Book Review: Bid the Gods Arise

I'm starting a new feature on the blog. Book reviews. I'll talk about books I love, and why I love them. Hopefully you'll find something you'll love to read too!

A bunch of the books I'll be reviewing are read by the book club I belong to on Facebook.

Our first book is Bid the Gods Arise, by Robert Mullin

Here's the "back of the book" copy:

"Kidnapped from his homeworld and sold into slavery, Maurin despairs of ever seeing his cousin or his home again. When he is ransomed by a mysterious woman and reunited with Aric, he joins and unlikely group committed to the downfall of the slave trade. But it isn't long before he realizes they are being hunted--not only by the blood-lusting head of the slave trade, but by an ancient evil that wants their souls."

The most interesting thing to me, is that the book is a science-fiction book, but it feels like fantasy. Not too many people are doing this, and I like the combination. The book has a large cast, and each character is distinct. There's a great balance optimism, wanting to do the right thing, and wanting to just get the heck out of there from the cast. One of the characters is mute, and that can be really hard to write well enough to have the character fully fleshed out with no dialog... and she's probably one of the characters that comes across the best.

The whole "person gets sold/kidnapped/forced into slavery" plot has been done to death, and I'm not normally a fan of this type of plot, but Mullin takes it in a different direction. It never feels like a "oh this is awful, how can I escape this" plot, but more like a "Wow. This sucks, but I'm going to do the right thing anyway" story. Well, there are moments of the other, but they just serve to contrast the other characters decisions.

The book has the whole "Epic Fantasy" feel as well. The slave plot is the plotline for the first book, and the Big Bad Guy sets the stage for the rest of the series. Said Big Bad is also rather unique too.

As for the things I didn't like, they were really minor. As mentioned, I'm not a fan of the slave plot. Also, I didn't figure out until the last battle that "bolt-thrower" referred to not a crossbow, but an energy rifle.

I give it five stars. It was 400+ pages, but felt like 200 some. I very much enjoyed it, and plan on buying the sequel.

Buy this book at Amazon: Bid the Gods Arise (The Wells of the Worlds)