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Slow Gods
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale of one man's impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North.
In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.
Here is one out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.
This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.
Are you listening?
Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale of one man's impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North.
In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.
Here is one out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.
This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.
Are you listening?
448 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 2025
604 people are currently reading
12107 people want to read
About the author
Claire North
27 books4,204 followersClaire North is actually Catherine Webb, a Carnegie Medal-nominated young-adult novel author whose first book, Mirror Dreams, was written when she was just 14 years old. She went on to write seven more successful YA novels.
Claire North is a pseudonym for adult fantasy books written by Catherine Webb, who also writes under the pseudonym Kate Griffin.
Claire North is a pseudonym for adult fantasy books written by Catherine Webb, who also writes under the pseudonym Kate Griffin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 227 reviews
November 24, 2025
I'm always delighted when I read a book that makes me think, "gosh, that was a hard thing you tried to do, and boy did you do it."
Books about more-or-less-immortal characters are difficult things; there's a real joy in reading a powerful narrator, a lot of fun in a power fantasy, but once your narrator hits a certain level of power, you run the risk of them becoming too alien to identify with or of having the stakes lowered by the lack of consequences. Slow Gods threads that needle well, giving us a protagonist that is powerful but constrained, unknowable but examined. This is something North has done before with her The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August , which was another book I really enjoyed, but this time the consequences are amped up, the philosophy is amped up, the weirdness is amped up. It was great.
I think that any good, expansive space opera will involve widely different cultures, any sufficiently different cultures that are competently imagined will have different ideas about gender or sexuality, and therefore, any sufficiently well written space opera will be inherently queer. Slow Gods is a very well written space opera, and the range of imagined systems of genders are a delight. We see systems with 8 or more genders, with no genders at all, all reflecting and making sense in the context of their imagined cultures. I greatly appreciated that we never got even a smidge of a hint of what sort of body our narrator's sexual interest had; it wasn't relevant to that character's gender identity in ter society, and so it wasn't worth sharing with us. Even the Shine, the hyper-capitalist debt slavery society, which by law only allowed two genders based on your genitals, acknowledged that some men were more manly and deserved hé/hím, some women more feminine and deserved shé/hér, which is a great analogy for how even the most conservative in our current society understand that gender is at least a spectrum, even if they won't talk about it that way.
In fact, there's plenty ways to read the thematic meat of the analogies here. It's pretty easy to read this as an allegory of what it's like for the EU to deal with the US in the way that the Accord cannot call out the slavery practices of the Shine for fear of the nukes pointed at them. It's easy to see invasion and occupation as echoes of any number of Earth events, historic and present. I tend to read any story of someone finding people different as an autism analogy, and I thought this one was deftly done, both in the subtle ways that Maw describes feeling different from the people around him and in the obvious ways, like when Maw specifically asks another character about his inability to read when someone is being performative and is told it will make social relationships difficult.
In a bunch of ways, I would describe this as a book that does genre conventions well, not a book that invents new conventions. I've read books before that imagine an unknowable space outside the universe filled with unknowable inhabitants that we can use to travel through (most recently, The Outside, and before that Shards of Earth), but Slow Gods does the things that the best books that involve unknowable Lovecraftian horrors do (I'm thinking of American Elsewhere as one example) by making those entities relatable without ever being fully knowable. I've also read books before that try to engage with the philosophy of how you find meaning in a massive universe (The Hydrogen Sonata and Lucky Day come to mind), but it's not an easy thing to do in a cohesive or un-schmalzy way.
All this requires a light touch, but that's Slow Gods through and through. It's a book that leans into the subtleties, that doesn't make evil less banal or boring than it is, that uses an imagined future to illustrate today, all with lovely prose and propulsive plot. It's a delight.
Books about more-or-less-immortal characters are difficult things; there's a real joy in reading a powerful narrator, a lot of fun in a power fantasy, but once your narrator hits a certain level of power, you run the risk of them becoming too alien to identify with or of having the stakes lowered by the lack of consequences. Slow Gods threads that needle well, giving us a protagonist that is powerful but constrained, unknowable but examined. This is something North has done before with her The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August , which was another book I really enjoyed, but this time the consequences are amped up, the philosophy is amped up, the weirdness is amped up. It was great.
I think that any good, expansive space opera will involve widely different cultures, any sufficiently different cultures that are competently imagined will have different ideas about gender or sexuality, and therefore, any sufficiently well written space opera will be inherently queer. Slow Gods is a very well written space opera, and the range of imagined systems of genders are a delight. We see systems with 8 or more genders, with no genders at all, all reflecting and making sense in the context of their imagined cultures. I greatly appreciated that we never got even a smidge of a hint of what sort of body our narrator's sexual interest had; it wasn't relevant to that character's gender identity in ter society, and so it wasn't worth sharing with us. Even the Shine, the hyper-capitalist debt slavery society, which by law only allowed two genders based on your genitals, acknowledged that some men were more manly and deserved hé/hím, some women more feminine and deserved shé/hér, which is a great analogy for how even the most conservative in our current society understand that gender is at least a spectrum, even if they won't talk about it that way.
In fact, there's plenty ways to read the thematic meat of the analogies here. It's pretty easy to read this as an allegory of what it's like for the EU to deal with the US in the way that the Accord cannot call out the slavery practices of the Shine for fear of the nukes pointed at them. It's easy to see invasion and occupation as echoes of any number of Earth events, historic and present. I tend to read any story of someone finding people different as an autism analogy, and I thought this one was deftly done, both in the subtle ways that Maw describes feeling different from the people around him and in the obvious ways, like when Maw specifically asks another character about his inability to read when someone is being performative and is told it will make social relationships difficult.
In a bunch of ways, I would describe this as a book that does genre conventions well, not a book that invents new conventions. I've read books before that imagine an unknowable space outside the universe filled with unknowable inhabitants that we can use to travel through (most recently, The Outside, and before that Shards of Earth), but Slow Gods does the things that the best books that involve unknowable Lovecraftian horrors do (I'm thinking of American Elsewhere as one example) by making those entities relatable without ever being fully knowable. I've also read books before that try to engage with the philosophy of how you find meaning in a massive universe (The Hydrogen Sonata and Lucky Day come to mind), but it's not an easy thing to do in a cohesive or un-schmalzy way.
All this requires a light touch, but that's Slow Gods through and through. It's a book that leans into the subtleties, that doesn't make evil less banal or boring than it is, that uses an imagined future to illustrate today, all with lovely prose and propulsive plot. It's a delight.
Read
August 31, 2025DNF'd at 12%. I wanted to like this, I really did. There's a lot of cool sci-fi stuff going on, and Claire North's prose is great, but every time I came up against one of the several neo-pronouns (Qe/qis? Hé? Do you pronounce qe as "quee" or is it "kee"? Is hé pronounced "hay"? What are we doing here? I tried mentally replacing all of it with they/them but then I was just thinking about that too much.) it just totally ruined any and all sense of immersion. I'm sure there will be those who love this, but it's just not for me (as much as I could have sworn it would have been). I loved The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, so this will not be the last time I give North a shot. I've heard Touch is phenomenal.
December 18, 2025
I haven’t been this enthralled, confused and delighted by a sci-fi book since I read Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. I can safely say this is my favorite book I've read this year in this genre.
Slow Gods contains many of the elements I love in space opera. A rich world building, a queernormative universe. Political conflict and an impending intergalactic war, very much inspired by real life conflicts. Sentient AIs and other impossible beings that pose some interesting philosophical, ethical and moral questions. A dash of eldritch horror.
The first half of the book was definitely my favorite, the way the world building slowly unfolds as we get further into the plot was really well done. Even when the narrator stopped to explain how this universe works it didn’t feel like info-dumping. I had no idea where the story was going to go next and I really enjoyed that.
The second part of the book centers on the war and I admit I found it less interesting than the beginning of the story. In spite of that, this is an excellent example of sci-fi done right.
This was the first book I read from this author and I was blown away!
Thanks to Orbit via NetGalley for providing an eARC
Slow Gods contains many of the elements I love in space opera. A rich world building, a queernormative universe. Political conflict and an impending intergalactic war, very much inspired by real life conflicts. Sentient AIs and other impossible beings that pose some interesting philosophical, ethical and moral questions. A dash of eldritch horror.
The first half of the book was definitely my favorite, the way the world building slowly unfolds as we get further into the plot was really well done. Even when the narrator stopped to explain how this universe works it didn’t feel like info-dumping. I had no idea where the story was going to go next and I really enjoyed that.
