| Title | : | Infidel (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1597802247 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781597802246 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 376 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 2011 |
| Awards | : | Gaylactic Spectrum Award Best Novel (2012) |
Infidel (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #2) Reviews
-
“The smog in Mushtallah tasted of tar and ashes; it tasted like the war.”
I had to remind myself to breathe when I was reading Infidel. Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame series is simply amazing. So many themes packed into each page; action, honor, faith, regret, resolve, all woven into a fast-moving plot, character exploration and innovative world-building. It feels real and harsh and heartbreaking. When I finished late at night, I felt rather the same way I felt when I finished The Last Argument of Kings, only more so.
Yeah, that.
Infidel takes place six years after the events of the first book,
God's War. The countries of Nasheen and Chenja remain at war with each other, as they have been for the last hundred years. Nyx worked as a bel dame for Nasheen, a government enforcer/assassin, but after making some very questionable decisions, she’s been working a mercenary. She has a new team, a young shifter boy named Eshe and a hardened ex-veteran, Suha. The story begins in the midst of bodyguard detail for a diplomat’s daughter, in the setting dreaded by all bodyguards everywhere, the crowded shopping district. Nyx realizes they are being boxed in and manages to scare off one assassin and behead another. When she learns the assassin might be a rogue bel dame, she journeys to the headquarters of the guild and meets with a former colleague. What follows is a fast-paced hunt through the countries of Umayma.
As the second in the Bel Dame series, more details of the world are fleshed (ha-ha) out, so to speak. For those that struggled with the world-building in the first book, Hurley is kinder here, filling in more details about the neighboring countries and the history of various peoples. A little more is also filled in about the emigration from the moon to Unamya, and the unclean areas that remain even after colonizing. The insect-based magic and technology continues to play a vital role in the plot, and despite my own bug-aversion, it’s very interesting.
Plotting is fast. There’s more nation-politics than I usually like in my book, but it is built organically, connected to personal actions and motives that make it both plausible and interesting. Something in Hurley’s plotting feels unusual to me, and I think it’s partly her ability to sustain tension through small event arcs, and then repeating them at escalating frequency. It has the satisfying feeling of building to a crescendo, resolving small conflicts and then creating bigger ones. It helps too that the world she’s built allows for a certain kinds of rejuvenation, provided one has the money, connections and time. What I discovered this time was that very little of the details were predictable, and I loved that.
“‘So what the hell’s wrong with me?’ Nyx eased off the marble slab.
‘Besides your deviant moral flexibility and severe phobia of emotional commitment?’ Yahfia asked.
‘I consider those virtues,’ Nyx said.“
Characterization is outstanding. Nyx is not an easy person to like, but she has an idea of honor and protection that makes her accessible. Her cynicism brings a dry, biting humor to her character and her story. Rhys, an educated exile, provides a way for Hurley to engage in more sophisticated cultural analysis. One of the fascinating aspects of the story is the attraction that Nyx and Rhys have for each other despite enormous cultural and emotional differences.
“‘If you weren’t what you are, and I wasn’t what I am, we’d both be dead,’ Rhys said. ‘And we would have nothing to speak of.'”
Why have more people not read this series? I highly recommend it, particularly if you enjoy some of the darker fantasy such as Weeks' Shadow series, Mark Lawrence or Abercrombie. This is better than all of them. I particularly recommend it because of the nuanced character development and the unusual world-building. Definitely personal library-worthy. -
I come away from this novel with the same feeling I had from the first.
Oppressed.
Of course, that's the point. War, religious or otherwise, is hell. Being good at it does nothing to improve your relations with others, and Nyx is a shining example of the honor-bound disgraced warrior working to regain her good name and status as a Bel Dame elite.
And yet, for all the fighting, the tight plotting, the hopes, the fears, and the twists of everything, what I really feel is the oppression of deep heartache. It's wonderful to read a novel that sets out to tear us up and does a grand job of it.
It's even more wonderful to throw in some of the most dense worldbuilding for a SF novel out there, whether as a continuation of the first in the series or not. It's all very close to the cuff. The devil is in the details, and great god in heaven, we're dumped in it. Most of it is political and cultural, but the most striking aspects are of course the bugs. It might as well be magic, and of course the class of people who use the tech are called magicians, and of course there's also the shapeshifters, but don't be fooled into thinking this is some sort of UF.
It's hard SF, through and through.
The same warning I gave for the first novel, I continue for this one. It's rich, it's dense, and it requires patience. Things aren't easy for anyone in the book, especially Nyx, but then, it's not easy on ANYONE. Since I as a reader am getting into the story pretty deep, it is also not easy on me.
Don't read this if you want a light and easy read.
Definitely read it if you want deep immersion and a truly fascinating and well-fleshed world and characters. (Even if they lose their heads now and again.) -
Revisiting the world of
God's War several years later sees Nyx again the at the focus of political events.
Nyxnissa is older but still in much the same position as she was in God's War: the leader of a small mercenary squad in the country of Nasheen, one side of a perpetual conflict that has consumed generation after generation of men. In this one she gets caught up in a coup by a group of bel dames where she's either working for the bel dames or the Nasheen monarchy, but mostly for herself.
I felt this book flowed a lot better than the first one and definitely shows Hurley's continuing improvement as a writer. Nyx is as characteristically brutal as the world is to her, and everyone and everything around her ends in tears.
If you read God's War and you thought it was ok you should definitely continue to this one; it's a big improvement. -
5 Stars
I am giving Infidel a full extra star and full marks because this is the second book in the trilogy and it does not suffer the normal mid cycle blues. Hurley does a rare thing with this sequel In that she does not hold back, there are many major plot twists, series changers, and characters killed. I love how this series is incredibly dark and dirty and filled to the brim with bugs. Hurley has created a world that would fit right into a China Mieville setting. Better yet, this world reminds me of a favorite novel of mine The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway with the major addition of all the bugs.
This is a special read to me....
First, the lead character Nyx, is a woman. No, she isn't a young hottie that is good with a bow. She is no young undead loving high school tramp. And although she is truly different from the rest, there really is no real group for to fit in with. Nyx is a large, scarred, man hands type of woman that can fold you up into a pretzel. She prefers blades over guns. She has no fear, no real morals, and no real friends. She is however loyal to a fault. Nyx is a one of kind that will scare you into routing for her and her cause.
Second, the world is worth the read alone. The magic behind this insect laden world is incredible, amazing, and freaking awesome. You will be blown away by what can be done with a bug.
Finally, praise to Hurley for not selling out to make this a more accessible read. It is fucking dark and dirty....tough shit if you don't like it. Abercrombie who?
Kameron Hurley can write. These books are fast page turners.
