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hongyueg · 3 years

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The Mortality of Immortality

City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda Genre: fantasy, middle grade Content warnings: war, death of a sibling, pandemic, Islamophobia (challenged) Description: "Thirteen-year-old Sik wants a simple life going to school and helping at his parents' deli in the evenings. But all that is blown to smithereens when Nergal comes looking for him, thinking that Sik holds the secret to eternal life. Turns out Sik is immortal but doesn't know it, and that's about to get him and the entire city into deep, deep trouble. Sik's not in this alone. He's got Belet, the adopted daughter of Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, on his side, and a former hero named Gilgamesh, who has taken up gardening in Central Park. Now all they have to do is retrieve the Flower of Immortality to save Manhattan from being wiped out by disease. To succeed, they'll have to conquer sly demons, treacherous gods, and their own darkest nightmares."

Reading a book about a pandemic during a pandemic was strangely comforting. Sarwat Chadda's middle grade novel City of the Plague God sensitively tackles topics such as war, immortality, death, and identity in a way that acknowledges how hard living in a complex world can be while still providing readers with hope.

What I enjoyed: -The characters of the book are so well-rounded. Main character Sik is entertaining and I loved watching him grow throughout the course of the novel and become more confident in himself. His relationship with his brother is touching and carries much of the story's emotional weight. Belet, who is an adoptee just like me, is an engaging character. Her self-placed pressure to feel grateful toward her adoptive mother Ishtar is a realistic experience that I and I've heard other adoptees express. I love how through Belet, Chadda examines the intricacies of privilege within adoption where often a child from a less privileged background is adopted by a family with more privilege. Sik's friend Daoud is humorous, but as readers find out, is so much more than just a comedic sidekick. -The messages this book has about immortality are so intriguing. Often times in books based on mythology, "stories" is almost always the answer to immortality. I love how Chadda examined immortality differently and how he interpreted several immortal characters [SPOILER ALERT] such as Gilgamesh and Sik himself. Speaking of Gilgamesh, I love how his pacifism is never challenged by the narrative. While Sik and Belet don't approve, Gilgamesh is never forced to truly give up his pacifism. He does have to stand up and defend himself, but he doesn't have to give into war. The fact that the main villain Nergal is defeated through non-violent means further emphasizes Gilgamesh's perspective on the world. I really appreciated that twist. [END SPOILER ALERT] -The pacing of this book was great. In many middle grade fantasy books I've read, the storyline is almost always: the main characters get a quest and then they go through obstacle after obstacle with maybe a couple breaks in-between for slower character development. The obstacles tend to start feeling repetitive after a while. With City of the Plague God, of course, Sik has a goal in mind, but the obstacles felt much more spread out and I loved how additional time was spent giving the characters further depth instead of being so focused on the action. This structure helped the novel feel less repetitive and predictable and I felt I got to know the characters more.

What I thought could be better: -There is nothing major that prevents me from recommending this book. One thing that I wish had been emphasized more is Daoud and Mo's (Sik's brother) relationship. It's heavily indicated in the story that they may have been a couple or at least both had crushes on one another and it's also hinted that Sik later on in the novel has come to recognize that fact. I just wish the novel outright stated what the relationship is between Daoud and Mo instead of forcing readers to guess. This wouldn't be so much of an issue if the book had established gay/lesbian relationships between other main characters. By clarifying whether or not Daoud and Mo are in fact lovers, the novel could provide clearer representation.

Overall, City of the Plague God is well worth the read if you're looking for a nicely-paced fantasy novel that really explores its characters and raises big questions about immortality and living in a complicated world. I promise you won't be disappointed.

#reviews #book review #rick riordan presents #city of the plague god #recommended #fantasy #middle grade #books

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creepy-crowleys · 5 years

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Mission Log: Black Sun, Red Sand

Objective: Aid Council of Venice operations in area. Investigate unusual shipping activities. Halt the rise of Akhenaten and the Black Sun, Aten.

