Suyi Davies Okungbowa has rooted his excellent urban fantasy in his culture, with Yoruba and Pidgin English speaking characters throughout, and featuring deities from across the African pantheons. It's rich and vivid, and its all bound together by the irresistible lead voice of David Mogo himself - uncertain, angry, and increasingly afraid of both the power of the gods he opposes and that of himself.

This is my first foray into afropunk (something I sorely need to remedy) so at first I really enjoyed what seemed to be a simple tale of a demigod in near future post god-apocalypse Lagos. He suppresses most of his powers to fit in with humans, and uses the rest to hunt gods and godlings. But a bigger job from a local ruler to capture two twin gods makes David realize that he might be helping his enemies, and it all escalates from there.

I thought David's confusion and feeling of not belonging on either side, with comparisons drawn to refugees and Fati, was an interesting theme. I enjoyed all the new Nigerian culture and mythos I was being exposed to, and the magical/godpunk aspects of the story. Found family is an added bonus as far as tropes go too. But then the plot kind of stumbled and rushed into a really hasty ending, and David's character arc is kind of lost in the mess. I would have liked to see him either embrace his new avatar (avoiding spoilers) or fight to find his own path. As it unraveled in the book, kind of meh. The the last quarter of the plot seemed out of beat as well.

I was fascinated by the concept but I think the delivery was not up to my expectations.
I found it confusing and the plot seems to have some issues.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Set in Lagos, Nigeria, David Mogo, earns his living as a god hunter. He uses his skills as a demigod to track the deities who have fallen from heaven.
On capturing a higher god, on behalf of a wizard, David begins to question his role as he realises the Wizard has plans to seize Lagos all for himself.

I was drawn to this book by the fantasy element and the premise of fallen gods but also because I was interested to find out about the mythology of another culture. David Mogo, God Hunter draws from Nigerian Orisha mythology and dominates the book.

So far, so good.

Firstly we trace the journey of David as a Godhunter and finds himself in real trouble and things turn sour. The second part finds him addressing his legacy and honing his gifts and abilities. The final act sees him become a leader and brings people together to fight a war against a tyrant hell bent on turning earth into a heavenly realm.

Unfortunately the novel fails to live up to its premise. This is a long, slow book. It’s set in three parts, all interlinked with a plot and structure that is pretty formulaic.

David Mogo should have been massively interesting but the first person narrative and lots of internal dialogue bogged it down and left nothing to be imagined and became laborious. Because of this there is no real connection to the protagonist and no room for the supporting characters to grow. Of these, Papa Udi, David’s mentor and wise Jedi like character is probably the most interesting.

What was most infuriating was the lack of ‘god busting’. The action that there was seemed like an afterthought and not convincing.

The world building was good, I enjoyed the modern day Nigeria setting after ‘the falling’ and also navigating the use of the Nigerian dialect which gave it real authenticity. Reading something from a different cultural perspective was something I was keen to do this year. It’s just a shame that this one didn’t work out after a really interesting premise.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC, in return for an honest review.

I requested this book on a day I was looking for something different to what I normally read, and boy did this book come through for me.

The themes in the book cover everything from African culture to Gods to urban fantasy. My favourite part was the imbuement of David's humour. It made the book much more entertaining to read and had me chuckling out loud on a few occasions.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but at times it did feel very long, I think there are often occasions where books fall down when they have a bit too much, unnessacery description that the reader gets lost in it, and I certainly did. Would recommend to friends looking for something different but not a book I will be re-reading again and again.

Ah, this book. It was an absolute ride, filled with action, gods and an unforgettable main character. This book was described as “Nigerian God-punk” and after having read it, I can absolutely say that that’s an amazing description.

I loved David’s voice in this book. It was somewhere between weary PI and absolute badass, and it was just so easy to fall into his words. And his relationship with Papa Udi is absolutely fantastic. Their relationship was so nuanced and caring in such a wonderful way. Sadly some of the other characters fell a little flat for me, but that was fine since I enjoyed David so much.

The thing that I really loved about this book, was how incredibly fast-paced it was. Sometimes it felt a little like I couldn’t catch my breath (but like in the best way!), but I wouldn’t be able to put it down, cause I had to know what was going to happen.

All in all, I found this to be a very action packed book, and would recommend it to people who are looking for that like Urban fantasy, but would like it in a new setting, and overall, anyone who loves interactions between people and Gods.

