"IN THE BEGINNING, MAN WAS PREY, WITHOUT THE GODS, THEY'LL BE PREY AGAIN"
No Gods for Drowning is a 2022 book by Hailey Piper. It is a Genre Mashup between a neo-noir Detective book, Urban Fantasy and Dark Fantasy.
The book is set on an alternate world where for centuries, the Old Gods have fended off the threat of monsters. Now these Gods have mysteriously left, and with them gone, there is no one stopping these monsters from potentially wiping out the city of Valentine via a flood and returning to hunting mankind like they did centuries ago.
The chaos of the Old Gods' departure has also meant a Serial Killer has started to take ritualistically murder people across the city of Valentine. This killer is none other than the daughter of a blood god, Lilac Antonis. Lilac wants to stop the chaos being inflicted on the city and, to do so, plans to bring forth her mother, but returning her mother means the spilling of blood through murder, possibly even that of some of Lilac's loved ones. Lilac is hiding from her lover Captain Arcadia Myrn and her close friends as she sets about her plan.
The job of taking down the killer is given to Alex Stathos and Cecil Gillion of Ace Investigations, who have no clue that the serial killer in question is none other than their friend Lilac Antonis. The detectives' investigation also uncovers that the gods in question didn't depart voluntarily.
As leader of an evacuation team, Arcadia is attempting to save as many people as she can as the chaos, flood waters and hungry sea demons start to spread across the city. Lilac's serial killing also apparently starts to gain results, only for it to be revealed that Lilac is just one part of a much bigger set of machinations. Alex and Cecil race against time to discover who is behind the gods' vanishing before this leads to them all being wiped out.
No Gods for Drowning provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Even after the reveal that he's the one responsible for causing the chaos afflicting the city, Cecil Gillion remains charming and affable. Cecil continues to act pretty friendly to Lilac Antonis and remarkably charming and never lets his charming side fall.
- Bittersweet Ending: The city of Valentine falls, a lot of people die and Lilac never ends up returning her mother, the goddess Logoi to save it. Arcadia Myrn, though, gains godhood and uses it to create a truce between humanity and the Glories, with the land divided between them and humanity beginning to recover. Arcadia also reveals to Lilac that she will one day have a new child as well.
- Blackmail Backfire: Alexander Stathos tries to blackmail the goddess Aeda into saving the city of Valentine from rising waters and hungry sea demons and abort her plan to rip out the souls of humanity to turn them into immortal monsters by capturing Aeda's mother Medes and using her fate against Aeda. This doesn't work, and Aeda responds by ripping out his organs.
- Deity of Human Origin:
- Mortals can reproduce with gods and if the child they produce is a god as well, the mortal will become a god.
- At the end of the novel, Arcadia Myrn gains godhood through her contact with the power of other dieties.
- Divine Date: Gods will take mortals as lovers and sire children upon them. These mortals in turn can become gods themselves if the children in their wombs turn out to be gods.
- Evil All Along: Cecil Gillion seems to be a genuine friend to Lilac Antonis as well as trying to solve the murders that Lilac was commiting to try and bring back the gods to save the city-state of Valentine from drowning. It's revealed at the end that Cecil was playing her for a chance at godhood and is the reason that the gods left and the city is in danger in the first place.
- Godhood Seeker: Cecil Gillion is jealous of the fact that, though he is descended from a god, he only has minor abilities, so sets about a plan to achieve true immortality and godhood. He convinces his grandfather Lyvien, god of instinct, to convince the other gods to run away because something could kill them. This has the effect of causing rising waters and hungry sea demons called Glories to start moving in, but also clears out the only thing keeping the goddess Aeda trapped. With Aeda freed, she will return her father Exalis to the world, which will create a Psychopomp tree which is responsible for controlling the flow of souls across the world. Cecil plans to hijack control of the Psychopomp tree from Aeda and allow Cecil eternal life and godhood.
- Human Sacrifice: Lilac Antonis has been ritualistically killing people in the city of Valentine as an offering to her mother, a goddess of blood. Lilac slices into the flesh of her victims and then uses the blood of her victims to draw symbols near them as a method to try and summon her mother, who she hopes can save Valentine from flood waters that are threatening to drag the entire city and its inhabitants under.
- It Can Think: Glories are monsters that prey on humanity, but it's revealed that they can't communicate with people per se that they're much smarter than what you would think. Glories are intelligent and like to prey on sapient prey, as it's more fun to them than killing non-intelligent animals. They mimic the voices of their victims to lure them in and then mentally destroy them to increase their suffering for sheer fun.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- The goddess Aeda manipulates a massive Human Sacrifice of priestesses and priests by tricking the various religious members into thinking that she is the goddess Logoi and will save their falling city if she returns. Aeda also plays on Lilac Antonis' feelings in order to convince her that she is Lilac's mother Logoi and to free her.