Location: Valley of the Sun God, Egypt - Points of Interest: al-Merayah (village), Oxford Dig, Temple City Amarna, Pyramid of Akhenaten

Investigation Summary (1 of 3):

Week 1: Arrival at Valley of the Sun God (January 1 - January 7)

On exiting the Agartha gate outside of al-Merayah, the village at the heart of the reported incidents, I was immediately met with combat between the Atenist (cultist) and Marya (local militia) forces, as well as atrocities committed by the Atenists on the outskirts of town. Much of the first week was spent assisting Shani, the leader of the Marya, and Council of Venice Operative Amparo Osorio, the contact I was sent to work with.

Over the course of my early investigations and work to defend the village against the cultists, I was introduced to Zhara, a cafe owner living in the village having moved from elsewhere, who shared some of the local history. From her, I first learned of Abdel Daoud, the Atenists head prophet, and an Orochi growing operation that had opened a few years ago.

Exploration of the Orochi-owned date farm revealed that it had been taken over by cultists and that, at some point, the date palm roots had grown into an underground Filth pool, poisoning the fruit. The Atenists then used the contaminated fruit to aid in their forced conversion and torture of al-Merayah’s villagers and captured Marya warriors. Additionally, it was determined that items were being shipped from the Orochi-owned warehouse to Cape Town, South Africa where no Orochi facilities are known to be located. The man responsible was aware of my presence and attempted to threaten me off with a note identifying himself a ‘B’ - later established to stand for Berihun.

Week 2: The Atenists and the Marya (January 8 - January 14)

On the evening of the 7th leading into the 8th, Shani and her contact with the Kingdom, an influential Egyptian organization known for their artifact dealings, were attacked by someone believed to have information from within the Marya. Investigation uncovered the culprit was a Dragon operative intended to infiltrate the Atenists and apparently gone rogue. Correspondences between the culprit and Berihun were discovered in the culprit’s residence. The culprit was ultimately tracked down and dealt with before he could cause any more harm.

Not long after, I gained access to some of the tunnels beneath al-Merayah, specifically those leading to one of the Atenist temples. There I witnessed an exchange between Daoud and Berihun regarding their agreement: Daoud was to use his followers to collect artifacts for Berihun(‘s organization), in exchange for support in taking over the valley. Neither appeared to feel like they were getting what was promised. I followed Berihun back to the surface to witness a second exchange with the Kingdom’s representative, Saïd. Berihun demanded the Kingdom handle a second shipment for him which Saïd refused, citing Berihun as too dangerous to work with.

The next few days were spent assisting the Marya in various endeavors, such as closing down the tunnel to the temple and incapacitating a pumping station that was drawing Filth instead of water.

On January 14th, I was approached by Khalid el Sayad, a 3500+ year old man who shared what he knew of the region’s history and the current events. Key points: He was responsible for the original Plagues of Egypt, said plagues have happened several times over the years, the current plagues were caused by someone from outside of the valley and would have to be resolved by someone from outside of the valley. Later that day, I was also contacted by Saïd to suggest I visit the local tea house. There, I overheard another meeting between Daoud and Berihun discussing a planned attack on the village.

Week 3: Costs of Doing Business (January 15 - January 21)

I started the week by locating the tunnels the Atenists intended to use for their attack and preventing them from making any further progress. While there, I came across evidence of Phoenician involvement: Atenists had killed a Phoenician agent for an artifact and stolen explosives from him to use against the village.

The evidence also indicated that the operative’s superior, later identified as Tanis, was still in the village. I would attempt to make contact with her over the next couple of days, witnessing her commit an assassination on one of Saïd’s men and discuss her business dealings with Saïd and Berihun before I got a chance to meet with her face-to-face. The Kingdom had declared the were no longer doing business with the Phoenicians either, apparently over their connections to Berihun and his organization (theorized to be the Morninglight).

The rest of the week was spent assisting Tanis and Saïd with their respective difficulties with the Atenists: Tanis in recovering the artifacts and supplies stolen from her people and Saïd in getting his people out of harm’s way. The artifacts were determined to be powerful Third Age devices and were placed under Illuminati custody rather than returned to the Phoenicians.

Week 4: Delving Through the Past (January 22 - January 28)

I ended up crossing paths with Khalid el Sayad again after preventing the Atenists from opening the locks on the river leading out of the valley. He pointed me in the direction of Sol Glorificus, an ancient Roman city built by Deus Sol Invictus cultists as they fled to the south to avoid persecution. While in the valley, they interacted and mixed beliefs with the followers of the Aten before being defeated and driven out by the Marya. In the present day, Atenist necromancers were raising the mummified Romans to aid in their ongoing attacks on the village. I was able to dispatch both the necromancers and the raised soldiers.

