Hannah M. Long

Epic fantasy featuring warrior priestesses and fickle gods at war, for readers of Brian Staveley's Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne. Hessa is an Eangi: a warrior priestess of the Goddess of War, with the power to turn an enemy's bones to dust with a scream. Banished for disobeying her goddess's command to murder a traveller, she prays for forgiveness alone on a mountainside. While she is gone, raiders raze her village and obliterate the Eangi priesthood. Grieving and alone, Hessa - the last Eangi - must find the traveller and atone for her weakness and secure her place with her loved ones in the High Halls. As clans from the north and legionaries from the south tear through her homeland, slaughtering everyone in their path Hessa strives to win back her goddess' favour. Beset by zealot soldiers, deceitful gods, and newly-awakened demons at every turn, Hessa burns her path towards redemption and revenge. But her journey reveals a harrowing truth: the gods are dying and the High Halls of the afterlife are fading. Soon Hessa's trust in her goddess weakens with every unheeded prayer. Thrust into a battle between the gods of the Old World and the New, Hessa realizes there is far more on the line than securing a life beyond her own death. Bigger, older powers slumber beneath the surface of her world. And they're about to wake up.

Hall of Smoke

Sophia 

anxiouspixie

I would compare finishing this to finishing the first season of Game of Thrones for the first time (as someone who hadn't read the books). A lot happened that I didn't quite understand. But I enjoyed it nonethess.

Savannah Winchell

WUTTUP BABYYYYYY I LOVED SOMETHING FINALLY

A good story! I couldn’t get into it, though. Not sure why it wasn’t clicking for me. Super cool book, but I won’t be reading the sequel. 

Sunyi Dean

Impressive and atmospheric debut that gives a really cool sideways slant on "relationships with gods" in a way that you normally only see in contemporary settings.

Jennifer

Wow!!! I highly enjoyed Hall of Smoke and I had a wonderfully immersive journey with Hessa from the first page all the way to the last one!! This is an impressive fantasy debut and it has many things I enjoy in the genre: solid worldbuilding, the power ot divinity, nicely paced plots, and a nuanced main character. Set in a world inspired by Western ancient civilisations and their mythologies, this adventurous book is also a story about challenging our belief systems & going beyond the surface in understanding major paradigm shifts in a civilisation.

What I enjoyed:

+ Worldbuilding: I love the mythology inspired worldbuilding. I've read a lot of fantasy books with mythology elements, and yet the divinity systems in Hall of Smoke is both unique and refreshing. There are a lot of details to learn, particularly the names as well as the stuff happening between the physical & spiritual realms, but within a mere few hundred pages, H.M. Long managed to create a worldbuilding which feels very complete and immersive. 

For example I loved how solid Hessa's vision is. It shows the effort Long has put into fleshing out both a solid divinity system as well as the spiritual plane in the novel which drives the plots. This is done by carefully linking the visions, landscapes, and Hessa's headspace in a seamless fashion. I felt that all of the worldbuilding details introduced felt relevant because the characters directly interact with the Gods and the surroundings. 

+ Characters: I find myself rooting for Hessa throughout the novel. For a fast-paced novel, her headspace is well explored and developed. The adventures and obstacles she faced in the novel provided a solid redemption arc - to prove herself worthy of her deity. But alongside this character arc, this is also a journey of self-discovery - both her confronting her own beliefs and being more externally aware of the changing mindsets out there (and deciding whose words to believe in). This provides a lot of tension that makes Hessa's narrative deeply engaging.

+ Plots: This is one of the rare novels that strikes a balance between being driven by the plot and the characters. Hall of Smoke is highly action packed and fast-paced, but most of the stuff happening felt justified because the timelines are tightly connected to Hessa's character development.

+ Themes: As I've mentioned earlier, this is very much a story about challenging one's belief systems & zooming out to understanding paradigm shifts at the civilisation level. I think H.M. Long sets up the changing paradigms at both the character & worldbuilding level really well through her plots. 