A snippet:
"As the tree's colors paled, the melted shape took on a more human form. The gaping hole in the face – to half formed mouth – vomited a black cloud of flies, and with the flies came another scream; not from the bugs this time, but a true human scream; the rage and pain and terror of birth."
I love this series, I loved this book. Some sick and twisted part of me loves Nyx. My highest recommendations and a must read for those looking for the opposite of today's Young Adult laced fantasy genre. -
Hurley returns to her richly textured world with Infidel for another round of high speed adventures. Clearer than the first in the series, Infidel assumes a 'classic' quest type fantasy format, with Nyx and her 'gang' out to find and destroy a rogue band of 'Bel Dams' who seek to overthrow the Queen of Nasheen and reestablish the era when the Bel Dams were basically completely outside of governmental influence. Nyx is tough a nails, but is she tough enough to take on the Bel Dams?
Infidel explores more of the fascinating world she constructed here, moving from the two powers at war (as they have been for centuries) to the 'neutral' states, who often supply arms to both sides. It seems the rogue band of Bel Dams is courting some of these neutral states, promising very powerful new weapons in lieu of their eventual support when the Bel Dams eliminate the Queen. Nyx has some friends around, however, in these same states, including most of her former team/gang from the first book in the series, God's War, with Infidel taking place about 6 years later. Several of her former gang are now married with children-- something not completely unexpected, but their allegiance to Nyx was always shaky at best. Can she put the 'old gang' back together?
The plot here is fairly straightforward-- a quest that you know will be strewn with obstacles. This is not really a good versus evil meme, however, as both sides are rather mixed as is their morality and ethics. Once again, Hurley takes us on an exploration of the human condition, and while the world is quite foreign, the exploration is not. Complex characters round out this fantasy action novel and Hurley leaves lots of room for a sequel. 4 solid stars! -
Kameron Hurley is my current favorite action-scene writer. I wish her novels are optioned by Syfy or whoever because I want to see bel dames fighting and shooting and stabbing and magicians using their bugs and shifters...well, shifting. And gosh, the worldbuilding. Sooo rich. Sooo real. Last time I felt 'living' in the story was when I read China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.
Nyx is definitely a character that you want to root no matter how broken and crazy she is. And Rhys as well. Poor Rhys. I love Nyx's team. And Inaya is such a badass with her shifting. That final fight is a work of art.
The conspiracy part is more complex and nuanced here, so I am looking forward for the conclusion in book 3. -
The Good:
Just like
last time, the setting is creepy and dark and wonderful. The characters are awesome, headlined by the best heroine in fantasy fiction. The ending is pretty good too.
The Bad:
It's just a bit too slow, especially early on.
'Friends' character the protagonist is most like:
Nyx is still like Rachel, but sometimes drily humorous like Chandler. She is angsty like Ross, bloody-minded like Monica and out of her fucking mind like Phoebe. In book one she was smooth with the ladies, much like Joey, but six years later her lack of self worth seems to be getting in the way. -
Kameron Hurley never disappoints. Awesome, AS ALWAYS.
-
Check out my Booktube channel at:
The Obsessive Bookseller
[3.5/5 stars] Hurley is such a weird author. Especially within this series. But it’s kind of like a car wreck you can’t stop looking at. Not to say her work is a disaster, but rather that the story elements are so hard to read that you wonder why you’re putting yourself through the abuse…
But the writing is so good, you brace yourself and just keep going.
A Scifi world with warring factions, political intrigue, and a magic system based on the life energy of bugs… yeah, this isn’t your typical series. I’m always drawn to creative world-building and loved what Hurley developed here, even if some of the cool elements could’ve been pushed even further. That’s the thing though – stuff like the bug magic, which would get front and center attention in any other novel – was just one more cool element to many other cool things going on in this series that it’s almost treated like an afterthought. What would it be like to have so many original ideas for a series that you’d have to pick and choose what gets highlighted? So in that regard, I think parts of this series are absolutely brilliant.
I knew before venturing into this book that the author liked to use shock value to jar the reader. I was prepared for it, and indeed she didn’t pull any punches this time around. The thing is, she’s such a creative storyteller who’s not afraid to challenge the status quo and unapologetically incorporates taboo topics in her stories. This book was bursting with originality, and I feel like I haven’t even seen half of the work that went into it behind the scenes. So with that said, the shock-value elements – the ones I felt were incorporated just to get a reaction – felt like it cheapened the overall quality of the story. I don’t think they were needed, as the story was compelling, the writing exciting, and the characters interesting on their own. I buddy read this with a couple of friends, and they weren’t as put off by it as I was, but it ended up being a huge factor in my final rating. It’s worth mentioning that the subject matter in question hit one of my personal triggers.
Overall, I appreciate this author’s unconventionality so much, I plan to finish out this series and pick up everything else she has published. I’ve tried the first book in her Mirror Empire series and found it superb, and can’t wait to explore more.
Recommendations: this weird Scifi series is not for the faint of heart, so only dive in if you’re prepared to take a few gut punches along the way. Those who can endure will be rewarded with one of the most satisfyingly unconventional stories on the market. Bug magic, people. Bug magic.
Thank you to my
Patrons: Filipe, Dave, Frank, Sonja, Staci, Kat, and Katrin! <3
Other books you might like:
Via The Obsessive Bookseller at
www.NikiHawkes.com -
Everything I hoped for in a sequel...
I felt this was every bit as good as 'God's War,' and I loved being transported back to Hurley's poisonous, bug-infested world.
However - I'd definitely recommend starting with the first book - this is one where you won't be lost, plot-wise, but it's going to be a richer experience if you've already 'gotten to know' the characters.
Mercenary assassin Nyx is down on her luck, taking 'babysitting' jobs as a bodyguard. But when she stumbles into a revolutionary plot involving warring governments, supposed third parties, and, of course, the organization of female assassins called bel dames who kicked Nyx out years ago... she jumps at the chance to get involved, and drags her team in behind her.
It's a violent, gritty, action-oriented book - but it also explores complex motivations and emotions, the interplay of cultures, and conflicting loyalties. Plus, it's chock-full of nasty, fascinating details...
Now... time to find the third in the series! -
4.5*. Great follow up to Gods War. Kameron Hurley so far can do no wrong. Great world building, amazing characters and fast paced action in this scifi post earth world. Interesting relgious themes and issues combined with intriguing plotting makes this a must read series. Nyx is an awesome character!! Cant wait to pick up book 3.
