Temple of No God by H. M. Long: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Temple of No God by H. M. Long

Temple of No God is the follow-up to H. M. Long’s excellent Hall of Smoke. It is fantasy set in a pre-industrial, tribal world that resembles partly ancient China, partly native American cultures, and partly ancient Rome, with a unique pantheon thrown in the mix.

At the end of the first book, Hessa, the last remaining priestess of warrior goddess Eang, killed all the false gods, hers included, and freed an ancient god Thvynder. This book takes place ten years later. Hessa is the High Priestess and the leader of her people. They’ve had a chance to rebuild their villages, but every year, she leads her tribe to raid the border areas with Arpa, the old enemy of her people, now in disarray without gods and the emperor who gets his power from them.

Then a new god arises in Arpa, and with it a possibility that there will be an emperor once more. Hessa’s god sends the people who worship them to Arpa to make sure the right person is crowned as the emperor. The book is one long campaign that ends at the temple of no god in the middle of the Arpa empire, where the divine coronation is to take place.

This was a good book. Well-written and well-paced, with a straightforward plot that was easy to follow. The chapters were short and there was nothing unnecessary.

But it wasn’t as great as the first book. Nothing was truly at stake, despite the possibility that the rebuilt empire would ignite the ancient warfare. Hessa, the sole point of view character, had nothing to lose. The need to keep her people safe was a good incentive to take on the campaign, but it wasn’t enough to carry the plot.

The first book built on Hessa slowly realising that the goddess she had worshipped and killed for was false, and the reader was taken on a journey of revelation and growth with her. Her rage and need to revenge the people she loved drove the plot.

This book had nothing. The gods are gone and so is Hessa’s rage. She’s a ghost of her former self. There’s no fervour and nothing drives her. The emotional bonds she formed in the previous book are on the background, and the few scenes where she shows affection to her family members feel tagged on. She never has to act on any of her beliefs and she isn’t tested. Not even coming face to face with her former torturer elicit a proper reaction from her and she’s perfectly willing to go with him simply because he has lost his memory of the events.

The emotional payload here is about Hessa’s marriage. Between the books, Hessa has married High Priest Imnir, an odd choice that made me wonder if I’d missed a book because he wasn’t in the first one. We learn nothing about him and don’t have a chance to form an emotional bond with him when we already learn that the marriage is failing.

Imnir is struggling with the loss of his first family, which drives his actions, but which have no emotional meaning for the reader, as we haven’t been there. Hessa, secure with her family and tribe, has nothing to contribute to his struggle. She wants family and children, but not so much that she would force him to confront his grief that is over a decade old already.

We catch up at the tail-end of the marriage, without witnessing the good there might have been and what has been lost. Hessa’s dithering between letting him go and trying to make the marriage work has no meaning. Imnir’s actions fail to make the impact they’re supposed to, because Hessa doesn’t truly care and so the reader doesn’t care. Compared with the betrayals of Hessa’s goddess in the first book, the lack of emotional impact becomes even more pronounced.

Nevertheless, the book was satisfying enough, even if it was light compared with the first. Hessa wasn’t all-powerful, despite the magic she carries, and the solution at the end that worked best for her people came with some personal sacrifice for her. It would’ve meant more, however, if the author had concentrated on the friendships formed in the first book instead of the emotionless marriage. The ending left me feeling good for having read the book, but nothing much else. It doesn’t seem like there will be more books, but I’m sure I’ll read them if there are.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.