The second part of the book centers on the war and I admit I found it less interesting than the beginning of the story. In spite of that, this is an excellent example of sci-fi done right.
This was the first book I read from this author and I was blown away!
Thanks to Orbit via NetGalley for providing an eARC
November 18, 2025
From one novel to the next, Claire North effortlessly leaps across genres, crafting unique, engaging, and consistently satisfying stories. Slow Gods is no exception—an imaginative and fresh space opera fronted by a self-deprecating pilot with infinite lives, staring down a universe-spanning cataclysm.
I loved luxuriating in North’s language and her worlds: living ships, distinct gender systems, and the unknowable deep black of space that seems to lurk at the edge of our waking consciousness.
It’s less a tightly plotted, propulsively paced piece of fiction and more a high-stakes drama filled with expansive ideas and a singular protagonist. I enjoyed my time with it all the same, and I’ll gladly follow North wherever she jumps next.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky
I loved luxuriating in North’s language and her worlds: living ships, distinct gender systems, and the unknowable deep black of space that seems to lurk at the edge of our waking consciousness.
It’s less a tightly plotted, propulsively paced piece of fiction and more a high-stakes drama filled with expansive ideas and a singular protagonist. I enjoyed my time with it all the same, and I’ll gladly follow North wherever she jumps next.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky
December 8, 2025
Slow Gods leans far more into the introspective and metaphysical than the traditionally thrilling, offering expansive ideas and genuine moral complexity. Its immortal, Jekyll-and-Hyde-like protagonist - fully aware of the monster and pariah he has become - serves as a compelling lens through which to explore thorny questions of humanity, morality, curiosity, love and the futility of it all. This against the backdrop of an interstellar calamity spurred by a supernova and the resulting upheaval and conflict throughout the nearby worlds - worlds rich with a myriad of cultures - human, alien and artificial.
The concepts North introduces on the fluidity of reality, and on how belief, perception, and especially others' expectations can fundamentally reshape a person, are particularly striking. Her prose remains rich, thoughtful, and emotionally resonant, though I did find it dense and a little confusing at times.
The concepts North introduces on the fluidity of reality, and on how belief, perception, and especially others' expectations can fundamentally reshape a person, are particularly striking. Her prose remains rich, thoughtful, and emotionally resonant, though I did find it dense and a little confusing at times.
December 17, 2025
I’ve read many (most) of Claire North’s books, and so I know she will always deliver “something.”
She never writes the same thing twice, but always makes her story something new and slightly different. Her writing is always excellent, and has a particular intelligence and intensity that always appeals to me. That said, there is also a darkness and density to her work that means it won’t be an easy or light read.
Slow Gods is no exception to that darkness and density. It’s a thoughtful book, with some wonderfully imaginative elements, but it deals fundamentally with the calculus of death and destruction on a social and global scale.
I loved how both the minutiae of individual acts and cultural particulates played as important an element in the story as the deconstruction of an entire planet. Cultural survival, how it can be achieved and what it means, judgments about entire systems of social organization, as well as small groups of people and individual action, all play a part in the narrative.
The story of the whole congregation of societies is also the story of its individual sentient members.
She never writes the same thing twice, but always makes her story something new and slightly different. Her writing is always excellent, and has a particular intelligence and intensity that always appeals to me. That said, there is also a darkness and density to her work that means it won’t be an easy or light read.
Slow Gods is no exception to that darkness and density. It’s a thoughtful book, with some wonderfully imaginative elements, but it deals fundamentally with the calculus of death and destruction on a social and global scale.
I loved how both the minutiae of individual acts and cultural particulates played as important an element in the story as the deconstruction of an entire planet. Cultural survival, how it can be achieved and what it means, judgments about entire systems of social organization, as well as small groups of people and individual action, all play a part in the narrative.
The story of the whole congregation of societies is also the story of its individual sentient members.
September 27, 2025
This book was a mess. I had to force myself to finish and was miserable the last 50% of the book.
When I first started reading I thought the plot was interesting. We have an almost eldritch horror situation, stars colliding leading to worlds being destroyed and corrupt governments and societys. Sounds great but then I realize I’m halfway into the book and nothing is happening. It’s reading like plain toast and is giving nothing. I finished it and was left asking what was the point?!
When I first started reading I thought the plot was interesting. We have an almost eldritch horror situation, stars colliding leading to worlds being destroyed and corrupt governments and societys. Sounds great but then I realize I’m halfway into the book and nothing is happening. It’s reading like plain toast and is giving nothing. I finished it and was left asking what was the point?!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 13, 2025
4.5 / 5 Stars
Don't make me curious. You wouldn't like me when I'm curious.
- The Ghost of Hasha-to (probably)
Slow Gods is equal parts Expanse and Le Guin. It's a high-stakes space opera, a detailed character study, and a sprawling ethnography wrapped in one. The best sci-fi will experiment with humanity by introducing variables only possible through imagination. Claire North's experiment adds in deep worldbuilding and a handful of brain-tickling eldritch elements to create something special.
At the center of it all sits Maw, our protagonist and narrator. He's lived a long life, and this story reads like a memoir examining a particularly eventful stretch. The way he tells it, he never quite has a grasp on his own choices or his relationships with others. But of course, his account is biased, and there are several moments where his late revelations completely re-contextualize what’s come before. He's a clearly flawed character, and his writing is deeply self-conscious. He's not always proud or confident in his decisions. That internal conflict makes Maw compelling to read about, whether or not you agree with what he's done.
Around Maw is a galaxy full of different peoples with a spectrum of philosophies about society, the self, and everything in between. They all mirror or contrast Maw's thoughts as he wrestles with his own place in the universe. This layering of plot, worldbuilding, and ideas is where Slow Gods really shines.
And then there's the Sci-Fi of it all. Beyond human perception is an eldritch dimension in which lives some dark and incomprehensible terror. Anybody who travels through it is not the same when they come out... but it's the only way to travel faster than the speed of light. This is the backdrop of our book. The implications are always there, lingering. It's a wonderfully unique metaphor for the unknowable vastness of space and the parts of ourselves we can't ever fully comprehend. Maw's relationship with this darkness only strengthens the intrigue.
My one complaint is that Slow Gods sometimes spells out its own ideas a bit too directly. I tend to appreciate it more when a book gives the reader room to draw conclusions on their own. Still, the book is plenty thought provoking, and it hits on some poignant questions about what it means to be human.
In the end, the "slow gods" were really the friends we made along the way: death, grief, the struggle for meaning. I kid, but only a little bit. The book adeptly explores many of these themes: it's what we do with the time we have that matters.
I really enjoyed Slow Gods, and it's stuck with me since I put it down. If you're a fan of sci-fi, give it a read!
Thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the ARC.
Don't make me curious. You wouldn't like me when I'm curious.
- The Ghost of Hasha-to (probably)
Slow Gods is equal parts Expanse and Le Guin. It's a high-stakes space opera, a detailed character study, and a sprawling ethnography wrapped in one. The best sci-fi will experiment with humanity by introducing variables only possible through imagination. Claire North's experiment adds in deep worldbuilding and a handful of brain-tickling eldritch elements to create something special.
At the center of it all sits Maw, our protagonist and narrator. He's lived a long life, and this story reads like a memoir examining a particularly eventful stretch. The way he tells it, he never quite has a grasp on his own choices or his relationships with others. But of course, his account is biased, and there are several moments where his late revelations completely re-contextualize what’s come before. He's a clearly flawed character, and his writing is deeply self-conscious. He's not always proud or confident in his decisions. That internal conflict makes Maw compelling to read about, whether or not you agree with what he's done.
Around Maw is a galaxy full of different peoples with a spectrum of philosophies about society, the self, and everything in between. They all mirror or contrast Maw's thoughts as he wrestles with his own place in the universe. This layering of plot, worldbuilding, and ideas is where Slow Gods really shines.
And then there's the Sci-Fi of it all. Beyond human perception is an eldritch dimension in which lives some dark and incomprehensible terror. Anybody who travels through it is not the same when they come out... but it's the only way to travel faster than the speed of light. This is the backdrop of our book. The implications are always there, lingering. It's a wonderfully unique metaphor for the unknowable vastness of space and the parts of ourselves we can't ever fully comprehend. Maw's relationship with this darkness only strengthens the intrigue.
