Demon / Deathless

Series:
- Archive of the God Eater, #1 (Demon)
- Annals of the God Eater, #1 (Deathless)

Release Date:
- August 6, 2024 (Demon)
- July 23, 2024 (Deathless)

Book Length:
- 200 pages (Demon)
- 196 pages (Deathless)

Author: Rob J. Hayes (@robofthehayes)
Author Site: robjhayes.co.uk
Amazon: Demon | Deathless
Goodreads: Demon | Deathless

Synopsis (Demon)

Dien Hostain was never meant to lead. She wasn't meant to survive.

Kind of heart and quick in temper, Dien expects to lead a simple life, learning her father's trade. But unbeknown to her, he was not always a carpenter. He's an exile, a traitor once known as the Peace Breaker.

When nightmarish demons attack the village of Berrywhistle, her father is murdered. Dien and the survivors are taken as thralls to live out the rest of their days in squaller and back-breaking labour. But Dien's blood boils with the need to escape and take her revenge.

They try to break her body. They try to break her spirit.

Will Dien take up her father's hammer and unite her people?

On wings of vengeance, a Saint shall rise.

Synopsis (Deathless)

Seven were the Godless Kings who took their war to Heaven.

King Ertide Hostain was once known as the Crimson Prince. He fought side by side with angels and pegasi and defended the Sant Dien Empire against monsters. But his pact with Heaven has become strained. He has grown old, his body rots, and he has yet to choose which squabbling prince will be his heir.

The Hostain dynasty has ruled over the empire for millennia, but when Ertide finds cryptic notes from his dead father, he realises not all is as it seems. Has history been rewritten? And if so, what is heaven hiding?

Immortality has a price, and it is paid in blood.

Review

Unlike Rob J. Hayes, who has taken on the monumental task of releasing three interrelated series simultaneously, I am lazy. That's why I've decided to condense my thoughts about these first two novellas into one review. Both of these stories are about the Hostain dynasty – only in Demon, set 2000 years before Deathless, the Hostain dynasty amounts to a girl named Dien living with her parents in a forest village. Her da is a blacksmith with a checkered past who provides plenty of sage wisdom that she continually reflects on after her village is ransacked by demons. Dien and any other villagers they haven't slaughtered are taken hostage while their home burns behind them.

It's quite gruesome right from the start and only grows more so as the demons force their human captives (who they call "meat") to eat the weak ones who can't keep up in their prisoner march to the mountains. While everyone around her succumbs to their hunger, Dien refuses to give in to cannibalism. She tries to maintain a hold on her humanity while keeping her closest friend from giving up on life.

Naturally, circumstances only grow more dire when they reach their destination. This is a story of a strong-willed girl pushed to the absolute brink while trying to escape the captivity and depravity she's forced to endure.

Deathless, on the other hand, is about King Ertide Hostain, Dien's old and infirm descendant who must pick an heir to satisfy the will of God and his angels. Though this is a man at the head of an empire, he is a ruler in name only, forced to accede to the angels' every wish – and he won't have it anymore.

I'm so glad I read these stories back-to-back. Not only because Deathless has a ton of references to the characters established in Demon – all of which excited my imagination and made me eager to read the rest of Dien Hostain's story in Demon's sequels – but also because the two are thematically linked.

Demon shows how humanity is oppressed by demons. Forced labor and cannibalism, slave pens, disembowelment – it's brutal and violent. Meanwhile, Deathless shows how humanity is oppressed by angels. Rewriting history, allowing the illusion of choice – the angels wield soft power to put the fear of God in men. In both cases, the main character leads an uprising that results in a change to the world order. Dien's resistance is a matter of leading humanity to break free from their shackles. Ertide's is a matter of political conspiracy to gain real power against the angels. Both story types are the perfect fit for the enemies they fight against, and I enjoyed each story for what it was.

While I have very little to critique in Demon, Deathless left me wanting in a few ways. Much of the story is setting up Ertide's resistance and how he figures out that the angels have rewritten history. I wish there were more revelations about exactly what was changed and why, but perhaps because I don't know Dien's whole tale it was hard to piece together exactly what the angels were lying about. What felt like one of the big reveals left me more confused than satisfied, and I wonder if I missed something earlier in the story that justified it. Deathless also felt like it didn't have as much meat in the story as Demon (and I don't mean the human "meat"). Every chapter of Demon had me excited for the next, wondering how Dien would overcome the next challenge as her strength and will faltered, culminating in an utterly heartbreaking climax. Deathless moved more slowly and meticulously. There was still a ton to enjoy, but I found it less engaging than Demon.

Ultimately, I think I only enjoyed Deathless as much as I did because Demon was so damned good and hooked me for the full God Eater Saga. Without Demon to support it, I would still call it a good read. But taken together, these two are a masterwork in worldbuilding. Reading Demon makes it feel like there's history behind every little detail in Deathless. And 2000 years of continuity, with nations and characters persisting from one book to the next, is something I've not experienced in any other series. I loved that.

And that's not to say it's just the scale that's great. Right from the beginning of Demon, the details in Dien's forest village captivated me. So many unique details, like milling bugs to make bread, show how primitive human society is before their ascent to the continent-spanning Sant Dien Empire seen in Deathless. There are also lots of things I'm curious about that I suspect are revealed in Herald or perhaps saved for future entries, such as what the demons are running from and what the creatures in the caves are. Needless to say, I'm awaiting the next Kickstarter for all three Book 2s with bated breath! Luckily, I'll have the chonky tome that is Herald to keep me busy in the meantime.

5/5 ⭐ for Demon
4/5 ⭐ for Deathless