The Black God's War: [A Stand-Alone Novel] (Splendor and Ruin, Book I)

Black God's War is a story propelled by human ambition and desire for cultural dominance, and ambiguous heroes choosing paths sometimes based on misunderstanding and poor information. It's war, and military intelligence is not always what it seems.

Faith and Spirituality is a character in this story, as much as Caio, Rao and Lucia. One side, (the Rezzian) has a much more personal interaction with their pantheon of Gods; there's a lyrical scene where Caio ceremonially chooses, or is chosen by, his patron god. In contrast, the Pawelons – a primarily non-theist nation - give lip service to the concept of personal responsibility and profess disbelief in a more personal type of mystical worship of Gods, and yet, they also display an show more incredibly strong “faith” in the abilities they develop through meditation. It's an adept and respectful handling of spiritual variance, and I appreciated that.

I loved the character of Lucia. She's strong, smart and interesting. As a female long-time reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy, I think I've read every permutation of overwrought, emotional and incompetent female character a man can write. Lucia is anything but incompetent, and even better, she is still emotional, but contextually so. She's passionate, a leader, and her actions have reasons. It's beautiful. She's not a stock male character rewritten to be a woman, she's the kind of intentional woman character that makes you believe that the writer is surrounded by strong, capable, intelligent women, and has taken the time to listen and learn what strengths, motivations, and ideas these qualities drop in his lap for the content of his story. I found this to be the best piece of Black God's War.

I'm torn by whether or not I wanted more fleshing out of the Gods. On the one hand, I think it's an important idea that we are driven by our own desires far more than the desires of our Deities. King Vieri wants to conquer, and he will do anything to accomplish that, even if it places him in direct conflict with the goals of his Gods. The ease at which he drowns out their direction rings true throughout the story. On the other hand, you have a Pantheon of higher beings that work as a single unit, each reflective of a different concept, with different supernatural abilities, which they can confer on their devotees. There are glimpses of a much larger story here. Why are these Beings so interested in this one protracted war? Why are they seemingly unconcerned with a whole nation that denies their existence? Why are they so incredibly powerful in battle, but with the exception of Danato, apparently so unable to directly influence any of their own people? I wanted to know this story.

That brings me to my only real complaint about the telling of this story. Even though I personally love a “wordy” story, I can't even count the number of epic-style fantasy stories I've read that were horrendously overwritten (*ahem* Jordan *cough*) sometime to the degree that I couldn't finish. Still, there is something to be said for the kind of writing that envelopes you in a world, and builds a universe in the mind. I want to feel the heat of the sand coming up through my sandals, and smell the stone and earth. I wish to see the citadel and hear the tent fabric flapping when the breeze comes up. I need to know about the sweat running down his back as he's locked in mortal combat, and the fear in his eyes, and the feel of the horses gathering up their muscles for the gods-powered burst of battle speed.

This story provides some of that, the combat scenes have a life of their own, but many of the other parts of the story feel like they were edited too closely. The soul of the story – the personal conflicts and relationships – were somewhat constrained, and left me wanting more development. Draw me a picture, I want to see it all. Maybe that's really too picky for a debut novel. Maybe I'm criticizing because I liked it so much. Maybe it just didn't otherwise feel like a debut. And yet, it's not a short novel, nearly 400 pages in the print edition, and I've started to really sour on the 700 page epic series debut. So maybe this accomplishes what a first in series should do – give me a story and a tease. It certainly does that, and whatever/whenever Splendor and Ruin, Book 2 exists, you can be sure I will be reading it. show less

This epic fantasy is a solid debut for Siregar, who has come out of nowhere to surprise a lot of people with his talent for storytelling, prose, and marketing. There's a reason this book sold 500 copies in 38 days when it was finally released. After teasing us with a novella last year, lots of people, like me, have been eagerly awaiting the full novel, and it was worth the wait. From world building to character development, Siregar rises to the challenge fully. There's interesting choices made in everything from plotting to point of view. With two diametrically opposed protagonists, their love interests and their fathers, as well as best friends and others, we have plenty of views from which to immerse ourselves in the story and world. show more The parallels to the Greek-Roman religious traditions struck me alongside parallels to current anti-war philosophies. I enjoyed the read and was eager to know how it ended. He surprised me with a few twists and turns and it will be interesting to see where he takes the story next.If you're bored with the typical European medieval settings for epic fantasy, give this book a try. It's different, in a good way, and filled with action sequences, character conflict, even some romance, as well as a good pcaing of tension and wonder. show less

The Black God’s War is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating epic fantasy books I have read in years.

Mr. Siregar has essentially taken the long route around, making the tropes of world-shaking fantasy feel new again through his fresh vision of world-building and his decidedly non-traditional-Western-European approach.

When one picks up a fantasy novel, there are certain things that you expect. You expect knights, and lords, and castles. You expect princesses and dragons, at least in some form or another. We expect a Western European world which generally has one thing or another in common with the high medieval/Renaissance era which is so familiar to all of us.

Somehow, Mr. Siregar manages to avoid all of that.

My favorite part show more of this book is not the incredibly strong core story, nor is it the highly believable characters. Those are wonderful things in their own right, of course, and they only serve to make this book better. My favorite part of fantasy is always world-building, and I have never seen a fantasy world like the one constructed for The Black God’s War. It feels fresh, it feels original – and that, my friends, is my favorite part of this book. From the Roman core of the Rezzians to the Indian/Buddhist roots of the Pawleon, Mr. Siregar has chosen an entirely different basis for his fantasy, and it is quite refreshing.

