Hall of Smoke

A great debut by a talented author. This book was action-packed, tense, and complex. Loved every minute of reading about Hessa's character and her often unyielding devotion to the Goddess of War, and I love even more the viking theme/vibe. What a badass book!

Really interesting fantasy world and concepts, enjoyed the main character and the plot twists!

The book might've been better had it not been for Hessa being captured that much.

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.

Hall of Smoke is told from the first-person perspective of Hessa, a priestess of the Goddess of War who is trying to set things right after having failed her deity by disobeying her order to kill a man. On her quest to regain her goddess' favor, Hessa becomes entangled in a war between the gods and discovers there's far more to her world and the history of its deities than she's been taught.

I really appreciated how Hessa's story managed to feel different to me in a lot of ways: the way her story unfolds and heads down some unpredictable paths, how it doesn't treat death and destruction lightly, how there is no romance. It's not a single factor but a blend of things that makes it seem fresh and unexpected, despite the cultures and gods not seeming all that original to me. (This isn't to say that's a bad thing, just that those did not feel especially different to me.)

There were a couple of stretches in the first half that were dull to me, and I didn't love it since the other characters tended to come and go and it didn't have the depth of friendships/relationships that are a big part of why I enjoy reading. But a strong beginning and second half, combined with all the ways it seemed atypical, made it a 3.5 star book for me and one that has me curious about the upcoming standalone sequel set about a decade later.

Longer, Wordier Review on My Website

This book takes the unreliable gods motif to its extreme! Set in a vaguely Norse related world where the gods are in effect pretenders against some more ancient gods, this story follows a Priestess who has failed to carry out her gods command to kill someone, and the consequences of that failure.

The mythology created here is very impressive, with an impressively well realized pantheon of gods who are petty and fickle. Our priestess embarks on an almost odyssey like journey across the lands of different gods to try and find and kill the person she initially failed to kill. The plot meanders a bit and some of the characters are not as fleshed out as others, but this is a solid and intriguing start to a series. Ultimately it is the gods and their mythology that steal the show here