In the Shadow of the Gods by Rachel Dunne—What Is It with Twins?

In the Shadow of the Gods (Bound Gods #1) by Rachel Dunne A breathtaking talent makes her debut with this first book in a dark epic fantasy trilogy, in which a mismatched band of mortals, led by violent, secretive man, must stand against a pair of resentful gods to save their world.
Eons ago, a pair of gods known as the “Twins” grew powerful in the world of Fiatera, until the Divine Mother and Almighty Father exiled them, binding them deep in the earth. But the price of keeping the fire-lands safe is steep. To prevent these young gods from rising again, all twins in the land must be killed at birth, a safeguard that has worked, until now.

Trapped for centuries, the Twins are gathering their latent powers to break free and destroy the Parents for their tyranny—a fight between two generations of gods for control of the world and the mortals who dwell in it. 
When the gods make war, only one side can be victorious. Joros, a mysterious and cunning priest, has devised a dangerous plan to win. Over eight years, he gathers a team of disparate fighters—Scal, a lost and damaged swordsman from the North; Vatri, a scarred priestess who claims to see the future in her fires; Anddyr, a drug-addled mage wandering between sanity and madness; and Rora and Aro, a pair of twins who have secretly survived beyond the reach of the law.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

That's the first time ever I've said those words! My very first review copy!

Premise

Twin gods cast down from heaven and bound by their parent gods. Worshipers of both the Twins and the Parents. Societal twin hate. A plot to free the twin gods.

After the twin gods were subdued by the Parents, twins became an abomination and any newborn twin must die. Although the Parents are worshiped as the main gods, the Twins still have a group of cult-y followers in the mountains with a mission to find the twins and wake them from their sleep.

Character

The cast for this book is quite big! We get to see the broader picture from almost all of the characters’ perspective. The main characters are:

Joros
A priest for the Twins but who defected and made it his mission to prevent them from being freed at all cost. He’s violent but cunning.

Anddyr
Joros’s slave/servant who is bound to him by a highly addictive drug that renders him completely obedient to Joros. He was originally a mage (wizard) and has the ability to find the bound Twins, so his service is especially valuable to Joros.

Rora & Aro (twins)
Twins who escaped detection and had a chance to grow up. Rora, the sister, is the stronger, smarter one of the pair while Aro is the baby brother. I wonder if the saying about twins being complementary is true, that when one is strong, the other is weak. This is definitely the case with Rora and Aro. Rora has a responsibility to take care of Aro and make sure he stays alive and well. Rora & Aro’s storyline is the most interesting for me, and Rora is my favorite character among all the others, because she is strong-willed, keen, and street-smart. She’s never a slobbering fool like her brother (sorry, Aro).

Scal
A northern boy who grew up in a southern prison camp. He is deeply influenced by a priest for the Parents and a childhood friend, and a raid from the northern folks that killed the priest and the friend changed Scal’s life. Even when captured and trained in the Northern tribe, he swore to avenge their death. He’s a strange combination of tough mercenary hulk and proverb-spouting sage.

Vatri
A foul-mouthed priestess for the Parents who’s disfigured by fire during a session of fire divination. She found Scal through her divination, and joined the rest of the crew. She’s an adamant hater of twins and Twin worshipers, and frequently spit at Joros, Rora, and Aro, whom she believes are evil abominations. I think I would have liked her if she were less bent on being so spiteful and prejudiced (and I love Rora).

& Keiro
A priest for the Twins who’s saddened by the annihilation of human twins and who’s on a pilgrimage to find the twin gods. His storyline mainly exposes how the society in Fiatera mistreats twins and isn’t the most...interesting? However, it really picked up at the very end of the book, so it’s all good.

Setting

The fantasy world of Fiatera is not clear-cut like those in most other fantasy stories that come with maps. It is divided into North & South, and only a handful of places stood out to me. One is the mountain Raturo, where Twins worshipers live deep inside the darkness. Another is the Canals, a criminal-infested place Rora and Aro found a home with a gang. I loved the glimpses of mafia rivalry, secret missions, and gritty reality the Canals represents. I think Keiro eventually arrives at a place reminiscent of Africa, with dark-skinned people and deserts. There’s also a magic school where mages go to study, but sadly it’s only mentioned in passing and isn’t developed more fully. On the whole, Fiatera has a lot of Latin-root names/titles, and I think also a tiny hint of Japanese? (Like Raturo, Keiro, but I'm not entirely sure.) 

The world-building is nonetheless quite skillful, with nasty issues like twin genocide and all that bias against Twins worshipers. I’m surprised by how prevalent and believable twin executions are in this book. When a pair of twins are born, the midwives burn them or take them to a nearby river and drown them, while the villagers and family look on impassively. It’s gruesome and terrifying to even think of killing little babies, yet it’s no far-fetched thing; people sacrificed their firstborns to Moloch in the olden days. I’m satisfied by how the book treats these issues so far, and I’d love to see how it’s finally resolved in books to come. In short, I want to see more the world even fuller developed in the next book!

Pacing

The pacing of the book is slow yet manageable. A multiple-POV story has both its advantages and disadvantages; even though the pace of the book is not fast, it encompasses many sides of the story. I feel like the author is setting the scene and putting pawns in place for a huge chess game. Hopefully the next book will have even more action and twists than the first one!

Final Thoughts

Things I’d like to see in the next book:

1. More action from the gods. So far, I’ve only heard whispered and vague instructions and one short exchange by the end of the book. I want to know more!

2. More world-building. As I’ve said before, Fiatera has some intriguing places, but I’d love to read more about its cultures, places, and traditions.

3. Explanations! I know this is a series, and the author would eventually tell us everything, but I wonder why Joros needs the twins Rora & Aro for his mission to destroy the Twins. I don’t think it’s explained (or if it was, it’s not emphasized). Why did he need them?

4. More food??? I know this isn’t all that necessary, but I’m a foodie, and reading about food draws me nearer to the imaginary world and enriches the cultures depicted in the books.  

That’s all I can come up with for now, but I’m waiting for the author to pleasantly surprise me (or whack me on the head with awesomeness. Can’t decide which is better). In the Shadow of the Gods has a compelling premise, a cast of mismatched, refreshing characters, and the potential of becoming a great series!