Ace, the nameless one, the Soul Eater, is cursed and
enslaved. Banished from Duat, bound to his duty on Earth serving his master and
reluctantly linked to a woman who mocks him every day with her presence, he
doesn’t have a happy life. The one thing he does want to do is avoid the gods
however he can
But when Bastet comes back into his life things get a
little more complicated. Not least because she’s his ex-wife
Egyptian gods! Anyone who has been reading Fangs for any
length of time knows we love ourselves some good mythology and, surprisingly,
the Egyptians are oddly uncommon in the genre, I’ve found. Which is a shame
because I’d love to dive into an Egyptian story
And here we have the Egyptian gods in a modern world
setting along with a fun, action packed story. And I do really like the plot,
the action is extremely well paced but it doesn’t consume the book to the point
where it feels like there is no plot as can sometimes happen. I like the
characters and their interactions, their complexities and temptations, their
histories and difficulties. They work really well together and with the world
they’re involved in.
But I find myself somewhat disappointed by that huge
potential not especially being examined. What excited me about this was
Egyptian gods in the modern world – that would have been exciting and
interesting and deep and we could bring in lots of excellent mythology. But… we
didn’t really see the Egyptian gods. Oh, Osiris and Isis are there – but they’re
just mighty powerful evil people. You could have changed their names to be
anything or anyone, they could be powerful mages, fallen angels, pretty much
anything which is kind of depressing. There was no sense to me of them being
actually Osiris or Isis. They were just the big powerful antagonists the
culture, the history, the resonance behind what they are is missing
On top of that, I really dislike how Isis is portrayed –
conniving and manipulative? I could accept that even if it is beneath Isis (the
paragon wife and mother, the mother goddess, goddess of artisans and maidens
and so much more) – but to have her sexually shamed – to have Osiris happily .
To demonise her both through her sexuality (and her bisexuality for extra
unpleasant tropiness) and using that sexuality as a classic marker of evil/depravity/immorality/corruption
would be generally gross with any female antagonist – but to decide to do this
with the actual lore around Isis and what she could have been just seems to add
totally wasted opportunity on top of an utterly tired trope.
We have a much more humanised presentation of Bast and
some more examination of what she represents – goddess of cats, goddess of pregnant
ladies. But, again, a werecat who really had a soft spot for poor women or
pregnant women would have filled the gap. Especially with the way Bast ends up
at the end of the book.
And that brings us to our protagonist, the nameless, the
adopted son of Ammit the Devourer – how could we not explore this? But instead
we see a supernatural being with a difficult, dangerous and angst-worthy
hunger. It’s for souls. But it could have easily have been blood or meat or the
common supernatural hungers we see quite readily
I’m not saying any of this is bad or the plot is bad or
even the characters are bad. Far from it – the plot’s exciting, the characters
are intriguing. I like Ace and his struggle with his dark desires, his
grittiness, his power, his bondage to Osiris, his complicated relationship with
Bast and even more complicated (and extremely high potential relationship with
Shukra – the idea that he, consumer of the souls of the worst of the worst was
forced to be linked forever with one of the worst souls he’s ever come across –
their mutual hatred and grudging respect is interesting to see grow). I like
the plot line, the action, the potential of the woman they’re trying to save.
It’s a fun plot with more than a few fun twists
But with the basis we started with there could have been
so much more. I feel the Egyptian mythology setting could have been developed
so much further than it has been. I ended up reading a somewhat generic, if
still good story, which could have been far more original. Even aside from the
mythology there was a lot more I would have liked to see – Ace and Shu, Ace and
Bast, Ace defeating demons, the how and why and consequences of that. I feel we
raced into the main story fast enough to not explore all these things
And, I say again, I want to explore these things because
I do enjoy them, I am interested in them. On top of that we have a cast that is
racially diverse, several of these Egyptians at least (Shu, Bast, Osiris) are not
whitewashed, though I’m less sure about Isis and Ace the protagonist. I'm nearly sure they're POC, because it would be weird for them not to be when Osiris and Bastet have clearly been labelled as such (JUST, seriously we danced around a lot with Osiris) especially with Isis and Osiris being siblings. But then we have a moment where, in describing Osiris to Ace, we have a woman say how exotic and foreign he looked... to Ace who presumably shared the same "dark hair, tanned skin, like he came from somewhere exotic." Sure, she could be the epitome of cluelessness to say that to his face but... I prefer portrayals with more overt descriptors and less implied-but-you-can-ignore-it-if-it-bothers-you implications and hints.
I liked this book but can’t escape that nagging feeling
that it could have been more. Of course, as the first book in the series, it
definitely has the potential to be so much more.
