With God War, Outlanders reaches the stunning climax of the entire Ullikummis story line that began with 2010's Oblivion Stone, although major elements of the plot reach all the way back to 2008's Death Cry. Over the course of four years and sixteen books we have had one long over-arching story arc that all comes to a head in this book.

Beginning exactly where Dragon City (the previous title) left off, this book starts at a sprint and never slows down. The action spread across multiple locations all around the globe, as well as bleeding over into higher dimensions. The three heads of Cerberus have been split apart for so long that the fireworks were inevitable once they were finally all brought together.

The action is both intense and varied, and the character moments are particularly well-drawn. Every significant character in the story gets at least a few moments to shine, and even the Annunaki villains Enlil and Ullikummis are given sympathetic story beats. There is a particular event near the end, involving the fate of the hybrid child Little Quav, that I particularly liked. It was both surprising and deftly handled.

With such a long build up, God War had quite a few plot threads to pay off and I was very pleased at how well it succeeded. Without question it provided a rock-solid climax to the overall story line, while still leaving plenty of space for future stories. For a bi-monthly pulp fiction book series to pull off this kind of build-up and pay-off was impressive indeed.

I really enjoyed these last 3 Outlanders books. This is by far the best Outlanders story arcs I've read since Mark Ellis left.

Obviously feeling much more comfortable in the Outlanders universe, author Rik Hoskin created here a very cool and unique Outlanders story arc that this reader hasn't seen since Ellis penned the beginnings of the barons all turning into snake lords in Children of the Serpent. 

 

Starting in Oblivion Stone and ending in this volume, Hoskin created the ultra badass stone god called Ullikummis, son of Enlil, and finishing up the story arc in this volume, Hoskin showed his best work yet in both series. From the power hungry Enlil to the revenge seeking son, this time author Hoskin took readers on a pure adrenaline rush of a story arc that hopefully will be seen again in future volumes.

 

I actually felt sorry for Ullikummis, and as a woman reader, I really am liking more powerful women being introduced in this series. I really like this mysterious Rosalia character, and hope that the author keeps the attraction between Rosalia and Kane going, as he showed in this story arc.

I actually missed Rosalia in the next book, and hope that at least this author finally pens in a love interest for poor 'ol lonely Kane, who never seems to hook up with anyone like Grant and Domi seem to do.