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*** 4.25 ***
This was another brutal story by KH, and I was thinking why do we, as humans living in this century, from the comfort of our (at least mine) peaceful, quiet Western homes, are so drawn to the brutality and violent unforgiving nature of those dystopian worlds, full of struggle, suffering and figures with dubious morality and violent tendencies... What is it that brings us back for more, when after every book the predominant feeling is despair and loss of faith in humanity as a whole? I close the last page of the book and want to do only two things - take a shower and wash all the darkness that permeates every cell of my body and mind, and then delve right into the next book in the series! That same series which filled me with the grim and grime in the first place! And I know it isn't only me. Many of my fellow readers come back for more and lament the end of the series, not wanting to say goodbye to the world and the fictional people inhabiting it... Knowing full well, that there will be no happy endings, no good outcomes, and more pain and suffering for the characters, we still want to see them finding ways to deal with the harshness of their reality. Maybe, at least for me, it is because our lives are not as easy and comfortable as they appear from the outside, and we want an inspiration, an example of how even the most imperfect character, could get the strength of will and persevere, clinging to every moment of life and drinking in the very few, but oh so worth it moments of joy, peace and love they can manage... Life is short and full of difficulties, but those moments of joy, the real knowledge of being alive, are worth every minute of struggle!!!
Nyx, our main character, is an example of that battle for survival, despite having mental, physical and emotional disadvantages... She is on the field of battle at all times, the battle we all deal with, survival, and she wins a day at a time. It is an ugly, harsh, devastating battle and there are a lot of Innocents as collateral damage, but she finds ways, at times very questionable, to survive. The reward is being able to take your next breath, and the next, and then another... I don't want to be like Nyx, but I sure want her will and ability to come on top! One thing I don't want, I sure don't ever want to be her friend or a partner, or a family member of those around her... They don't have good outcomes when she is around! She is like a wrecking ball in the literal sense of the word. Nope, I am good somewhere far away from her😃.
The story is dark, but very well written and very engaging! I would have liked a bit more from the ending, and this is the reason I didn't go with a 5 star rating, but I am guessing, and hoping, that the third and last book in the series, will give us a good reason for it and will give us some answers about the aliens we dealt with in the first book, but were only mentioned in passing here.
I recommend this series to the fans of Grim Dark Fantasy and Sci-Fi. It is an acquired taste and if you are not bothered by the casual acceptance of gay people in society (which I hope at this point people aren't bothered by)... Not for young readers. -
Infidel is the second book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha, and in my opinion an improvement over the first book. While God's War just barely achieved 4 stars, this one falls very squarely in 4-star territory. It retains the strong world building and interesting character development while significantly improving the on the flow of the storyteller, which I felt made God's War rather jarring and difficult to follow at times.
Once again the plot focuses around Nyx, our atypical heroine, or rather, anti-heroine. She is cold, unfeeling, and brutally tough. This book takes place more than a decade after the first one, so this time around Nyx is in her late 30s instead of her mid 20s. Aside from that though, she is still very much the same character. While Hurley has matured as a writer, I am not sure whether the same can be said about Nyx. I suppose that is for the reader to decide. One thing that is for certain though, is that she will have to endure every bit of pain and misery that she did in her first outing, as the world has become no less harsh.
In Infidel, there is less focus on the ongoing war between Nasheen and Chenja. While it is still a small presence in the story, it takes a distant backseat to a more recent internal conflict between the Nasheenian Queen and the bel dames. Nyx and company find themselves firmly implanted in the middle of this deadly power struggle. Several of the members of her band from God's War make an appearance here, as well as a couple of new ones. They are all quite well developed and very much make their own interesting contributions to the story.
While the Bel Dame Apocrypha is most certainly science fiction, it is sometimes easy to forget that you are reading science fiction, and this is especially true of Infidel. The science fiction elements are always there, from weaponry to vehicles, but many aspects of the story, from the atmosphere that Hurley creates to the "magic system" present to the medical technology, have much in common with urban fantasy and with grimdark. These elements all contribute to a very unique feel to the story that falls somewhere right near the middle on the science fiction fantasy spectrum. There is very little hard science fiction, but enough world building and interesting ideas to appeal to a science fiction readers. At the same time, the character development and dark, gritty world should be more than enough to interest readers who enjoy many of the currently popular works of adult fantasy. -
Book Info: Genre: Dark fiction/science fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of dark fiction, deep thoughts.
Trigger Warnings: killing, biological warfare, murder and torture (including of children)
My Thoughts: This is the second book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha series, following God's War (
review linked here where formatting allowed). The third book was recently released, and it is called Rapture.
This book is very dark, but there were rare moments of humor that brought a laugh out of me, like this one: “Nyx had finished off a fifth of vodka for breakfast, since she'd sworn off whiskey.” I really enjoy Kameron Hurley's descriptions, too, such as, “...Suha spit and mutter and bang around the hub like a woman possessed by gun-loving angels.”
At its root, I am starting to believe this book is very much about a world at war with itself and unable to find a way to stop fighting. As Nyx says, “All you do is learn how to fight a war... Nobody ever teaches you how to stop.” As such, the story is very dark, and very intricate, since there are several disparate groups of people involved at different levels. Definitely a book that needs to be read at its appropriate point in the series; not to be read on it's own. If you like a dark story that will make you think, then definitely check out this book, and this series.
Disclosure: I bought this e-book for myself. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Nyx is a bodyguard in Mustallah, the capital city of Nasheen. The centuries-long holy war between Nasheen and Chenja is taking its toll, with shortages and rationing causing the Queen to lose power and popularity. While protecting the daughter of a Ras Tiegan Diplomat, Nyx is attacked by a group of assassins. Nyx survives, but begins to suffer from a strange, debilitating condition that nobody can identify. Caught up in a whirl-wind of intrigue involving Bel Dame Assassins plotting against the Queen, Nyx must learn who the rouge Bel Dame is, and find a cure for her illness, while avoiding the wrath of the queen she is trying to protect. The danger that swirls around her may have finally become to much, and Nyx's colleagues and friends began to die. Will Nyx be next? -
http://www.rantingdragon.com/infidel-...
The sequel to God’s War, a novel I loved and reviewed at the beginning of the year, took me by surprise. I wasn’t aware that it would be out so soon, so imagine my excitement when I received a copy in the mail because Hurley remembered my name! I read it quickly and waited for another reviewer’s review to see if our thoughts matched up. Unfortunately, they were unable to review it due to real life commitments so I got to do it. While Infidel certainly doesn’t suffer from sophomore slump, I was acquainted with the fantastic worldbuilding that Hurley created already and the few new things we learn could never match up. Thus, Infidel isn’t as good a novel to me as God’s War was. Overall, however, it is a solid novel that I will probably be rereading for years to come.
