Early Review – Spring’s Arcana (The Dead God’s Heart, Book 1) by Lilith Saintcrow (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 358 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: May 2, 2023
ASIN: B0B9KTWB24
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dead God’s Heart series
Source: eGalley for review from NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Nat Drozdova is desperate to save a life. Doctors can do little for her cancer-ridden mother, who insists there is only one cure—and that Nat must visit a skyscraper in Manhattan to get it.
Amid a snow-locked city, inside a sleek glass-walled office, Nat makes her plea and is whisked into a terrifying new world. For the skyscraper holds a hungry winter goddess who has the power to cure her mother…if Nat finds a stolen object of great power.
Now Nat must travel with a razor-wielding assassin across an American continent brimming with terror, wonder, and hungry divinities with every reason to consume a young woman. For her ailing mother is indeed suffering no ordinary illness, and Nat Drozdova is no ordinary girl. Blood calls to blood, magic to magic, and a daughter may indeed save what she loves…
…if it doesn’t consume her first.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in The Dead God’s Heart series. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: I have read a couple other series but Saintcrow and she’s very hit or miss. I really enjoyed her early novels in the Dante Valentine series but really disliked her Bannon and Clare series. I keep meaning to pick up the Jill Kismet series but just never have. I was excited to see a new urban fantasy by her but this was an odd book. It reminds me of a combo of “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman and The Nightside Series by Simon Green but it isn’t as good as either of those.
I think of “American Gods” because the main character, Nat, is dealing with old gods and divinities and finding gods of different aspects of American life. I also think of The Nightside Series because of the way surreal and strange things are thrown at the reader in rapid succession. I know a lot of people don’t like The Nightside series but I have a strange fondness for it because of the creative craziness that went into that series and the over the top characters.
In the beginning I was drawn into the strangeness and creativeness of it all. I enjoyed Nat’s plunge into this insane world of divinities. I did struggle some with how disconnected the story felt and how hard it was to picture some of the situations Nat ends up in because they just weren’t described very well.
As the story went on it got kind of boring. Nat is a very bland character and the thief divinity she travels with, for all his viciousness, quickly went from intriguing to bland as well. Then the story just stops pretty much in the middle of things with a “To Be Continued” at the end, which was irritating.
This is definitely not Saintcrow’s best work. I liked the idea behind it and some of the creative scenes and surreal-like plunge into a divinity underworld. However, the story felt scattered and it was hard to picture the surroundings and follow what was going on. Towards the end it just got flat-out boring.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a bit disappointing for me. I did finish it, it was a pretty quick read. I initially enjoyed the concept and some of the crazy situations Nat is thrown into. Unfortunately, my pace of reading definitely slowed down in the second half of the book and I just got very bored with it all. I don’t plan on picking up any more books in this series; the writing was just too sloppy.
