ARC Review: Hall of Smoke by H.M. Long

Title: Hall of Smoke

Author: H.M. Long

Series: Standalone, I think

Genre: Adult Fantasy/Mythology

Publisher: Titan Books

Publication Date: January 19th, 2021

Edition: Kindle Edition, 421 pages

Source: NetGalley

Pre-Order: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | BAM

Synopsis:

    Hessa is an Eangi: a warrior priestess of the Goddess of War, with the power to turn an enemy's bones to dust with a scream. Banished for disobeying her goddess's command to murder a traveler, she prays for forgiveness alone on a mountainside.

    While she is gone, raiders raze her village and obliterate the Eangi priesthood. Grieving and alone, Hessa - the last Eangi - must find the traveler, atone for her weakness and secure her place with her loved ones in the High Halls. As clans from the north and legionaries from the south tear through her homeland, slaughtering everyone in their path, Hessa strives to win back her goddess' favour. 

    Beset by zealot soldiers, deceitful gods, and newly-awakened demons at every turn, Hessa burns her path towards redemption and revenge. But her journey reveals a harrowing truth: the gods are dying and the High Halls of the afterlife are fading. Soon Hessa's trust in her goddess weakens with every unheeded prayer.

    Thrust into a battle between the gods of the Old World and the New, Hessa realizes there is far more on the line than securing a life beyond her own death. Bigger, older powers slumber beneath the surface of her world. And they're about to wake up.

    This book was ten levels of intense, even with it's fairly slow pace. 

    Hessa is the kind of protagonist that is fairly rare in my opinion, especially when it comes to female protagonists, as it's also rare to find them in adult fiction and not along side a male protagonist.

    Her journey through this book is something I hope to see more from any protagonist. She goes through the ringer, what she has to endeavor, the lies she uncovers all while being more or less utterly alone after losing her husband and closest family member. She stays resilient. But not in a way that comes across as plot armor. Not in the way that it typically is used. Destiny and fate surround her, and all that. But she still struggles and suffers, nearly dies.

    The setting of this book, while very different from most other fantasy I've read was at times hard for me to picture. There was a map in the copy I read, but it was at the back of the book, I wish it had been at the front. The narrative was also strange at times, it was told almost in a reflective way, as if she were telling the story to somebody. That might have been what contributed to the pacing for me.

    The worldbuilding doesn't lack in any way because of that either. It still has a very rich mythology with their gods, who are the real gods, and who is pretending to be a god, and those who know what they are in the world. I am very interested in this world and wouldn't mind reading more tales set in it.