Wrath of Gods by Dyrk Ashton

I really liked Paternus, I hadn’t encountered an urban fantasy that was mixed with old school mythos before and I found it a refreshing take on the genre. I was super excited to get the sequel and my high hopes weren’t let down! I always struggle writing reviews for books that aren’t the first in the series because so much of it can be spoilery, and if you’ve already read the first book you’re familiar with the characters and plot so there’s no point in going into it. So here’s a shorter review of a great book I hope ya’ll check out 😀

This had a really nice synopsis at the beginning which was so, so helpful. I have a hard time remembering weird names especially if some time has passed between reading the first book and the sequel. You can easily skip it if you don’t need it, but if you do need it, it’s a lifesaver. I didn’t make notes detailed enough to remember all these names.

The story picks up right where the last one left off, the group including Zeke and Fi are heading to Norway to go see Freya, THE Freya from Norse legend. The synopsis from goodreads sums up the plot pretty well

On the run from an ancient evil and his army of terrors straight out of myths from around the world, Fi and Zeke aid Peter in his globe-trotting quest to seek out the remaining Firstborn, uncover the enemy’s plans, and gather the Warriors of Old for what may become the final battle in the world’s oldest war. Along the way, Fi and Zeke discover that they, too, have strengths of their own–though they come at a cost neither may wish to bear.

I liked how the world building was expanded, despite a lot happening and a lot was explained in the first book, there was room for expansion in the second book. I think one of my favorite thing was the “World memory” where everyone’s memories from all time are stored in this massive bank of world memory. It’s not just human memory either, everything is conscious to some degree, including the rocks and trees and their memories get stored and can be accessed as well.

With Fi being a god more or less, a first born, her powers and her heritage come into play a lot in this one and it was a lot of fun to read about. She’s getting new powers including being able to speak and understand any language said to her, but she’s also hitting bumps in the road with her new powers. They can overcome her and get her to do things she never would have thought herself capable of, including killing people.  She’s also still got her semi-romance going on with Zeke, and that gets ramped up a bit when Zeke finds himself in a situation where he’s forced to tell her how he’s felt about her all this time. It’s lurve <3

Zeke has his own shit going on, the guy runs into another version of himself and he’s beyond freaked out, the guy looked exactly like him and when they made physical contact their memories became one. It turns out the world split itself and two, creating two separate time lines with “two Zeke’s” who are really one in the same. It’s common knowledge among the First Born’s that there are other worlds, but it’s rare when two of the same person run into each other, and when they do it usually results in madness or death. It’s when I got to this point of the story that I started to feel super invested in how everything was going to turn out.

Overall, I really loved this book, and it didn’t fall into the “second in the series” trap where sometimes they drag and you’re just waiting for the third for things to pick back up. This one was action packed, there was so much going on it made my head spin a little.

Final Score: 88/100 – 5 star highly recommended!