What a great idea for a book. I enjoyed the exploration and "what if" surrounding the return of the gods on planet earth (except the big 3 gods). Malleus was interesting in the beginning, but later there were too many mentions of his color coded cigars and his mustache. It got repetitive real fast. He's this gruff loner guy trying to take the gods on by himself basically.
The change in format from newspaper/article to story was well done, but I believe that the majority of readers would find this too much of an infodump as it takes awhile to get started.
Altogether it was a bit too long and I didn't enjoy reading Malleus' character. I also wish the author would have taken the time to make the novellas into a proper book and make it more cohesive.

I would recommend this if you like dystopian mythology (what a cool genre) or if you're already a fan of Markus Heitz.

Thank you Netgalley and Quercus for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I've only read 5 of the novellas out of 10.
While I did enjoy them well enough I didn't really feel the need to continue and read the rest.
I might end up reading the rest some time in the future though.
I do recommend this book as I do think other people would really enjoy it.
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

It reminded me of some of American God's topics and I enjoyed it. Religion, history, a story that talks about a huge what-if.
I liked Mallues and found the style of writing/storytelling interesting.
It was just a bit too long but I will surely read the next novel
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

What a weirdly wonderful and wonderfully weird volume this turned out to be and I loved almost every page. Have to call it a volume because it is actually made up of ten novellas.

The concept is just perfect, an atheist is the protagonist set the task of solving crimes both officially and unofficially in a world where the Old Gods have returned and displaced the God of The Book. In the process reclassifying Islam, Christianity and Judaism as cults because the God of The Book has failed to make an appearance.

Most everyone who appears in the volume is completely off their trolley and a delicious mix of stories is the result.

The flies in the ointment are that it would have been a more coherent read if a small amount of time had been used to concatenate this into a book rather than a volume.

Would have liked to rate Aera 5 Stars but due to too many Fu Manchus, too many prologues and too many expletives it has a 4 Star rating.

If you like your fantasy to be totally wacky then this is most certainly something you should read. A small warning - if you do give in to temptation and read this volume, you may never be the same again as the plots will likely mess with your head.

You can tell from this review, it certainly messed with mine!

You know it makes sense but are you brave enough to jump into AERA?

Set in the ‘future’ of 2019, after a seismic event, triggered by an unknown force, all the lost and forgotten gods started to return. This led to massive upheaval, wars, divine intervention, reclaiming of lost lands, renaming countries and mass conversion to new, old, gods. For those whose gods failed to make an appearance, religious persecution followed, aggressively. No longer was it safe to be openly Christian, Islamic or Jewish. They still waited in hope (and secrecy) for their gods.

While most people scrambled to find a god and curry favour with them, some remained sceptical. Others remained downright atheist. This is where our hero comes into play. Malleus Bourreau is a convinced atheist who also happens to be an investigator for Interpol. He takes private clients on the side if the case interests him enough. Malleus is irreverent, sarcastic, cutting and disbelieving of everyone - god or not. He can have a conversation with a god, and still not believe they are a god. He doesn’t believe they are who they say they are, and he won’t stop until he gets to the bottom of it.

The gods continue to stake out their claim on their territories, demanding sacrifices, worshipers to revere them, setting up global banking conglomerates, running TV shows, and more. When a crime is committed by a god, there is nobody to hold them accountable, apart from Malleus. When Malleus starts out on a case involving stolen relics, it begins an investigation that will lead him acorss the world, leading to many murders, destruction, many encounters with gods, and testing Malleus’s investigative tallents to their utmost.

I enjoyed this read, as it took me on a wonderful journey. In all the talk of religion over the years, in all the takes I have read on it, I have never seen this approach to it, so it was entertaining. There were at times some leaps in deduction that led to a raised eyebrow, however, as a work of fiction, I am not looking for an investigative perfect police procedural. There was perhaps an over emphasis on some points, for example Malleus’s culebras. They were brought out, mentioned, smoked and featured at so many points, I did expect some grand finale reveal with them. But they went out like a puff of smoke.

I did read the complete omnibus of the ten-part novella which I was glad of, as it did become a page turner, with a cliffhanger ending at the end of each novella. Overall, a very enjoyable series, which feels like it has left something up its sleeve for something more.

*I received a copy of this for review from NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.

I read the first part of this as a novella in 2015 and was really excited to read the whole story, but even though it's 700+ pages this is only the first in a series.
I loved the concept and the sarcastic humour, there was action aplenty and I really enjoyed the characters.
My only frustration was that it felt like reading ten novellas, there was lots of repetition and a slight lack of overall cohesion. Hopefully the second in the series will answer some of the myriad questions I have and will be published soon!

DNF at 20%

I was really looking forward to this one, since I have also read The Dwarves series from Markus Heitz.
The premise was great, I was truly all in.
The start of the Prologue was interesting, the overview of different occurrences. But after that it became an endless infodump that just could not hold my attention.

I also read the first novelette, and I am just not invested enough to continue. There was one small piece that intrigued me, but it is not enough.

So sad about this one!

(Giving 3 stars because I felt really middle of the road)