To Cage a God

To Cage A God has been on my radar for a little while, with its dark Imperial-Russia vibes, a political element (I'm always drawn to) and the promise of being 'perfect for fans of Shadow and Bone' I was all in when it came up on NetGalley (thank you Daphne Press for the advance copy) .

I found the whole thing to be quite slow, despite the fact there are some big events very early on. In terms of getting going event wise it was rapid, but it felt like I was missing something vital and because of this I almost quit out, but I'd decided to keep going to 25% and see how I felt...then at 50%, and by then it seemed silly not to see where it was going to end up.

With the languages (Zverti and Grand Imperial), we have words and phrases here and there, which I always think is great when an author has taken the time to create/adapt helping us readers to feel more immersed, but if you're not telling me in the same/next line what it means (which is a method utilised sporadically) please give us a guide so we can learn and understand whats being said, not just infer from tone or sentance.

Now, there is actually a guide (genuinely, always appreciated) but its at the back and basically invisible until you get to it on a kindle, and with the Russian-inspired setting, the formal and informal use of names, diminutives, and endearments also had me double checking I was still reading the same 2 characters, and a guide before I started would have counteracted a lot of that.

The other thing that that slowed it down for me was the characters mentioning things we simply had to accept (like their caged gods) until a flash back or conversation imparted some context, and these two things in particular made it hard to fall into the book and forget the outside world.

The problem overall was it just felt clunky. The premise is great, the promise of something more kept me reading and we ended up with a language guide, got some relevant information and I didn't hate the characters, but it just felt, lacking. As the story progressed it built a bit of history, some world, a political and religious landscape, and we met new characters and they get their own POV's which was enough to keep me reading to see where it going, but not enough to make me want to read any more - but thats ok, because it kinda ends in such a way that it could absolutely just be the end.

3.5 stars, rounded up (on NetGalley) because I didn't quit out and that counts for something!

This book is profoundly boring. The concept is mildly interesting but falls so flat as we are given such little world building. The gods and magic make very little sense - how did we know about this other world with gods? How did they ever think to bind them? What are the constraints? There seem to be different rules for everyone. We’re dropped into a story with a backstory that has huge plot holes - how did Irina’s SECOND IN COMMAND not know anything about where she lived or what she was doing with gods?? There are so many more questions like that it’s wild. I could go on and on. The only reason it gets two stars is because it was well written and the character of Vitaly was actually decently interesting and I liked his romance with Serafima.