At times the narrative felt a little disjointed and the separate parts almost felt like they could have been separate short stories, but on the whole I liked it. It was great to see this kind of story set in Nigeria, drawing from the local folktales and mythology, and I thought the central character was interesting and different.

Review copy provided by publisher.
A slightly future/altered Lagos, Nigeria, is the setting and the heart of David Mogo, Godhunter. It is squarely in the middle of the contemporary urban fantasy tradition--the one with Ben Aaronovitch and Jim Butcher, not the one that's a sub-genre of romance. And that combination of factors changes the beats and the shape of the story completely.
David Mogo is half-orisha. He is learning who he is and who he wants to be. This is a very coming of age sort of book. But coming of age as the son of a god in a ravaged natural and magical landscape is anything but a standard tale. David's care for his family, his chosen companions, his surroundings, infuse this book with an intensity that makes it a page-turner every bit as much as its dramatic action scenes do.

DNF @ page 70
ARC received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of my opinions are my own, and are in no way affected by the exchange.

I made it to page 70 before I tapped out. I was excited about this because look at that cover and synopsis!! A Nigerian inspired fantasy about a Godhunter for hire with God blood????? Like YES PLEASE, sign me tf up! And that cover is to die for. Unfortunately for me this was so confusing that it was almost unreadable. I had NO idea how to pronounce ANYTHING or what was going on. I normally try to hang on for a while to see if I start to get it but at page 70 I should have at least some kind of idea. I'm pretty bummed about it but sometimes you just gotta move on.

I recieved thus ARC for review from Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing (thank you so much!) I enjoyed these stories very much. It's always awesome to see yourself represented in a story.

The code switching was very interesting to see. It's something that I have to do in my life as well. Seeing the main character use it was relatable.

The was tons of action and description. Some might say info dumpy, but I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to learn a little bit about the some of the Gods of Lagos and how they are viewed by the people their. I would have loved for more detail, but I understand it's not that kind of book.

I feel that maybe this book should have been broken into three different novellas or marketed as three different stories and not one novel. The time jumps between the three parts is very jarring if you didn't know about how it was written.

Overall, I do recommend this book. It's defintely worth a read.

I really liked the premise of this story but sadly, it didn't grip me as much as I wanted.

Bit of a confusing start, jumps right into the story without giving the reader enough background to be invested.

Literally describes 'Naruto running' in it.

I enjoy the idea behind the story but find the flow difficult.

Godhunters biggest problem is that Suyi D. Okungbowais is an overacheiver - it's full of great fantasy and dark whim, but the overall narrative is bloated and schlocky, leaving it to whimper in the shadows of its contemporaries.

But it gets off to such a strong start. The setting alone deserves praise. Gone are the constraints of the Western world that make many similar titles so vapid and cookie cutter, Okungbowais draws from his own surroundings, formulating a fictionalised version of Nigeria that's both enthralling and under condensed.

The characters too are likable, and the storyline itself is strong. David Mago is a Godhunter, getting by in the dark underbelly of Lagos, when he accidentally unleashes an army of hybrid monsters who create chaos on the streets of Nigeria. He decides to put his wrongs right, and with the help of a ragtag group of heroes he takes this high fantasy into previously untouched territory.

But for all its genuine charm and enjoyable elements, the biggest problem with David Mogo: Godhunter is it concerns itself with the bits and bobs too much, distracting the important narrative movements with stuffy, overbearing facts. Especially in the books latter acts, there's too much bloat and too little focus.

It's wonderful, interesting setting can't help keep Godhunter afloat. There's too much going on and not enough breathing space for the good stuff, and ultimately, it makes it a disappointing venture.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. The story was interesting and I love the characters and fantasy world that the author created. I really liked the premise, and I thought it was written well, but it wasn't quite a home run for me. But I still enjoyed it and will look for more work by this author.

I just finished reading Suyi Davies Okungbowa's <i>David Mogo, Godhunter</i>. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to read this book prior to its publication. I want to thank the publisher for this opportunity, but my review of this book is not impacted by their generosity.

The book centers around David Mogo who is half-god and half-human. The story centers in Lagos where a bunch of Gods have fallen to earth and are causing a lot of chaos. David starts out the story as a godling hunter. Basically, he helps people get rid of the godlings for money when they've gotten into parts of Lagos where they really shouldn't be. Through a series of events, David's world turns upside down and he's forced to reconcile who he is versus who he wants to be.

