The Breath of God

Opening of the World #2

by Harry Turtledove

Once the great Glacier enclosed the Raumsdalian Empire. Now it's broken open, and Count Hamnet Thyssen faces a new world. With the wisecracking Ulric Skakki, the neighboring clan leader Trasamund (politely addressed as Your Ferocity), and his lover, the shaman Liv, Hamnet leads an exploration of the new territory in hopes of finding the legendary Golden Shrine.But dangers abound. A violent and implacable group known as the Rulers has already killed many, and now they attack again. Riding deer and woolly mammoths and using powerful magic, the Rulers triumph and force the Raumsdalians to flee. In the spring another battle ends even more badly for Hamnet's side, but the Glacier is also retreating, so they are able to escape. Meeting a tribe whose desperate living conditions have led them to overcome the Raumsdalian taboo against eating fallen foes, they find unexpected allies. Now, returning to the capital city and its intrigues, Hamnet prepares to lead an army against the merciless Rulers. The world, once so bounded and comprehensible, will never be the same…in Harry Turtledove's The Breath of God. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Alternate History, Science Fiction, Prehistory, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

413 pages, Kindle Edition

About the author

Dr Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced a sizeable number of works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.

Harry Turtledove attended UCLA, where he received a Ph.D. in Byzantine history in 1977.

Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within this genre he is known both for creating original scenarios: such as survival of the Byzantine Empire; an alien invasion in the middle of the World War II; and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by other authors, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War; and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme.

Reviews

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t aware when I started reading this that it is actually the second book in a series. The author does fill the reader in, but I can’t help but wonder how much this affected my reading experience. For one thing, the character development here is rather lacking, and it is possible that the author fleshed them out sufficiently in book 1 (Beyond the Gap). I guess I’ll never know, since I don’t intend on going back to the first novel at this stage, if ever.
I do, however, own book three (The Golden Shrine) and will probably read that at some stage.

While the premise of The Breath of God appealed to me greatly, I’m a bit torn about the execution. Harry Turtledove appears to be a very popular author, but I struggled to get used to his writing, and especially the dialogue. The easiest way to describe it is that it felt like it was translated from another language. I’m not saying that it’s bad, only that it wasn’t particularly to my liking.

The story is also slightly hampered by glacially slow pacing (pun intended) and a throwaway “love story” angle that I felt was at odds with what the author was attempting. There are also a delightful number of anachronisms: one of my favourites being a warrior looking at the stars and contemplating the way the “Milky Way” glitters. How much did prehistoric man know about this kind of thing?

I also didn't quite get some of the characters. Like Gudrid, for example. What on earth is that all about?

Anyway, maybe that’s just me nit-picking. On the whole I don’t have a lot to say about this novel, other than the fact that it does redeem itself a bit towards the end (I still want to read the next novel to see how everything unfolds). It wasn’t particularly bad but it wasn’t particularly good either.

2.5 stars

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best of Harry Turtledoves writing but still enjoyed the second book in the series and curious in how the last one will be

[Clay Kallam · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s plenty of skilled writing in “The Breath of God” (Tor, $24.95, 335 pages), which is true of all of Harry Turtledove’s books. That said, Turtledove is not a “great” author, and you won’t get long descriptions of tea coming to a boil, or paragraph-long sentences that precisely describe the mental state of a somewhat neurotic young woman who’s in anguish about a) a confused love affair with an artist with suicidal tendencies, b) her relationship with her mother who’s dying of some dread disease, c) the sexual abuse she suffered as a child – or, of course, all of the above.

“The Breath of God,” though, is volume two (of who knows how many; “Beyond the Gap” was the first) about a pre-industrial world in the grip of global warming that has melted a glacier. That has allowed a somewhat more advanced culture to invade the less-advanced one, and Count Hamnet Thyssen is on the front lines for the underdogs. He’s a tough warrior, older than most protagonists, with some relationship issues you wouldn’t expect in this kind of book. Still, Turtledove’s professionalism drives the narrative right along – and leaves the reader ready for volume three.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series isn't quite like his others, in that it is farther from any specific historical model than most, but it is still historically based, sort of. It takes place as an ice age is ending, and the change has reconnected lands that have been separated for many years by glaciers. Unfortunately, one side contained a violent, vicious culture...and then, there are the bad guys, on the other side.

Seriously, one difficulty that some readers will have is that there are only comparative good guys in this story. The main character is sympathetic, but that's about it.

The story, in terms of both adventure and military fiction, is good and very interesting. The magic is very strange, and I'm still trying to figure out some of the important concepts introduced in this volume, but it's still a good read.

