heartbreaking account, so have some tissues on hand.

One of the secondary characters is ill with an unknown condition, and her health is deteriorating. While I normally would advocate for the disabled character to have their own voice, writing her through the eyes of one of the narrators allowed for Stewart to tackle the idea of curing and saviour behaviour head on. The narrator wants to save their friend, and it was good to see him realise his mistake in doing so.

It may seem to some that the disabled character is passive, following along with the narrator's wishes to cure her. However, I felt that it was made clear that her focus was on spending time with her friend and doing something they both enjoyed, rather than wallowing at home.

I enjoyed this book a lot and can't wait for the sequel! There is also gorgeous artwork to accompany the book which I highly recommend checking out.

I'm curious to learn more about the gods; given how many other individuals possess abilities, what makes them superior to us? Given that they are actually mortal, they are obviously not entirely immortal. This book covered a portion of the magic system, but I hope we get to see more in later installments as I know there was in the author's original series.

While _The Gods Below_ showcases Andrea Stewart's vivid imagination, it fails to breathe life into its characters. The lack of depth in both characters and themes leaves this fantasy novel feeling disappointingly _hollow_.


> _"Sometimes a heart breaks all at once. Sometimes it is chipped away in pieces until you wake up and notice it is no longer the same."_

---

## not a disaster, my expectations were just too high

I had very high expectations about _The Gods Below_. While i haven't read Andrea Stewart's previous work, _The Bone Shard Daughter_, i saw it being recommended again and again alongside other books i loved.

I very much wanted to love this, but i didn't, and i'm quite mad about it! It's a 3 stars rating, because the writing is fine, the world-building interesting, and the plot is not riddled with holes. It probably could be a 4 stars, but i'm mad that i was fooled and that my expectations weren't met.

---

## one-note characters

**We follow quite a few characters in this story, but they are all so stupidly one-tone that they bored me out of my mind.** One lost her sister, one was abandoned, one wants to help her family. Oh and there's a guy in a case on a fool's errand (could have liked this part if it was shorter - it relied on an old trope that was very transparent and therefore annoying).

Those single traits are all the characterization they'll get, and **you can predict their every move, including the twists.** They had **the same conversations over and over again with the NPCs** (they don't get more than 1 line of backstory) with no changes. **They don't grow, they don't learn**, and when they do, it's in the last 40 pages of the book and honestly that's way too late for me to care.

Finally, **i can't forgive having 3 main female characters, and yet giving the only interesting backstory to the man!** He's not even a main character, and he's the only one to get any kind of twist, emotion or tension! **I might read the next book, but only because i want to know what happened to him,** not for anyone else :/


---

## lots of _hollow_ ideas

_The Gods Below_ is a book **which a bunch of ideas and themes, but it doesn't explore any of them meaningfully.** A few examples:

### the magic system

There were **a lot of fun ideas**: gods, magic that comes from the underground air with various degrees of power, gems you can infuse with magic to get special effects, magic that restores the climate, ... but none of them were truly developed. **We're not in the beginnings of the fantasy genre anymore, saying that some rocks are special isn't enough:** i want either a lot more details about the rules of it, or a sense of wonder and dream when using it (or both, i won't spit on that lol).

**Anytime a new magic capability was unveiled, it served the plot either immediately, or very soon after. Things end up feeling contrived** and that's upsetting, especially when it's not the author's first book at all.

### being a climate refugee, separated from family

The main sisters, Hakara and Rasha, are **essentially climate refugees**. The land they lived on was polluted, and they had to flee a catastrophic event to survive. **I initially thought this was a reference to the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean** - the girls are fleeing a giant wall of death that overpowers everything, with very little preparation time, and slim chances of success.

**We don't really get to see any of the difficulties of being a refugee or re-building after such an event.** Hakara mentions not having papers once or twice, and she lives in a slum, but **overall her life isn't so bad.** She has money, is able to save a bunch of it (yeah sure, she's smuggling illegal goods, but the danger of that doesn't appear to be high), isn't hungry or sick,... On the other side, Rasha is left alone as a kid, so **we don't see how the people adapt to the restauration and their new lives.**

**The sisters also get separated in the process,** and that fact is brought up over and over again, but in a one-tone way. I expected an exploration of the older sister's grief, her guilt at not being able to save her baby sister, but there was none of that. Hakara just moped around repeating that she wanted to find Rasha, never going deeper in her feelings.
Rasha was left alone as a child, and should have some trauma. The story says that she does, but it doesn't really get deeper than "i hate my sister because she left me", and "i now believe in god".