As a whole, I really enjoyed this book. I found the writing very easy to follow. The pacing of the book was really good and kept me reading. Although the book didn't necessarily leave itself open to a sequel, I definitely could see how a sequel could be possible. One of the things I really enjoyed was the level of detail Okungbowa puts into the creation of the world where Mogo exists. From a worldbuilding perspective, I found myself enthralled by the world he created and really enjoyed meeting the various characters. One of my only problems was that there are a lot of characters in this book, so keeping track of who is who at times was a bit difficult (also, some have multiple names). If you read this book, I would recommend keeping a list just so you don't have to worry about this minor issue.

If you're looking for an interesting read, I would highly recommend this book.

DNF'd @ 35%

The concept of this book absolutely reeled me in from the get go. Unfortunately though the actual execution of the story didn't work for me. There's way too much tell and infodumps that it bogs everything and loses its forward momentum - and my interest. Thanks anyway, NetGalley.

David Mogo, Godhunter is an interesting own voices fantasy novel set in our world, that with a bit of extra attention could have been great. Instead it flies just short of falling flat.

I was quite honestly very excited for this book. I mean it is an own voices book when it comes down to the culture. Lagos, Nigeria is where the author comes from and just that alone is something that sets this book apart. Another thing that I think will appeal to a lot of people is that there is basically no romance in here.

But the book didn’t quite build up as I expected it to be. Essentially this book is set up in 3 parts that felt more like 3 novella’s due to the time jumps and arcs between them. Especially between part 1 and 2 which was six months. It meant that each part had to wrap its ‘arc’ up action and plot wise. It left not as much room for world building as I would have liked to have seen. In the first part there was room to capture the feel of Lagos and how the Falling (the big event that happened before the book starts) affected the city. It made this first part so much more appealing to me.

Part 2 and part 3 were more focused on a bigger plot and the journey to finding oneself in being a demigod. Set between humans and gods. There was less room for world building and the things that I thought would be expanded on. More on the Gods, the Island and Odon, got left behind. That could have been okay had the journey to finding oneself not been as boring and unnecessary. Or some scenes were in any case like a scene where he got called out for showing his anger once and all of sudden he was losing credibility with everyone. Just things like that, that didn’t make sense in the grand scheme of what the author seemed to want to do here.

It is written in a first person present point of view. Again the first part, David’s voice was incredibly strong. I liked him. But I felt we lost a lot in the second and third part. I feel like we lost a lot to him repeating himself. Even so I did still like him for the most part. I also liked his relationship with his adopted father. An interesting thing here is code-switching which is switching between two or more languages within one conversation which is what happened often in speaking between these two. However it took some getting used to as it isn’t quite so easy to figure out what they are saying. Sometimes I don’t think I actually caught the meaning.

Another character I found interesting was Fati, a teenage girl David rescues from an adult wizard meaning to marry her. She comes to live with him and his adopted father. She is speech-impaired. I wish there had been more room for her personality to expand. Much of her time on the page is spend with others talking (who inhabit her at some point) and not so much coming from herself. I also dislike that at the end she was ‘cured’.

Having said that, if you are looking for an African fantasy and are prepared to go into this novella set up I think one can really enjoy this. I think this author does have some great ideas and I can’t wait to see what he will come up with in the future.

2.5 / 5 ✪

David Mogo: Godhunter is a study in contrast. Looking back on it, there were so many things that annoyed me about it and yet I still can’t bring myself to give it a bad rating. That said, I did lower my initial rating due to the sheer amount of said annoyances and the fact that they did not sit well. The fact is, DM:G does just enough right to make up for its generally mediocre plot, confusing explanations, horrible inconsistency and just odd, uneven pacing.

First off, DM:G isn’t really one full story. I mean… it’s a series of connected, consecutive events, divided into three parts: Godhunter, Firebringer, and Warmonger. Firebringer is set 6 months after the events of Godhunter. The first chapter of it sets up something completely different only to immediately ditch it in the second and continue with the overarching story. It’s such a departure that it throws off whatever flow the plot had established before. The 2nd and 3rd parts seem much more whole, as Warmonger is set only 10 days after Firebringer.

Godhunter opens with David Mogo and a potential client negotiating a job.

As you might have guessed, David Mogo is a god hunter. Something made necessary by the events of the Falling, where the gods were ejected from their plane and forced upon our own. For the most part, David hunts godlings; those lesser entities that have lost their way and made homes in people’s gardens, garages and trees. Upon capture, he looses them on the outskirts of Lagos, where they’ll stay out of trouble. He does not mess with High gods, nor capture anything. And yet, this is exactly what the client is after. Ajala is a local Baále—like a clan chieftain, or duke—and a wizard to boot. And he’s after a pair of high gods (twins), to be captured and delivered to him, no questions asked.