Time marches on…
…And it is now six years after the ending events of God’s War. Hurley doesn’t give you any kind of a primer before dropping you right back in with Nyxnissa. This was something I praised in my review of the first novel—how we were dropped right into the setting with Nyx without any lifelines. But I had trouble remembering what exactly happened in that novel to split up the crew, so I was lost when I started Infidel. I almost wanted to reread God’s War just so I could catch myself up to speed. I wish Hurley had made a few references to refresh our memories so that a reread of the first novel wouldn’t have felt needed. I pressed on and soon I was immersed again with Nyx, but throughout the novel I struggled to remember why Rhys had left Nyx.
Emotional connection
I’ve heard that some people can’t relate emotionally to a character like Nyxnissa, who can quite often be unsympathetic and brutal. For me, this was never a problem. I find that Hurley does a masterful job of portraying a woman who is basically created by her world to be hard in order to survive, and Nyx’s emotions and heart are still relatable to the reader. She always cares for her crews deeply, even though she always knows that one will eventually betray her. She does what is right in the big picture despite the personal consequences to herself. I love that Hurley manages to pull off making Nyx seem like a cold and heartless b**** while also showing that Nyx is doing it because she cares. She will sacrifice the few for the many.
And it’s not as if Nyx comes off as perfect, either. Sometimes she does dumb things, sometimes she is too stubborn, and sometimes she does the wrong thing—and so does everyone else. These are all characters who feel believable and human. I love it when a novel makes me feel, and both God’s War and Infidel achieved that effect. It’s not only Nyx who pulls on my heartstrings or riles my anger—Rhys and Khos suffer devastating losses by helping Nyx. They also ditch her at the end of God’s War, and more about that circumstance comes out in a well-written scene near the end of the novel. I love that it enriches our understanding, interwoven in a small paragraph that’s a blip in the overall storyline but makes the entire story richer and believable.
Can you guess the ending?
Unlike most novels, I was unable to either guess the ending or the villain mastermind behind the rebel bel dames. Instead, I learned along with Nyx, through all her missteps and mistakes as well as her successes and triumphs. It is never an easy time for any of the characters of the novel and everyone suffers. Infidel is just as dark as God’s War, though the consequences don’t have the same weight as the aliens in God’s War did. These consequences hit closer to home and smaller in scope but just as dangerous for Nyx’s country. If God’s War was aliens versus world scenario, then Infidel is more of an internal affair, with two parties in the country with different visions of where it should go and what it should do. Both sides have understandable motivations but you have to decide for yourself if the cost is worth the end game. Does Nyx pick the right side? Is she only in it for the hope of being a bel dame again? Do you agree with her? It’s all thought-provoking.
Why should you read this novel?
Fans of the first novel, God’s War, will definitely enjoy this sequel. I wouldn’t recommend Infidel to anyone who hasn’t first read God’s War because you get very very little background to help you understand what’s gone on before and why certain things matter. Infidel is a superb science fiction read. -
I picked this up when the third book of the trilogy came out, after being surprised at how much I enjoyed the first one,
God's War. I don't quite want to say that I think the author has written herself into a corner, but this book seemed to spend most of its time dealing with the consequences of the world that has been created and Nyx's actions in the first book.
The world that has been created? Well, if your timing is right, you can be regenerated by magic and bugs, pretty much indefinitely. The ebb and flow of life isn't the same, and this keeps characters and people suspended in ways they might not be if this was not the case. Of course, only Nyx really feels stuck in this way. She's simultaneously a bit exiled from previous actions, but still treading water with massively severe recurring injuries. People she used to connect with, however, have moved on in their personal lives. Some have gotten married and settled down, much to her chagrin and frustration.
I'll finish this series out because I'd like to see the end of her struggle, but it's not looking great for her. I'm more concerned for her emotional state, which doesn't seem to have a magical cockroach to fix. "All you do is learn how to fight a war," Nyx said. "Nobody ever teaches you how to stop."
The part about the writing that I continue to enjoy with Hurley's writing is the sensory experience. It isn't just how things LOOK but how they SMELL. Sometimes as a reader you might end up regretting the vividness of these descriptions, actually, but it is quite effective. -
I can’t recommend Infidel as enthusiastically as I do its predecessor,
God's War, because it suffers from the middle-book-of-a-trilogy syndrome: It doesn’t go anywhere, and reads a bit too much like filler. I hope that the final book in the series,
Rapture, will restore the energy that carried God’s War along.
I also didn’t like the overly manipulative way Hurley tries to get our sympathy with the stories of Rhys’s and Khos’s families, which have established themselves in Tirhan after fleeing Nasheen at the end of the first book. And Nyx is dangerously close to becoming a “mary sue” character – too awesomely bad ass to be believable .
Nevertheless, with these caveats, I would still recommend this book. However, if you haven’t read God’s War yet, you should wait for the final book and read them as a whole. Fortunately, that final volume is due before the end of the year (2012), so one shouldn’t have a GRRM-like wait. -
Worthy sequel to God's War. To my mind this series is among the best and most creative high octane, take-no-prisoners, noir-adventure series I've ever read. The world Ms. Hurley has invented is staggeringly imaginative, yet feels fully complete. Every nuance it present: the people, culture, religion, technology. Characters are very well written, and also feel complete. I can't wait to see what she does with Inaya next!
Readers seeking a similar thrill should read China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council, Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk trilogy and Peter Watts Starfish/Rifters saga.
I do have on quibble with this book. I loved the pace of Ms Hurley's first book, God's War. Did not like the pace of this book. Felt too slow until the characters from the first book appear, then moves so fast that the final confrontation seems to take only a few pages.
Next on my reading list, the conclusion to the series: Rapture! -
Not sure why this book took me so long to complete. It is crazy awesome.
First off imagine a world exclusive to Muslims. Yes, they still like to blow other people up. The twist in Kameron Hurley's Muslim world is the women dominate and the men are practically tools for sex.
The first 40% of this book is somewhat slow to develop but after that it just takes off.
If you like bad ass women, Bounty Hunters, religious zealots, crazy magic/science system then this book is for you.
It is all about the bugs baby. It is all about the bugs. -
It's not often I pick up the next novel in a series so soon after I've started the first one. As I've mentioned frequently before, I like spacing out the books I read in a series so that I don't get fatigue with the series, as has happened before with others whose books I've read one right after the other, riding the wave of enthusiasm and enjoyment the first book may have engendered.
This time around, though, the situation is somewhat different. After getting Hope into God's War, by Kameron Hurley, she was eager to get onto the next book, Infidel, as soon as possible. She was, however, aware of how I felt about reading books in a series one right after the other, and while she wanted to use Infidel for our read-along she granted me some space to read three other books before suggesting that maybe we could pick up Infidel next. I saw nothing wrong with this in the least, especially since I was just coming off Dust and Shadows by Lyndsay Faye and which had proven to be something of a disappointment. I hoped Infidel would live up to the expectations that God's War had laid down - and it has.
