Lost Gods Is a Dark Fantasy with Such Sights to Show You

Chet Moran only wanted to get his family away from his corrupt father-in-law—that’s why he brought his wife and unborn child to the island owned by his grandmother Lamia. He couldn’t possibly know he had delivered them all to a fate far more terrible: Lamia turns out to be a terrifying goddess who murders Chet and imprison his wife. Nor could he know that, moments later, he would be sent on a quest through Purgatory to recover a lost key for an angel; or trapped in a three-way war between the fallen gods who used to rule the earth—a group of rebel souls led by a Confederate colonel and his sociopathic lieutenant, and the demons who want Purgatory for their very own. While he may be dead, Chet is far from done (he’s a character in a Brom novel, after all). It will take all the forces of Hell to stop him from reaching his goal.
It sort of goes without saying that Brom writing style favors lush visuals. But describing Lost Gods as “highly visual” downplays its power. It contains some of his most stunning imagery yet: the level of visceral detail on the page is absolutely staggering. He layers sensory embellishments into his landscapes until the effect threatens to overwhelm the narrative—but instead heightens its impact. There are valleys that look like mouths full of teeth, rivers full of tortured souls, a gigantic statue that spews green narcotic smoke, and some of the most terrifying underworld denizens since The Scarlet Gospels unleashed its menagerie upon readers. The painstaking detail pays off, creating a unique underworld full of danger, but also incredible beauty and hope—provided you can overlook the drugs, the demons, and the whims of the ruthless gods.

The detail isn’t just visual;. Brom’s underworld is a place with its own economy, customs, and hierarchy. It’s a place where demons can drag the damned screaming to hell, where eating money has healing properties, and where the gods that formerly ruled the earth retain tremendous power. From the uneasy peace between the “One Gods” (monotheistic) and the “Lost Gods”(the fallen gods from older religions), to the story of how the underworld wound up this way, to the customs and various kinds of currency, Brom has molded his dark creation at odd angles. The world of Lost Gods is as bizarre as anything I’ve read, but also feels tangible, built upon a foundation rooted in strange logic.
If the plot follows a somewhat standard quest narrative, there is enough interesting imagery and enough deep world-building to carry the book along with imagination and intense vision, and enough twisted gods and monsters to satisfy anyone seeking the darker side of fantasy. And yet it’s also an oddly hopeful book; though it delivers far short of a happy ending for everyone (as far as can be expected from a novel that begins with demon children and a throat-slitting), the ending is much more optimistic than the book preceding it. Keep moving toward the light. Such sights you’ll be shown along the way.
Lost Gods is available now.