Five SFF titles about flawed gods

Rin Chupeco has written obscure manuals for complicated computer programs, talked people out of their money at event shows, and done many other terrible things. She now writes about ghosts and fantastic worlds but is still sometimes mistaken for a revenant. She is the author of The Girl from the Well, its sequel, The Suffering, and the Bone Witch trilogy.

Her new novel is The Ever Cruel Kingdom.

At Tor.com, Chupeco tagged five sci-fi & fantasy books about flawed gods, including:

The Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin

Enslavement is the worst thing to happen to any god, and it’s especially fatal to the people who incur the wrath of those who control them. Such is Yeine’s situation in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, the first book in the series, where she is summoned to the floating city of Sky and named its ruler’s heir along with two other competitors for the throne. In the struggle to survive the captive gods long enough to solve her mother’s murder and ascend the throne, Yeine will discover her connection with these powerful deities and make a fateful choice. The brilliant way Jemisin carries out the plot, resulting in that ultimate, final choice, cements this for me as one of my favorite reads, and enforces my love for trickster gods (I’m looking at you, Sieh!)

The second and third books also deal with the fallen beings who’d been rendered powerless and human from the events of the first book, and their fight to regain their godhoods by whatever means they can in their much more vulnerable bodies.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue