Although I found this book a little slow it picked up hugely and kept me engaged and I ended up enjoying it as much as the first one.

Okay, I loved Godkiller, it was a top 10 read of last year. TBH I do not think this will make that list this year.

I was really looking forward to this book and was very fortunate to get a copy from Netgalley to review, however it did not give me the same feelings I had after reading Godkiller, I felt that I left reading it wanting more. It was slower paced, and I could see when Hannah was going with it, some things I predicted and some I didn't, but I did not feel that jolt of excitement that I did when reading Godkiller.

This is not to say that this was a bad book, I did enjoy it, it just didn't grab me the way I thought it would.

Admittedly, I had really high hopes for Kaner's debut series. "Godkiller" came recommended by so many people I trust and cherish, and everything I heard about it sounded wonderful. I was very lucky then that I had the opportunity to read both books back to back - Godkiller in its beautiful hardback format and the sequel, "Sunbringer", as an arc.

Sometimes, high expectations lead to disappointment. Sometimes, they are met completely and utterly. I'm happy to report that in this case it's very much the latter.
I love the world Kaner creates, a world in which gods exist, small and big ones of all kinds. Their whole existence relies on humans to believe in and worship them, which makes them both powerless in certain ways but incredibly powerful the more believers they do manage to assemble. There is quite a bit of worldbuilding, but it is all woven organically into the text. "Sunbringer" expands on what its predecessor built. It's also still remarkably short for an adult high fantasy series and I LOVE IT! Now don't get me wrong, I love me my weapongrade monster-sized fantasy books I can delve in for eternities on end, but I also just really enjoy a shorrt, actionpacked read with its own depth and complexity. The Godkiller series is just that.

"Sunbringer" is about a hundred pages longer than "Godkiller" was, standing at around 400 pages on kindle. And yes, the pacing is a bit slower this time around. I wasn't quite as engaged with the plot as I was in the first book, though that's mostly because our four main characters - godkiller Kissen, baker/knight Elogast, probably-orphan with magical powers Inara and the little god tied to her and star of the entire show, Skediceth - spent most of the time seperated. As someone absolutely obsessed with the Found Family vibes between them in book 1, it left me wanting. There's also a new small pov added to the four existing ones, the one of King Arren. I always love it when antagonists get their own chapters, though his were admittedly very few and inbetween, yet told us a lot about him anyway.

The writing is as great as ever, the characters are complex, flawed and likeable, there are some mysteries solved yet others still unexplored, and it's just an all around great time to read this book. Some of the big twists are rather predictable, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of them because they're just so well-written. It's just a really good series and a really good sequel, and I cannot wait to read the third book.

Okay, first of all, I had no idea Fallen Gods would be longer than two books so I was shocked when I hit 80% of this one and it didn't feel like anything could possibly be resolved so quickly. Then I finished the book and I was like "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT, YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WAIT???????"

I'm a bit unsure about the rating. I'm between 3.5 stars and 4 stars. The reason? I loved Godkiller, that was an easy 5-star book for me, so I was excited about Sunbringer. However, this book lacked a lot of the things I loved from the first one. The pace was slower, the characters were separated and I could tell pretty quickly they just weren't going to get together any time soon, and it felt like it was mostly setting things up for something else. Now I realize it was setting up a third book and that helps me put things into perspective. Still, it could've been done a bit better.

That said, I enjoyed this, it just didn't give me the same feel as Godkiller. It's not only set up, we get more character development, mostly for Inara, Skedi, and Kissen. We also get a bit more perspective on side characters, which was very nice, the worldbuilding expanded, there was good action and tension, a few emotional moments (though it failed at making me tear up), and a promising twist. All in all, I can't wait for book 3, so I think I'll settle on 4 stars for now.

A fantastic follow up to a fan favourite fantasy debut!

I really enjoyed Godkiller but I did find it fairly slow to begin with. This was not the case with Sunbringer. We were thrown straight back into the action, and following several characters in different places throughout the book, so there was always a lot going on.

The character development felt realistic, and I loved seeing how their relationships developed through the various trials and tribulations.

I’m excited to see how this trilogy ends!

I love Kissen.

I will do anything for her.

That's it.

As someone who absolutely devoured Godkiller, to no one's surprise, I flew through Sunbringer. This book was certainly a little slower than Godkiller, which I actually enjoyed. I find that it is easier to get a grip on the characters that way, and I found myself enjoying Skedi's chapters a lot more than I did in Godkiller. I also really enjoyed seeing Elo's quiet and reserved personality from Godkiller, turn into more of a commanding role in Sunbringer. I even enjoyed the added POV of Arren (even though I hate the guy). Every character felt like they had a purpose and their arcs were built very believable and convincing.

So far I have really enjoyed Hannah Kaner's prose and writing, it's engaging and handles the worldbuilding very well. It's so interesting to see how she integrates representation into the world. Sunbringer is set in a queernorm world and it’s full of representation: there are not only queer but also trans and disabled characters and I feel like this was represented and portrayed very well.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sunbringer. I will very much look forward to reading the third book in this series!