Infidel, the sequel to God's War, is the second book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy. It has been six years since the end of the events in the first novel, and everyone appears to have found their own way in the world. Nyx has become a bodyguard, with a new team to back her up, but without what she expected to gain at the end of God's War: her reinstatement to the ranks of the bel dames, Nasheen's elite assassin corps. In the meantime, the members of her old team who survived the events of the first novel are in Tirhan, trying to live their own lives:
Of course, this status quo cannot last, because things go downhill, and rather quickly, at that.
What I found fascinating about this novel is that, although Nyx is still the central character, she is not the most interesting - mostly because I think this is not "her" novel, but Rhys's and Inaya's.
As for Rhys, his life has taken a significantly different direction from Inaya's, though his situation in life is no less complicated.
Although some of the characters have changed, the plot itself, and the themes, are nothing new. Infidel suffers from "middle book syndrome," meaning that since it is the middle book of a trilogy, its main purpose is to bridge the gap between God's War and the third novel Rapture, laying the groundwork for everything that will happen in the finale. As for the themes, they are pretty much the same as those in God's War, expanded slightly to accommodate the coming larger plot in Book Three.
Overall, Infidel is an excellent transition between the events of God's War and the coming events in Rapture. It reunites most of the characters from the previous novel; introduces some new ones; and a few undergo major changes to their personalities and characterization that are sure to have a major impact in the third novel. The plot and themes are the same as in the first book, but a fire is lit in this novel that will turn into a blaze in Rapture: the threads of future, very large plot points and expectations have already been laid for what promises to be an explosive concluding volume to an amazing series. -
This is the second in a trilogy, with the third book not yet out. The first book established protagonist Nyx as a hard-ass loner and emotionally repressed (super)hero. This one picks up several years later, after the dust of those adventures has settled. Nyx is older, creakier, approaching an age that almost no-one in her line of work ever reaches. She's getting a little more reflective, a little less certain. She's also, possibly, getting a little idealistic in her old age--or at least developing deeper conflicts about Queen and country, and the never-ending war.
The story clicks along at a great pace, with plenty of action and intrigue. Because this is the second act of a three-act work, we also see the characters at some of their lowest points. Nyx took a boatload of punishment in the last book, but it's nothing to what she (and others) go through now. Hurley has fully learned the lesson that you have to make your characters bleed.
There are some new developments in the world-building here, which are satisfying and (as always) interesting. Hurley is an amazing world-builder, a real original. One of the greatest pulls for me in these books is just living in her world for a while. I'm fascinated by how she takes elements of our own world and extends, transforms, or otherwise mutates them into her own. Her work doesn't feel didactic--it's not trying to teach me that, say, the repression of women is wrong. Instead, it takes elements of our own familiar patriarchal system, upends them, what-ifs them, and ends up with a complicated, multi-layered world that doesn't look much like ours at all, and has plenty of its own problems.
There are a couple of copy-editing glitches along the way, which are frustrating when they jump out. And the resolution of a final scene felt a little forced and abrupt to me--but came with high drama and realism that satisfied in other ways. I'm curious to see where Hurley will take this in the final book. When does that come out? Soon, I hope. -
It's been years since we've last seen Nyx; and the years have not been kind. She's still in the not-really-legitimate bounty hunting business, now with a new crew (since her last crew, such as survived, sped off in a literal cloud of dust at the end of
God's War) and skating even more on the ragged edge of disaster.
Then things go wrong.
Then bad things happen.
Then things go even more spectacularly wrong.
Then terrible things happen, in some cases to extremely nice people who don't deserve this kind of thing at all.
And through it all Nyx charges, stumbles, crawls, bulls her way forward, trying (with a certain amount of reluctance) to do the right thing, and to survive as she's caught up in plots and counterplots by forces entirely out of her league. -
If you had thought about stopping reading at God's War, QUASH THAT THOUGHT NOW. It only gets better. The plot here is fast paced and complex from the first chapter. While Nyx never shows it, it has become hard to play by her moral code - which is basically stay alive, protect as many lives of the people of her country as possible, sometimes few may have to be sacrificed for many. However, which side is the least of the evils is uncertain and shifting in time now - nothing is morally clear here, even for someone whose code is as flexible as Nyx's. I spent the first few chapters feeling sad that Nyx's last team had actually happily retired - though by Chapter 3 when we start to find out exactly how comfortably retired, I did feel a little bad that seeing them happy was certain portent that terrible things would happen to them ... but I was still happy to see them. Even created by circumstance families can't avoid family obligations.
Astronomy neepery (and explanation of my homework tag, you can stop reading here if you aren't looking for homework/exam problems for astrophysics students): To be clear this is NOT criticism, I certainly don't approach science fiction not specified to be occurring in our Universe expecting it to obey the laws of Physics. However, give me some odd orbits and *then* enough data to start doing math in my head, of course I do the math. (right? That's not weird?) Originally I wrote the whole thing up, but having reminded myself that this is actually a publicly available review and not the best space to keep my personal notes, I'll jump to the conclusion. "Read Infidel and tell me if the orbits of the moons of Umayma would be plausible in our Universe" is a great jr/sr level homework problem. Between data given and logical conclusions that can be drawn from from descriptions of the world, also avoiding letting it go to a 3-body problem (since that won't fix anything), you can get to the point where (maybe I shouldn't post the answer in public if I'm going to use it). Though I would also argue the most likely way to get such insanely eccentric orbits for moons would be for them to actually be the colonizing spaceships (something I don't think is specifically excluded by the text) - so maybe they are made of some sort of crazy strong, flexible and light stuff to survive those tidal forces. Great homework though - lots of complexity and layers, but completely first order doable without an orbit integrator. -
I'm going to keep on with this series. In this book, we get to see the political dangers and physical dangers of privilege, safety, and the jungle. The book still feels self-contained, although it would certainly help to be familiar with the characters from the first book. There is resolution to the story of this book, instead of a cliffhanger waiting for the third book in the series.
I didn't get into it quite as much as the first book. I'm going to explain why, and it's almost too bad that I'm going to do this, because it will make the book sound worse than it is. I've already given a lot of praise for the first book in this series, God's War, and I'm not going to repeat it here, so this review may contain more negatives about this specific book as opposed to the positives of the world and characters that I've already discussed.
