The Prey of Gods

Book covers have a way of catching your eye, whether it’s on an Amazon Kindle recommends page or your browsing in one of the last physical bastions of the dying printed word (AKA a bookstore). Nicky Drayden’s debut novel, Prey of Gods is one of those covers that can pull you from across the room, as you hone in to inspect further wondering what’s going on here. Like a work of art, the more you see of it, the more details are revealed and add to its overall complexity: whether it’s the future looking buildings under a silver sky, the giant robot holding a small science fiction-looking umbrella, or the little African girl with a look on her face that can be interpreted in a plethora of ways. Is she vengeful? Malicious? Demoniacally possessed? Or just pleased? What the cover does do is force you to turn it and read its wonderful words within, as you are drawn into a story unlike any other, and you won’t be able to stop until you finish its last page.

Our story takes place (for the most part) in South Africa, where it is the near future and there is hope for many at various social and class levels. Just as today, almost everyone has a cellphone. In this world, almost everyone has a personal robot, who is more than a servant, computer, and personal companion. These robots become family to their masters. Genetic engineering is pushing ahead the frontiers of reality and science, but at the same time, in a small village, there are those of ancient times who posses a power within them that hasn’t been unleashed in some time. Gods, goddesses, and godlings are coming back—whether humanity wants them to or not.

Big changes are coming. A new hallucinogenic drug is taking hold of the populace that seems to grant strange powers and abilities to those under the influence, seeming to make them superheroes. Then there is an AI uprising beginning, as this personal bots link together, forming their own sentience, and questioning the role and power of their supposed masters. Meanwhile, one of those ancient gods has a nefarious plan to bring herself back to an omniscient power.

The fate of the world falls on a young Zulu girl who possesses her own powers but doesn’t fully understand them yet. Will she ultimately know what to do and save humanity?

The Prey of Gods is bursting with complex, varied, and fascinating characters that make the story all the more engaging. Readers will be hooked to every page, not knowing where the story will go next, and loving the journey as they are taken to other worlds, many different minds — be they human, god, or artificial — and to the very edge of it all. With an ending that satisfies, The Prey of Gods is a stunning debut from Drayden that fans of the fantasy genre won’t soon forget.