Thank you to HarperCollins UK and Netgalley for the arc!

3.5 stars

This was definitely a more political, slower book than Godkiller was, but I'm really pleased that the story still felt compelling and interesting, and Hannah Kaner writes so brilliantly. I loved the various twists that happened throughout this book, and I still really love these characters too - I just wish that the characters hadn't felt so separate throughout the book? One of my favourite things about Godkiller was the found family aspect, and I felt like we lost that in Sunbringer. All of the characters have different motivations and goals to each other, particularly our core characters of Kissen, Inara and Elogast, and I just felt like we'd lost some of the magic from the first book, when they were really bonded together. However this did open up the world a lot more, which was what I'd wanted from a sequel, so I'm still excited to pick up the next installment when it comes out!

This is the second book in a fantasy trilogy.

The series is set in a world where God's are real and there's a god for every tiny thing, but they're very much reduced following a war that took place a number of years ago.

Things are no shifting, alliances are changing and our 4 main characters have to decide what side they're going to be on.

So this picks up pretty much straight after book one but the 4 point of view characters spent a lot of time apart in this one. Which does contribute to the fact that the book as a whole doesn't seem to cover an awful lot of ground as it's constantly shifting between them. It is also a slow read and very much the middle of a trilogy, where it mostly feels like set up for the last book.

Overall this was fine, and I probably will read book 3 to see how things wrap up.

3.5 stars

Sunbringer is the second book in the Fallen Gods trilogy.
While I still love the world and the diversity of the characters I was missing the dynamics of the characters from book one.
I loved that the group of characters was traveling on a quest and that was the main reason why book two felt a little flat for me. While I was reading I couldn't point out why I struggled with following the story so much, but 80% in it clicked and I understood what was missing. The last 20% were amazing and they were exactly what I wanted. It's been a few days since I finished the book and I feel like I have already forgotten the majority of the plot. Sunbringer definitely isn't a bad book but it didn't click with me as Godkiller did and I'm hopeful that book three will be more to my liking again.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the advance reader copy.

I really enjoyed the first book Godkiller and was very excited to rejoin our group within the world.

The book continued the story very well and I’m excited to read the conclusion to the trilogy.

When I first read Godkiller I dnf'd it because I had a lot of issues specifically "that the POVs changed constantly and that the chapters were very short" which happened again here with Sunbringer. However I enjoyed this a lot more than Godkiller. In part it might be due to already know the world etc so it didn't feel as much of a fight to get through the story but also because for me the writing felt better and the story read better. I'm actually excited for book three.

Overall, I think pacing needs to be slightly better the first half is slow and then the second is trying to wrap things up very quickly, I think making the book longer and evenly spreading out the pacing would have been beneficial and again being able to sit with the characters for longer would be good. But I would recommend it and will be picking up a physical copy.

Thank you to Net Galley, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and HarperVoyager for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of my most anticipated sequels of this year, Godkiller was definitely one of my top books of 2023, so couldn’t wait to read this!

Sunbringer did not disappoint, luckily! I found the first half quite slow going, there was definitely a lot of set up & manoeuvring of characters to get them in position for the main events of the book, but it paid off so well! Although the first half pacing was slow, the second half raced by, I got really caught up in what was happening & the nuances of the more political side of the plot.

The growth of the whole cast of characters was excellent, one of my favourite things about Godkiller & Kaner’s writing was the characterisations & this has only improved in Sunbringer. Every character arc felt very purposeful, believable & ultimately they stayed true to themselves while growing & overcoming their obstacles.

Although I think the first half of this books suffered somewhat from the dreaded “second book syndrome”, the ending drew everything together perfectly & now I cannot wait for book 3 to see where we end up!

Thank you to Harper Voyager and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Ooh, another anticipated release – and one I loved again! Not quite as much as the first book, but that is quite common for me, but still such a good time, and I’m definitely interested in seeing where this all goes! We pick up right where we left off, our characters left to figure out what to do next, with the new information they have. This is so different for all three of our characters, and their discussions and arguments fit with their personal struggles as well. I felt for Inara, who is tired of being treated like a fragile child when all she wants to do it get revenge and do her part in the fight that will come next. Elogast has his own decisions to make as it looks like he will be faced with his old friend and king again. We didn’t get quite as much time with Kissen but given that Godkiller focused mostly on her we needed some time for the others to develop separately from her. One of my favourite things about these books are all the gods and how they work, it gives such a wide scope for any concept to be imbued with power. I can’t wait to see how all the threads that we have going will be woven together for the finale!

Godkiller was one of my favourite reads last year so I couldn’t wait to get back into this world.

I have to say this book does suffer second book syndrome a bit, it’s a lot of set up for the final book which does make it a slower read overall which is why it dropped a star but I think the final book is going to be incredible!