[Mark Moxley-Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read the first book, I was interested in what would happen next. Turtledove builds a world, with interesting characters, well-developed culture, easy to visualize landscapes. The story is unusual, and unpredictable. Set in a sort of alternate ice age, it is a fun romp through politics and war.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 1 out of 5]

I highly recommend you read my review of Beyond the Gap if you haven't already, since it will save me time if I don't have to reiterate all the points there that apply to The Breath of God as well. To recap: had fond memories of Turtledove, opinion of his steadily decreasing, this series is terrible, and I don't know why I've bothered.

The opening of The Breath of God foreshadows how deeply inadequate the book becomes by its end. For about the first ten pages, every second paragraph consists of an interjection of exposition to make sure that those who haven't read the first book can keep up with the proper terms and social dynamics. If there's anything good to say about Beyond the Gap, it's that its exposition is far more subtle than what happens at the beginning of The Breath of God. Still, I ignored it and read onward. Little did I know that this would be the least of my worries.

For a little while, this book was actually good, and it improved to the point that I considered it better than the first book by a fair measure—perhaps not three stars, but definitely two stars. I'll first explain what impressed me so much, and then I'm going to provide some spoilers that demonstrate why I lost all faith in this book before it was over.

Firstly, there's much more action in The Breath of God than there is in the first book. I don't want to be shallow and claim that a fantasy book must have action scenes in order to be good. However, in the setting that Turtledove has created, with the shadow of the Rulers falling over the Bizogots and Raumsdalia, the inaction on the part of the protagonists in Beyond the Gap irked me. In this book, there's many more skirmishes, retreats, victories—you name it. The protagonists win some and lose some, which makes for some balanced storytelling. None of the action sequences are too cumbersome or too long, and Turtledove capitalizes on the unique aspects of his creation: war mammoths! Oh yes. They are fearsome.

Secondly, for most of this book, there is no Gudrid. If you have read the first book, you'll know why this is a big relief.

Thirdly, while the narrative once again consists of a great deal of travelling and very little interesting development on the part of the characters or the plot, there's more variation. Instead of a long trek north beyond the Glacier followed by a long trek south followed by a long trek north, but not as far north, we get a long trek up the Glacier followed by a long trek down, then there's another trek south and finally a trek north. With fighting interspersed, it's easier to stomach. And at no point did I feel like I wanted to just stop reading, a sentiment all too familiar with Beyond the Gap.

So far the book seems tolerable, eh? Not great by any means, but something for the fantasy fan looking to relax. So what is the deal-breaker? As usual, it's characterization. The way Turtledove handles his characters in The Breath of God goes from bad to worse to unbelievable. This book moved me, but not in a profound way—it moved me to express my disbelief and my outrage over how unrealistically these characters behave.

There are plenty of minor examples, most of them toward the end of the book (hence why it seemed so good at the beginning). Once Hamnet (alternatively, "Count Hamnet" or "Hamnet Thyssen," since Turtledove can't seem to settle for just using Hamnet's first name and saving my nerves) and his party return to Nidaros, there's a seemingly-inexhaustible supply of nitwit guards, all of whom are programmed to say something like the following:

"What are you doing here?" . . . .

"Reporting to His Majesty," Hamnet answered. "I know more about what's going on in the Bizogot country than anybody he's talked to lately. I hope he'll listen to me, for the Empire's sake."

"But he's angry at you. Didn't you know that?" the guard said.

Some variation of this exchange, complete with rhetorical questions that end in "do you?" and query whether Hamnet is aware that the emperor is dissatisfied with him, populate the majority of the subsequent three pages. Also, Turtledove seems to think that having his characters state the obvious is the same as humour. All in all, this makes for very uninspiring dialogue.

All these minor problems with characterization pale in comparison to what I can only call the betrayal that occurs in chapter 14. A little background: prior to the first book, Hamnet's wife, Gudrid, left him for another man. She was malicious about it, so he spent most of Beyond the Gap nursing his emotional wound and thinking ill of women in general. He still managed to fall for Liv, a Bizogot shaman, and it looked like it was True Love. They're still happily together in The Breath of God, but now Hamnet becomes suspicious because Liv and Aulun, a Raumsdalian wizard, are spending so much time together. At first he thinks it's just shop talk, yet he can't help voicing his suspicions—which Liv promptly dismisses.

Then, out of the blue, he stumbles upon Liv and Aulun kissing. And she says:

"Don't be foolish, Hamnet," Liv said. "It's over. You know it is. It's been over for a while now. You know that, too. . . . You caused what you wanted to cure."

