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

Publisher – Head of Zeus

Published – 1/9

Price – £20 hardback £4.79 Kindle eBook

They think they've killed the last of us...

981 AD. The Viking King of Dublin is dead. His young widow, Gormflaith, has ambitions for her son – and herself – but Ireland is a dangerous place and kings tend not to stay kings for long. Gormflaith also has a secret. She is one of the Fomorians, an immortal race who can do fire-magic. She has kept her powers hidden at all costs, for there are other immortals in this world – like the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of warriors who are sworn to kill Fomorians.

Fódla is one of the Tuatha Dé Danann with the gift of healing. Her kind dwell hidden in a fortress, forbidden to live amongst the mortals. Fódla agrees to help her kin by going to spy on Brian Boru, a powerful man who aims to be High King of Ireland. She finds a land on the brink of war – a war she is desperate to stop. However, preventing the loss of mortal lives is not easy with Ireland in turmoil and the Fomorians now on the rise...

History is a tangle of stories especially the further back in time we go. There are gaps in the records, winning sides re-writing their claims to the throne; the mix of religious and mythical claims as to why someone one or lost and of course the people who never get the chance to tell their tale in depth because the period thought the poor or women didn’t need to have a voice. But from a fantasy perspective that leaves history a little breathing to room to investigate what happens if the myths were true and did influence what was to come. This is very ably explained in Shauna Lawless’ The Children of Gods and Fighting Men where magic and history collide in the intriguing tale of Ireland in the 10th century as many many factions vie for power and survival aided or abetted by beings of immense power and suspicion of humans.

Ireland in the tenth century is at a crossroads. Split into many small kingdoms and now at a period where Vikings have settled and traded, and other groups have accepted the new religion of Christianity. Thrones are won and lost; the fluid rules of succession means that any able-bodied man closely related to the King can succeed to ruling the land if they can gain support. In 981 we meet Gormflaith the Queen of the King of Dublin Amlav who lies dead at her feet. Married to this elderly man since she was thirteen, she knows the value of her beauty but also her mid to preserve power. Gormflaith though is not human she is a Fomorian a long-lived being with the power of fire running through her. Her family has battled another magical group known as the Tuathe Di Denann but now only her and her sibling remains alive. Gormflaith knows her authority has gone with Amlav’s death but now we she swears to herself that her human son Sitric must survive, and she will do anything to make him King of Dublin.

Meanwhile at the site of a nunnery where an attack slaughtered all the nuns, we meet Fodla; one of the heares of the Tuathe Di Denann; and her sister Ronnat who has been spying on the humans for their leader. Where once the magical folk and humans lived and loved together the endless war and division made them decide it was time to hide from humanity and merely watch in case that they posed a danger. Ronnat though is now pregnant with a human child and faces extreme punishment from her leaders until Fodla agrees reluctantly to spy on a particularly bloodthirsty king in the guise of a scarred healer. Fodla an Gormflaith on their two sides of a future conflict will see the best and worst of human and magical beings and war gets ever nearer.

The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is a highly impressive historical fantasy epic start to a new series. I am ignorant of Irish history (and can now feel my father’s side of the family even now judging me hard) but Lawless makes this period both come alive and understandable to the reader. There is a huge cast; multiple fractions and powers (both human and magical) and I’m really impressed how Lawless explains this through the story. No massive infodumps of history but both characters help explain where Ireland is at this point in history and it’s an incredibly interesting period with this unusual mix of Viking and Irish lifestyles that are clashing or seeking peace. We see alliances made and broken; that religious conversion was often a very political choice and also how women in particular were used as a way to cement alliances and take future thrones. While there are scenes of battle and violence the story in this opening volume is often more focused on the intrigue that leads up to and follows the battles for thrones.

This is ably supported by the two narrators who swap chapters. With Gormflaith we have a woman who is a Queen but now without power and while she has magic it cannot beguile and control people. Instead Gormflaith is all about her wits. She has decided Sitric will be King and nothing else matters. She will seduce, kill, and persuade anyone to further her aims even members of her own human family. Ina lesser writer she would just be a glamourous femme fatale and while I really enjoyed having a character who you feel will do anything at any moment Lawless gives her through her own words some humanity. You really do understand the love for her son that drives her and also that she too has been made a pawn of these power games. Married just at 13 to a man in his seventies you have to ask would you too not do anything to survive? Gormflaith’s story is full of political intrigue and power games which are endlessly fascinating as sometimes they work well and yet sometimes human greed and lust for power gets in the way and wrecks her ambitions so she must start again. Court life is not safe and yet its also fascinating with its Viking focus and we see glimpses of what is going on outside Ireland bringing a further dimension to the story.

Fodla in contrast to Gormflaith is a healer and would much rather not be involved in her people’s power games. She mourns a human child she has lost, and it is only a threat to her sister that reluctantly forces her to meet humans again. While Gormflaith is in the eye of the storm trying to steer it where she wants with Fodla its more a tale of someone learning humans are both violent and quarrel-prone but also importantly have good in them too. She is naturally kind but also quick to judge and she is surprising herself at how soon she starts to care about the humans that she meets. I really liked that in contrast to a Queen as a lowly healer she is able to watch from the side-lines and we get a feel for life in the Irish Christian kingdoms which soon will go to war against the Viking Dubliners. The interesting question though is what will happen when the Tuatha De Dunann know one of their magical enemies survives and that Fodla is also starting to take sides? While I am conscious this is the start to a new series there is in this volume alone so much is going on and it cleverly sets up the start of the next century too that I was never bored nor felt cheated when a number of cliff-hangers commenced. Huge credit is given to how Lawless gives her two leads very different voices but also explains their viewpoints so well that we understand them both and actually don’t want either to lose…yet.

The Children of Gods and Fighting Men is a intelligent, fascinating and suitably epic tale of a period that by reading I think will surprise many readers and also give huge entertainment. Filled with memorable characters, intrigue and delivered with flowing prose I have been very happily swept into this time and period which Lawless brings to life. A hugely impressive debut and a series I will be very much looking forward to reading future instalments of. Strongly recommended!