So I loved GodKiller. Really, devoured it in one or two sittings I think, and the cover (particularly the special edition with special edges), oh my gosh. I’ve since followed Hannah on Instagram - turns out she seems like a pretty epic person befitting her epic debut to be honest.

So it’s surprising to me that this wasn’t a five star, or that it didn’t grow into a five star (glimmers of it though were for sure there in the closing chapters). There’s a good reason - this book is the equivalent to getting all of your puzzle pieces in coloured groups or edge pieces prior to the fun really starting - but despite knowing that and seeing what insane potential book three therefore undoubtedly has, I’m still a bit sad this wasn’t as incredible as GodKiller (tough act to follow though, admittedly).

Kissen is really not that present in this book and I’ve realised that it’s not so much the setup of this book that hurt my enjoyment of it so much as the huge lack of Kissen. She’s there, don’t fret, but she’s not really a big feature. Turns out I like being in Kissen’s company a lot more than I’d realised, and so this didn’t feel like it hit quite the same mark for me whilst wandering with secondary characters much of the time.

Regardless, Hannah Kaner’s writing is nothing short of brilliant. It feels like a long loved story she’s told a thousand times over and so her writing feels so easy and measured but still like an old fantasy storyteller who knows her craft and loves it. So I by no means give up, but this wasn’t the guaranteed five stars I thought it might be.

Finally finished!

I have no idea why a book this short felt so long, but it really did

For the first 70% or so, it felt like every time I started becoming interested in the story, it would slow right down again and switch POVs, and I'd get bored and a bit slumpy

I've been reading Sunbringer for about two months now, which is entirely too long for me. I binged Godkiller, so at first I couldn't figure out the problem, but I think it's become clear to me that at least part of the cause was the lack of banter

By keeping Kissen and Elo separate for this whole book, there was just a lack of tension, and I missed their relationship. I was continually hoping for them to meet up again to fix this, and yet that didn't happen until the book was pretty much done.

Another issue I had was once again it was a bit hard to keep track of all the names of places and gods and who was where doing what.

I still love Kissen. She's still a badass, but most of her time in this book was spent being thrown from place to place, so I didn't really look forward to her POV much

Elo was a bit more boring as well, not only without Kissen, but without Inara as well, I just got sick of his attitude pretty fast

Inara and Skedi were probably where I was most intrigued. Though theirs POVs are separate, they do feel like the same POV a lot of the time. They were doing most of the fun stuff, and I loved their progression this time around. I can say I definitely do like Skedi now despite how he acted in the previous book

The addition of Arrens POV was an interesting choice. It gave an alternate perspective on this whole situation and what had happened from his side of things. I thoroughly enjoyed his chapters

Overall, I can't say I loved this as much as Godkiller, but the ending made the journey worth it. I'm excited to see where this goes from here. Hopefully, the pacing is a bit better in the next book

➛ 𝟑 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘩 𝘒𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘳. 𝘔𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

Before I get in to this a little more I was convinced that this was a duology, it isn't it's a trilogy but having that in my mind I feel definitely contributed to my reading experience.

Sunbringer picks up right where Godkiller ends and it is incredibly hard to review without spoiling - our main protagonists are separated and much of this book revolves around piecing together what happens after the events of Godkiller- we still have that multi POV and we are hearing each POV's experience. I enjoy a multi POV and I enjoyed the different storylines but I did feel that this slowed the pace as there was a significant period where I didn't feel we moved forward; Having said that and returning to my first statement I was reading it as a duology and thinking we need to speed this up because I'm not sure how this is getting resolved.

Sunbringer does feel like in hindsight that middle book in a trilogy - the one that sets you up, that adds even more flesh to the bones of the story and for me I found it slower - but that last 25-30% wow, so much I didn't expect, so much that had me shouting out loud in shock and I will 100% be picking up book 3.

3.75 rounded up to 4

I couldn't wait to read the sequel to Godkiller and I was not disappointed.
I was brought into the story once again with lavish and rich descriptions that created a world that was life like. I really could picture everything as I read. The writing was so captivating and I really enjoyed being in this world again

After being excited for this second book in the series, even rereading Godkiller ahead of release, I’m so sad to say that I found this a struggle to get through. The first 60-70% of the book felt slow and somewhat confusing with all the jumping around locations and POVs. The action did pick up towards the end but it wasn’t quite enough to save the book for me. Possibly this is partially my fault as it took me over a month to get through as it just couldn’t hold my attention in the first half of the story. I’m not sure if I’ll continue with the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

As a big fan of Godkiller, Sunbringer was a highly anticipated read and sadly it did not live up to the hype. It’s far from a bad book but all the elements that made Godkiller so good felt lifeless in Sunbringer. It’s 100 pages longer than the first book and that length is felt, the whole thing was a slog to get through. Quite a few of the plot twists are obvious – which is fine, but dragging out reveals becomes boring when you know what’s coming.

For the extra length, it feels like so little happened. Still adore the main trio though I wish they were saddled with more interesting plots. Hoping this is a case of middle book syndrome and I’ll definitely be picking up the next one but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.