The plot in the book, on one hand, was simple. Nyx was trying to finish a job before people could kill her. Much like the first book. On the other hand, I'm not sure I ever quite grasped who was playing whom, who was a double agent, and exactly why all the different players were trying to kill Nyx and her team. Still good action scenes, still brutal violence, but they didn't seem to hang together quite as well. Maybe this was partly because I didn't need to figure out setting and was paying more attention to the plot.
Still not getting into the Nyx/Rhys relationship. It's bad for both of them, and not in any stereotypical romantic way. I had some sympathy for Rhys (and his family) in this book, but he's still kind of a patriarchal jackhole who judges people a lot. Khos still didn't get much page time and was not interesting when he did, which made me sad. Inara was not my favorite character from the first book. She is interesting here, but I still didn't really like her.
Nyx is starting over again with a new team, so there are new characters and the team from the previous book really doesn't have much interaction. The book was set up that way, but it was kind of a waste of some really great characters and relationships from the first book. I'd wanted to see those relationships continued, not learn about new characters that I didn't have a ton of buy-in for.
The series could really go anywhere from here, and I'll definitely keep reading to see what happens next. Kameron Hurley is an author to watch. -
Rating: 6/10
This book is probably a fairly good book. In fact, it's probably a very good book. But compared to Hurley's first, God's War, this simply doesn't hold a candle. God's War was beautifully crafted. Infidel was choppy. God's War was tight. Infidel seemed to have a lot that was superfluous. God's War introduced stunningly deep, rich characters. Infidel took those characters and added very little to them and seemed to ignore the depth of the first. God's War proportioned the characters perfectly. Infidel gave too much attention to Inaya, and too little to Khos, Eshe, Suha and most especially, Anneke. God's War had beautiful, crisp themes regarding gender disproportion and bisexuality, fertility rights, piety, jihad, racism and fertility. Infidel grazed the surface of gender identity and religious intolerance via the shifter discrimination, and a moderate exploration of monarchy. God's War made divine use of the word “cunt”, whereas Infidel snuck it in superfluously.
The one thing I did enjoy about this book was Nyx's intrigue about potential “daughters” or hers running around, although even that was poorly explored.
My mental image of Anneke is now completely butchered. The situation with Rhys' children (not saying for spoiler reasons) was entirely unnecessary. Nyx's love for Rhys seemed so bourgeois that I didn't believe it because it didn't fit with Nyx. Moreover, her long lost love from God's War (whom I believed and felt for) was not mentioned at all, nor was virtually any of Nyx's softness that she could express through sex and relationships as seen in God's War. The one instance of softness we see of Nyx in this is the book of poetry, but even that is a mere shell of what it was God's War.
In short, God's War left some big shoes to fill, and Infidel, for all it is, doesn't rise to the challenge. I will still read book 3, Rapture, mainly because I'm curious about the title (although Infidel left something to be desired in a title), and because I still love Nyx for all the sloppy handling of her character in this. -
"'Wars never end,' Nyx had once told him, 'They just get bigger.'"
"'You're right' Nyx said, 'I don't give a fuck about your families. I'd sacrifice every damn one of you. You know what I give a fuck about? Two hundred and fifty thousand dead boys at the front. Eighty four thousand civilians dead in Mushtallah two weeks ago. You see me with a family? You see me with anything I give a shit about? I lost it all a long time ago, and I wasn't stupid enough to run off and build a new one. I have a coup to put down and country to save.'"
This sequel expands the universe of Umayma with such passion and satire that the planet rips open for the reader in a roiling mass of bugs, corruption, and faith. An absolutely riveting book from beginning to end with infectious pacing.
It is eight years after the end of God's War, and Nyx has returned to Nasheen and gathered a new bounty hunting team about her. Avoiding assassination is routine again, but she finds herself suffering from an almost undetectable bug infection with the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. "She realised then how close she was to dying out here alone, hugging the stone bowl of a privy in some anonymous hotel room in the town she grew up in." Hurley recounts the painfully drawn reality of this infection with dizzying astuteness that leaves me wondering, where does she do her research? "Nyx felt a rush of dizziness, as if her head was floating somewhere over her right shoulder" "her head felt light again, as if attached to a string." In a world where "getting cancer was like getting a cold" and xenograph technology can transplant whole new bodies onto heads, the idea of a biological weapon causing chronic disability in the target is sinister. "that knowledge of her dependence, her reliance on something outside herself, always pissed her off." And not incredibly distant in terms of modern technology. The release when Nyx is finally treated felt so true to life it reawakened old memories in my muscles, "It wasn't until she started moving until she realised just how sick she had really been." But even before she gets hold of a better magician, Nyx refuses to allow the sickness to stop her. "'I want to bring them in. For myself. For Nasheen. Not for you.'" She sets out to police the bel dames, the almost unkillable women who are staging a coup against her nation.
This quest takes her deep into neutral Tirhan, a dark allegory for the wealthy Arabic nations claiming neutrality and growing rich on the wealth of arms dealing. Thinly veiled and all the more terrifying for the realism, Tirhan is the mirror or Qatar or the UAE. "In Tirhan, the God they prayed to was not the vengeful desert God, but the God who gave them this clean safe world." Tirhan is everything Nyx "had run into the desert to forget." Here, the capitalist economy has started to merge with religious faith, "Idols left on display encouraged the worship of idols. Rhys often worried to see men and women approach the fountain and toss stones into the water as token in return for wishes granted, as if offering up prayers to magicians." And yet, none of the conservative oppressive cultures have been lifted by this monetary liberality. "It was all very well to send women from good families into governments but if their fathers or husbands or sons wanted to keep them home - that was their right." Rhys, Nyx's Chenjan magician, had fled here six years ago to found a new peaceful life. But even he finds this false cleanliness of the soul through cleanliness of the streets difficult to bear. "Peace came with a price. And he knew, in his bones, that this was not the price. And he lived in terror of what the final price would be." He has found a wife, a flighty absent-minded woman whose very helplessness is her virtue. "He supposed all marriages must be like this, great chunks of contentment, frustrated daily living, shot through with moments of absolute terror and doubt and disappointment." And he is just one of many.
