OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Devin Madson is an Aurealis Award-winning fantasy author from Australia. After some sucky teenage years, she gave up reality and is now a dual-wielding rogue who works through every tiny side-quest and always ends up too over-powered for the final boss. Anything but zen, Devin subsists on tea and chocolate and so much fried zucchini she ought to have turned into one by now. Her fantasy novels come in all shades of grey and are populated with characters of questionable morals and a liking for witty banter.

FORMAT/INFO: We Dream of Gods was published by Orbit Books on March 21st, 2023. It is 567 pages split over 39 chapters. It is told in first person from Rah, Cassandra, Miko, and Dishiva's POVs. It is available in ebook and paperback format.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: As nations plot and scheme and fight to end up on top at the end of a bitter conflict, a handful of people fight to thwart the plans of Leo Villius. Leo has been sitting in the shadows, carefully ensuring that events fulfill a prophecy that will lead him to being declared a god reborn. But not everyone fights simply to defeat Leo. Rah wants to lead his people home to the land they were exiled from; Miko wants to rule as a true empress and not as a puppet for her ministers; Cassandra wrestles with memories and desires that are not her own; and Dishiva seeks to carve a new homeland by using the religious power that's been thrust upon her. But in a quest for power and security, who can you really trust not to betray you?

We Dream of Gods is a finale that, while offering closure, dragged on a bit too long for my liking. At first, I was content to be back in this world, watching favorite characters plot and scheme and try to outmaneuver their enemies both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. I've seen this series called a slow-burn political saga, and I find that description fits, as characters have been playing an extremely long game again over the course of several books, their fortunes rising and falling in equal measure. I've enjoyed seeing how multiple people were trying to twist the prophecy of Veld Reborn to their own benefit, using the vagueness of certain lines to claim that their actions clearly fulfilled the prophecy, not their rival's.

Where I started to struggle was an overall feeling of lack of momentum heading into the final stretch. The story threads were all converging, true, but many also felt like they were strangely stalling. I got frustrated watching characters work hard for several chapters to achieve a political victory, then immediately give it away in the next chapter because an opponent claimed to have an offer they couldn't refuse. In the same vein, the volume of betrayals that occurred meant that they were no longer shocking, just another impediment on the way to the story's end.

And yet I couldn't help rooting for certain characters. Dishiva, who didn't become a POV character until book 2, continues to be my favorite. Even when backed into corners, she continues to fight to find a way to manipulate events to her advantage, and felt like the only character to successfully do so. I also liked Cassandra's evolution as she comes to understand her soul magic and processes emotions and memories that belonged to another character. Miko, on the other hand, went from a cutthroat woman determined to hold onto her throne to being simply outplayed at nearly every turn. By the end of the series, I feel like she should have been a more skilled politician.

CONCLUSION: At the end of the day, much of my complaints about We Dream of Gods comes down to length. This last installment clocks in at nearly 600 pages; while not unusual for the series (We Cry for Blood was equally long), I felt like a shorter, tighter story with less cyclical power plays would have been more effective. I don't regret my time with The Reborn Empire series at all, but do think this last book stumbled a bit as it closed out the story.