Over the next few days, Khalid encouraged me to work with his brother - in the form of a brushfire! - to learn more about the original instance of the Egyptian plagues and recreate several of them on a smaller scale. Doing so uncovered a series of tablets containing the actual story of what happened. Many of the plagues were caused by Khalid’s (Moses’s? Aaron’s?) staff, a likely Third Age device. Akhenaten was unphased by the suffering of his people and instead took inspiration from the brothers, seeking out a staff of his own to use against them. After driving the brothers and their allies and followers from the valley, Akhenaten turned the staff on his own people to force them into service to the Aten. It would take some time for the brothers to return to overthrow the pharaoh.

I was unable to collect the staff for storage as it turned into a snake and returned itself to Khalid.

I returned to the village to find they were experiencing a rash of disappearances in the time I was away, including a Council envoy. Following the trail lead me to the Hotel Wahid International which had been taken over by cultists, and then taken again by ghouls. The ghouls and their jinn leader had kept the hostages taken by the cultists in hopes of exchanging them for favors with the Council of Venice.

Week 5: Arbeh (January 29 - February 4)

Further exploration of the hotel revealed it to be the place where Saïd had taken up temporary residence. He informed me that an Atenist sect had claimed a nearby tourist attraction temple and had taken to worshipping a local minor locust god called Arbeh. With his help, I accessed the Marya archives to recover an artifact to defeat the god and disperse its worshippers.

On the morning of February 4, the Council of Venice’s equipment picked up what was believed to be a distress call from a plane - later confirmed to be Orochi-owned - that had been struck by a fireball from the sky the day before.

Week 6: Rifts (February 5 - February 11)

Following the distress signal received the previous day, I traveled to the Eastern Scar, where one of the larger volcanic rifts had opened up. While I was unable to do anything for the person who sent out the call or the unidentified items they were trying to protect, exploration of the scar revealed the rifts to be Hellish in origin. Magma golems displaced by the rifts were responsible for the hail of fire seen from the village. The golems were successfully broken up and settled back underground.

While working at the scar, I came across and reactivated an Orochi ‘Clairvoyance’ drone which lead me back to the camp that had dispatched it. The camp, part of Orochi’s ‘Prometheus Initiative,’ had been overrun by Filth-infected personnel. I disregarded orders to avoid contact with the Orochi Group to assist in containing the infection. The remaining personnel had no interest in the research being done and allowed me full access to any materials on-site.

My investigation uncovered that the lead scientists heading this division of the Prometheus Initiative (Klein, Shirui, and Themis) had become infected early on - Klein in particular had been infected years prior - and went on to infect their personnel via direct experimentation on them and reckless safety decisions. The site, an ancient underground temple known as the Ankh, was believed to be the birthplace of Atenism, where Akhenaten first encountered and exposed his people to his god directly. From Dr. Shirui’s research notes, I learned that he and Dr. Klein were attempting to develop more powerful strains of Filth contaminant to produce specific mutations. Dr. Themis, on the other hand, was working a neighboring pump station that was drawing Filth from the ground. Drs. Shirui and Themis were killed during this time.

Continued research suggests the Prometheus Initiative may have been about seeking out the Filth all along, though the intent behind doing so is still unknown. Speculation includes looking for ways to inoculate against it or to weaponize it.

Week 7: The Ankh (February 12 - February 18)

On February 12, I entered the Ankh itself and was contacted almost immediately by Dr. Klein. I pursued him to the bottom of the Filth-saturated temple, eliminating his test subjects and ex-personnel as I went. While I was able to do considerable damage to the doctor and his work, I would later find that he would survive his injuries and is believed to still be in the Ankh at current.

The high levels of exposure and injuries sustained in the Ankh required a few days of recovery time, following which I further stabilized the Eastern scar region.

On February 18, I was contacted by Saïd to suggest I meet with the remaining archaeologists of the Oxford dig and did so.

#.MISSION LOG #:Black Sun Red Sand #.REPORT #.long post

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