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One Nation Under Gods
The war raged for five years. When the smoke cleared, the United States was a memory, conquered by a race unlike the world had ever seen.
They are the Specials--a godlike race gifted with powers so catacylsmic that the human survivors of the war had no choice but to surrender to their invincible overlords.
But Houston Holt doesn't surrender.
A war veteran turned underworld fixer, Houston spends his nights evading the regime's secret police, building his criminal empire brick by brick in his relentless quest to escape the human slums.
But one night, Houston steals a truck from the wrong people and sets off a chain reaction of mayhem that engulfs the empire. Because the truck contains a shocking secret--a secret of such fabled power that the Specials will unleash their most savage killers to hunt it down.
They are the Specials--a godlike race gifted with powers so catacylsmic that the human survivors of the war had no choice but to surrender to their invincible overlords.
But Houston Holt doesn't surrender.
A war veteran turned underworld fixer, Houston spends his nights evading the regime's secret police, building his criminal empire brick by brick in his relentless quest to escape the human slums.
But one night, Houston steals a truck from the wrong people and sets off a chain reaction of mayhem that engulfs the empire. Because the truck contains a shocking secret--a secret of such fabled power that the Specials will unleash their most savage killers to hunt it down.
616 pages, Paperback
Published June 22, 2018
114 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 20, 2025
This book was an eyeful, in the best of ways.
Draws:
~ Loved the arching themes of bigotry, class, race, religion, and prejudice
~ Dystopian vibes hits on my love for Red Rising and The Hunger Games
~ Houston Holt's character development is nuanced (he's a conflicted man!)
~ I love a truly TERRIBLE character and both Veena and Casper checked the box for me
~ There's a sense of creepy darkness and terror with the spinal insertions and black eyes - love it!
Difficulties:
~ Soooo many characters! I had to create a character list to keep names and characteristics straight.
~ This has been mentioned by several others, but initially it was very challenging to have an idea of who is villain versus a "hero" in the story.
~ I am not a "gun" woman, so sometimes I get lost in the gun specs/firepower descriptors
~ There are so many factions, I had a bit of difficulty keeping their ideologies straight
Questions:
~ Who are the Ohana comparable to in real life?
~ What is the source of the specials' power?
~ What's going to happen to SixKills?
Draws:
~ Loved the arching themes of bigotry, class, race, religion, and prejudice
~ Dystopian vibes hits on my love for Red Rising and The Hunger Games
~ Houston Holt's character development is nuanced (he's a conflicted man!)
~ I love a truly TERRIBLE character and both Veena and Casper checked the box for me
~ There's a sense of creepy darkness and terror with the spinal insertions and black eyes - love it!
Difficulties:
~ Soooo many characters! I had to create a character list to keep names and characteristics straight.
~ This has been mentioned by several others, but initially it was very challenging to have an idea of who is villain versus a "hero" in the story.
~ I am not a "gun" woman, so sometimes I get lost in the gun specs/firepower descriptors
~ There are so many factions, I had a bit of difficulty keeping their ideologies straight
Questions:
~ Who are the Ohana comparable to in real life?
~ What is the source of the specials' power?
~ What's going to happen to SixKills?
October 27, 2018
This book was a pure delight from start to finish. Ray is able to paint a picture that captures all the worst elements of humanity – namely its bigotry and pettiness. This world’s scope is so vast that you can’t imagine how all the threads are interwoven, but they are and the payoff is satisfying. The length of most fantasy novels hold them back from true greatness, but in this case it is well warranted. I found myself comparing the book at different times to The Grace of Kings in terms of its epicness. The world is fully fleshed out, and I found myself thinking the various characters’ motivations were believable. The political plots are gripping, and the pacing is taut. What more can you ask for?
The book is not without its flaws. There are so many characters, including ones introduced half-way through the long book, that it is tough to follow all of them, let alone care about their deaths. Still, this proved to be a minor inconvenience in the grand scope of the novel.
The book is not without its flaws. There are so many characters, including ones introduced half-way through the long book, that it is tough to follow all of them, let alone care about their deaths. Still, this proved to be a minor inconvenience in the grand scope of the novel.
May 8, 2021
Ray's post-American dystopia (not due to contemporary politics) has the eerie resonance of entrenched futurology and the unfolding pace of a Dan Brown novel. American racial tensions as we know them are eclipsed by a new divide: a genetically superior race called Specials (think X-Men with Magneto as their king) and the rest of humanity. Thusly embattled, Ray situates his characters and factions in an ever-deepening world that deftly humanizes the non (former)-human in service of empathizing with all sides of the tension even while showcasing polarizing antagonism. Researched but not overstated, One Nation Under Gods delivers a poignant commentary on humanity and what informs characters' motives to risk everything in pursuit of a better world.
May 7, 2024
The premise of this book has a lot of potential- essentially, what if we were living in an X-Men comic, and Magneto succeeded in establishing a mutant supremacy? That's basically the case here. The United States of America is now a monarchy led by King Patriot Gold, once a CIA superweapon but now a benevolent tyrant. The technology/virus that created him was released to the public by mistake, giving millions of humans superpowers. Initially they struggled to coexist peacefully. But that peace was broken after several incidents of violence against "Specials" and a final incident where Specials who were being shipped to their new homeland of Hawaii (America never learns its lesson on the colonialism front, eh?) were bombed out of existence, civil war broke out and of course the Specials won. Now most humans are enslaved except for a rebellion out west.
