Review: Regi’s Goddess (Gods of Misfortune #2) by Lyn Gala
Regi and Dante landed on one of the Empire’s border planets while the exalteds try to understand the involvement of the gods. Regi’s people are xenophobic, so he’s determined that his crew will make a good impression. The alternative is unthinkable, especially with so many Kowri suggesting that the gods would rather see the outsiders dead rather than show them respect.
Dante wants to avoid the brewing political fight. He has never enjoyed politics—not on Earth, much less around aliens he barely understands. Give him a stable and alien horses to learn to ride instead. But when a certain goddess of poisons is involved, he will be dragged into the conflict whether he wants to be there or not. With Dante’s life in danger, Regi cannot remain neutral. He won’t take a stand on the conflicts between the Coalition and the Empire, but for Dante he will challenge the universe itself.
Review:
Dear Lyn Gala,
This is a follow up to “Regi’s Huuman”. I think the length of the story makes it a longer novella and to me this indicates that this series would once again be told in a series of episodes. Which is fine by me but, as I mentioned in my review of the first book, I do worry that an episodic structure may eventually lead to something without high stakes happening in each of them and the resolution will be self contained.
I don’t think this book gave me any reason to worry just yet. The plot event that takes place does raise the stakes nicely and it made me worry for the main characters a bit, which was good. I also thought that the interactions between the two main characters did build up the relationship a little bit slowly, but nicely. At the end of the story they even call their outing a date (it is not a real date yet, but they are going to spend time alone for a spoiler reason :) ).
Not only are we were seeing obvious signs of the beginning of a relationship, both Dante and Regi have more fleshed out personalities in my mind after I read this book. We learn more about their past, about the scars they carry and about dreams they had. I liked both of them after the first book, but now I like them more.
This author always seems to pay attention to the settings of the imaginary worlds that she creates and I really appreciate it. Kowri society is very xenophobic and very religious as the blurb tells you. We already saw in the first book that their multitude of gods gives trouble as blessings to the people touched by them before anything else, and the second book develops this theme even more.
The Goddess Diashi, who paid Regi and Dante some of her divine attention in the last book, certainly made their lives harder so far. I suspect we will eventually see some good fortune for them as well, as the story progresses (besides finding each other), but this is just me speculating here.
““This is not a place for you, exalted.” Merbol held his hands low in apology. That was universal Kowri-speak for Please-go-away-so-the-gods-do-not-see-what-we-are-about-to-do. Since the gods were so much larger than corporeal life, they could no more perceive Merbol or Ter or Hrole than the average Kowri could see ants crawling through the fallen leaves of harvest season. However, Regi had her attention. Regi cast a light upon his life, and his goddess could use that to perceive those around him. Since gods often chose to assist their exalteds by gracing them with bad luck to guide their lives toward a favorable outcome, that posed a certain danger. Furthermore, his goddess had few exalteds. The Lord of justice—Gavd—had thousands upon thousands of chosen ones, and even a god could not see all Kowri space at once.”
I have to reiterate I very much appreciate that the author tries to develop in depth the societies she imagines, however where Kowri’s society is concerned, I am not sure whether I like how that society was ruled. Some of the exalteds (people chosen by Gods) may be good people, but I felt like their discussions about what to do next were a massive waste of time. Maybe their political system is based on that reality, too.
Grade: B
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