By: Leah
The Gods Below
- Author: Andrea Stewart
- Genre: Fantasy
- Publication Date: September 3, 2024
- Publisher: Orbit
- Series: The Hollow Covenant #1
Originally posted on Leah’s Books.
Thank you to Orbit for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
CONTENT WARNING: mention of death of a parent, mention of parental abandonment, grief, body horror, violence, blood, gore, murder
Plot Summary
The Gods Below begins a sweeping epic from fantasy’s newest master worldsmith Andrea Stewart, a story of magic, betrayal, love, and loyalty, where two sisters will clash on opposite sides of a war against the gods.
A divine war shattered the world, leaving humanity in ruins. Desperate for hope, they struck a deal with the devious god Kluehnn: He would restore the world to its former glory, but at a price so steep it would keep the mortals indebted to him for eternity. And as each land was transformed, so too were its people changed into strange new forms—if they survived at all.
Hakara is not willing to pay such a price. Desperate to protect herself and her sister, Rasha, she flees her homeland for the safety of a neighboring kingdom. But when tragedy separates them, Hakara is forced to abandon her beloved sister to an unknown fate.
Alone and desperate for answers on the wrong side of the world, Hakara discovers she can channel magic from the mysterious gems they are forced to mine for Kluehnn. With that discovery comes another: Her sister is alive, and the rebels plotting to destroy the god pact can help rescue her.
But only if Hakara goes to war against a god.
Overall Impression
After flying through a buddy binge read of The Drowning Empire, I obviously couldn’t wait to get my mitts on this book. Stewart has a way of crafting these incredibly detailed and vivid worlds. I was thrilled to see what this book had in store, and it met all of my expectations.
The characters are intriguing right from the start. Readers get to see the connection that exists between Hakara and Rasha, and understand the obligation that Hakara feels towards her younger sister. This underlies Hakara’s struggle throughout the book to get back to Rasha. I couldn’t help but empathize with both of them throughout the book. Hakara is a sister desperate to reach Rasha, while Rasha has no idea what to do without her sister because she’s too young to be alone. Both perspectives were emotional in parts. We also meet other characters that are integral to the story: Mullayne, a brilliant inventor trying to follow in the footsteps of a legend; Sheuan, a young noble willing to do anything to restore her family to its former glory; and Nioanen, a character from the past whose storyline has a major impact on the present-day storyline.
One of Stewart’s biggest strengths is her world building ability. She dreams up these fantastic worlds. In this series starter, she has created a dystopian world that was fractured and destroyed more than 500 years ago, where the gods roam the earth and people can’t be exposed to parts of the environment. There is an entire pantheon of gods and a history of the Shattering, leading to the unbalanced pact that mankind made with Kluehnn. Humanity is forced to mine gems for Kluehnn so he can Restore each country. There’s a nearly impassable barrier between each country, with the promise that they will fall once everywhere has been Restored. But there’s a cost to the restoration beyond the gems for Kluehnn.
“Once, the stories said, Langzu had been a place of soaring green mountains, of plants growing even in the cracks between stones. The rain had been cool and sweet, the seasons gentle.
Restoration would make it so again. And once Kluehnn had restored the entire world, the barriers between realms would fall.
The process would disappear half the population too, and turn the rest into monsters.”
With five different POV characters, Stewart manages a brilliant feat by keeping each of them distinct and identifiable. It never felt confusing when the chapters switched, and each POV is clearly stated in the beginning of each chapter along with the time period, and a snippet of background about the gods and the Shattering, providing a fuller picture by the end of the book.
The plot was engrossing, to say the least. Each main character has their own goal and motivation to achieve that, yet the storylines cross at different points. One of the storylines is unfinished, and I’m curious to hear more about it. It feels as though Stewart held enough back to make me jones for the next book, particularly because I know how great her series are. Additionally, her writing is beautiful and evocative, pulling emotion of out me, like this quote:
“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.”
Overall, this is a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m already excited for the next book just after reading this first one, and really like Stewart’s writing style. There is a range of representation in this book: Hakara and Rasha are biracial, a side character has a neurodegenerative disease and is portrayed wonderfully, there is one character who is a lesbian, while another is bisexual, and another seems to be asexual. I can’t say enough good things about this book, and highly recommend it if you read fantasy, like tightly-plotted and engaging storylines, or just haven’t read a book by Andrea Stewart yet. You won’t regret it.
Functionally Fictional 
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