Arc Review -- Slow Gods by Claire North

 

Slow Gods

by Claire North

Release Date: November 18, 2025

Genre: Sci-Fi

Age Range: Adult

Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.21 stars

    Even though I can’t say his name at all, I really like this main character. The first chapter laid out the book's format, which I don’t mind, but know that some people might. However, the way it is meant to come across, I hope they will give it more credit than other narrators of this style. Thank you to Netgalley & Orbit for the copy to be able to review.

As a Sci-Fi situated book, this does take place across a variety of planets and ships. The book is sectioned into different parts. In each part, our main character will spend either all or a majority of the time. There is a good amount of detail about the locations, in terms of how they look or even smell. This is the first book I have read by this author, so it is hard to say if it is their particular style for sure or how they wrote this one. The biggest detail of each setting was not the place itself, though, but the people of that place. Each civilization, while being similar in its human state (mostly), would be vastly different in culture. While yes, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to find, it is just the way in which the story does this is to shows the contrast between them, I feel.

    

    The entire book follows Mawukana na-Vdnaze, or at least a copy of him. As you read, you are not just following him but being told the story by him. In this way, some of the more gruesome elements might have the hint of, well is that's what really happened. In some accounts, the character is honest about it, as there would have been witnesses, thus it would be known what happened. Later, towards the end of the book, it did seem that this style wasn’t as obvious.     Our character starts out as a curious but not quite (normal is the wrong word), but I have no better one to put here. In his youth, he had a goodish mind, but science was not a field that showed much earnings potential for the amount that would be snuck into it. I do wonder if this is in part what fueled some of the thought patterns later. Was it just his innate curiosity towards learning that drew out the darkness, or something else?     Throughout the novel, I feel that the emotional impact of what was happening was more prevalent than the bigger picture details. However, the way it is done isn’t heavy-handed, where we are sitting with the character thinking about their struggles. It is in the details of what is happening and how Maw is responding. Aspects that he might not consider in the moment, you, as the reader, can see the impact/implications that this will have on him moving forward.

    The book is told by and revolves around Mawukana na-Vdnaze. Who started off as an unimportant worker on a harshly governed planet. Through a series of several unfortunate events, each more out of his control than the last, he is forced into being an arcpilot. This tragic event sets him on the course to becoming not quite human and feared across the galaxy. All the while, there are twin stars about to supernova and wipe out billions of lives.

    Through the course of years, Maw is used by governments and gods alike to change the course of events. While this might sound like a hero story you have heard before, it is most decidedly not a hero's tale. Maw is just a human in the vast cosmos.

    It might sound weird for a book I was excited to read, but this book took me by surprise. Once the story got going, and it was obviously not an action sort of sci-fi, I was more skeptical. However, the emotional connection to the main character was already there. I wanted to keep reading to see how this was going to turn out for him. The level of detail in the locations, side characters, or random cultural aspects in another book would have made this a slog to read. Somehow, the method used here still worked. I really enjoyed the journey we went on with Maw and the bittersweet ending we received. 

 Overall, the book was wonderfully different. It was delightful to just spend time with a character who would care to focus on the cultural differences of people, even as the galaxy is in upheaval. I definitely think this will not be for everyone in the style it is told as well as the way information is presented at various times throughout the novel. There are a few topics that I haven’t even touched on in my review here or in the spoiler vlog below. But if you would like to see my first thoughts and dive more into a bit more detail of the story, be sure to check out the vlog.