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