My one complaint is that Slow Gods sometimes spells out its own ideas a bit too directly. I tend to appreciate it more when a book gives the reader room to draw conclusions on their own. Still, the book is plenty thought provoking, and it hits on some poignant questions about what it means to be human.
In the end, the "slow gods" were really the friends we made along the way: death, grief, the struggle for meaning. I kid, but only a little bit. The book adeptly explores many of these themes: it's what we do with the time we have that matters.
I really enjoyed Slow Gods, and it's stuck with me since I put it down. If you're a fan of sci-fi, give it a read!
Thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the ARC.
October 10, 2025
Big thanks to the publisher Orbit for gifting the eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a wonderful space opera, jam-packed with cosmic politics, dying stars, and questions about what it really means to be human. The story follows Maw, a man who’s basically a “copy” of himself after death and rebirth into a universe where empires rise and collapse while people argue over who gets saved when a supernova threatens entire worlds.
The writing is full of big ideas and moral complexity wrapped in beautiful prose. Easy to read while still being dense in substance.
The world building was immense but not overbearing and the story still managed to include character relationships with a quiet emotional core. It’s not a fast read, though. The pacing is slow, and the world is dense. But it still felt fulfilling, and I once I committed, I was hooked.
Overall, this is a smart, ambitious, and haunting sci-fi novel that rewards patience and thought. Yes! 👍 I highly recommend this book.
This is a wonderful space opera, jam-packed with cosmic politics, dying stars, and questions about what it really means to be human. The story follows Maw, a man who’s basically a “copy” of himself after death and rebirth into a universe where empires rise and collapse while people argue over who gets saved when a supernova threatens entire worlds.
The writing is full of big ideas and moral complexity wrapped in beautiful prose. Easy to read while still being dense in substance.
The world building was immense but not overbearing and the story still managed to include character relationships with a quiet emotional core. It’s not a fast read, though. The pacing is slow, and the world is dense. But it still felt fulfilling, and I once I committed, I was hooked.
Overall, this is a smart, ambitious, and haunting sci-fi novel that rewards patience and thought. Yes! 👍 I highly recommend this book.
December 26, 2025
I went into Slow Gods with reasonably high expectations. I’ve read Claire North before and usually enjoy the precision and intellect she brings to her worlds. This time, though, I bounced hard. It’s an adult space sci-fi novel centred on our protagonist, Maw, and while the premise had promise, the execution left me feeling like I’d been locked in a beige room with a damp cloth for company.
The narrative structure is… peculiar. Let’s be generous and call it “experimental”. Less generously, it’s dry and oddly monotone. The story leans heavily on character-driven momentum, which would be fine if the central character had any interesting thoughts or qualities. Maw, bless him, has the personality of stale bread. Not freshly stale, either, the kind that’s been left out for days and could probably be used as a weapon. Not mouldy either - that would give it flavour - just dry.
The result is a book that moves with the glacial urgency of drying paint, but without any of the visual intrigue. I kept waiting for something- *anything* - plot, character growth, thematic spark … to ignite. Nothing did. Instead, I found myself wrestling with a story whose purpose I could never quite decipher. It isn’t badly written, it just… exists in a state of perpetual narrative shrug.
Given the glowing reviews elsewhere, I’m clearly the outlier, so take this as one of those deeply subjective misfires. I’ve loved other books by Claire North and still recommend exploring her catalogue if this is your first encounter. This one, though, was not it for me. There were a few tiny moments where I saw the social commentary and wit I’m used to from her but otherwise I came away with nothing.
Two stars. One of those is for the pretty book. The other is me being polite. The rest is silence.
The narrative structure is… peculiar. Let’s be generous and call it “experimental”. Less generously, it’s dry and oddly monotone. The story leans heavily on character-driven momentum, which would be fine if the central character had any interesting thoughts or qualities. Maw, bless him, has the personality of stale bread. Not freshly stale, either, the kind that’s been left out for days and could probably be used as a weapon. Not mouldy either - that would give it flavour - just dry.
The result is a book that moves with the glacial urgency of drying paint, but without any of the visual intrigue. I kept waiting for something- *anything* - plot, character growth, thematic spark … to ignite. Nothing did. Instead, I found myself wrestling with a story whose purpose I could never quite decipher. It isn’t badly written, it just… exists in a state of perpetual narrative shrug.
Given the glowing reviews elsewhere, I’m clearly the outlier, so take this as one of those deeply subjective misfires. I’ve loved other books by Claire North and still recommend exploring her catalogue if this is your first encounter. This one, though, was not it for me. There were a few tiny moments where I saw the social commentary and wit I’m used to from her but otherwise I came away with nothing.
Two stars. One of those is for the pretty book. The other is me being polite. The rest is silence.
November 13, 2025
I am a sucker for a space opera with a funky premise, so I slammed the “request review copy” as soon as I saw the opening line “My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.” I barely know where to start with Slow Gods, so let’s start here--this book is firing on all cylinders. At every level you could want a space opera to be working on, this one is working. The sentences? Absolutely beautiful, worthy of calligraphy. The characters? Fascinating. The aliens and the computers felt like non-human consciousnesses. The plot? Perfectly balanced on that knife's edge between familiar sci-fi tropes and surprising innovation. Mark my works, this one has the makings of a classic.
Mawukana na-Vdnaze is an average man, living in a cruel, hierarchical society, when he is plucked into the space between stars and comes back not quite as himself. As the multi-species and multi-cultural Accord makes preparations for the imminent collapse of a binary star system, the fragile peace begins to unravel. Mawukana na-Vdnaze finds himself at the center of events and his decisions will shape the future. Is he a monster, or is he a god?
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how much I love this book--it’s likely to be my favorite read of the year, but my favorite thing is that this book has the confidence to let you draw your own conclusions. It’s definitely of the moment, and it has a political point of view, but it’s not clearly an allegory that fits neatly on the present moment or the past. If you read carefully, you’ll have plenty to think about, but North has the confidence to let you figure things out for yourself. And I have to say again, those sentences, just beautiful. I’m not generally a crier, but the prose in this book did move me to tears at least twice.
Recommended for fans of Ann Leckie, Bethany Jacobs, and Arkady Martine.
I received an ARC in exchange for this honest review.
Mawukana na-Vdnaze is an average man, living in a cruel, hierarchical society, when he is plucked into the space between stars and comes back not quite as himself. As the multi-species and multi-cultural Accord makes preparations for the imminent collapse of a binary star system, the fragile peace begins to unravel. Mawukana na-Vdnaze finds himself at the center of events and his decisions will shape the future. Is he a monster, or is he a god?
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how much I love this book--it’s likely to be my favorite read of the year, but my favorite thing is that this book has the confidence to let you draw your own conclusions. It’s definitely of the moment, and it has a political point of view, but it’s not clearly an allegory that fits neatly on the present moment or the past. If you read carefully, you’ll have plenty to think about, but North has the confidence to let you figure things out for yourself. And I have to say again, those sentences, just beautiful. I’m not generally a crier, but the prose in this book did move me to tears at least twice.
Recommended for fans of Ann Leckie, Bethany Jacobs, and Arkady Martine.
I received an ARC in exchange for this honest review.
October 21, 2025
Phenomenal book doing one of the things I love most about sci-fi: letting us explore humanity and what it means to be a person, maybe even a good one.
The setting is a far future with many colonised planets, where The Slow, a mysterious and god-like inorganic being, arrives to alert several of these planets to the imminent (100 years) supernova of their nearby binary star system that will also annihilate them.
Our narrator is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, who is forced to become a Pilot of the fastest spaceships, where that process tends to very quickly drive pilots mad and where ships are often lost. Maw does not go mad, perhaps, and becomes something else, perhaps. His ability to fly without detriment becomes increasingly important as the century passes and civilisations take different approaches to the impending destruction.
I saw another reviewer describe this as "Piranesi in space" and that is an excellent comparison for Maw himself, and the vibe of this story. It's slow-paced but not dull, and allows the reader to have their own opinions throughout (a LOT of them, in my case) without either being unsatisfying or shallow in how it responds to the questions raised.
LOVED IT! HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you like complex, thought-provoking space opera!
This review is based upon a complimentary advance reading copy provided by the publisher.
The setting is a far future with many colonised planets, where The Slow, a mysterious and god-like inorganic being, arrives to alert several of these planets to the imminent (100 years) supernova of their nearby binary star system that will also annihilate them.
Our narrator is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, who is forced to become a Pilot of the fastest spaceships, where that process tends to very quickly drive pilots mad and where ships are often lost. Maw does not go mad, perhaps, and becomes something else, perhaps. His ability to fly without detriment becomes increasingly important as the century passes and civilisations take different approaches to the impending destruction.