Houston Holt is a former Marine and war veteran who has settled for climbing the career ladder of organized crime. A simple pickup and transport job gets complicated when he gets ambushed and the package turns out to be a young girl who is a Special. Houston realizes that he can't abandon the girl to her fate and ends up tangled in a conspiracy between rebel factions, and a group of aristocratic Specials who want to overthrow the king.
You'd think this would be a pretty action packed ride but actually, things lag quite a bit. It's a slow burn and takes about 150 pages for the main story to really get going. New characters were introduced every few chapters, almost until the very end of the book so this felt very exposition heavy. While some bits of dialogue felt cliche and ripped right out of a Tom Clancy novel, overall the characters were well drawn and I enjoyed the story enough to purchase the sequel. I'm hoping that things move a bit faster now that all the players have been introduced.
Houston Holt is a former Marine and war veteran who has settled for climbing the career ladder of organized crime. A simple pickup and transport job gets complicated when he gets ambushed and the package turns out to be a young girl who is a Special. Houston realizes that he can't abandon the girl to her fate and ends up tangled in a conspiracy between rebel factions, and a group of aristocratic Specials who want to overthrow the king.
You'd think this would be a pretty action packed ride but actually, things lag quite a bit. It's a slow burn and takes about 150 pages for the main story to really get going. New characters were introduced every few chapters, almost until the very end of the book so this felt very exposition heavy. While some bits of dialogue felt cliche and ripped right out of a Tom Clancy novel, overall the characters were well drawn and I enjoyed the story enough to purchase the sequel. I'm hoping that things move a bit faster now that all the players have been introduced.
November 27, 2019
I loved that this novel had so many perspectives that merged at different points. This also meant there were numerous characters that all had to be well-developed. In my opinion, this made the text slightly difficult to follow; there was too much to remember. BUT, each plot was complex and captivating. The emotion was thick and I enjoyed the fact that Katya and Houston didn't have to be romantically involved--perhaps this could've appealed to some readers...I also liked how the vignette at the beginning connected to the cliffhanger at the end of the book. There was very much a circularity throughout that made it exciting. Overall, a fantastic read! Probably could have been split into 2-3 books:)
September 17, 2019
More back story
I liked this story, the idea of it, and the characters, but I confess to being confused most of the time as to who were the good guys, and who was working for who. I would have liked more on how the world got so screwed up, and more backstory of characters, such as Sixkills, the father. He is talked about, but doesn’t seem to do much in the present time. I have not read the first book by this author, but I plan to. I hope this review helps with future stories.
I liked this story, the idea of it, and the characters, but I confess to being confused most of the time as to who were the good guys, and who was working for who. I would have liked more on how the world got so screwed up, and more backstory of characters, such as Sixkills, the father. He is talked about, but doesn’t seem to do much in the present time. I have not read the first book by this author, but I plan to. I hope this review helps with future stories.
May 2, 2020
Cool idea. Poor cast.
What I liked:
- interesting world
- decent action, albeit rear loaded
What I didn’t like
- no characters too root for. In fact some of them were pretty awful.
- plot line was pretty boring.
- General lack of hook.
- Long for the content
The book could have been much better if the characters were not so average. The basics are there.
What I liked:
- interesting world
- decent action, albeit rear loaded
What I didn’t like
- no characters too root for. In fact some of them were pretty awful.
- plot line was pretty boring.
- General lack of hook.
- Long for the content
The book could have been much better if the characters were not so average. The basics are there.
July 21, 2020
I like reading books from first time authors, and this story kept me entertained. A lot of world-building and mythology was developed for this story, and the effort pays off. There were some weaknesses in the prose, and a lot of the action scenes were hard to get through. Otherwise, well worth the read.
October 2, 2018
Dystopian political adventure where the action keeps coming from all directions. Ray creates a cast of complex characters with complicated back stories and motivations. Intrigued to see the sequel..!
September 6, 2020
Took A Chance; Not Disappointed At All
Good, long read. Intricate plot, good character development. Enjoyed reading it and did so in just a few sittings. 600+ pages is nice, I’m tired of short reads. Looking forward to the sequel.
Good, long read. Intricate plot, good character development. Enjoyed reading it and did so in just a few sittings. 600+ pages is nice, I’m tired of short reads. Looking forward to the sequel.
October 10, 2019
Absolutely excellent.
July 7, 2020
The idea of the novel was interesting, but it fell flat for me. The pacing felt a bit off, and the world just didn't draw me in.
July 17, 2021
Good until the 3nd
Good book. However, the ending totally sucked. Last 30 pages are what kept this from being a 5 star review.
Good book. However, the ending totally sucked. Last 30 pages are what kept this from being a 5 star review.
August 6, 2021
Awesome story. I’m eagerly waiting for more.
A very fresh take of world full of super powers and “heroes.”
A very fresh take of world full of super powers and “heroes.”
May 2, 2021
It was very entertaining, great premise for about 2/3 of the book then it felt rushed. The characters were great, one can identify with almost all of them to a certain degree . Somehow it reminded me of game of thrones, great character development, wonderful build story line and then the bottom fell out. Seems like it even ruined a possible sequel. Still give it 4 stars for being entertained to a nice thrill ride for a bit.
May 17, 2025
A thoughtful mix of story and social commentary. The narrative balances personal stakes with bigger questions about belief, identity, and power. The pacing was steady, with a few standout moments that pushed the themes forward in meaningful ways. It raised complex issues without getting too heavy-handed. A strong debut that leaves room for more.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews