This series is an odd one.
On the one hand, it quickly captured my interest and held it across 3 books.
But on the other hand, I can understand why the reviews are so mixed.
The pacing is relentless the drama is strong and the mood is dark. Very dark.
The series commits all kinds of pretty bad writing sins. From the universally hated fake-out death over no consistency or logic whatsoever to a plot hole minefield. And the reader is generally the last to know anything. But everything went by so quickly that all the contradictions, flaws, and other missteps became irrelevant 5 minutes later because the entire situation is completely different. The problem with cheap plot devices and plot holes etc. usually is how you normally look back on the framework the entire story is built upon. The more lazy writing sins there are the wonkier and more unstable the entire structure becomes and the more fundamental the rotten parts are the more they stick out and frustrate me. But because so much is badly flawed and brittle but nothing really matters 10 minutes later it never really annoyed me.
At the same time, the book does a really good job of getting me attached to the characters. They are so heart-wrenchingly tragic and not in a cheesy way.
But be assured I could probably write an entire novella just about all the problems the plot and the characters have.

This series (and much of Pippa DaCostas writing in general) is a very good mirror in showing me a lot of the hypocrisy of thinking I understand what makes a good story.
This book does almost everything wrong but it still got me invested and kept me reading.
There are clearly other aspects to writing that I don't even have words for that are not spoken about in amateur reviews much if at all. ( )

The premise of the book is promising, and with some omissions it would be a good book. The main character is an ancient Egyptian deity, the devourer of souls, who consumed souls that were heavier than a feather when weighed by Osiris. In this novel, the Egyptian pantheon lurk in the background of modern society. But Osiris was apparently also a god of fertility. Every encounter between the main character and Osiris or Isis is full of explicit sexual details which detract from the book. I'm only a third of the way through, but I'm done with the pornographic details, so I'm done with this series too. ( )

Intriguing start to a series. Other entries will go on my TBR list, since only this first one is available on Kindle Unlimited. ( )

Hidden Blade
(Soul Eater #1)
by Pippa DaCosta
Terrific and terrifying gods that haven't the slightest morals or empathy for life. Ace finds out he has a daughter that is grown and in danger. He is trying to save her, save his ex-wives followers, keep from losing his mind from darkness, keep from getting himself killed by a sadistic god, and he is suppose to kill a god that he has no chance of killing. Plus, there is a demon on the loose! The book is never dull! ( )

Ace, the nameless one, the Soul Eater, is cursed and enslaved. Banished from Duat, bound to his duty on Earth serving his master and reluctantly linked to a woman who mocks him every day with her presence, he doesn’t have a happy life. The one thing he does want to do is avoid the gods however he can

But when Bastet comes back into his life things get a little more complicated. Not least because she’s his ex-wife

Egyptian gods! Anyone who has been reading Fangs for any length of time knows we love ourselves some good mythology and, surprisingly, the Egyptians are oddly uncommon in the genre, I’ve found. Which is a shame because I’d love to dive into an Egyptian story

And here we have the Egyptian gods in a modern world setting along with a fun, action packed story. And I do really like the plot, the action is extremely well paced but it doesn’t consume the book to the point where it feels like there is no plot as can sometimes happen. I like the characters and their interactions, their complexities and temptations, their histories and difficulties. They work really well together and with the world they’re involved in.

But I find myself somewhat disappointed by that huge potential not especially being examined. What excited me about this was Egyptian gods in the modern world – that would have been exciting and interesting and deep and we could bring in lots of excellent mythology. But… we didn’t really see the Egyptian gods. Oh, Osiris and Isis are there – but they’re just mighty powerful evil people. You could have changed their names to be anything or anyone, they could be powerful mages, fallen angels, pretty much anything which is kind of depressing. There was no sense to me of them being actually Osiris or Isis. They were just the big powerful antagonists the culture, the history, the resonance behind what they are is missing

On top of that, I really dislike how Isis is portrayed – conniving and manipulative? I could accept that even if it is beneath Isis (the paragon wife and mother, the mother goddess, goddess of artisans and maidens and so much more) – but to have her sexually shamed – to have Osiris happily . To demonise her both through her sexuality (and her bisexuality for extra unpleasant tropiness) and using that sexuality as a classic marker of evil/depravity/immorality/corruption would be generally gross with any female antagonist – but to decide to do this with the actual lore around Isis and what she could have been just seems to add totally wasted opportunity on top of an utterly tired trope.

We have a much more humanised presentation of Bast and some more examination of what she represents – goddess of cats, goddess of pregnant ladies. But, again, a werecat who really had a soft spot for poor women or pregnant women would have filled the gap. Especially with the way Bast ends up at the end of the book.

And that brings us to our protagonist, the nameless, the adopted son of Ammit the Devourer – how could we not explore this? But instead we see a supernatural being with a difficult, dangerous and angst-worthy hunger. It’s for souls. But it could have easily have been blood or meat or the common supernatural hungers we see quite readily

I’m not saying any of this is bad or the plot is bad or even the characters are bad. Far from it – the plot’s exciting, the characters are intriguing. I like Ace and his struggle with his dark desires, his grittiness, his power, his bondage to Osiris, his complicated relationship with Bast and even more complicated (and extremely high potential relationship with Shukra – the idea that he, consumer of the souls of the worst of the worst was forced to be linked forever with one of the worst souls he’s ever come across – their mutual hatred and grudging respect is interesting to see grow). I like the plot line, the action, the potential of the woman they’re trying to save. It’s a fun plot with more than a few fun twists

But with the basis we started with there could have been so much more. I feel the Egyptian mythology setting could have been developed so much further than it has been. I ended up reading a somewhat generic, if still good story, which could have been far more original. Even aside from the mythology there was a lot more I would have liked to see – Ace and Shu, Ace and Bast, Ace defeating demons, the how and why and consequences of that. I feel we raced into the main story fast enough to not explore all these things

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