For example, I really liked how the backstories and the visions Hessa had reveals the darker agenda that goes on in being an Eangi priestess. The development of Hessa challenging her own belief system comes about from the struggle between satisfying her original deity and choosing what's better for the greater civilisation. And H.M. Long did this beautifully by slowly peeling off the glossy surface of the Eangi deity and the concept of New Gods as the story progresses. 

What's impressive about the thematic development is that the confrontation of belief systems are also reflected in the greater worldbuilding. Through traveling across different areas in the worldbuilding, Hessa also realised that it's not just the Eang which is changing. That this change brings in different belief systems and deities to the greater society.

What to to be aware of:

- Pacing: I don't think this is an issue that compromises my reading experience. I liked that this is a fast-paced book, so that it offsets the details I have to learn in the worldbuilding. It's a page-turning material in that the plots are action packed and engaging. Just want to let prospective readers know that there's a lot going on so you'll need to stay focused throughout to grasp the bigger picture of the messaging.

- Sectioning: The trickiest part of the novel is due to the design of the worldbuilding. It took me a few chapters to get used to the transition between the vision, flashbacks, and the real world. The transition was not obvious at first so that could potentially be tricky to follow through. It's tempting for me to read a fast-paced book quickly, but this is one of the cases where it's helpful to slow down - as both the flashbacks and the visions contain important build-ups towards the plot.

To sum it up, I'm impressed. Hall of Smoke is highly enjoyable and substantial. This is a rare debut novel of an extraordinary calibre that it felt very complete from start to finish. It's also mythology-inspired fantasy at its best: packging an engaging story with powerful messaging on belief systems. I love the worlduilding a lot and I look forward to reading H.M. Long's follow-up novel to learn more about it!

N.B. This book contains following triggering content: weapons, blood, physical violence, death, and loss of loved ones

(4.5 stars out of 5)

Nickie Mohler

I love that this is Viking inspired. I thought the writing was great. I wanted to love it, but it was just ok. I need to feel something for the characters, whether I love them or hate them, just something. I did not care about any of these characters at all. There was no character development, and I just didn't care. I might still give the next book a chance just because I did like the writing style.

Deborah Kerr

Premise: 5 stars
Setting: 5 stars
Writing style: 5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Originality: 5 stars
Pacing: Negative 10 stars

I loved, loved, loved the first 200 pages of this unique, beautiful fantasy. And then the gut-wrenchingly slow pacing killed any interest I had in Hessa and her story. Seriously, if the plot had been moving backward, it would still be moving faster than what actually happened.

I finished this book but didn't care about anything that happened by the time I did.

Emily

Really neat world building and magic system. I did find myself getting confused at the similarity of the names throughout (confusing her goddess with her husband often)

Kinga 

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this one. 

Oh boi, that was LONG. *no pun intended*

I've got to say, in a shortened version, with actors skillfully bringing the characters to life, this would be such a great movie. I can easily imagine the cinematic sceneries, powerful Gods and monsters, battle scenes - Hessa's journey keeping the audience at their toes. The author had an idea for a really fantastic story - actually, as weird as that might sound, the story itself  was  really good. But somewhere between the author's mind and the book form, it lost the potential, as if the author failed to breathe life into it.
I had two main issues - first, pacing. I can read a book twice as long, provided it's interesting. This really dragged, and despite wanting to know what happens next, i had to push myself to keep reading. And, secondly - the characters. I couldn't connect to Hessa's feelings, or bring myself to truly care about any of the others.


What starts as a priestess failing at a simple task and one horrible raid, grows to be a story of Gods and other powerful forces at war, of Fate and impossible tasks and the very order of the protagonist's world being threatened. I loved the scope of it, the mysterious main storyline slowly unraveling, each information shaking the foundations of Hessa's world.
And there was a point - somewhere around 30% - where i could almost sense the earth trembling, where I held my breath as if really in the presence of terrifying Gods, and I hungered for that story to sweep my off my feet and into the brutal, dangerous reality of Eangen and Algatt and their Gods and much more. 
Instead it faltered, slowing with every page, the spark dying slowly, until all that propelled me forward was curiosity.