I saw another reviewer describe this as "Piranesi in space" and that is an excellent comparison for Maw himself, and the vibe of this story. It's slow-paced but not dull, and allows the reader to have their own opinions throughout (a LOT of them, in my case) without either being unsatisfying or shallow in how it responds to the questions raised.
LOVED IT! HIGHLY RECOMMEND if you like complex, thought-provoking space opera!
This review is based upon a complimentary advance reading copy provided by the publisher.
December 13, 2025
Claire North is a genuinely talented writer, and I love her prose - there’s something crisp and atmospheric about it that really works for me. Slow Gods also has a lot going for it: the worldbuilding is imaginative and expansive, and I admire how philosophically ambitious the book is, taking big swings at questions about meaning, belief, and what lasts.
But overall, it didn’t quite click. The story often felt a bit unfocused, and the pacing could be uneven, with stretches that dragged more than they drew me in. And while I could appreciate what the novel was doing on an idea level, I never fully connected with the protagonist, which made it harder to feel invested in what was happening. I finished the book impressed by the craft and the scope, but wishing it had been tighter, faster-moving, and more emotionally engaging. 3.5 stars from me.
But overall, it didn’t quite click. The story often felt a bit unfocused, and the pacing could be uneven, with stretches that dragged more than they drew me in. And while I could appreciate what the novel was doing on an idea level, I never fully connected with the protagonist, which made it harder to feel invested in what was happening. I finished the book impressed by the craft and the scope, but wishing it had been tighter, faster-moving, and more emotionally engaging. 3.5 stars from me.
November 2, 2025
I really hate it to say it but DNF @ 28%
I truly find it surprising that none of the other reviews I've read mentioned that this book is not written in a traditional way. It jumps between timelines and events with seemingly little rhyme or reason and brushes over important events while drawing out things that are less so. At times it's written like a textbook, and others follow a more traditional structure with characters and dialogue, but still without a completely cohesive narrative. I wouldn't say it was necessarily a struggle to figure out what was going on, but rather that it was so utterly boring with no clear idea of what the actual plot of this book was going to be. At this point in the book, we barely even know main character let alone and side characters (even the one whose research he's going to save from a planet before the effects of the supernova hit it).
This book was so dry and the experimental style made it feel like the reader wasn't allowed to know anything concrete. There's a chance something would have been explained as the story went on, but with what I read so far, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't.
I will say I do want to know what happened to Maw and how he's been alive for over a hundred years after his mysterious presumed death on his first flight as a pilot. I want to know what the darkness is and how and why it's in the ships (and how it killed Maw). I want to know what the Slow is. But alas, nothing I read so far in this book truly hooked me, and I didn't care about the characters or the plot enough to even want to pick it up again to continue. The writing style was a real detriment to my enjoyment and ultimately made the book not be for me.
I truly find it surprising that none of the other reviews I've read mentioned that this book is not written in a traditional way. It jumps between timelines and events with seemingly little rhyme or reason and brushes over important events while drawing out things that are less so. At times it's written like a textbook, and others follow a more traditional structure with characters and dialogue, but still without a completely cohesive narrative. I wouldn't say it was necessarily a struggle to figure out what was going on, but rather that it was so utterly boring with no clear idea of what the actual plot of this book was going to be. At this point in the book, we barely even know main character let alone and side characters (even the one whose research he's going to save from a planet before the effects of the supernova hit it).
This book was so dry and the experimental style made it feel like the reader wasn't allowed to know anything concrete. There's a chance something would have been explained as the story went on, but with what I read so far, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't.
I will say I do want to know what happened to Maw and how he's been alive for over a hundred years after his mysterious presumed death on his first flight as a pilot. I want to know what the darkness is and how and why it's in the ships (and how it killed Maw). I want to know what the Slow is. But alas, nothing I read so far in this book truly hooked me, and I didn't care about the characters or the plot enough to even want to pick it up again to continue. The writing style was a real detriment to my enjoyment and ultimately made the book not be for me.
August 26, 2025
Wow. Easily one of my favourite books of the year, but fuck me for having to try to describe why.
Thank you to the publisher, Orbit, and to NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to the publisher, Orbit, and to NetGalley for the ARC.
November 6, 2025
Book review: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
Slow Gods by Claire North is a scifi space opera epic in scope, replete with deeply meaningful character moments, and with an eerily reflective look at the challenges and state of our own present day society. North manages to write a novel packed full of intriguing science fiction concepts without bogging down the reader with a feeling of doing “too much” with one story. The futuristic concepts never take the spotlight from the character driven plot and the themes within the story. This is a novel about death and life, love, and individual meaning in a vast and uncaring universe.
The story follows Mawukana na-Vdnaze, or Maw, for short, a disregarded citizen of the oppressive Shine polity of worlds. When Maw is used as a throwaway pilot for an arcspace mission, he comes back replaced by…something else. Maw died and was reborn from the darkness, a darkness that gives him unique abilities and everlasting life. With this rebirth, he is able to travel through arcspace without the normal consequences on organic life, and so becomes a valued pilot. Then a machine entity known as The Slow arrives in space and announces to all the nearby planets that a binary star system is going to go supernova and destroy all the planets within range. Thus begins Maw’s tale as he becomes a pivotal member to the evacuation effort.
Slow Gods is a story with an impressive display of philosophy. Philosophy of government, philosophy of life and death, and the philosophy of meaning and love in a chaotic universe. All told through the eyes of Maw as his character grows and develops. This novel also boasts an incredible amount of interesting scifi concepts, including but not limited to, machine intelligence, organic ships, FTL travel, orbital habitats and multiple-planet spanning societies.
This was a great read, and sure to be one of the best of the year. If you are looking for a well-written and thoughtful science fiction novel, with plenty of fantastic concepts to keep you interested, I would recommend Slow Gods by Claire North.
Slow Gods by Claire North is a scifi space opera epic in scope, replete with deeply meaningful character moments, and with an eerily reflective look at the challenges and state of our own present day society. North manages to write a novel packed full of intriguing science fiction concepts without bogging down the reader with a feeling of doing “too much” with one story. The futuristic concepts never take the spotlight from the character driven plot and the themes within the story. This is a novel about death and life, love, and individual meaning in a vast and uncaring universe.
The story follows Mawukana na-Vdnaze, or Maw, for short, a disregarded citizen of the oppressive Shine polity of worlds. When Maw is used as a throwaway pilot for an arcspace mission, he comes back replaced by…something else. Maw died and was reborn from the darkness, a darkness that gives him unique abilities and everlasting life. With this rebirth, he is able to travel through arcspace without the normal consequences on organic life, and so becomes a valued pilot. Then a machine entity known as The Slow arrives in space and announces to all the nearby planets that a binary star system is going to go supernova and destroy all the planets within range. Thus begins Maw’s tale as he becomes a pivotal member to the evacuation effort.
Slow Gods is a story with an impressive display of philosophy. Philosophy of government, philosophy of life and death, and the philosophy of meaning and love in a chaotic universe. All told through the eyes of Maw as his character grows and develops. This novel also boasts an incredible amount of interesting scifi concepts, including but not limited to, machine intelligence, organic ships, FTL travel, orbital habitats and multiple-planet spanning societies.
This was a great read, and sure to be one of the best of the year. If you are looking for a well-written and thoughtful science fiction novel, with plenty of fantastic concepts to keep you interested, I would recommend Slow Gods by Claire North.
September 30, 2025
Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group – Orbit for the opportunity to read this ARC.
A book that can only be described as Piranesi in space that opens up into a space opera with world ending stakes.
It does take about 10% of the book before it really starts to open up, so it may be too slow burn for some people, with some quieter moments in the middle.
The use of interesting pronouns can be difficult to grasp at first, but as with anything, they become second nature.
Overall, really enjoyed the slower paced sci-fi with thought provoking themes, beautiful prose and a main character observing the universe in all its glory and horror.
If you don’t yet fear the darkness between the stars, maybe you should.
A book that can only be described as Piranesi in space that opens up into a space opera with world ending stakes.
It does take about 10% of the book before it really starts to open up, so it may be too slow burn for some people, with some quieter moments in the middle.
The use of interesting pronouns can be difficult to grasp at first, but as with anything, they become second nature.
Overall, really enjoyed the slower paced sci-fi with thought provoking themes, beautiful prose and a main character observing the universe in all its glory and horror.