---

### joining a rebellion

**As usual, where there is an authoritarian regime, there is a rebellion.** And at least some of our characters will be joining it (otherwise there'd be no story!). But i found the handling of it very light. I barely felt the stakes and the dangers of their endeavors. **Since none of the side character had any emotion time on page, i couldn't care less about their injuries or deaths**. All their names blurred together.

**The political aims of the various groups wasn't clear, and neither were their positions and influence on the world.** Andrea Stewart tried to have a "little group against a big power, they're doomed" kind of situation, but **the gravitas wasn't there**. I didn't feel the lack of resources, everyone always had exactly what they needed to survive, and so many of the twists were predictable.

---

## endnotes

**Overall i'm disappointed in the treatment of everything. The political themes advertised as the main focus point were barely handled, the characters were boring and the twists came out of left field (or were so obvious i saw them from 10000 miles away).**

Have you read it? Have you read Andrea Stewart's other books? Let me know in the comments below!

Following a war that shattered the world a pact was agreed with the god Kluehnn. Land by land restoration takes place but at a terrible price. Hakara is separated from her sister Rasha and she will spend years trying to find her again. Using magical gems Hakara will summon power to help her fight.

Very well written, well paced, action packed novel. Great characters who will fight for each other and their futures. There are gods, godkillers, magic, fighting, romance and even fun. Look forward to the next book.

I am disappointed that this was one of my most anticipated books of the year, yet I did not enjoy it. I just got fed up with the characters that were uninteresting to me, and the magic system that did not translate well onto the page

Unfortunately, I won’t be continuing with The Gods Below, having decided to DNF at 20%. I gave it a good try, but ultimately couldn’t push through. The premise intrigued me, blending a dystopian world of mythological gods with themes reminiscent of Princess Mononoke, exploring nature and war and magic powers. I was excited to see how this would develop.

However, the book’s use of multiple POVs was a major stumbling block for me. I’m comfortable with 2-3 perspectives, but beyond that, it becomes difficult to follow, especially when timelines shift between characters. By the 20% mark, I had encountered about 5 different POVs, which made the story feel disjointed and less engaging.

While others might enjoy this narrative structure, it wasn’t for me, and I found it hard to stay immersed in the story.

Unfortunately I had to dnf this

This started out super strong and I loved the premise. The magic system was super interesting and the world. However with one of the character I found the author was using too many romance tropes and it made the whole plot line between them far too predictable. There were the other character stories that were interesting enough but after a while
I found my interest waning so I dnfed.

I definitely feel this book will find its audience and I’ll be in the minority here. It’s just not a book for me.

The Gods Below, the first book to Andrea Stewart’s newest fantasy trilogy is set in a destroyed world. Centuries ago, humans used a magical resource to power their technological innovations. Not caring about its endlessness, this ultimately brought ecological degradation and destruction to both their world and the one of the gods who lived below the surface. In their desperation, one human strikes a deal with a feared God: obedience for the restoration of the world. Restoration which uses the energy of half the human population to restore the ecosystems and leaving the other half altered, giving them wings, horns or other transformations.

Throughout the story, we‘re following a number of POVs:
two sisters which got separated during the Restoration: one becomes an Altered being and joins the followers of the One God while the other sister ends up joining the resistance against said god
A young woman desperately trying to restore honour to her clan
One of the Elder Gods living through the time right before and after the Shattering
A man on a dangerous expedition to the realm of the Old Gods to find a way to help his dying friend
It sounds like a lot of POVs but in my opinion, getting to know each and every one of them is really worth it. There are some books where you’re dreading certain chapter narrators but this is not the case here. I loved each of them, we get a great cast of (queer) characters. I felt for their hopes and struggles and they all add so much to the story and world building. I’m equally confident that they will add more in the following book as the author manages to end of their views in a way that left me exited to follow the rest of their journeys.

My favourite part of the book is the world building. I like topics of this story: a world with drastically changing climates and ecosystems, a Shattering brought by human innovation and neglect of finite resources and all this mixed with gods, magic and altered beings. Andrea Stewart does a great job of explaining her world to the reader, she is adding new information in almost every chapter which makes getting to know the world both a slightly confusing but still very satisfying experience. I’m usually not a fan of snippets from texts at the beginning of each chapter but here we get parts of a diary or historic research (I’m curious to know who the author is) and I found myself looking forward to each chapter beginning. It works really well in this book and adds a lot to the world building.

While I love both the story and the world Andrea Stewart has created in this book, one thing which couldn’t convince me was the romance. I think they missed some development. This is probably due to the high number of POVs we have in this book, to progress both the story and the reveal of information, we do not have time for romance. I know the author can create heartwarming romances because we do have a side relationship in this book which I really enjoyed.