And that, unfortunately, isn't enough.
Maybe some people wouldn't mind it so much, but for me - I have to care. About the story. About the characters. I don't really like first person narratives, but obviously they can also be done well - which wasn't the case here. Hessa's narrative felt distant, dry. 

Look, here's the thing: If the character is to lose her loved ones at the very beginning of the story, and the thought of them is what drives her for the rest of it, occupies her mind so much.... the author has to do a great job at making me care about them. Yes, it's diffucult, they're not here anymore. But if that's what you choose to write, you need to succeed at that. And unfortunately, they were nothing but names in Hessa's memory - "ah yes, her husband. she is feeling sad right now, probably". I wasn't sad. I didn't feel her being sad. The writing style relied too heavily on telling, especially in the matter of relationships - I was just informed that she feels sad. Hessa herself had a great character arc. She grew so much, together with the story, and I really wish I cared more about that. But once again, I got bored often and disconnected from her struggles.
As for the rest of the characters, they weren't exactly flat, but not properly fleshed-out, either. It's a shame they didn't get more space, that we didn't get to know them better.
 (view spoiler)[ ironically, the only character that managed to catch my interest turned out to be a traitor... Well.  (hide spoiler)]
So as epic as the journey was, I ended up being able to feel exactly one part of Hessa's experiences...

... I, too, was tired. 

It had so many ingredients to become a phenomal story, I'm really sad it didn't work out.

Coralie | she/her

3,5/5
Trigger warnings: gore ; slavery

This story was incredible. It transported me in a world of war between gods. Being a big fan of mythology, Hall of Smoke tempted me a lot, and I have not been disappointed!

H.M. Long created a gorgeous universe here! There are so much details that you will perfectly pictures the world she wants us to discover. There are lots of characters in this story and I was glad the author created a very detailed glossary of names! It helped me a lot not getting lost with all these different characters.
Hessa is a wonderful character. A strong woman who won't let her mistakes define who she is, and will do anything to right her wrongs. 

Hall of Smoke will transport you in a cruel war between ancient and new gods. In the journey of Hessa, young woman who will discover that some things can be wrong even though they seem to be right. A beautiful story full of battles, mythology, friendship, betrayal and revenge.

Quinnie

Ivory

Javiera

betty books

Heather Hall

Ashley Hernandez

H.M. Long

Epic fantasy featuring warrior priestesses, and fickle gods at war, for readers of Brian Staveley's Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne. IEpic fantasy featuring warrior priestesses and fickle gods at war, for readers of Brian Staveley's Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne. Hessa is an Eangi: a warrior priestess of the Goddess of War, with the power to turn an enemy's bones to dust with a scream. Banished for disobeying her goddess's command to murder a traveller, she prays for forgiveness alone on a mountainside. While she is gone, raiders raze her village and obliterate the Eangi priesthood. Grieving and alone, Hessa - the last Eangi - must find the traveller and atone for her weakness and secure her place with her loved ones in the High Halls. As clans from the north and legionaries from the south tear through her homeland, slaughtering everyone in their path Hessa strives to win back her goddess' favour. Beset by zealot soldiers, deceitful gods, and newly-awakened demons at every turn, Hessa burns her path towards redemption and revenge. But her journey reveals a harrowing truth: the gods are dying and the High Halls of the afterlife are fading. Soon Hessa's trust in her goddess weakens with every unheeded prayer. Thrust into a battle between the gods of the Old World and the New, Hessa realizes there is far more on the line than securing a life beyond her own death. Bigger, older powers slumber beneath the surface of her world. And they're about to wake up.

Hall of Smoke

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