If you don’t yet fear the darkness between the stars, maybe you should.
August 12, 2025
2.5 but 3 because I'm a sucker for an eldritch horror-like being. I really appreciate the general idea of this story, its very ambitious, but the writing fell flat for me. I'm sure a lot of folks will really like this one though, I think its just a 'me vs style' issue. Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for the ARC!
December 11, 2025
Claire North’s Slow Gods is a sprawling and humane space opera told in the voice of Mawukana na Vdnaze, a pilot who dies in the void, is remade, and becomes drawn into a galaxy on the brink of an astronomical disaster. The novel packs in a huge range of ideas: complex cultures, abuses of power, AI, and political tension. It is a standalone that feels large enough for a trilogy, and at times, I wished for more space with some of the concepts North introduces. One example is the question of how a culture can preserve its meaning by saving artifacts and memory in the face of extinction. There are so many ideas at play that the world can feel crowded but never dull.
One of the strongest threads is the portrayal of neurodivergence. Maw’s way of processing the world and navigating emotion is drawn with care, grounding the story in something deeply human even as the scale widens. That intimate lens strengthens the book’s central metaphor. Slow Gods confronts climate change through an impending catastrophe and shows how those in power have known of the danger for generations yet have chosen delay, denial, or desperate half-measures instead of direct action. The parallels to real life are unsettling and resonant.
Despite the density of its worldbuilding, this is an engaging and thoughtful standalone that rewards readers who enjoy science fiction with big ideas and even bigger heart.
One of the strongest threads is the portrayal of neurodivergence. Maw’s way of processing the world and navigating emotion is drawn with care, grounding the story in something deeply human even as the scale widens. That intimate lens strengthens the book’s central metaphor. Slow Gods confronts climate change through an impending catastrophe and shows how those in power have known of the danger for generations yet have chosen delay, denial, or desperate half-measures instead of direct action. The parallels to real life are unsettling and resonant.
Despite the density of its worldbuilding, this is an engaging and thoughtful standalone that rewards readers who enjoy science fiction with big ideas and even bigger heart.
December 10, 2025
Review originally on JamReads
Slow Gods is a standalone space opera novel, written by Claire North and published by Orbit Books. A novel with a rather unconventional approach, following the journey of one immortal character, Mawukana (Maw), a story that takes place over a long period of time and multiple planets and cultures; a deeply philosophical story whose epicenter can be tied with a binary star collapse and its consequences, all told by the own Maw, giving the reader a privileged spot to think about the own nature of existence and identity.
Mawukana is forced to become a Pilot, a process that usually drives the individual mad; but in his case, something went differently in the Void, maybe wrong, with Maw not coming back as himself. His (sort of) immortality and his ability to fly fast spaceships without getting mad puts him at the center of the events related to the imminent collapse of a binary star system; his decisions might change the future, but he also needs to understand and think about his own nature.
Interestingly, Maw's narrative feels more like an observer, this recount of this stretch of his life as a way to come to terms with his own immortality, with the binary star system collapse and the rise and fall of an empire being the background that allows it to happen. North blends together philosophy and science-fiction, putting the focus on themes such as the nature of identity, the control by political structures and the own human condition.
The worldbuilding itself features a wide range of cultures, which allows the author to explore different approaches to some concepts that are tied to our own society; there's a clear parallel between our nowadays world and how the powers in this novel act in fear of retaliation.
The pacing is relatively slow, as this is a more reflexive piece, but I found myself deeply invested in Maw's story, and North's prose certainly helps to keep the reader engaged.
Slow Gods is an excellent space opera novel, a genre-blending piece that certainly leaves a long-lasting impression; if you are looking for a thought-provoking novel, this one should be on your list!
Slow Gods is a standalone space opera novel, written by Claire North and published by Orbit Books. A novel with a rather unconventional approach, following the journey of one immortal character, Mawukana (Maw), a story that takes place over a long period of time and multiple planets and cultures; a deeply philosophical story whose epicenter can be tied with a binary star collapse and its consequences, all told by the own Maw, giving the reader a privileged spot to think about the own nature of existence and identity.
Mawukana is forced to become a Pilot, a process that usually drives the individual mad; but in his case, something went differently in the Void, maybe wrong, with Maw not coming back as himself. His (sort of) immortality and his ability to fly fast spaceships without getting mad puts him at the center of the events related to the imminent collapse of a binary star system; his decisions might change the future, but he also needs to understand and think about his own nature.
Interestingly, Maw's narrative feels more like an observer, this recount of this stretch of his life as a way to come to terms with his own immortality, with the binary star system collapse and the rise and fall of an empire being the background that allows it to happen. North blends together philosophy and science-fiction, putting the focus on themes such as the nature of identity, the control by political structures and the own human condition.
The worldbuilding itself features a wide range of cultures, which allows the author to explore different approaches to some concepts that are tied to our own society; there's a clear parallel between our nowadays world and how the powers in this novel act in fear of retaliation.
The pacing is relatively slow, as this is a more reflexive piece, but I found myself deeply invested in Maw's story, and North's prose certainly helps to keep the reader engaged.
Slow Gods is an excellent space opera novel, a genre-blending piece that certainly leaves a long-lasting impression; if you are looking for a thought-provoking novel, this one should be on your list!
August 29, 2025
Slow Gods has a really awesome concept. There are perhaps various stories within it. One of these is the story of Mawukana na-Vdnaze, an entity born out of the dark of Arcspace (a kind of alternate dimension used to travel long distances across the universe, but something is always watching), apparently a copy of a dead pilot with all of his memories. It is also a story about a supernova: a binary star system in its death throes will wipe out all planets in a certain radius including Adjumir and the worlds of The Shine. How do we decide who and what to save? Finally, it's a story about The Slow: an extremely powerful and intelligent Quan (somewhat equivalent to a robot). Some worship it as a god, but its true desires and purpose are unknown.
There's a lot going on in this book and Claire North is an incredibly skilled writer. The prose was absolutely gorgeous, I had to read some passages over and over again just because of how beautiful they were! Emotion bled through the pages. It wasn't often violent, but when it was it was sharp and effective and raw.
I really loved the universe Claire North has built. I honestly could have read a whole book just discussing all of the different cultures and species. It was very dark in places: the tyranny of The Shine is depressingly realistic in its dehumanisation of those in society deemed to be 'lesser'. Yet there's also so much hope and it felt so wonderfully human because of that: the characters never stop struggling and it's often brutal, but they also never stop loving and hoping and trying to improve their world.
Slow Gods tackles some deep themes: what is the meaning of existence? How should we choose to live our lives in an apparently meaningless universe? What is it to be a god? What does the death of a civilisation and culture look like? When do the ends justify the means? How do we choose who lives and dies in apocalyptic events? And it's generally pretty successful in the discussion of these themes. It most of the time doesn't give straight answers, just leaves the reader to mull over the ideas. A lot of the ideas aren't necesarily anything groundbreaking or new, but I appreciated them nonetheless and the way they explored integrated really naturally and beautifully throughout.
I think my only problem with the book is to do with our protagonist Mawukana. They were super interesting and I did find their POV wonderfully unique, but it felt like they never really had that much of an impact on the story for most of the book and instead were just pulled along passively by the plot. This led to a bit of a disconnect for me and it became difficult to get invested when the main character just sort of let things happen and never made much of a decision for most of the middle chunk. The middle dragged for this reason and I did struggle to push through it despite really loving the beginning and ending. I did enjoy reading about all of Mawukana's inner turmoil and relationships and their inaction did make their ultimate development and agency at the end really satisfying, but I would have preferred them to be a little more active in the story as a whole.
To conclude, Slow Gods is a poignant and beautiful story about survival and meaning and humanity. It's really well crafted, wonderfully written and I really enjoyed the themes, diversity, and worlds even if I was left a little frustrated by the main character's inaction. A lot of people are really going to enjoy the atmosphere and emotions of this book, definitely pick it up if you're looking for science fiction that explores the human experience and defies boundaries and definition. This review could honestly be dozens of pages long but I'm going to leave it there so that I don't spoil anything for new readers! Go pick it up when it comes out in November (though you probably don't need convincing after seeing that gorgeous cover).
There's a lot going on in this book and Claire North is an incredibly skilled writer. The prose was absolutely gorgeous, I had to read some passages over and over again just because of how beautiful they were! Emotion bled through the pages. It wasn't often violent, but when it was it was sharp and effective and raw.