- Cecil Gillion ends up convincing his grandfather Lyvien, god of instinct, to convince the other gods to leave out of fear that something could hurt them. This allows Cecil an opportunity to free the goddess Aeda and summon her father Exalis, which will leave an opportunity to hijack her plan to control the passage of souls by becoming the Psychopomp tree. This will grant Cecil immortality and godhood like he's always wanted.
- Mind Rape: Glories like to mentally destroy their prey by luring them into traps and then blinding them and destroying their minds to turn them into empty shells.
- Nay-Theist: Alexander Stathos knows the gods exist and are meant to be protect humanity from the monsters known as the Glories, but has a poor opinion of them. He dislikes that humanity are meant to hold them in this regard but the gods abandoned them. His bad experiences creating sacrifices to the goddess, Logoi and seeing the carnage of killing in her name has also left him resentful of how humanity now has to do horrible stuff for them.
- Our Demons Are Different: Glories are described as a sea demon of sorts and the lurking threat of the novel. They have appeared as grey-haired people with tentacles, tails, blue-silver scales, and huge wide dark eyes. Glories hunt humanity and other sapient sea creatures because Glories enjoy hurting their prey and often mimic the voices of their victims to lure in others. Glories can also blind and mentally destroy the minds of people in order to increase their suffering before they go in for the kill.
- Our Gods Are Different: Deities come in various forms in this book:
- The Dawn Gods are a group of extraterrestrial higher beings who journeyed to this world and uplifted humanity to help them fight the monsters that were preying on them called Glories. These Gods have an ethereal and otherworldly appearance.
- The major gods that are worshipped by humanity are actually either former human lovers or descendants of Dawn Gods. These gods can vary in looks and descriptions and feature the nine headed Logoi. They can also reproduce with humanity and give them children regardless of the gender of the god in question. It's possible to become a god by taking a god or goddess as a lover and producing a divine child.
- Really Gets Around: Various gods such as Lyvien, God of Instinct take various lovers and produce children on them. There is a chance that the lovers of these gods or the gods' kids can become divine themselves due to the contact.
- Sea Monster: The city of Valentine ends up being attacked by a sea monster which looks like a combination between a snake and a squid. The sea serpent is described as 35-40 feet across, with a serpentine body with huge tentacles all along its side and a bony carapace covering its bulky head.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The goddesses Aeda and Medes were sealed in pieces of rock called Coralstones by the other gods. Aeda and Medes were sealed because they were planning to remove humanity's souls and effectively turn them into immortal conquerors to war with their ancient enemies, the Glories, which was considered to be terrible.
- Semi-Divine: Various people on this world owe some ancestry to a god and this allows them the abilities of these gods, albeit to a lesser extent compared to the gods.
- Serial Killer: The Valentine Butcher is a serial killer who's stalking the streets of Valentine and ritualistically killing people. This killer is the Villain Protagonist Lilac Antonis, who is killing people as a Human Sacrifice to her mother, the goddess Logoi, in an attempt to bring her back to the city to save it from destruction.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Captain Arcadia Myrn is haunted by her assignment to attack the village of Shah as part of a planned sacrifice to the goddess Logoi. She couldn't end up killing anyone, so instead now is wracked with guilt over what occurred that still continues to affect her in the present and is affecting her now.
- Slashed Throat: Serial Killer Lilac Antonis finishes off her victim Flip by using her knife to cut his throat open, using his spilled blood as part of a Human Sacrifice.
- Touched by Vorlons: Captain Arcadia Myrn gains special abilities from contact with the goddess, Medes. Myrn touched the Coralstone that had Medes sealed in and gained powerful abilities.
- Villain Protagonist: The book is featured from the main perspective of Serial Killer Lilac Antonis who is brutally killing people all across the city-state of Valentine. Lilac's ultimate goal is to try and use the massive blood sacrifice to return her mother and save the city of Valentine from falling to rising waters.
- Voice Changeling: Glories have the ability to copy the voices of their prey. They can then mimic the voice perfectly when they're communicating with others. They use this to lure people into coming close so they can kill them.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- Lilac Antonis has been ritualistically murdering people all across the city of Valentine, but she's doing this in hopes of bringing back her mother, the goddess Logoi to save Valentine from rising waters and hungry sea demons which are threatening it.
- The goddess Aeda plans to return her father Exalis to the world and use him to create an object called a Psychopomp tree. This tree will help turn humanity immortal if it's infused with her champion, but at the cost of ripping out their souls and turning them into monsters. This is because Aeda sincerely believes that turning them into this is the best choice to help combat the sea demons known as the Glories which are threatening to wipe them out.