David Mogo initially refuses, but ultimately ends up taking the job.

And that’s where the trouble begins.

For not only is Ajala a renowned wizard attempting to use the gods’ power to overthrow the government’s rule, he’s also but a puppet for some shadowy force, some even greater power. And it falls to David to defeat not only Ajala, but the Baále’s masters as well.

The setting and world-building of DM:G alone is reason enough to read it. Set in Lagos, Nigeria, even at the start of the book I was already outside the realm of urban fantasy I’m used to. Even though the story never leaves the city—only hinting at the country, the continent beyond—the setting never feels crowded and is always refreshing and interesting. Even though Warmonger is set in a comparatively drab locale, it gets by through intermittent side-trips to nearby, vibrant locations.

There were several terms in DM:G I had to look up; I’m not terribly familiar with African folklore, terms, or Nigeria specifically. For the most part, none of these had a satisfactory English translation (not every word translates well, after all—it’s like how Inuit has so many words that all translate to just ‘snow’ in English) so when there’s a word like that, I’ve no issue with it being rendered in another language. The main issue I did have concerned the dialogue. In the text, it was billed as English, but was really some kinda pidgin (a hybridization between two languages). I could catch the meaning of the general conversations from context, and the fact that a lot of English words were involved. A lot of the dialogue was just filler, or greetings, or banal stuff, so it didn’t matter. At first, even, the pidgin made it feel more authentic, more Nigerian. When it got into backstory, insight, or anything technical or spiritual—I often had no clue. There was one bit in particular where Papa Udi was set to drop some bombshell regarding his history with another character, and the resulting conversation was so incomprehensible that I swore at the book and had to resist the urge to throw it at the wall (never a good idea when reading an ebook).

There’s more than a bit of stutter in the story; just ODD pacing, all over the place. Though it’s especially bad on the lead up to the epic conclusion. And yet, the conclusion is so epic I found myself not caring over the build-up.

There are so many important details that are never mentioned, it’s kind of amazing. I actually had to edit my review down quite a bit, as there wasn’t room to complain about everything that annoyed me. So I’ll just list a few here. Lack of explanation; lack of backstory; realism in rights, acceptance, homophobia, to name a few; consistency; characters, settings, story items that are introduced and immediately abandoned (not killed off, just never mentioned again); the execution of so many things.

DM:G is so obviously a debut novel. It is riddled with annoyances, missteps, even flat-out mistakes that the author might not have ever considered. It’s well-written, language-wise. Just not so much, plot-wise. And yet, there is a certain charm to it. For the amount it tries and fails, there is are a number of occasions where it tries something new and succeeds. At no time did I find it unreadable, unpalatable, or awful. Most often, there was something annoying, frustrating, or inconsistent. Now, it’s entirely possible you might find one (or all) of its flaws unacceptable. But there’s also a chance you’ll find one of its triumphs ingratiating. And another chance you’ll be just as flummoxed as I am trying to rate it. For, if David Mogo: Godhunter did one thing truly well, it got my attention. I’ll be anticipating more from Suyi Davies Okungbowa—and I’m sure his work will improve with experience and time.

FYI- The cover is AMAZING. Dunno who did it, but it’s just incredible.

https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2019/06/18/book-review-david-mogo-godhunter-by-suyi-davies-okungbowa/

From the first few words of David Mogo, Godhunter you know it's going to be magical and captivating. A post-apocalyptic Lagos wherein the gods have fallen and roam amongst us and we meet David, our hero, who takes on the job to capture them for a fee. David finds himself battling against two gods he has crossed and throughout the story discovering about his own identity as a demigod. The cast of supporting characters ranges from his mother, Papa Udi his mentor, teacher and like a father figure, gods that he helps but help him along the way like Taiwo, Kehinde. Most of all what I loved about this book is how unapologetically Nigerian and African it was, I loved the code switching, I loved the little tidbits about Nigerian culture we got, about how people react and how people are. This book took me on a journey that was compelling and engaging. I can't say enough about the worldbuilding and this book.

I'm grateful that speculative Nigeria seems to be showing up on UK and US bookshelves - and on my personal TBR - more and more often recently. Not long after my experience with (the very different) The Half-God of Rainfall, Suyi Davies Okungbowa's debut brought me back to the world of Orisha and their dealings with mortals - and those whose identities lie somewhere between the two.