Inaya, the sickly half-breed sister of Taite from God's War has also set up a new life in Tirhan. "A house built on lies. It was all very Tirhani." She undergoes some really interesting character development, never quite letting go of her own indoctrinated self-loathing beliefs, "In another life she might have allowed herself to do what her body desired. But not in this one.", whilst fighting them from outside. "She wanted protection. She wanted autonomy. She couldn't have both." Inaya is a shape-shifter, a talented and rare magical person, despised by the theocracy she was brought up in. "It was a popular, poisonous lie in Ras Tieg that women chose to miscarry their non-shifter children so that only shifters were born." This twisted reality is all too reminiscent of dated sentiments from our own world, where men have punished women under the false belief that they could choose exactly what grew or did not in their wombs. This barbaric, heathen view is only a shade away from current anti-abortion fundamentalists. Have modern society really moved on from incriminating women simply because they carry the womb? "But how could you change an entire culture? Revolutions were about policies, not perceptions, weren't they? Not in Nasheen. In Nasheen, women chose how they were treated." Inaya's life is one of constantly hiding her identity, "Like trying to fit fire inside a soda bottle.", and yet the memory of her brother and the unsatisfactory perfection of her current life convinces her to act despite all of her inwardly-directed rage and pain. "'I think this is not the life for me.' It was like cutting open a rotten wound and draining the pus. Pain. Relief." And Nyx and the others will need her.
In contrast to the returning characters, Nyx's new team are not quite as memorable. There is Eshe, the fourteen-year old raven shifter. "'What the fuck do you think he's going to be? A farmer? I'm teaching him to survive at the front.'" Although so young, the civil conflict within Nasheen is driving boys even younger than him to 'the front', and conscription has been extended to a mandatory two years for girls as well. "You've saved a piece of meat for the grinder." Nyx is outwards maternal towards Eshe, and is rewarded with his total adoration, but inwardly she see him as akin to a farm animal bred for slaughter. Something one cannot become attached to because of its purpose. "He scared her when he acted like a kid. She didn't like to treat him like one." The other member of Nyx's team, reformed junkie Suha, is dry and witty, but far from as memorable as some of the other characters. Which is why I appreciated Yah Tayyib the rogue magician crashing in towards the end. "'I can back from the front alive.' 'For revenge?' 'No. For the future. Because without living people to fight we are nothing but animals slaughtered at God's alter.'" He is one of the best in the world, capable of controlling gigantic hornets bigger than men with his will alone, but he has long been an enemy of Nyx and Nasheen. You see, he harbours a very controversial viewpoint. "'I wanted an end to the war. That would only happen if both sides were capable of annialating one another.'" In this post-nuclear world, we take for granted that weapons of mass destruction reduce the casualties of war but this narrative allows us to examine if this is really true, or merely a convenient conclusion from the fluctuations of history. I really hope this idea is expanded on elsewhere in the series.
"She could see the corpses already, the long line of bodies between her and the last bel dame to fall."
Team assembled, sworn at, and ripped away from their oblivious middle-class existence in which the sins of the parents follow the children into eternity, Nyx goes looking for the bel dames at the head of the conspiracy selling weapons to Tirhan. "Honour. Sacrifice. Obligation. All the death she meted out used to mean something. When had it stopped meaning something?" It's a moral quagmire, a non-government organisation selling a new weapon to a neutral country? The possible outcomes are anything from Tayyib's post-nuclear peace to the extinction of Umayma's human population. "'You need to kill ideas, girl, not people.'" I wouldn't want to have to make that call. The action really accelerates throughout the book. We finally find out what Inaya being a mutant shifter really means. "In a breath, in an instant, she blew apart, transformed into some howling contaminated wind." She can become anything organic. Even a smear of blood on the handle of a gun. Rhys loses his children in a brutal and senseless attack by extremeists even amongst the terrorists, and his "bobble" wife cuts him out of his new life giving him no choice but to return to Nyx. "Six years, missing that absolute strength, safety gone so long he'd forgotten he missed it at all." Nyx herself is stabbed, shot, and eventually garrotted to death but Yah Tayyib can animate her sixty-hour dead corpse because of a bug lodged in her brain to keep her grey matter in stasis. "'It's not a perfect map. Some parts of the brain rot, or get connected incorrectly.'" This whole book is dripping with attitude, bile, and grit. I was ready to give it five-stars right until the final 30 pages, when I guessed how they were going to dispose of the bel dames. I usually feel triumphant, but now I just feel like a child who has eaten all their Easter eggs in secret the day before and feels a bit sick.
"'Hate to tell you this, Shadha, but I'm not going to just sit here and let you roll out your grand plan. I got shit to do and I'm looking for the dragonfly not the midge.'"
Between the gory battles and reanimations, the world building is just enthralling. Hurley has even taken the time to think about what happens to inter-sex people in a world where the fates of men and women are segregated at puberty. "Yahfia had been born with some boy parts. She had been content to head to the front until she hit puberty and started menstruating." We get a glimpse of the contaminated wastes of Umayma, the testimony to the fallibility of magicians, where bugs created by men have mutated and grown far beyond their control. "The bugs the magicians had tailored to remake the world had gone rouge and viral half the time." For the world alone I am clenched with excitement to read the next instalment of this series. I've used more of Hurley's words than my own in this review, with good reason, because this book is an often frightening yet still delicious spike of mental adrenaline.
"'God says a lot of things, depending on who quotes him.'" -
Infidel
Author: Kameron Hurley
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Publishing Date: 2011
Pgs: 351
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Genre:
Science Fiction
Bugpunk
Sword and Sorcery
Dark Fantasy
Thriller
Suspense
Why this book:
I read other of the adventures of Nyx and her cadre and definitely wanted more.
_________________
The Feel:
Favorite Character:
Nyx. She’s rough. She’s a bastard. She’s a scarred up hero who doesn’t want to be a hero, in a world that teeters on the edge of livability and in the bared teeth of people who want to burn it all down and rule over the ashes, regardless of the body count.
Favorite Scene:
A mother’s rage. Things can never be the same. But get my revenge. Yeah. That was well done.
Favorite Concept:
A Bel Damme civil war??? Wow. That’d be like a Jedi civil war…if everybody was a Sith…so, a Sith civil war with no Rule of 2. There has to be a cadre of them within the Bel Dammes who don’t want this. Nyx can’t be the only one with a conscience…buried as it may be.
Tropes:
Was worried that our time skip since the last book was too big and we were going to lose the other characters and just be Nyx’s story, which since she is the main character wouldn’t be bad, but I’m glad the others are still in there, even with the years between. Course with the way the previous team is acting screw them. Let the fire take them. I had forgotten that they had rode away, betrayed her, and left her for dead.
Calling the Ball:
Nyx fighting for the preservation of the monarchy…probably not. Fighting to stop the killing or keep the killing from getting worse, that I can see. And those who think she’s a weapon to be aimed at their enemies fail to realize that she is more than capable of aiming herself at her enemies…all of them. And considering that they have used her bounty hunter/assassination services before, they should know better.
Logic Gaps:
Suspecting that the addict magician/hedge witch would sell them out…and then she does, but you didn’t prepare for the eventuality that she would. Nyx is smarter than that, even with whatever bug infection was swimming inside her.
