ZOOLOO'S BOOK TOUR | THE EIGHTH DEITY
Today I am joining Zooloo' s book tours to shine a spotlight on Glennis Goodwin's The Eighth Deity, and then later in the week, The Brotherhood of Apep.
Someone is collecting the Deities of the Primordial Chaos which the Great Gods divided at the beginning of time!
And when Amaunet, the Eighth Deity, and Icon of the people of the Southern Valley is stolen, the once golden City of The Vallenti is plunged into the depths of winter. Malian, a simple Altar Tender, is tasked by the Gods to reclaim her and travel north in his search.
Taking with him those that have come forward in his aid, they set off through the snow-covered valley unaware of the undertaking that lies ahead of them on their journey. For the dangers of The Duat andthe Realm of the Dead awaits.
The puzzle of The Seven Gates is just one of the perils they must overcome.
Set in an Egyptian inspired world, The Eighth Deity is a quest based fantasy that tells the story of a band of adventurers who after the theft of an icon set out to reclaim their precious deity.
With the threat of the death of his daughter by the ruthless King Dedrick, Gallius is ordered to obtain the Icon of the Vallenti. However, with the theft of the icon Amaunet, the city of the Vallenti is plunged into chaos, suffering the onset of a sudden winter, this obviously impacts upon their food and breeds disease.
In response to the dire situation, the elders of the Valenti call for the thieves to be found and the Icon returned to restore the equilibrium that the city has had for hundreds of years. Enter Malion, a lowly alter tender who claims that he has been guided by the gods and has received the method of how he should return the Icon by travelling through the land of the dead, the Duat.
In order to aid him, a party is assembled that can both aid and guide him. Includes in the party is a warrior, Tragen, from another city whose Icon has similarly been stolen, a cleric type, and all the regular types that you would expect in this type of fantasy.
The plot itself is a typical quest based fantasy with all the things that you would expect in this type of tale. However, it's ages since I have read this kind of story, and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. I think the incorporation of Egyptian Mythology gave it a bit of a different slant. There were some imaginative set pieces, particularly The Black Swans in the last quarter of the book, which I really liked.
Characterwise, all the characters are pretty solid and whilst fitting into the typical archtypes, they were likeable and well rounded.
At times some of the prose felt a little on the classic side of fantasy, but that wasn't a major barrier to the story as a whole.
Ultimately, this was an enjoyable tale, and it sets up the next book quite nicely.
Author Bio
Glennis Goodwin is a British author who has long held an interest in the myths and culture of the Ancient Egyptians. Along with that, the people of southern Africa have also been of interest and in the early 1980s, she was fortunate to find herself living and working in Zambia. While there she became involved with organising charity events through the Lioness Club which helped in fundraising activities for the local community. This she did for five years before returning to the UK in 1987.
In her working life, she has gone from Nursing to Retail and from Academic Publishing to PA, but during that time she never lost the feeling that Africa gave her, and, in those years, she had holidays in both Egypt and Kenya.
In 2004, she aimed to return to her Nursing career and enrolled in New Zealand on a refresher course. Settling into life on the other side of the world, she continued to further her career, met her husband and made her home there.
Sadly, a brain haemorrhage and slight stroke ended her study, but after her recovery, she found herself wanting to write, something she had longed to do but never seemed to have the time for. Returning to the UK in 2017, she settled down at her computer, revisiting an idea put aside years previous, and over the following months, the tales of the Eight Deities of the Primordial Chaos came to life in the story of Malian, the altar tender. Her first book, The Eighth Deity then came into being and The Gods of Chaos series was born.
Now living in a Nottinghamshire village, she has since written Brotherhood of Apep, the second book in the series, and her third book In the Footsteps of Ra is currently being published and is due for release later this year. At present she is working on her fourth title, The Papyrus of Ma’at, which adds to her work.
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