I will not go into plot, so as to avoid spoilers (and besides, the book’s description does a fine job of doing what little summary I could manage anyway) but the characters of Lucia, Caio, their father Vieri and Ilario are all very well drawn; Lucia and Caio especially often seem to leap off the page. Rao, Aayu and Narayani are equally well-done, and Mr. Siregar has done an excellent job adapting stereotypes to make these characters feel like real people, instead of cardboard cutouts.

This is not just one of the best independent books I have ever read; this is one of the finest fantasy novels (period, full stop, etc etc) that I have read in many years. My hat (had I one) goes off to Mr. Siregar for a well-told, well-edited and highly professional independent work that lends credence and credit to independent authors everywhere.

Final Score: 5 out of 5. You must read this book – you will not regret it. show less

Wow, what a wonderful surprise. I love the tone The Black God's War is written in: it's a very eloquent, almost poetic story that easily crept underneath my skin. The world the author has created is astounding, even better is how vibrantly this world is portrayed. Not once did I have to struggle with imaging the scene or understanding the characters. Kudos to Moses Siregar III for providing such rich entertainment.

Moses Siregar III has spun an epic tale of growth, love, betrayal and acceptance in The Black God's War. The first book in his Splendor and Ruin series, War tells of the end of a long-waged war between two civilizations that have more in common that they know.

The book is very well written and the characters come to life after a somewhat slow start. Dialogue is smooth and easy. It rarely feels as though it's for the sole purpose of exposition, save for one section where one character reveals information about another character's past. The monologue feels as though it was lifted from something more modern and urban than this story's setting and it feels as if a completely different character is speaking.

Beyond that minor lapse in style, show more the book forms a very cohesive whole until the end. There, the resolution feels a little contrived, as if Siregar realized the book was running too long and wanted to wrap things up. Regardless, I look forward to Book II. show less

I was fortunate to receive an early review copy of The Black God’s War, a very interesting fantasy debut from Moses Siregar III.

The Black God’s War is an interesting take on fantasy tropes in that there is not really a clear cut “evil” to overcome or a clearcut “good” to overcome it. Both sides in the battle have their own viewpoint and it’s never clear what would constitute a victory for either side.

The writing is consistently good and the characters feel real and interesting. The system of magic is certainly different, but ultimately not very well explained. One side in the conflict, the Rezzians, calls upon the powers of the gods, who are present if not often seen, or at least seen by many, yet whether or not they show more choose to manifest their powers as called upon is somewhat arbitrary. The other side in the conflict, the Pawelons, rely on powerful sages. These sages use a form of concentration and mantras to manifest their powers. Several things about this system of magic are never made clear, however. Some sages study for years, but can apparently teach their powers to others with no apparent training in a matter of days or hours. It is also never explained what makes some sages more powerful than others or how those powers compare to the powers wielded by the Rezzian gods.

The plot moves steadily forward and maintains interest, but the results of the battles and the strategies employed are unreliable. The feelings and motivations of some, but not all, of the main characters seem to change almost randomly. It is hard to become invested in the outcome of the battles when there seems to be no permanence or consequence to them.

Maybe the point is that motivations for starting and continuing a war are murky and clouded by personal feelings of those in charge. Or that the outcome of battles and maybe even entire wars is irrelevant and inconsequential. As a story, though, it is ultimately unsatisfying.

The level of the writing and some of the concepts involved make this an interesting read. The holes in the plot and the arbitrariness of some of the outcomes make it less satisfying. 3 stars. show less

I've been on an Indie Author craze for a few months now. A good friend of mine loaned me Black God's War by Moses Siregar III via Amazon's Kindle Lending Library. While it took me a minute to get into the story, after the first couple of chapters I was hooked. It's always a crap shot when it comes to Independent Authors because of their general lack of editing, but I was pleasantly surprised by Black God's War.

Black God’s War is actually the prelude to Siregar’s Splendor and Ruin Trilogy. It’s a stand-alone novel about the war between the two kingdoms of Rezzia and Pawelon. The two nations have always known war, and the story has an interesting take on its main characters and their gods.

The story centers on the interaction show more between the Haizzem, the Rezzians young spiritual leader named Caio, his sister Princess Lucia and the Pawelons Prince Rao, his best friend Aayu, along with Prince Rao’s lover Narayani. These five characters feel that there is no need for the war to continue and they begin to look for ways to end it.

Caio will have to overcome his natural aversion to war and useless killing in order to protect his people and fulfill their wishes. His sister Princess Lucia who has been tormented throughout her life by the Black God has to learn to open her mind to the possibility that not everything is clear and concise, and that there is always a price to pay for one’s actions. Prince Rao seems to be the most sympathetic character in the entire story. You come to realize that he is the true victim.

This is a dark fantasy with strong religious overtones. The Rezzians are reminiscent of Muslims in that there isn’t a separation of religion and lifestyle. The Rezzians live and breathe their Gods, while these patron Gods wield their power to directly help they Rezzians only when they choose to.

There are a few editorial glitches in the book, but overall Siregar has done an excellent job of story building and editing. I highly recommend this book. show less