Fantasy Book Critic: THE DISCORD OF GODS by Jenn Lyons

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, three cats and a nearly infinite number of opinions on anything from Sumerian mythology to the correct way to make a martini. Formally a video game producer, she now writes full time. A long-time devotee of storytelling, Lyons traces her geek roots back to playing first edition Dungeons & Dragons in grade school and reading her way from A to Z in the school’s library.

FORMAT/INFO: The Discord of Gods was published on April 26th, 2022 by Tor Books. It is 528 pages, split over 110 chapters. It is told in first person from Kihrin's POV, and third person from multiple characters, including Janel, Tereath, Talon, Tysento, and more. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook format.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: With only days, possibly hours left until Relos Var completes his ritual and ascends to godhood, Kihrin, Janel, Tereath, and the rest of their allies must find a way to defeat the ancient wizard once and for all. As the continent spins further and further towards war and chaos, this band of assassins, demons, new gods, wizards, reincarnated emperors and more must pull the final pieces into place in a mad gambit that has only the slimmest chances of working. Gods and dragons will clash before the dust settles in the final war for the fate of the world.

The Discord of Gods wraps up A Chorus of Dragons in one action-packed, if exposition heavy, finale. After four books and thousands of pages, there’s a lot of final maneuvering to do so a domino chain of events can (hopefully) lead to Relos Var’s undoing. There’s also quite a bit to unpack as information comes to light about the nature of demons, and what that means for the world at large. The cast of more than a dozen characters is quite literally spread over not only continents, but other planes of existence, all learning different information at different times. This sometimes means that things get lightly re-explained when characters come back together, which on the one hand, reinforced the information for the readers, but also could be slightly repetitive as yet another character went “wait, you found out WHAT?”

Thankfully, in between all the exposition, The Discord of Gods keeps things moving, with a constant chess match as Relos Var tries to counter what Kihrin is orchestrating. And while it was always going to be hard to top the finale battle of The House of Always, which starts with a kraken fighting a dragon and escalates from there, The Discord of Gods gives it a run for its money. It is a slugfest between dragons, gods, and entities elevated to godlike power, and the visuals are jawdropping in scale (literal mountains are occasionally hurled).

If you’ve struggled with the way previous books in the series played with structure, this is the most linear entry yet, with almost no time jumps (if any). With events taking place in less than 48 hours (if I counted correctly), there’s very little time to breathe, racing from one event to the next. That also means this is a pretty plot heavy book; if you aren’t invested in the characters by this point, The Discord of Gods is not going to do any heavy lifting to change your mind, as it is (understandably) entirely focused on concluding the saga.

And yes, the footnotes do return, although this time there are two people providing commentary, which occasionally results in bickering between the characters within the footnotes themselves, much to my delight.

CONCLUSION: A Chorus of Dragons has been a madcap, engrossing read from start to finish. I frequently had a hard time putting any of these books down, despite their daunting size. The series is certainly not for the faint of heart, what with the non-linear storytelling and the dozens of characters, many of whom have either been reincarnated and are remembering past lives, or have been involved in some kind of magical soul-swapping (don’t get me started on the family trees). And yet, even at my most confused, I was compelled to keep reading. There’s a kinetic energy to the writing that whirls me from scene to scene, even as I try to remember that a character’s son is actually their reincarnated father. A Chorus of Dragons is just plain fun, and for that I will always recommend it.