I really loved the universe Claire North has built. I honestly could have read a whole book just discussing all of the different cultures and species. It was very dark in places: the tyranny of The Shine is depressingly realistic in its dehumanisation of those in society deemed to be 'lesser'. Yet there's also so much hope and it felt so wonderfully human because of that: the characters never stop struggling and it's often brutal, but they also never stop loving and hoping and trying to improve their world.
Slow Gods tackles some deep themes: what is the meaning of existence? How should we choose to live our lives in an apparently meaningless universe? What is it to be a god? What does the death of a civilisation and culture look like? When do the ends justify the means? How do we choose who lives and dies in apocalyptic events? And it's generally pretty successful in the discussion of these themes. It most of the time doesn't give straight answers, just leaves the reader to mull over the ideas. A lot of the ideas aren't necesarily anything groundbreaking or new, but I appreciated them nonetheless and the way they explored integrated really naturally and beautifully throughout.
I think my only problem with the book is to do with our protagonist Mawukana. They were super interesting and I did find their POV wonderfully unique, but it felt like they never really had that much of an impact on the story for most of the book and instead were just pulled along passively by the plot. This led to a bit of a disconnect for me and it became difficult to get invested when the main character just sort of let things happen and never made much of a decision for most of the middle chunk. The middle dragged for this reason and I did struggle to push through it despite really loving the beginning and ending. I did enjoy reading about all of Mawukana's inner turmoil and relationships and their inaction did make their ultimate development and agency at the end really satisfying, but I would have preferred them to be a little more active in the story as a whole.
To conclude, Slow Gods is a poignant and beautiful story about survival and meaning and humanity. It's really well crafted, wonderfully written and I really enjoyed the themes, diversity, and worlds even if I was left a little frustrated by the main character's inaction. A lot of people are really going to enjoy the atmosphere and emotions of this book, definitely pick it up if you're looking for science fiction that explores the human experience and defies boundaries and definition. This review could honestly be dozens of pages long but I'm going to leave it there so that I don't spoil anything for new readers! Go pick it up when it comes out in November (though you probably don't need convincing after seeing that gorgeous cover).
November 15, 2025
On my blog.
Galley provided by publisher
Slow Gods was an interesting one for me. There were points where I felt it teetered on the edge of getting really good, but it always seemed to fall off just before it did. As such, I don’t think this book ever broke out of 3-stars for me and, towards the end, I might even have been tempted to lower it further. I didn’t, if only for the fact that I did derive some enjoyment from reading it for the most part.
The story follows our main character, Mawukana na-Vdnaze, who is caught up in a raid of dissidents by his oppressive, dictatorial and capitalistic government, and sentenced to become a pilot of ships. For reasons which are somewhat vague, but we must bear with, piloting ships involves connecting someone’s mind to the mainframe and therefore drives people mad, eventually. Which is why only criminals do this job in the Shine (that’s the capitalist society which is, not exactly subtly, an allegory for the U.S.). Mawukana dies in the pilot’s chair, but actually survives (or a copy of him), and since he’s now quite dangerous, everyone leaves him alone on a little island in the middle of a sea, except for someone to supervise him. Simultaneous to this, a creature/mind/thing known as the Slow informs a bunch of planets that the imminent collision of two stars is going to cause the collapse of the universe about it, and they have approximately 100 years (at most, for the planets furthest away) to prepare for that.
So far, so good. The concept is interesting, if maybe not subtle. The Shine is, being a voraciously capitalist society, not interested in helping anyone but themselves. Other planets take different positions. There’s an impending war, some political intrigue, a wee bit of blackmail. You get the idea. Lots happening.
There are two reasons why this book didn’t end up being that good for me. First of all is the lack of agency that the main character gets. Throughout, it feels as though he’s just there to let the plot pass him by. He’s not part of the story, it simply happens around him. There’s a point about halfway through where it seems like he could start to exert some influence on events, only for that to fizzle out rapidly and leave him, again, being manoeuvred about by other characters. He had such potential and yet. I wonder if it was for fear of having a too powerful character that this happened – if he had started to act, maybe it would have been too easy to resolve issues, but even so. If that’s the case, just make him fallible.
The second reason is probably associated with the first which is that This probably explains why it felt like the main character never had any agency, though it’s not revealed until the end (and is likely a key factor in why I felt like the end dragged). Combined with the fact that the story just happened around the main character, it all contributed to such a damp squib of an ending that I found it something of a letdown.
Of course, YMMV on all of this. Everyone has their own tastes after all. If this is a book that interests you, I have no hesitation in recommending you pick it up.
Galley provided by publisher
Slow Gods was an interesting one for me. There were points where I felt it teetered on the edge of getting really good, but it always seemed to fall off just before it did. As such, I don’t think this book ever broke out of 3-stars for me and, towards the end, I might even have been tempted to lower it further. I didn’t, if only for the fact that I did derive some enjoyment from reading it for the most part.
The story follows our main character, Mawukana na-Vdnaze, who is caught up in a raid of dissidents by his oppressive, dictatorial and capitalistic government, and sentenced to become a pilot of ships. For reasons which are somewhat vague, but we must bear with, piloting ships involves connecting someone’s mind to the mainframe and therefore drives people mad, eventually. Which is why only criminals do this job in the Shine (that’s the capitalist society which is, not exactly subtly, an allegory for the U.S.). Mawukana dies in the pilot’s chair, but actually survives (or a copy of him), and since he’s now quite dangerous, everyone leaves him alone on a little island in the middle of a sea, except for someone to supervise him. Simultaneous to this, a creature/mind/thing known as the Slow informs a bunch of planets that the imminent collision of two stars is going to cause the collapse of the universe about it, and they have approximately 100 years (at most, for the planets furthest away) to prepare for that.
So far, so good. The concept is interesting, if maybe not subtle. The Shine is, being a voraciously capitalist society, not interested in helping anyone but themselves. Other planets take different positions. There’s an impending war, some political intrigue, a wee bit of blackmail. You get the idea. Lots happening.
There are two reasons why this book didn’t end up being that good for me. First of all is the lack of agency that the main character gets. Throughout, it feels as though he’s just there to let the plot pass him by. He’s not part of the story, it simply happens around him. There’s a point about halfway through where it seems like he could start to exert some influence on events, only for that to fizzle out rapidly and leave him, again, being manoeuvred about by other characters. He had such potential and yet. I wonder if it was for fear of having a too powerful character that this happened – if he had started to act, maybe it would have been too easy to resolve issues, but even so. If that’s the case, just make him fallible.
The second reason is probably associated with the first which is that This probably explains why it felt like the main character never had any agency, though it’s not revealed until the end (and is likely a key factor in why I felt like the end dragged). Combined with the fact that the story just happened around the main character, it all contributed to such a damp squib of an ending that I found it something of a letdown.
Of course, YMMV on all of this. Everyone has their own tastes after all. If this is a book that interests you, I have no hesitation in recommending you pick it up.
December 14, 2025
There’s a somewhat detached feeling throughout, but Slow Gods is enjoyable nevertheless. It’s not at all the lasers & space battles kind of interstellar sf but rather is of the big questions, ruminative kind of sf. This is a wide-angle view of life and how to live it, told through the eyes of an (mostly human) immortal anomaly. The protagonist is (like the author) neurodivergent - although I don't think this was explicitly mentioned in the text. It reads, on the negative side, like the colour levels have been turned down. Perhaps that was a deliberate choice? I don’t know, but it didn’t work for me. What it does a much better job at is conveying the sense of an ever-present thirst for answers, or rather, for meaning.
I suspect this will divide North’s readers, as what you will get out of it will very much depend on a reader’s willingness to slow down and treat this as more of a dialogue that a straightforward story.
Great narration by Peter Kenny. At times he is sorely tested by a text that becomes farcical with the convolutions of pronouns that the story requires. Thankfully, the pronoun salad becomes less of a barrier to the narrative flow as the story continues. Indeed, the story would have been impoverished had the variety of pronouns been omitted.
Overall, there’s a lot to take away from Slow Gods, with more questions than answers. If you’ve yet to read a Claire North book (and I heartily recommend that you should!) I wouldn’t start here: a better book by far is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which I consider to be an all-time sf classic.
I suspect this will divide North’s readers, as what you will get out of it will very much depend on a reader’s willingness to slow down and treat this as more of a dialogue that a straightforward story.
