A review by ladyelfriede
Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar

3.5

I have a hard time rating this high.

Let me start by saying, there is NOT MUCH wrong with this book. Though, I felt like it wasn't bad, it wasn't good either.
Reading fantasy books and writing them has turned me jaded and made me perdict every plot and worldbuilding point imaginable. Which is a shame, cause if I wasn't this jaded, I might have enjoyed this book to at least a 4.

For this review, it's going to be a bit different.
Since the blurb described this as GOT x Arabian Nights, I'm going to cross compare the two and explain why I rated this higher.

Let's just get the bad shit out of the way while we're at it:

1. Women take the L for the men. Nearly all the men in this book continued their plot based on a woman's death. Which is a bit of an ick that they're used as plot fodder and not much more. Yes there are important women in this book however a LOT of their sole purpose is dying to further a plot point. At the end of the book, not many women actually live through this. Sadie, her mom, and Celene live. That's about it. All the other women are just ANNHILATED. (Gods don't count).

HOWEVER, compared to GOT's treatment of women, I think this was at least a step in the right direction. At least Akhtar didn't make me hate every woman like in GOT and the rape was never described in vivid detail or was an important plot point. (I mean...there is one in this book and the man got raped though obviously doesn't make it better, just at least it was over in 1 line...Dude has immense PTSD over that shit btw, if it's any consoltation)


2. While the Worldbuilding is cool and horrific at the same time, it's not exactly creative. Magic is called forth by jinns, gods want to meddle in human affairs, etc. More will be explained down below.

3. Prose is just...fine. It's not anything exceptional, however, because war isn't always fast paced and action packed, there are stuff happening in between that didn't really interest me all that much. I think it's just cause I never cared about Sadie lol...I'm sorry girl, you had nothing going for me...Way better than GOT's prose by a long shot though.

4. OMG the plot is way too predictable and cliched. I mean so was GOT, but I also didn't like that book either so.

Now, that out of the way, here's what the book DID do good.

1. Characters were absolutely fire. Even if the women all died, they were good characters. Melodi fought tooth and nail until her last breath, Sadie's Mom had really got it going on, Nesrin didn't take a no. Ahriyya's plot line seems very interesting though I suspect it was just her rebelling against the Dreamer and not much more. Sadie was just...kinda there. Stereotypical "I'm not like the other girls and I want to escape my destiny but learn I have to accept said destiny" sorta thing. Her character design was interesting though. Going into Micah's mind was terrifying but entertaining as hell. Kevah was just kinda there...
Man, no wonder Sadie and Kevah hit it off.

Compared to GOT, while Micah is supposed to be religious fanatic and you're not inclined to like him, he's a LOT more understanding in his actions than Sansa and Catelyn from GOT

Tangent Time (tm): speaking of which, why were the asshat characters all women in GOT anyway. Maybe the toddler in that tall ass castle was a dick but that's sorta the mom's fault too. Viserys was a dick sure. Geoffrey was one too. Ok, I take that back, they weren't all women but holy hell, why did you make me read Sansa and Catelyn if not getting in the mind of Viserys or Geoffrey?!...I guess that's what "Prince of Thorns" is for

Anyways, you're not going to get a million POVs like in GOT, but you will get 2 solid POVs that aren't anything to scoff at. Better to specialize in 2 than a million and hating half of them.

2. Vibe. Holy shit Akhtar gave me a better vibe and was immensely better than GOT. GOT bored the shit out of me like I get winter was coming but why did every scenery have to be the same shit over and over. A tree, big castle, at least Danerys plot line had a desert and nomadic tribe (though they were a bit ick in their own way)

3. Worldbuilding: The worldbuilding is a hit and miss. It's stereoytpical and not THAT creative, however, the way Akhtar molds said stereotype into something fresh was creative. Bloodborne and Lovecraft probably would have approved with the alien-like tentacle gods that are "angels". I will give credit that this was more interesting than GOT's, even though things behind the Wall were creative, not all of the book was like that.

So all in all, why am I rating this 3.5 stars? Mainly because I like a good and creative worldbuilding in my story and there were a few legends and poets that were interesting, but the basis of the worldbuilding wasn't all that appealing. The way Akhtar MOLDED the stereotype was creative and probably why I MIGHT keep going in this series (if I have nothing else to read).

Oh yeah, I also didn't give two fucks about the rushed romance between Kevah and Sadie, if that wasn't clear.

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So the 1.5 deduction is a mix of worldbuilding and women dying to further plot issues. I think I might not have been in the right mindset for this book so when I read the next, I think that should determine if I continue the series or not.

3.5/5

PS: Sorry if this was rambley, I was dreading doing this review on reddit and felt like I would get harrassed there, and bitch, I know my boundaries, and I don't want to get mass downvoted