Khos not figuring out that they’re marked whether they stay with Nyx and help her finish this or not. Figure Inana knows or is a lot closer to figuring it out than he is.
Movies and Television:
Would love to see this, but I seriously doubt they could do it justice. Maybe as an anime.
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Pacing:
Well paced. -
Second installment of the"Bel Dame Apocrypha" is a very uneven book.
It's been seven years since Nyx hunted down the alien gene pirate Nicodem and parted ways with her crew. She's been working as a mercenary, running with a new crew taking on gigs as bodyguard or debt collector, and continuing to miss the days when her work carried some honour with it. When the Bel Dame Council calls her in to hunt down a splinter faction that's opposed to the Queen, Nyx is willing to risk everything to get her status back.
The best part of the book is not Nyx, however. Her search takes her to the nation of Tirhan- a peaceful go-between who supplies the warring nations of Nasheen and Chenja with weapons to ensure the generations-long war continues. It is here that most of Nyx's old crew are trying to rebuild their lives. Hurley is at her best when she describes these struggles- and how the characters react to having the whirlwind of chaos that is Nyx blow back into their lives.
While there was a lot of good character development and in fact the bulk of the book can be said to be dedicated to this, I didn't feel the payoff was sufficient. Yes, there's a big, explosive action setpiece that results in some comeuppance for the antagonists; but then the story takes a few pages to leave a few principals' arcs hanging. The conclusion felt unsatisfying- and the Book 3 preview indicates that it'll take place another 6 years into the future. While a few of the characters were left by "Infidel"s plot in a good place to re-enter the story, some others really weren't, and I will feel frustrated if they suddenly come back into the picture 6 years later, given where they were left off.
That quibble aside, there's an overall story arc in here that's got somewhere to go; But I felt that Hurley may have done too good a job making me shift my focus from the setting to the characters, and then by favouring the former at the latter's expense left me less invested. I'm curious how this will play out and i'll be reading Book 3 soon, but this does colour my overall perception of the book as "disjointed" -
Note: Contains spoilers for God's War!
Infidel is the matured form of what was started in God's War: the characters have grown up and so has the writing. Where God's War was punctuated by acts of violence as the plot lurched forward, here the plot flows more organically. The characters are more introspective as well, and the writing digs deeper into that.
This book is just as violent as the first, however, and when horrible things the impact is worse. Read carefully.
Six years after God's War, Nyx is still an ex-bel dame doing bounty hunter work and whatever else to bring in money. It opens with her guarding a diplomat's daughter in Nasheen when they're attacked by bel dames. This opens up the first major question: why?
What follows is interesting: the book balances Nyx's position as a pawn in the major movements of the bel dame council (a Nasheenian elite assassin force), the Monarchy (Nasheen's rulers), the enemy country Chenja, and Tirhan, a neutral country that sells weapons to both sides. Nyx is a very tiny force compared to these organizations, and so often she is nothing to them, just one washed-up aging bounty hunter in nations of millions. Yet: she's tremendously skilled in the art of violence, and not just violence but more importantly: getting the job done. That's what won her the Queen's attention in the last book - she beat the odds and survived to bring the right head back. So Nyx is both totally unimportant and totally important, and the book keeps a laser-focus on her. Not once do you get a POV from the Queen or anyone of any real rank, so you have to take the macro-level decisions from the perspective of someone who lives on the ground.
Nyx is as fascinating a character as ever - and honestly even better, now that she's grown up more in these six years. She's getting older, she's sick, she's beginning to wonder what she's fighting for. Where all of her violence is taking her, and so on. It's not a question she answers fully, but it drives her. Note: another character points out that she still introduces herself as a bel dame, even years after she was tossed from their ranks.
So let's back off a little bit, before I write an essay on Nyx and her tangled feelings on motherhood (which she can't be, directly, as she sold her womb in the first sentence of the first book) and responsibility to country and the dead soldiers (boys) at the front that she still feels guilty for. She's complex and hard and won't ever stop, except that in some cases she wishes she could die, just to find peace.
Nyx: works with Suha, an ex-addict gal who is great with a gun, and Eshe, a boy who's still too young for the draft. He's a shifter, turns into a crow. Nyx has essentially adopted Eshe, and there's a running theme of her trying to figure out how to take care of him, because she doesn't want him to get sent to the front and killed.
The world: still at war. Nasheen vs Chenja while Tirhan gets rich dealing weapons and the aliens keep an eye on things from above.
I keep bringing up Tirhan because it's important, hugely important. You see, the other two POV characters are Rhys and Inaya. Remember them? They broke away from Nyx last book and moved to Tirhan to settle down.
Rhys: in six years he has become a translator working for a Tirhani government official. He's gotten married, had kids, he's happy. Please God don't let Nyx come back and screw up his perfect life. (You know what happens.) I find his POV to be both the most frustrating to read due to the profoundly male arrogance he has, how much of a stubborn coward he is, and so on - he's complex and interesting and I don't wholly like him - but this was true of him in the first book too. (Credit to the author, my irritation never slowed down my reading: I would shake my head and keep going because I had to see what happened.)
Inaya: Khos has married her, but it's not a happy marriage. He has a second wife he doesn't talk to her about, she secretly works for the Ras Tiegan underground (another country, known for wanting to kill all shifters. She's a shifter.) and they have children who are very likely going to be shifters. Inaya has the best arc in the book as she comes to terms with who she is and what she wants, and I am honestly awed at how she went from vaguely repulsive in her first appearances to someone I care about and cheer on.
It's not a spoiler to say that Nyx will go to Tirhan, but I'd best stop there. I like how this book has surprises that are personal revelations, and you're going to keep a close eye on everyone's loyalties - because those are going to get tested.
I can't say enough good about this book. It's taken all of the wonderful world-building of God's War and now the characters are all full characters, not sketches like they felt like in the previous book. The writing is better - not to say it was bad before! - and more descriptive, and it just draws you in. You have to pay attention as the plot unfolds, because it doesn't handhold at any point - but the payoffs are lovely.
So: five stars. I love this book. It upholds the promise of God's War and takes it to better heights, and I want the sequel.
But I must be fair: the ending felt a little weak after that intense ride, the denouement interesting but not what I wanted. I almost removed a star for it, but - no. It works. The more I sit with it and think about it, the better it suits the book, because while this book has flashes of cliche thriller, it isn't. God's War ended with Nyx meeting the Queen in person because it was so much more an action thriller, and Infidel doesn't, because it's grown out of that.
Highly, highly recommended provided you can handle the intense violence and body horror of the setting. Just be prepared to spend more time thinking about this one, because it brings more to the table than the last one did.
