I loved the setting and world building in this story. Lagos is a fascinating place. And I loved what the author did with it in this story. The Orisha war has resulted in Lagos being flooded with gods who have made the city intolerable for its inhabitants and the world has ignored Lagos. It is up to David Mogo, a half god, to help humans deal with the menace. Only problem is we have power hungry gods who want more and have made David inadvertently help them. David has to undo this wrong and this sets him up for an adventure and a path of discovery and acceptance of who he is.
The story is in parts and sometimes ends with you feeling "what else can possibly happen. Although, later we see that all parts are linked, it’s a bit clumsy how one conflict is completely resolved and there seems to be nothing to look forward to.
There is a bit of repetition which at a point I skimmed over.
A good read. 3.5 stars from me
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this. This is my honest review

Brief disclaimer, this is the first book I have received since signing up to Netgalley so I read an advanced reader copy for free in exchange for this review. I had been wanting to read the book since I first heard about it (also look at that cover, it is absolutely gorgeous). It’s described as Godpunk, which isn’t a term I have heard before, but sounded fascinating.

I will try and keep at least some of the review spoiler free since the book isn’t out yet, if there is anything that has spoilers in it I will make sure to make a note and leave some space so people can skip that if they do not wish to have any spoilers.

The story follows the titular character, who lives in Lago, Nigeria and works as a freelance Godhunter. Something called the Orisha war caused the appearance of thousands of gods in Lagos, forcing many people to relocate to other parts of the city. Into this turmoil steps David, a demigod who uses his abilities to deal with troublesome gods. He’s set to find and capture a couple of very powerful deities for a local wizard and that one event will spark a chain that will cause upheaval to his life and make him confront his own origins.

It’s a very well-written book. I have never been to Lagos, but the author conjures a sense of the place very well and it didn’t surprise me to learn that he is from there. It’s wonderful to see a non-Western setting for an urban fantasy and I got very pulled into the world that he creates.

The main character is physically powerful in many ways, but that doesn’t always work in his favour and his inability to properly rely on others around him often causes him problems. He definitely goes on a distinct journey from the start of the book to the end and Suyi does make you care for where he is going and what is going to happen to him.

There is a decent supporting cast to the book, though it’s written in first-person perspective which does mean that they do not come across as strongly as I might have liked. I have nothing against first person narratives (my WiP uses this in fact) but combined with the introspection and occasionally rather self-involved nature of the main character, it does result in the secondary characters not standing out as much as I might have wanted.

I did appreciate that there are a number of female supporting characters and generally they are treated well, they have their own agency and in places David is the one who is often swept along by events and struggling to get control back, which I actually quite appreciated.

As a note, this is a book in three distinct parts and you may, like me, get to the end of part one and wonder where on earth the book is going to manage to go from there. Do not worry and keep going is my advice, it’s one part of a larger story and it does all come together quite nicely in the end.

My biggest criticism of the book (and to be honest I don’t have many) is that I would have liked to see more quieter moments between the characters to cement their relationships. It is not utterly lacking in them, there are several poignant parts which help, but the story is very action driven so sometimes the pauses can feel a little too short. To be honest, that has been a common criticism of mine of late and I think it’s just because I love a more in-depth character than perhaps is typical so what is normal for others feels a little lacking to me.

One of my other loves in the book was the use of what I would guess is a hybrid local language. It is understandable enough and adds a flavour that I feel was really great. I must admit that I do find that sort of detail just makes the book come more alive with the environment it is set in without putting you off by being incomprehensible. It also tells you about the characters who use it and, for me, helped to solidify the relationship between David and his foster father.

The book features plenty of action, deals with themes of being trapped between two worlds and not being sure of who you are or what your place in the world is as a result. If you love urban fantasy, then this is a refreshing take on the sub-genre and definitely worth a look. I will definitely be getting myself a physical copy with its oh so pretty cover when I can.

I’m just going to be kind of short with my review because I do not have much to talk about since this was pretty mediocre. I read a lot of fantasy and the premise of this sounded really good but the delivery just was not there for me. I thought this book could be shorter due to the over explanation of things. All in all this was just ok but nothing I’m gonna remember in a month.

This was one of those books which sadly promised a little more than it was able to deliver in the end - the main issue I had with it was that, while it was an interesting premise and well-written, it got bogged down in unnecessary amounts of exposition and felt as though it was a novella-length plot dragged out to novel-length.

The basic idea of the book is that it's set in Lagos, Nigeria at a time after a number of gods have come to the place, understandably causing chaos. Our protagonist, the eponymous David Mogo, makes a living dealing with the minor gods and makes an unsavoury deal at the beginning of the book to capture a pair of twin gods. In the end, he's only able to catch one of them and then starts to realise that he's been played for a sucker and that his erstwhile employer is actually trying to accumulate power by using the gods he wants David to deliver to him.

