Book Review #1 - The Godless

Australian author Ben Peek has broken into the fantasy landscape with a notable work, The Godless. Imagine a world in which a pantheon of all-powerful gods have killed each other off until there are none left; imagine a people who no longer have gods to worship, who fumble along through the cataclysmic results of their gods' deaths, and who find a way to survive. Imagine all of this, add humans born from the almost-radioactive world, born with super-powers, and then drop a new god into this world, an avaricious, meddling, angry god.

The result is a book that, although not fast-paced, kept me interested. The main characters are so flawed as to be almost anti-heroes, but they're also so gifted with super-powers, so it's almost unfair. There were times that the action plodded along at such a slow pace that I wanted to put it down, but then there were explosions of action that drew me back in. The strengths of Peek's writing are in his characters and in his world-building. The world is fascinating, unlike any other, and the characters are deeply developed. If Peek can get his pacing to match these strengths, he will become known not only in Australia, but world-wide.