Review – The Children of Chaos (The Cruel Gods, Book 2) by Trudie Skies (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 673 pages
Publisher:‎ Orbit
Release Date: October 13, 2022
ASIN: B0B69LCLX1
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in The Cruel Gods series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Chaos stalks the steam-powered city of Chime and threatens the existence of the gods and their domains. Kayl swore to protect Chime’s mortals from their gods’ cruel whims, but when she agrees to represent the mortals of a god long thought dead, Kayl is thrust into a political role that goes against everything she’s ever stood for.

As the newly appointed ambassador to the god of time, Quen’s goal is clear – protect Chime and the domains by any means necessary. But as the gods make their demands, Quen is caught between his loyalties and his conscience.

To ensure a future for all mortals, Kayl and Quen must unite the gods against the threat of chaos and decide what they’re willing to sacrifice for Chime – before the gods choose for them..”

Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in The Cruel Gods series. I borrowed this on ebook through Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: This book took me forever to read and felt like a chore to read at points. It felt much more bloated than the first book in this series. This was still well done; I love the world building here and the journeying to the other godly domains. It just could have been a much tighter story and that would have made it more enjoyable to read.

Quen wants to protect Chime but as the Speaker for Dor, his options are limited as Dor sets his goals to destroying Chaos rather than trying to strike some sort of bargain. Kayl is stuck between her goddess and her “twin” Jinx who was stuck in her mind for years but is now free to roam as a child of Chaos. Kayl and Quen want to protect Chime, but will the gods allow them to do so? Quen sets out to get support from each of the gods’ realms with Kayl at his side. However, things do not go as planned.

I continue to love the amazing and complex world that is explored in this book. The world is expanded because we get to visit many more of the godly realms and learn about them in a lot more detail, and I really enjoyed this. I also really love that the characters here are very gray morally; both Quen and Kayl do good and bad things but their ultimate goal is for good even if at times it feels misguided.

I did not love the addition of Jinx. Some of the book is from her POV and I don’t think we needed these parts. I get it she is a foul-mouthed agent of complete chaos, but I didn’t feel like her parts added anything to the story…mostly they were just annoying to read. I also thought some of Quen’s POV was way too drawn out. Yes, we know he is a tortured soul who both loves and hates his god and who is haunted by his past…this was just re-hashed way too frequently throughout this story.

So, while I continue to love the world, the way the overall story is progressing, and the intriguing characters…I did have some pretty big issues with this book. The main issue being was that it was just too bloated, the same issues were hashed over and over again without any progress forward. This took me a really long time to read because I kept setting it down and walking away from it. I did enjoy it when I finally sat down to read it again, but then I would start to get bored and wander away again. I finally had to set a reading schedule for each day to make myself sit down and finish it. I have a lot of respect for the world and characters created here, I just feel like this needs more editing and tightening up.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this. The world-building continues to be amazing, the characters deliciously morally gray, and the story intriguing. Unfortunately, like happens with so many epic fantasy-type stories, this book felt unnecessarily bloated at times. Characters rehashed their actions and thoughts without much story progress, and it bogged the story down. It was so bad, I am actually on the fence about whether or not I will finish the series. I do continue to be awed by the amazing world building, so I will probably finish the series…I am just going to need a bit of time between books I think.