Hall of Smoke by H M Long

I would like to thank Lydia from Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – 19/1

Price – £8.99 paperback £4.74 Kindle eBook

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 traveller, 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 traveller and 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.

Sometimes a small action can have the biggest consequences We all know the idea of a butterfly creating a hurricane but consider how history is filled with small events that had huge consequences. One storm wiping out a Spanish Armada, one assassination that created WW1 small pebbles can trigger huge avalanches if the environment is right. This really struck me in the stunning standalone epic fantasy novel Hall of Smoke by H M long where an act of hospitality brings about disgrace, death and eventually a huge war that involves the gods themselves.

Hessa is an Eangi – effectively a mix of warrior and priestess with both fierce fighting skills but also a magical ability that can both heal wounds and boil an enemy’s bones – gifted to her by her Goddess Eang. Hessa has for a long time been marked for great things and had promised her High Priestess to kill one particular man should he ever cross her path. However, a simple act of hospitality to a stranger ends up with Hessa in exile when it is revealed the recent unusual visitor to her village was the man who her Goddess has marked for death. No sooner has Hessa left her village to try and find spiritual forgiveness than she finds her village attacked and her family murdered by the rival Algatt people. Captured by her enemies she finds the land in turmoil as another powerful group the Arpa Empire is itself apparently invading the North as well. Balancing trying to save her remaining people, trying to find why a man named Omaskat must be killed by her and discover what exactly the Gods of the world are up to.

This is a fantastic bit of storytelling and I loved the way the story unpeels like an onion skin to show a huge epic storyline that some writers would drag over many books while here Long expertly tells a single tale that delivers wonderful worldbuilding, action, magic, and compelling characters. Initially I was thinking this would be a simple action-based fantasy tale but here the Gods of the various lands are themselves active and present characters in the tale; appearing in front of their believers and occasionally having huge magical battles with one another. Long has created a pantheon that doesn’t replicate any existing religion but allows various entities taking familiar shapes such as the Goddess of War herself. These immortals are a mixed bunch – some to fear, some to support and some who do not care and as they’re unique to the book we don’t know who we can really trust. As we understand these factions more, we see that what appeared a simple tale of someone seeking revenge is actually going to be the finale for a millennia old conflict. Can’t say much more than that but I loved this dimension to the story giving it a truly epic feel.

I also loved Hessa our narrator – she is a warrior. She thinks of battle and is highly skilled in it and after losing her village initially she feels guilt and grief. As the story develops though Long actually challenges Hessa’s worldviews as she starts to see both her Gods and her enemies in different lights. Hessa wants to do the right thing; her soul and place in the afterlife may be at risk yet she is not some religion fixated zealot she reacts to new information and makes moral choices. An honourable warrior really stands out especially as the various scheming Gods start to show they view humanity as tools not someone to cherish. Here the use of first-person narration really works as we see these internal battles between loyalty and honour playing out in every decision she takes and sometimes even the right call will hurt her. We feel the pain of her grief, but she continually dusts herself of and does what needs to be done. In epic tales it is easy to get lost in politics and intrigue but Hessa stays the moral centre of the story that we invest in and ultimately, she drives the story.

The final elements to discuss are how Long has adapted ideas from Norse and Roman periods to create a familiar yet still very different land. Legionnaires crossing mountains; the Gods gaining and waning in popularity all make this seem a fractured land and helpfully Long allows us some time to explore what each faction is and none is entirely innocent. This is a tale with a lot of intrigue (human and divine) and working out what is going on is a key mystery to solve. But when conflict arises, we see as well as some fast frenetic (but expertly told battles scenes and unusually we also get some warriors with magic, including Hessa herself. It adds unpredictability as to what each group’s abilities may be and I loved how each encounter has consequences for the cast. Even Hessa’s self-healing can’t fix everything in a hurry. But there is an unusual exploration of the power of gods that as the story builds brings in other magical abilities to allow human versus immortal to be less unfair than you’d think.

This was the kind of story I stayed up way too late to finish which is always a good sign! Already I think this may be one of the most impressive fantasy debuts in 2021 and H M Long is clearly an accomplished storyteller. Fantasy fans who enjoy creative worldbuilding, supernatural intrigue and fantastic battles should be queuing up for this one as I will be watching for future stories with a lot of interest. Highly recommended