Great narration by Peter Kenny. At times he is sorely tested by a text that becomes farcical with the convolutions of pronouns that the story requires. Thankfully, the pronoun salad becomes less of a barrier to the narrative flow as the story continues. Indeed, the story would have been impoverished had the variety of pronouns been omitted.
Overall, there’s a lot to take away from Slow Gods, with more questions than answers. If you’ve yet to read a Claire North book (and I heartily recommend that you should!) I wouldn’t start here: a better book by far is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which I consider to be an all-time sf classic.
December 1, 2025
I've said in prior reviews that Claire North writes vicious takedowns of societal injustice or corruption couched in the language of fantasy or science fiction. This book is the culmination of that.
An autocratic government warps the reality of its suffering population and denies the demonstrable fact that two binary stars will merge and explode in a little over a hundred years, scouring all life from their planet. Rather than admit the truth and take measures to protect their planet, the government plans to stage a military takeover of some planets that will be unaffected. An alliance of many planets dithers and files objections but takes no effective countermeasures, fearing the planet killing stealth ships that the autocratic government has placed in their systems.
So: Claire North tackles both climate change denial and 'special military operations' (we don't call it war) in the same book.
The main character is a Pilot named Maw, who does not suffer the mental breakdowns and death that affects all other arcspace (i.e. FTL) travel. The reason for this is a horrific change to his condition. Although very broken psychologically, Maw is a most engaging viewpoint character. He is, of course, instrumental to the solution of the military conundrum. The solution is chilling if applied to our world. The situation with the exploding stars cannot be prevented, of course, but there are different ways of responding to it.
This is North's most space opera-ish book, and it's got all the elements of good space opera. I especially like Maw's relationship with his favorite ship, the Emni.
As with North's other broken characters in other books, there is not a happy answer for everyone but a satisfying resolution for the main character.
An autocratic government warps the reality of its suffering population and denies the demonstrable fact that two binary stars will merge and explode in a little over a hundred years, scouring all life from their planet. Rather than admit the truth and take measures to protect their planet, the government plans to stage a military takeover of some planets that will be unaffected. An alliance of many planets dithers and files objections but takes no effective countermeasures, fearing the planet killing stealth ships that the autocratic government has placed in their systems.
So: Claire North tackles both climate change denial and 'special military operations' (we don't call it war) in the same book.
The main character is a Pilot named Maw, who does not suffer the mental breakdowns and death that affects all other arcspace (i.e. FTL) travel. The reason for this is a horrific change to his condition. Although very broken psychologically, Maw is a most engaging viewpoint character. He is, of course, instrumental to the solution of the military conundrum. The solution is chilling if applied to our world. The situation with the exploding stars cannot be prevented, of course, but there are different ways of responding to it.
This is North's most space opera-ish book, and it's got all the elements of good space opera. I especially like Maw's relationship with his favorite ship, the Emni.
As with North's other broken characters in other books, there is not a happy answer for everyone but a satisfying resolution for the main character.
December 17, 2025
I wanted to like this...but all the silly names/terms annoyed me and it was too factual, i couldn't seem to find any kind of story. I give a book 20% if it hasn't hooked me by then it just isn't going to. Disappointing
Read
December 10, 2025DNF unrated.
I got totally confused and lost after what was a super interesting start.
I got totally confused and lost after what was a super interesting start.
November 6, 2025
Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eARC copy of this book! I gave this book 3.5/5 stars!
In Slow Gods, we follow Maw, a character who has been copied by the Dark during an Arcspace trip, and is now considered a monster by the people in all worlds. He has earned himself a reputation, due to this, and is trying his best to figure out who, and what, he really is. While Maw is on this personal journey, he also gets caught up in a much larger scheme across planets. The Shine, a system of planets that Maw originated from, are covering up the fact that in a few hundred years, a star system will collapse and kill billions of people in their planetary system.
While I enjoyed the political intrigue of this space opera, I had a hard time caring about any of the characters. This could also be due to the fact that sci-fi isn’t my favorite genre. I did have an okay time with this story overall. Maw’s POV limited the reader, as there was a lot of telling his feelings, rather than showing. I think this was by virtue of him being “other” and not allowed to sit and process his emotions. This for me, created a very flat character. Even after the death of his lover, we don’t spend any time seeing him grapple with this loss, as he is told he needs to regulate himself.
Most of this story was told to us in a very matter-of-fact retelling style. Several chapters ended on “and then this person arrived” or “and then this happened”. Without having a lot of context as to who those people or things were, which was often provided in the next chapter, it felt clunky, and further pushed me out of the story. The pacing was rather slow, and it took several hundred pages to see where this story was going. Maw didn’t have a lot of drive as a character, he just let things happen to him. Eventually, once he decides he wants to take part in the war against the Shine, things move a little faster.
I did enjoy the themes of purpose in life, and if you know when you’re going to die, is that better or worse than not knowing. The discussion of if one life worth more than millions was also impactful. A quote I highlighted was “Big emotion is not the same as big empathy”, which I found particularly resonant with the current political climate in the US.
Overall, I think this book would be good for fans of sci-fi, it felt similar to me with “The Library at Mount Char” and “Gideon the Ninth”. Both books had the same vibes of you won’t know what is happening until the very end, that I also felt in “Slow Gods”.
In Slow Gods, we follow Maw, a character who has been copied by the Dark during an Arcspace trip, and is now considered a monster by the people in all worlds. He has earned himself a reputation, due to this, and is trying his best to figure out who, and what, he really is. While Maw is on this personal journey, he also gets caught up in a much larger scheme across planets. The Shine, a system of planets that Maw originated from, are covering up the fact that in a few hundred years, a star system will collapse and kill billions of people in their planetary system.
While I enjoyed the political intrigue of this space opera, I had a hard time caring about any of the characters. This could also be due to the fact that sci-fi isn’t my favorite genre. I did have an okay time with this story overall. Maw’s POV limited the reader, as there was a lot of telling his feelings, rather than showing. I think this was by virtue of him being “other” and not allowed to sit and process his emotions. This for me, created a very flat character. Even after the death of his lover, we don’t spend any time seeing him grapple with this loss, as he is told he needs to regulate himself.
Most of this story was told to us in a very matter-of-fact retelling style. Several chapters ended on “and then this person arrived” or “and then this happened”. Without having a lot of context as to who those people or things were, which was often provided in the next chapter, it felt clunky, and further pushed me out of the story. The pacing was rather slow, and it took several hundred pages to see where this story was going. Maw didn’t have a lot of drive as a character, he just let things happen to him. Eventually, once he decides he wants to take part in the war against the Shine, things move a little faster.
I did enjoy the themes of purpose in life, and if you know when you’re going to die, is that better or worse than not knowing. The discussion of if one life worth more than millions was also impactful. A quote I highlighted was “Big emotion is not the same as big empathy”, which I found particularly resonant with the current political climate in the US.
Overall, I think this book would be good for fans of sci-fi, it felt similar to me with “The Library at Mount Char” and “Gideon the Ninth”. Both books had the same vibes of you won’t know what is happening until the very end, that I also felt in “Slow Gods”.
November 30, 2025
God, that was cool. I really should be more eloquent than that but this is just a really sick and really well-thought-through book!
Maw is a pilot who has died many times, but none of them quite stuck. Coming from humble beginnings, Maw's immortality makes him a brutal tool for the many political forces in conflict after a strange celestial force warns that a binary star will go supernova in 100 years, annihilating several inhabited planets.
There was a whole lot going on in this book. Initially it kind of comes off like A Memory Called Empire (which is one of my favorites) since Maw has this unusual semi-secret ability and there's a whole lot of political intrigue going on. I think it's less plot driven than A Memory Called Empire but it maintains the focus on diversity of interplanetary cultures that I really love. Each nation and planet has distinct social customs and language conventions, including some very disparate systems of gender (or lack thereof). Some people will probably be bothered by the amount of neopronouns in play but honestly it's not confusing at all. All these anthropological details really flesh out the world and they tie into Maw's natural curiosity. Maw as a character is interesting because I feel a little mixed about him. On one hand, his curiosity about the world and hyper-vigilance about social cues makes sense because he struggles with social cues and emotional expression, and this makes him pretty neurodivergent-coded. On the other, it is kind of difficult to deeply connect to a character who doesn't experience emotions very strongly. Similar characters (Murderbot comes to mind) break up the flat affect with humor and I think that's a good solution but it wouldn't have worked with the tone of the novel so I'm not sure I have a solution for that.
All that said, copious learning to avoid emotional disregulation is so real, me too bud. This is my first book from Claire North but I have several more on my TBR so I look forward to reading more in the future!