The world building and unraveling of mysteries continues throughout the whole book and the author teases some really exciting pieces of information at the end of it. I’m so curious to see where the story goes. I’d rate The Gods Below 4.25 stars.

I loved The Boneshard Daughter, so I was very excited to jump in.

The worldbuilding didn't disappoint, and the plot was good, but it felt like there were too many characters in play and some of them felt like a chore to read whenever their chapters came up and didn't contribute as much. I would have liked more detail on the Pre-Shattering plotline. The magic system was very interesting and worth reading this book for that alone.

It was ok.

The worldbuilding was great, the characetrs were amazing, I just couldn't get invested enough in the story, and at the end I realised I didn't really care about the characters or what happened with them. The multiple POVs weren't helping either. Andrea Steward's writing is, however, phenomenal as usual, and I recommend this to fans of complex epic fantasy .

In her first series The Drowning Empire, the epic fantasy trilogy more obsessed with bones than a dinosaur documentary, Andrea Stewart showcased her vivid, imaginative worldbuilding; a multi-layered magic system that kept on giving; and her gift for addictive, instantly compelling characterisation. With The Gods Below, the first book in her new series The Hollow Covenant, Stewart has taken this formula and cranked it up to 11, and the result is a stunningly ambitious book that had me completely absorbed from start to finish, albeit when you try to explain it, it sounds like you’ve fallen asleep on the couch after guzzling too many strange-coloured mushrooms your friend brought back from the fairy forest.

But I’ll try anyway… the story takes place in a world which mortals almost ruined by leeching the magic from it to power their technology. Luckily, one of the gods, a cunning fellow called Kluehnn, stepped in and made a pact: he’d restore their ruined world, but at a price: each kingdom he restores, half the population is killed to power the restoration and the other half are “altered” into beasts of the horned, winged and rocked varieties, monstrous versions of their former human selves. Meanwhile, the non-restored kingdoms nervously await their time as one by one the lands fall to the restoration, blocked off from their neighbors by virtually impassible poison gas barriers. Oh and while they’re waiting to find out if they’ll be god juice or a creepy monster, they must mine special-powered “god gems” out of the earth, dodging dangerous magical gas, while Kluehnn’s lethal god killers roam the lands killing off the remaining gods.

I haven’t even scratched the surface of this plot and as you can see, it is A LOT. Readers who remember the fairly calm start to The Bone Shard Daughter, book 1 of her previous trilogy (albeit there was a sinking island) will not be at all ready for the start of this one, in which two sisters are in a race against time to escape the rushing black wall of death as a new land faces restoration. From there it hardly ever lets up. The first third is pacy action mixed with worldbuilding revelation after worldbuilding revelation. Just as you think you get a hang on the world, another layer is revealed. And you know what? It works. It works well. Partly because it is fascinating, so wildly alien in some parts, and partly because the secret to Stewart’s books is that everything, no matter how wild the magic system or worldbuilding, is always anchored to the characters.

And, just like her previous series, the characters here are addictively, compellingly brilliant. Stewart has a knack, which is rarer than you think in fantasy, of instantly making you care about a character. Such is the way with the 5 POVs – yes 5, Stewart is continuing her POV juggling act and as a writer with way too many POVs of my own I heartily approve – in this book. One character is desperate to save her sister, cruelly separated from her in one of the “restorations”. Sympathetic. Another is trying to navigate a long lost path down to the gods. Put it straight in my veins. Another is forced into some kind of Hunger Games-style battle to be the best assassin in town. Hell yeah. These instantly absorbing character arcs get increasingly complex as their motivations are nuanced by romance, political motivations, duty and betrayal – but they never get less than incredibly compelling. My favourite was Sheuan, the marvellously cunning and Machiavellian manipulator of people who you constantly root for despite being the most morally grey of them. But I loved them all – I was never disappointed to switch POV – and that is the sign of a fantasy writer for whom character is front and centre.

Another Stewart skill is that brilliant fantasy trope of presenting the world and then slowly peeling it back only to realise that you knew nothing; nothing about the magic system, nothing about the world. Though there’s clearly many more secrets to come in books 2 and 3, we already get some peeling behind the curtain here, and it’s a devastatingly clever act. This is a land of mysteries wrapped in secrets wrapped in you know nothing, Jon Snow. It’s why Stewart’s fantasy appeals to me so much, I think; that hit you get from a Robin Hobb or Mark Lawrence of secrets behind secrets.

