One of the people in my writing support group Discord server was begging us all to read this novella this week. I did a little research and found that it is very much a different voice for Scalzi. Since I really enjoyed his voice in Redshirts and the Old Mans War series, I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t like this so I downloaded the first chapter as a free sample. I was hooked.
The premise is that gods (like, real manifestations of superhuman/supernatural beings) are real, and their power stems from humans having faith in them. The humans have all pledged their faith to “the Lord,” who is unnamed as the most powerful of the gods, and the subservient gods are used to power the starships. It has a strange combination of medieval religious tone and humans out exploring the stars.
There is a problem, though. Other races or gods are wiping out humans; we are at war. And in order to prevent further war, the main character, a ship captain, must go on a secret mission.
It was a quick read. 11 chapters that went very quickly. I was totally sucked into the world and the writing. I’ve read some reviews about the bloated exposition but I didn’t get any of that. And the ending really took me by surprise… the last quarter in fact. Totally not what I was expecting.
It was a quick and interesting exploration and I’ve found myself thinking about the book off and on over the last few days. I highly recommend this.