The Book Report Episode #28

Episode #27

The Isles of the Gods By Amie Kaufman

The Book

The Isle of the Gods was first printed in the UK in 2023 by Rock the Boat. The book has 456 pages with acknowledgements. This was a random purchase for me in March 2023 during a birthday trip to Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury Avenue. Not knowing what to buy I went through the top ten books and luckily this was one of five I purchased. I was able to buy a signed copy.

What Did I Think

This story is set in the world of Gods, sailors, religion and magic. The gods are real and are a family, consisting of a mother and children. I don’t know where the father is, maybe getting a cosmic bottle of milk in the next universe.

But anyway… One of the children, Macean, tried to seek dominance around five hundred and one years ago. This led to Barrica stopping Mecean and sending the god into an endless slumber and the rest of the Gods leaving.

This does remind me of the Belgarath series by David and Leigh Eddings. Please read it if you get a chance.

Five centuries later, the Sisters and followers of Macean, are on the verge of resurrecting him. The only way he will be stopped is a “lazy” prince, who is a year late for the quarter-century sacrifice to his god so the rival god stays asleep.

Friends

Selly is a ship’s mate. Her father is captain of a fleet of boats, but is away and will not be back anytime soon. Finding this out she tries to stow herself on board a vessel to be with her father. This is stopped when her captain is given a mission and cannot get off the boat in time.

Before this Selly’s dad left her in the care of Captain Rensa, whose purpose is to train her in the understanding of what and how a captain should act. She finally learns this, a little too late but she grows into what she desires to be with the help of her friends.

Keegan is the third wheel who also wants to run away. But is dragged into this with no choice of his own. Keegan and Leander went to school together but didn’t get along. Leander’s fault mostly. He is a book worm and all he wants to do is spend his life learning and reading at a place called the Bibliotek, a neutral territory.

The Love Interest

Prince Leander of Alinor is a person who can charm the pants off of anyone. Selly is another who eventually falls for his charm but tries to fight it for about half of the book until she slowly gives in. There are reasons she can’t until the end when there is no point holding back anymore.

Most of the book is about the struggle of lust and love, between those two characters. I don’t know if it’s just me, but they overdo it a tad. I understand the need to portray their struggle to stay away from each other but I think It maybe was a little too much when I am more interested in the plot, not romance.

But, that is what I bought without knowing so I will have to lump it.

The struggle that Selly, Leander and Keegan face are told very well and you can tell as you read that Mrs Kaufman knows a thing or two about boats as she gets excited every time she writes about how each part of a boat works.

Magic

Magic in this world is produced by sacrifice. The more important the sacrifice the more powerful the magic created. This is the norm for magic as “there’s always a price to pay” but it is normally skimmed over. Here you can’t get away with that. You have to pay the toll in the beginning.

It turns out that Leander is a powerful magician/ wizard. He tries his best, whereas others have failed, to work out why Selly, even though she has all the traits needed, can’t access her abilities.

The other characters in the enemy camp need to be developed more as we don’t spend much time with them. But with a sequel coming I think that is likely to happen. But what I have read so far… There may be problems inside the camp.

Chapter Style

What I did like is something I haven’t read before. Point of view storytelling. With other books, you follow the story through one character. This book has each chapter from the point of view of each character so we can get to know them better. Learn their struggles and feelings about what is going on. Also, follow the story better from different angles.

Would I Recommend

Yes, I would. The adventure had, in this story, will be enjoyed by many. Well maybe not by anybody too young. But still, you might like it. There will be a sequel later in the year (Sept 2024). Hopefully, I can get another signed copy.

Please, give it a try.

Would you like to purchase your very own copy?

You could try these online stores: Amazon UK/USA. Waterstones. AbeBooks UK/ USA, Barnes and Noble and eBay UK/ USA.

Alternatively, you could try your local bookshop or even your local library.