DNF Early Review – Immortal Longings (Flesh & False Gods, Book 1) by Chloe Gong (2/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Release Date: July 18, 2023
ASIN: B0BHTLP2M8
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Flesh & False Gods series
Source: eGalley through NetGalley for Review
Rating: 2/5 stars
“Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. For those confident enough in their ability to jump between bodies, competitors across San-Er fight to the death to win unimaginable riches.
Princess Calla Tuoleimi lurks in hiding. Five years ago, a massacre killed her parents and left the palace of Er empty…and she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa’s forces in San can catch her, she plans to finish the job and bring down the monarchy. Her reclusive uncle always greets the victor of the games, so if she wins, she gets her opportunity at last to kill him.
Enter Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat. His childhood love has lain in a coma since they were both ousted from the palace, and he’s deep in debt trying to keep her alive. Thankfully, he’s one of the best jumpers in the kingdom, flitting from body to body at will. His last chance at saving her is entering the games and winning.
Calla finds both an unexpected alliance with Anton and help from King Kasa’s adopted son, August, who wants to mend Talin’s ills. But the three of them have very different goals, even as Calla and Anton’s partnership spirals into something all-consuming. Before the games close, Calla must decide what she’s playing for—her lover or her kingdom.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Flesh & False Gods series. I got an eBook for this from NetGalley for review.
Thoughts: I set this aside at 40% of the way through. To be fair I think I have decided I am just not a fan of Gong’s writing style at this point. I loved “These Violent Delights” but thought the follow-up to that, “Our Violent Ends”, was good but not great. I did not like “Foul Lady Fortune” at all.
I had a lot of issues with this book. Initially it seemed okay but as I got a bit deeper into it, I struggled with a lot of things. I had trouble picturing the world; was it cyberpunkish, was it fantasy? I couldn’t really tell you. There seem to be some futuristic elements, but the layout and political structure seems very historical fantasy like. The descriptions weren’t good enough for me to figure out what kind of world I was reading about. The politics are incredibly complex and I am not a fan of politically heavy fiction, so I found my mind wandering off and kept having to re-read portions to follow all these countries and politics that I really wasn’t given a reason to care about.
The characters were hard for me to engage with as well. Honestly they are all pretty much selfish jerks. I just didn’t like August, Anton, or Callie at all. Their motives were selfish and their characters lacked depth. They seemed to be going through the motions without a lot of emotion or reason for doing so.
The idea of people body-jumping was poorly explained and had so many logistical conflicts that weren’t being addressed well. How do you even function in a society where people can be other people at their whim? Even the bracelets they have during the tournament are logistically problematic; how do they take them with them from body to body? Sometimes this was explained and sometimes it wasn’t.
The plot was also very ho-hum. This is completely a rip off on The Hunger Games. A fight to the death for general citizens to win a prize from corrupt leadership. There is even a cornucopia-like scene at the beginning of the games start. There is a plot within that to take down a corrupt king. I felt like I had read this type of a plot thousands of times before. Take Hunger Games and merge it with a typical fantasy where people are trying to overthrow a corrupt king and you have this.
Add to the above that the pace on this is soooo slow. I was nearly half of the way through the book and, aside from contestants killing each other in brief and fairly poorly described fight scenes, nothing of great interest was happening. In face Anton and Callie just finally bump into each other at this point in the book. Yep, there is a lot of action and death but it all felt fairly meaningless.
I didn’t like this, it wasn’t for me. At this point I think I can say “These Violent Delights” must have been a fluke or I just don’t like where Gong is taking her writing. I don’t plan on reading any more by her. Gong’s writing is very intricate and precise but it feels very clinical and not very engaging. The parts are there, but not in a way that provides engaging storytelling.
My Summary (2/5): Overall I wasn’t a fan of this at all and stopped reading it 40% of the way through. The world-building and politics were complex and hard to follow, the characters lacked dimension, the pacing was strangely slow despite all the action scenes, and the plot was flat out boring. I think at this point I am done reading Gong as an author, her style just isn’t something I personally enjoy.
