The Alchemical Journey series continues to make me feel smarter. Seanan McGuire keeps raising the bar and Inkpot Gods reminds me why I love this series and world. Keep reading this book review of Inkpot Gods for my full thoughts.
Summary
The gods live and die at our whim.
More than a century has passed since Asphodel Baker refined the process allowing her to imbue alchemically created life with power in a way no one else had ever been able to achieve. More than a century since she built the Impossible City on the ruins of Olympus, forging it from nothing more than imagination and spite, and penned it in plain view, enabling it to be read and cherished and believed by children the world over.
And now, so long after her exit from the world, the descendants of her dark alchemy―who exist in a reality that inches ever closer to the hellscape of her imagination―step into a place of birth, of discovery, of horror, to make amends for the sins of the past.
Can the gods of today defeat the evils of their maker, or will the legacy of the most powerful alchemist the world has ever known prove to be their undoing?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Inkpot Gods is a book that feels like it makes me smarter. Seanan McGuire is a literary genius as these worlds cross with the novella series and the former stories. I’m back committed to this world. Inkpot Gods has re-invigorated my love of the series. Everything just came together and the chapters about Asphodel were intriguing! This latest installment is about the idea of reckoning with our maker, the interference of decades long plots, and nothing is safe. McGuire doesn’t let anyone feel safe as we delve into Asphodel’s backstory, meet some new characters, and continue to spend time with our favorites. Even more so, Inkpot Gods doesn’t allow us to see anything one sided.
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This series is so underrated with the amount of overlap and subtle nods. It reminds me of the underestimation which is our downfall. About being treated as supplies, stepping stones, and not people. Inkpot Gods doesn’t allow us to see anything or anyone as onesided, just monster or mother. As aspiration or nightmares. How some people can feel like they’re above humanity and yet become more human with these illusions of grandeur and selfishness. The duality of ambition and trail blazer who let others pay the cost. We can’t see one without the other. The horrors and unethical. Find Inkpot Gods on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, & Blackwells.