The Woken Gods by Gwenda Bond tells the story of Kyra Locke, a young woman living in a world where the mythological gods of legend have woken and are living in our society.  Rick Riordan this is not; you will not find Bond’s Set in biker’s leathers happily munching on a hamburger in a diner.  Bond’s gods are inhuman, deadly and barely kept in check.  They do not even pretend to a veil of humanity.  Kyra must work to prevent that fragile balance – and the world – from being destroyed.

What I liked

Strong narrative. Bond takes us through the story at a brisk pace, keeping the narrative tension high.  The writing style is smart and efficient and kept me hooked on the story.

Great characters.  Everyone should have a best friend like Bree!  I particularly appreciated that the kids were smart enough to realise there was no way they could defeat the bad guy on their own – it’s a bugbear of mine when young teenagers save the world on their own!  I also thought the relationships between the characters were nicely written.

The world.  I did enjoy the world Bond has created – the gods were far more overtly menacing than in Peter Jackson with far less of Riordan’s humanity and humour, and there were some quite dark scenes.  The fact that the awakening of the gods has caused problems with technology – ah the old magic vs technology theme – added an fascinating dynamic to the story and imposed some interesting limitations on the characters.

What I didn’t like

There wasn’t anything specific I disliked about The Woken Gods.  It was a fun and exciting read.  However, I found myself missing the humour of Riordan’s tales.  Still, I gave it a solid four stars out of five

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