It’s also worth saying how deliciously dark this is, more so than her previous series. This should go without saying given that the basic plot is hinged on the premise of regular massacres of 50% of a kingdom’s population and the removal of the humanity of the rest – don’t think about it too long because it gets worse the more you ponder it – but the darkness continues throughout, with horrific killings and delicious dark detail. It’s not quite grimdark, but it is as dark as non-grimdark epic fantasy ever gets, and this allows Stewart to really dig deep into some fascinating themes, such as the cost to kingdoms of being cut off from each other, emphasised by the alien-looking nature of those who manage to mix with mortals. Living in a continent that feels increasingly suspicious of each other and reluctant to take in outsiders, I feel the timely chill of these themes of unity versus nationalism over my shoulder. There are also fascinating themes of propaganda and how easily manipulated a world can be by seemingly incomprehensible forces. Read into that what you will – Stewart’s themes are more hinted at than slapped in your face – but it makes this a fun book to decipher.

Finally I have to mention the romance element. As you’d expect with a Stewart series there are engaging romance plots both straight and queer, but these are heightened in this series by the, uh, inter species possibilities presented by mortals getting together with the beast-like “altered”. I’ve always been completely convinced by Stewart’s romance writing, and here every single coupling feels complex and real and fierce.

Overall, the Gods Below offers insanely ambitious worldbuilding and some of the best character arcs in fantasy… Andrea Stewart is back, and it’s time to get obsessed again.

Amazing world. Impressive magic system.

The book presents it self as a book about two sisters, but includes multiple PVO from different characters including the sisters. To be honest it became a bit to complex for me keeping track of all the characters motivations and ambitions. Some characters were definitely better than others and my favorite was not one of the sisters.

As mentioned this is a fantastic world, it was just a little too much to keep track of, but for the right reader it’s probably a 4-5 star.

Thanks to Orbit and NetGalley for providing an ARC for review.

Andrea Stewart never disappoints when it comes creating original worlds and magic systems and this was definitely the case with The Gods Below. The world building was superb and I felt that, already, Stewart has created a history that adds such a layered context to the world so far with just one book. I think it will be amazing seeing how that expands with the remaining books.

The magic system, like that in The Drowning Empire trilogy, felt unique and I’m excited to see that develop as I feel like the first book only scratched the surface. I imagine there’s a lot more to come with what that system can do.

My one frustration was the pacing. It felt quite slow in places which made it hard to read at times. I think this was specifically felt with Shezuan and Mull’s perspectives as I struggled to see how they contributed to the overall story. However, I imagine this may become clear in later books. I also felt that the romances seemed a bit shoehorned in and unnecessary for the characters development. Hakara’s and Rasha’s arcs through book 1 did feel well rounded enough for me without it. The exploration of their relationships as sisters felt like the most important thing, at least in book 1 so will be interesting to see if my views on the romance changes at all.

Overall enjoyable with an exciting ending which has me excited for book 2.

This was such a gripping and tense first book in a new fantasy series that I found myself really diving into this world that Andrea Stewart has created.

Told in 5 POVs we really get to know these characters and it really helped with building this intriguing universe. I quickly found myself rooting for these characters and my heart broke when the sisters got separated. None of them are perfect, each has their own motives and their own voices. I found myself so eager to read from each character to see how their stories progressed.

I liked getting to learn about the magic system in this one and also I was so interested by the idea of the rebirth and those who have been altered. I'm really intrigued to see how the story progresses and the path these characters end up on. I definitely recommend picking this one up if you're looking for a new unique fantasy series!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I was immediately drawn into the story by the tension in the story. This is a multi-POV book which was a little jarring at the beginning as the POV's were switching quite quickly for my taste and there was a lot of world0building to grapple with. But the higher stakes and pacing made it easy for me to become immersed in the story I appreciated how the story leaned more into suspense than surprise.. The pacing of the story was well-executed, although I noticed that the first 70-80% focused heavily on setup, leading to a fast-paced and action-packed final 20%. This structure effectively built anticipation for the sequel, and I will definitely be picking up the next one. Despite not connecting with all the characters, I thoroughly enjoyed The Gods Below and found it to be a strong start to a new epic fantasy series.

A brand new series by the author of The Drowning Empire series, which I loved very much!
I had really hoped to jump straight into this new series and automatically fall in love as I did with the author's previous series, which sadly was not the case. I hate to say it, but I really tried to love it. It's very complex, with a lot of information that just did not come across as anything but confusing. I read and love Dean Koontz, so strange and confusing is not something I shy away from. I guess this just wasn’t for me. I finished it, and I did somewhat become invested in what happened to various characters we met, just not enough to maybe read the next one. It is a really hard thing to not give this new series first more than about 3 and a half stars, but I just felt disconnected from the entire story.
I truly hope you give it a chance! You will probably not have my reaction, I could just be having a bad month! It's got an interesting premises and a lot of potential so I will give the next one a chance.