Thank you to Claire North and Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!
Happy reading!
Maw is a pilot who has died many times, but none of them quite stuck. Coming from humble beginnings, Maw's immortality makes him a brutal tool for the many political forces in conflict after a strange celestial force warns that a binary star will go supernova in 100 years, annihilating several inhabited planets.
There was a whole lot going on in this book. Initially it kind of comes off like A Memory Called Empire (which is one of my favorites) since Maw has this unusual semi-secret ability and there's a whole lot of political intrigue going on. I think it's less plot driven than A Memory Called Empire but it maintains the focus on diversity of interplanetary cultures that I really love. Each nation and planet has distinct social customs and language conventions, including some very disparate systems of gender (or lack thereof). Some people will probably be bothered by the amount of neopronouns in play but honestly it's not confusing at all. All these anthropological details really flesh out the world and they tie into Maw's natural curiosity. Maw as a character is interesting because I feel a little mixed about him. On one hand, his curiosity about the world and hyper-vigilance about social cues makes sense because he struggles with social cues and emotional expression, and this makes him pretty neurodivergent-coded. On the other, it is kind of difficult to deeply connect to a character who doesn't experience emotions very strongly. Similar characters (Murderbot comes to mind) break up the flat affect with humor and I think that's a good solution but it wouldn't have worked with the tone of the novel so I'm not sure I have a solution for that.
All that said, copious learning to avoid emotional disregulation is so real, me too bud. This is my first book from Claire North but I have several more on my TBR so I look forward to reading more in the future!
Thank you to Claire North and Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!
Happy reading!
dnf
September 30, 2025***Thanks to the publisher for this e-ARC from NetGalley!***
So. A personal problem. I love first-person POV and initially, when I saw this was marketed as a space opera with first-person POV, I was excited for it! I love space books like The Winter’s Orbit, These Broken Stars, and Illuminae, Murderbot, or out in left field in comparison, Under His Heel. Except this is more like litfic wrapped in a veneer of sci-fi. There’s a weird condescension in the voice of the main character and the way he tells the story that annoys me right off the bat.
If you like being narrated AT instead of following the narration with the character, this might be perfect for you. It reminds me a bit of Hadrian’s narration in The Sun Eater series. And I don’t care for it at all.
Unfortunately, this is a DNF for me at 3%.
So. A personal problem. I love first-person POV and initially, when I saw this was marketed as a space opera with first-person POV, I was excited for it! I love space books like The Winter’s Orbit, These Broken Stars, and Illuminae, Murderbot, or out in left field in comparison, Under His Heel. Except this is more like litfic wrapped in a veneer of sci-fi. There’s a weird condescension in the voice of the main character and the way he tells the story that annoys me right off the bat.
If you like being narrated AT instead of following the narration with the character, this might be perfect for you. It reminds me a bit of Hadrian’s narration in The Sun Eater series. And I don’t care for it at all.
Unfortunately, this is a DNF for me at 3%.
November 19, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
Well this book hit my heart and my mind in ways I did not expect. Wow what a complex story, interwoven with such complex commentary about culture and belonging and conflict. So masterful and even though the story was slow in parts, I cannot score this book down any lower than a 4.5 because that's how hard the commentary and writing HIT me.
Story: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Pacing: 3/5
Plot twists:3/5
This is the story of Mawukana na-Vdnaze, or rather, the poor copy of him. An incredible tale of his journey from poor, indebted child of the Shine (a totalitarian people), to pilot of the dark, ghost of Hasha-to and part of the darkness itself.
I cant even begin to describe this book, but I quoted much of it as I read. What an incredible love letter to cultural exploration and norms. The way this element was explored and deconstructed through the lens of space travel was really the highlight for me. The commentary was so intriguing and thought provoking.
"this is just how these people are, all of us different, but the pain, the horror that underlies how we feel is the same. All real, even if it all seems different"
The way chapters hinged the the next with masterful small cliffhangers to pull you into reading just ONE more. This really pulled me through the book, as I will admit there were times that the story slowed, as life often does, into a more measured pace. This did drag a little at times, but the writing of the book was so well done that I didn't feel compelled to stop.
I found the book quite emotionally challenging at times, because the writing was so tender about deaths of billions of people, whilst also acknowledging the futility of preventing those deaths.
'The people who died there would die unseen, unheard. No one would know if they were brave, frightened, in pain.'
I found myself feeling deeply connected to fictional planets and people, caring about their plight but sitting with the protagonist in my inability to change anything. But there was such a deep connection of feeling like you belong, like there is something to live for.
'"THAT IF ALL LIFE IS MEANINGLESS, ALL VALUES ARBITARY AND ALL THINGS MUST END, THEN WHILE YOU LIVE, YOU SHOULD LIVE WITH LOVE."'
And the commentary on gender and sex was really well done. I kept thinking, gosh it's tricky to understand all these pronouns and imagine the person being described. But then I realised, WHY? This was exactly what the book was commenting on, this arbitrary NEED to assign a value to someone before you learn anything about them. Why does it even matter if this character is a he/she/they/them as I foresee. Why cant I just READ and learn about the thing they are?
'" As in... even if you cant see someone's genitals, they are the first thing that is on your mind when you meet someone? It is their defining characteristic, above ethics, work, aptitudes, hobbies, hopes, loves, etc."'
I really enjoyed this book, and found such profound learnings from it. The importance of your heritage, of the people who came before, of the stories we sing, and of how we live our lives.
'no life is special and all of them are. No love matters more than any other, no story is more important, nothing matters more, nothing matters less so choose, choose, we choose every day to be more than just ourselves, to live for more than just ourselves, because it is beautiful.'
Thank you so much to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this eARC, all views and opinions are my own ✨
Well this book hit my heart and my mind in ways I did not expect. Wow what a complex story, interwoven with such complex commentary about culture and belonging and conflict. So masterful and even though the story was slow in parts, I cannot score this book down any lower than a 4.5 because that's how hard the commentary and writing HIT me.
Story: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Pacing: 3/5
Plot twists:3/5
This is the story of Mawukana na-Vdnaze, or rather, the poor copy of him. An incredible tale of his journey from poor, indebted child of the Shine (a totalitarian people), to pilot of the dark, ghost of Hasha-to and part of the darkness itself.
I cant even begin to describe this book, but I quoted much of it as I read. What an incredible love letter to cultural exploration and norms. The way this element was explored and deconstructed through the lens of space travel was really the highlight for me. The commentary was so intriguing and thought provoking.
"this is just how these people are, all of us different, but the pain, the horror that underlies how we feel is the same. All real, even if it all seems different"
The way chapters hinged the the next with masterful small cliffhangers to pull you into reading just ONE more. This really pulled me through the book, as I will admit there were times that the story slowed, as life often does, into a more measured pace. This did drag a little at times, but the writing of the book was so well done that I didn't feel compelled to stop.
I found the book quite emotionally challenging at times, because the writing was so tender about deaths of billions of people, whilst also acknowledging the futility of preventing those deaths.
'The people who died there would die unseen, unheard. No one would know if they were brave, frightened, in pain.'
I found myself feeling deeply connected to fictional planets and people, caring about their plight but sitting with the protagonist in my inability to change anything. But there was such a deep connection of feeling like you belong, like there is something to live for.
'"THAT IF ALL LIFE IS MEANINGLESS, ALL VALUES ARBITARY AND ALL THINGS MUST END, THEN WHILE YOU LIVE, YOU SHOULD LIVE WITH LOVE."'
And the commentary on gender and sex was really well done. I kept thinking, gosh it's tricky to understand all these pronouns and imagine the person being described. But then I realised, WHY? This was exactly what the book was commenting on, this arbitrary NEED to assign a value to someone before you learn anything about them. Why does it even matter if this character is a he/she/they/them as I foresee. Why cant I just READ and learn about the thing they are?
'" As in... even if you cant see someone's genitals, they are the first thing that is on your mind when you meet someone? It is their defining characteristic, above ethics, work, aptitudes, hobbies, hopes, loves, etc."'
I really enjoyed this book, and found such profound learnings from it. The importance of your heritage, of the people who came before, of the stories we sing, and of how we live our lives.
'no life is special and all of them are. No love matters more than any other, no story is more important, nothing matters more, nothing matters less so choose, choose, we choose every day to be more than just ourselves, to live for more than just ourselves, because it is beautiful.'
Thank you so much to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this eARC, all views and opinions are my own ✨
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