Our hero is, of course, something special too - half god, through his mother's side, and raised by a magician to use the powers he's inherited. As the book goes on, David comes into his inheritance more and more, as well as allying himself with a number of others (both gods and mortals) in order to deal with the risks to the people of Lagos.

There's no disputing the author knows how to spin a story, keeping my attention despite the amount of monologuing the villains get up to. I can see why the publishers picked this book up but a stronger editor might have made for a better book in the long run, as well as taking the many interesting ideas laid out here and making them into something more robust.

DNF @ 33%

While "David Mogo", Godhunter started off on the right foot with a Nigeria-set 'Phillip Marlowe meets "American Gods"' atmosphere, I was put off by many of its writing decisions that became more and more obstrusive as it went along.

What worked: the setting and world-building. The story takes place in modern-day Nigeria a few years after an event called The Falling, where gods have been kicked out of their pantheon and are now forced to roam the surrounding the region of Lagos. David Mogo is a demigod (half-human, half god) with a mysterious past who is a bit of a black market bounty hunter, solving the problems that the fallen gods have wreaked on the populace. Modo's voice and description of the setting gave off a noirish feel, and the story initially felt a bit like a Raymond Chandler novel.

What didn't work: a LOT of exposition and info dumps. The author subscribes to the "tell" instead of "show" format, and it quickly became tiresome. At one point, the antagonist's plans are revealed through painful speechifying and mustache-twirling, needlessly sharing all the details of his nefarious plans to the captured hero. The explanations are so on-the-nose and there is little to no subtlety in the writing. Everyone is declaring their plans and intentions in explict and oft-unnecessary detail, and the book doesn't give the reader any breathing room to piece together any implications themself.

This torrent of information is oddly juxtaposed by the spoken Nigerian dialect, which is extremely different than the Western voice that David uses in his first-person narration. It was off-putting to read David's thoughts and descriptions in one voice, yet much of the dialogue was written in a completely different voice. This dialect sometimes changed dramatically depending on who was talking to whom, and when the conversation was taking place. Context clues helped me figure out what was being said, but there's certainly a substantial amount of speech that went over my head. I appreciate the authenticity the author was trying to bring to the story, but it was an odd choice to leave the dialogue vague while hitting some other plot points way too hard.

I enjoy reading speculative fiction & SFF set in Nigeria, as I explored some of Nnedi Okorafur's catalog over the past year. Suyi Davies Okungbowa clearly has some interesting ideas to explore, so I hope that its execution might be improved in future works.

This was OK. I'll be brief because there are reviews that are more articulate than I. It was an interesting premise with some creative ideas, but I had trouble staying engaged. The author shows talent and anticipate better output in the future. I don't like giving anything below 4 stars, but I also have to honest.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!

Description of this book was amazing and that's why I requested ARC copy. Unfortunately, the execution wasn't so good. My main complaint is a lot of internal monologue. There were moments when I just skipped the pages to get somewhere where something's going on.

I liked David Mogo - he is interesting and his work as hunter of lesser gods is something that caught my attention in description. I just wanted there to be more character development and something I check in every book I read - interesting side characters. Here they were somehow bleak and not much absorbing.

Well, there were some fun moments and it was quite easy read so I give it 3 stars.

2.5/5

Described as a Nigerian god-punk, Okungbowa’s David Mogo sounded like something I absolutely had to read. The story, told through the first-person POV of titular Godhunter, dives into Orisha mythology. The story develops on the street Lagos. As European I found the setting fascinating and exotic.

David works freelance hunting lesser godlings. It turns out a powerful wizard plans to use one of his catches to seize control of the city. David has to fix his mistake and save the day.

I like the concept, but I have numerous issues with the execution. David’s continuous internal dialogue (info-dumps, back stories, stuff) tired me and negatively impacted the pacing. I found the characters intriguing, but not relatable. David’s interesting heritage and his unique skills made parts of the book fun to read, but his internalizations lacked substance and efficiently killed my enthusiasm.

Readers looking for fresh ideas and an interesting will find some here. That said, I couldn’t get into it. If only I could relate to characters, my rating would be a bit higher. Because I couldn’t, I’ll settle on a 2.5/5 rating.

ARC through NetGalley

This is a fascinating book, it gives the reader a sense and feeling of what Lagos and it's environs must be like in this skewed reality whilst not being too far from the actual truth, the story is very enjoyable and I became immersed in the authors vision for this world from page 1, I'm not going to compare it to other authors or serialisations because this hopefully will be the start of a new world with its intriguing characters and I look forward to more