Speaking of things being in-between: Okungbowa's novel actually fits somewhere in the space between being a single story and a set of three interlinked novellas, and while I haven't tracked down its writing history, there's hints - particularly in the opening of the third section - that it was written as the latter before becoming a novel. Normally main characters don't feel the need to reintroduce themselves to the audience at a novel's two-thirds mark, is all I'm saying. It lends itself to an unorthodox tension structure, with three distinct climaxes, but weirdness and very occasional repetition aside, it works well as a single volume, largely due to the driving force of the main character's development, which definitely benefits from being told in a single narrative, regardless of the episodic nature of what happens around it.

That main character, it will not surprise you to hear, is David Mogo, Godhunter. David lives in a version of Lagos which has been subjected to the Falling: a war which has caused thousands of Orisha to rain down on the city and take up residence. A half-god himself, David was abandoned by his mother and raised by a foster-father who also happens to be a wizard, wielding magical talents which David's divinity keeps him from using in the same way. Instead, when we meet David he's trying to throw himself into a bounty hunting existence with as much amoral abandon as possible, taking on a job from far more shady wizard Ajala for "roof money" while trying to suppress the sense that he should be acting with slightly more principle. Tasked with capturing twin gods for Ajala, David's job goes horribly wrong when the second twin, Kehinde lets him in on the realities of what his employer is trying to achieve, and he instead teams up with her, his foster-father and a teenage girl called Fatoumata to try and take him - and the Orisha Aganju, who might just have gotten them all into this mess in the first place - down. Parts two and three of the story skip ahead to deal with the fallout from those first events and to dive deeper into the world's mythological underpinnings while steadily increasing the stakes (and body counts) for each subsequent showdown.

Okungbowa's version of Lagos is positively post-apocalyptic and it feels like there's a lot of horror influence in how most of the city's supernatural creatures behave: a lot of mindless minion-creatures and supernatural experiments which lead to zombie-like offensives with super high body counts and the constant threat of the heroes being overwhelmed. As the threats mount, so David and his allies end up travelling to more parts of this post-apocalyptic Lagos (which, as Okungbowa reminds us through David's narration, wasn't the most functional city to begin with), meeting absentee security forces, other gods both benevolent and antagonistic, and the folks still trying to live their lives in an increasingly unstable situation. Despite being generally well written, however, I sometimes found myself less engaged than I expected in some of the high action scenes, especially if I'd had to put down the book halfway through a "part" and then try and slot back in to the particular set of circumstances being faced. Because the tension structure is more of a "three stories in one" than a single novel, it feels like things can go from zero to one hundred very quickly (unnecessary character reintroductions notwithstanding), and with the goals and alliances regularly changing it can be hard to remember what everyone is trying to achieve at any given moment. No doubt readers who come at this as a "lazy weekend afternoon" book rather than a "half an hour at a time on the commute" book will have a different experience in that regard, but it did inhibit my enjoyment of plot elements I am already somewhat picky about.

Sitting at the centre of the first-person narrative, David is very much the driving force behind the novel even when he's being useless and selfish and self-pitying. As you'd expect, the extent to which David Mogo, Godhunter is an enjoyable story very much hinges on to what extent you're invested in his growth from a pretty unpleasant layabout to a demigod in control of his own potential. Perhaps I'm just partial to the occasional young male douchebag protagonist (looking at you, Elliott from In Other Lands) but I clicked better than I expected with his character growth particularly after the first section. Maybe it helps that he gets knocked down and roughed up a lot, and there's notes of humility and resignation in the character that temper his less savoury elements? Regardless, the result is a character who's closer to a young Peter Grant than to a stereotypical hubristic half-god, and a generally well-rounded, likeable and nuanced supporting cast who David increasingly comes to terms with caring about (and vice versa) makes his journey more satisfying. In all honesty, I think I would have been more invested in a version of the story that's heavier on the relationship development and lighter on the action, but then, that's not what this book is trying to be.

David Mogo, Godhunter is an odd thing for a single volume, but the elements are all there for a successful action adventure and it mostly turns its weirdness into an asset for the worldbuilding and character development. While it didn't click with me to the extent I'd hoped, you like your fantasy to be deity-driven, horror-tinged and action-packed, here's one that ticks all those boxes in a setting that's still criminally underrepresented in "Western" fantasy publishing. Oh, and the cover is fantastic. What more could you need?

A damn fun read. I honestly did not expect to be quite so entertained by this book. Perfect for science fiction fans.