Thrown back through time… the bronze-age culture, or even how to defend herself. She’s not a Connecticut Yankee and this is definitely not King Arthur’s court.
The locals are unimpressed.
What’s her next move?
Her only goal is to get back home, but Jessica has landed in the middle of something sinister: in the ancient near east, circa 1000 B.C., a war rages.
Can she stop an alien invasion through time?
She’ll need help, but who can she count on?
You’ll love this brilliant take on portal fiction, with twists and turns that are different than what you’ve grown to expect.
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WAR OF THE GOD QUEEN by David Hambling is yet another entry into his Call of Cthulhu universe containing the Harry Stubbs series and The Dulwich Horror. This is a direct sequel to the Dulwich Horror but has more in common with Brian Lumley’s later Titus Crow novels than the previous occult mysteries.
The premise is that the protagonist of the Dulwich Horror, Jessica, has been cast back into time. It is a pulpy adventure that takes place in a pre-Bronze Age Stone Age civilization. References are made to A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and the Barsoom novels with a joke that the protagonist, Jessica, isn’t like any of those supermen with their knowledge of engineering as well as military tactics.
Jessica is a Edwardian woman who finds herself soon the head of a time-lost band of women who are all of varying ethnicities. They avoid becoming the property of the local tribes due to some fast thinking and the belief they’re goddesses. They have an enemy in the Spawn of Cthulhu, however, who threaten to wipe out humanity before it can ever become a threat to even the lowliest of his servitors.
Much is made of Jessica trying to survive in a time without any form of metallurgy, hygeine, or amenities. It is also a work with a feminist slant as the women band together to try to assert their dignity. It is also a adventure about slaying prehistoric eldritch monsters. If this sounds like your sort of thing then definitely check it out. I love David Hambling’s occult mysteries more but this was a quirky and fun book despite its sometimes dark subject matter as well as offbeat concept.
All hail the Goddess!
I felt nervous going into this one. What originally attracted me to Hambling’s tales of the Cthulhu Mythos such as ‘The Dulwich Horror of 1927’ and the Harry Stubbs adventures was their setting – namely, 1920s London. And not just London but the general area of south London in which I grew up and still live today.
So, to learn that this latest story – a sequel to the events of The Dulwich Horror – was set in the Bronze Age in a far-flung land was a little off-putting to begin with.
I needn’t have worried. It works – and it works beautifully.
As the author has remarked on his ‘Shadows from Norwood’ Facebook page, the mingling of epic fantasy with Lovecraftian horror ‘follows a tradition established right back in the early days of the Cthulhu Mythos by Lovecraft’s close friend Robert E Howard, whose famed Conan the Barbarian co-existed with Lovecraft’s creations.’
Jessica is no Conan, however. She is a thoroughly modern woman of the 1920s, a Bright Young Thing whose life took a rather unusual turn. To me, ‘War of the God Queen’ read like a wonderful swirl of Lovecraft, Moorcock, ‘Robinson Crusoe’, and ‘The Saga of the Exiles’, with perhaps a dash of ‘The Clan of the Cave Bear’. It was surprising, gripping, and I’m already looking forward to the sequel.
If you are already familiar with Hambling’s Mythos tales, then you will be as keen as I was to discover Jessica’s fate after what happened in Dulwich, in which case ‘The War of the God Queen’ is most definitely for you.
If you have not read his stories before but you enjoy Lovecraft then you have an exciting new vein to explore. That said, unless the fantasy setting is what attracted you to this title, I wouldn’t necessarily start with this story. It can be read as a stand-alone novel, but if I were you I would seek out the aforementioned ‘The Dulwich Horror of 1927’ first, or ‘The Elder Ice’ (the start of the excellent Harry Stubbs series). Whichever route you choose, though, Hambling will soon have his hooks in you.
Nothing like what I was expecting but better for it.
I was expecting a classic swords and sorcery tale of epic fantasy – one with gods and warriors and monsters, a story that doesn’t let up from the beginning to the end. (After the obligatory fantasy trope of nothing happening for the first 50 pages or so.) What I got was very different: a short-sighted young woman, with no special skills other than her tenacious intelligence, ends up embroiled in a Bronze Age war between a band of nomads and The Spawn, a race of gelatinous, almost un-killable monsters. The story follow ‘Yishka’s’ struggle to find her place and live up to the expectations of the nomads that she, the goddess, will lead them to victory against the evil that threatens them.
And this is where the story veered away from what I was expecting. The War of the God Queen is not just a long list of battles and triumphs and losses (though they are there), nor is it an expose of a magic system she has to learn to conquer The Spawn (though there is magic), neither is it just another take on dirty politics (that’s there, too). A large part of the conflict is built around something more mundane – and that, paradoxically, is why I liked it.
In the struggle against the Spawn, Yishka and the nomads sacrifice a large part of their way of life: they build a city and women earn rights beyond that of being allowed to cook for the men and bear their children. It’s a nice touch, a realistic process in a fantastical setting: building a city and everything that comes with that. It’s a refreshing change to adverb-fuelled violence and destruction.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and place for the latter, but this made a refreshing break from the usual carnage found in many fantasy novels. These changes wrought by Yishka, the handmaidens (not the type in red dresses or white hoods – far from it) and the nomads, are not without loss, however. They bring resentment and conflict. Principles, roles and tradition are challenged. The role of the ‘white saviour’ is also touched upon. I thought it was very well done.
There were other things I enjoyed, too.
I liked the writing. I’ve mentioned in other reviews that I like ‘clean’ writing with minimal descriptions that still convey their meaning.
The characters are likeable/ unlikeable as appropriate. Also, not every character develops. I know this is not usually what teachers of writing say should happen, but it is realistic. Amir, for example. stays pretty much the same from start to end, just like some people in the real world.
The prologue has a great twist at the end, setting up for the main story.
And there was enough tension to keep me reading to find out how/ what happens in the last few pages.
There were a few things that I struggled with, however.
The story follows on from another story by the same author (The Dulwich Horror of 1927). I haven’t read the story and the references to the Yishka’s role in that book threw me. I kept thinking that I had missed a chapter or section in this book.
The cover. Pulpy. Not really my thing. Sorry.
Because I don’t know much about Cthulhu, whenever the Mythos came up – either directly mentioned or its influence on creature/ buildings etc – I wasn’t sure I fully appreciated it. Some of it was a bit too surreal, too alien. Maybe that was the point – the contrast between that and the Bronze Age world.
Also, as a final gripe, the nomads go from being, well, nomadic, I guess, to having the basis of a functioning city in a very short space of time. I’m not sure how quickly this could happen in reality to a Bronze Age tribe, even with the help of modern minds, but occasionally, the process felt too smooth.
With the exception of my first gripe, these are minor issues and not ones that interfered with the story too much.
I can see that some people won’t take to this book. If you don’t like the weirdness of Cthulhu; prefer your women in fantasy to be shield-maidens, wannabe shield-maidens, scantily-clad women in need of a shield-maiden, or even scheming princess who should probably be given a talking to by a shield-maiden; or want a plot that races along rather than cruises; you may want to look elsewhere. But if you want a well-written story set amongst Bronze age nomads, with sorcerers, (weird) aliens, warriors and a steady-paced plot, I’d recommend it. But you may be better off reading The Dulwich Horror of 1927 first.