Dark Fantasy Taken To It’s Final Destination
Quick Thoughts
Fantasy is genre absolutely brimming with possibility. The complex worlds and beloved tropes these stories deliver offer so much potential for wild and weird reinterpretations and re-imaginings. It is interesting then that we so often revert to the same tried and tested paths, with the genre often feeling like it is metaphorically running in place. But what Bill Adams manages to accomplish with this book is the exact opposite. He takes the promises fantasy makes of infinite possibilities and runs with it. He asks the question, if you took a typical medieval fantasy world, with its magic and prophecies, its monsters and strange races, and let it continue to evolve for thousands of years, what would that look like?
The answer The Godsblood Tragedy lands on is pretty bleak, as a matter of fact. A deeply Grimdark story set in a steampunk fantasy world where magic and technology collide, this book pulls no punches. The world is harsh and unforgiving, with people using what power they gain to violate and demean others, enforce their will and bend others to it. Our protagonists are morally complex and thoroughly gray, skirting lines that would make them absolute villains in a more traditional story. Moreover, Adams has no interest in making the reader feel comfortable with that fact. The book presents hard choices and offers no easy solutions, with every win coming at a cost that makes you question if it was worth it. If that kind of dark, unforgiving storytelling in a setting brimming with history and wildly creative, complex worldbuilding sounds like your thing, I cannot recommend The Godsblood Tragedy enough!
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