What a hackneyed breakup line: "It's been over for a while now." I shudder. Still, that's not what I found unforgivable. Simply put, I couldn't believe this was happening. And here Turtledove manages to demonstrate the difference between foreshadowing and justifying future events. I understand that Liv is claiming Hamnet pushed her away because of his overprotectiveness. That makes sense. Yet we suddenly go from Hamnet being suspicious to Liv leaving him, with no intermediate troubles or arguments beyond a few sparse discussions. If this was some sort of tactic to make me keep reading, it worked, because I was turning the pages as quickly as possible to see if some sort of spell was influencing their actions or if this was all just a feverish dream.

Worse still, everyone is OK with this sudden change in relationship status. At breakfast, Hamnet finds out that everyone else knows already. And none of them think it's a big deal. Ulric just recommends that Hamnet sleep with someone else.

So he does. Not immediately, but after a couple of chapters, he takes up with another wizard—this time a woman from the tribe of cannibals who live on top of the Glacier. And apparently, she makes him happy now.

It's a simple affliction, but I'm afraid it's incurable: The Breath of God is just so frustrating. Relationships between characters change based on authorial fiat, not on any logical chain of cause and effect. Characters are idiots to serve the plot or annoyingly obvious. All of these distractions woke the critic in me from his deep slumber, and I began paying more attention to how the book was written than the story itself (which is seldom good). It pains me to say this, but I actually liked some of The Sword of Truth books better than this book. The ostentatious caricature of collectivism called Emperor Jajang would be a welcome relief from the one-dimensional vacillating idiot this book calls Sigvat II.

This book's inconsistency is such a fatal flaw because it destroys the most important part of the experience, especially for a fantasy: suspension of disbelief. This act is always contingent on the author promising to create an internally consistent universe. And with unrealistic characters and uninspiring plotting, the universe of the Opening of the World trilogy just doesn't deserve my suspension of disbelief. The Breath of God sags, wheezes, and groans beneath the weight of its own implausibility.

[Ken Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I finally got around to reading the follow up to "Beyond the gap" and....it's another mixed bag.
I had the same criticisms of the first book as nearly everyone else that has read it: There was entirely too much walking from point A to B to C and then for some reason, right back again. To no justifiable means at the end.
I assumed that that part of the story was done in the first book and now our adventurers could finally get on with the next part story (and interesting premise)
As you can probably tell from my rating, I was very wrong. Book two is exactly more of the same but (mercifully) with less Getrid.

If anything, the new plot still has our heroes walking back and forth across the frozen steppes...but now the bad guys are chasing them. There are a few battles tossed in there and they are fierce and well-told with nail-biting stakes. But they never really achieve anything. After each bloody encounter, the same status quo is maintained and the walking continues until the next engagement (now sans a couple of unfortunate side characters)
I don't even mind this all that much but BY GOD the book takes seven chapters and 215 pages just to progress a single story point

3 stars because Tuttledove is still a fantastic writer but I'm going to put the series down for a while and read some other things before I again have the patience to venture back into the world of the Woolley Mammoths

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 2 was better than the first ... with the introduction of Markovava on top of the iceberg who is a strong shaman it helped move the story along. Even though there was still a lot of walking around still.

[Joel Flank · Rating 4 out of 5]

After traveling beyond the glacier, and returning to tell about it, Count Hamnet and his fellow explorers were scorned by the very emperor who sent them to explore. Their warnings of a dangerous and powerful people there, who called themselves the Rulers, and had the might to back up those claims were ignored. Count Hamnet instead returned to the frozen north, to aid his Bizogot allies prepare a defense against the inevitable invasion. Upon their return, they're shocked to find Jarl Trasamund's tribe already defeated and scattered across the frozen plains.

Desperate to stem the flow of mammoth riding cavalry and powerful wizards who could easily defeat both Raumsdalian wizards of Bizogot shamans, Count Hamnet tries spreading word of the invaders, but the tribal nature of the Bizogots prevent them from unifying, even against a superior foe, and they begin to be picked off one by one. Eventually, Hamnet rallies the remnants of many tribes into a fighting force, but is soon sent fleeing the superior strength of the Rulers. In a desperate gamble, he flees with his closest companions to a place even stranger than beyond the glacier. Once there, even surviving proves challenging, much less returning to fight again.

Turtledove continues his fascinating alternate fantasy in the waning years of a ice age, and how such a setting shapes the people living there. He crafts a believable world with logical magic, technology, culture, and ecosystems, with the constant of human nature driving his characters.

[Stacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The last 90 pages or so picked up in pace (once they headed back towards Nidaros), but otherwise, this was a terribly slow & boring read that I couldn't wait to put down. The descriptions did make me feel like I was on a freezing cold glacier (I did enjoy the introduction of another "tribe" of people, and usually I'm not overly critical of Turtletaub's repetitive nature; however, this was just TOO much of the same phrases repeated again and again using barely noticeably different sentence structure. I will eventually read the third book just to see how the series ends, but the only reason is to see how it ends. I'd rather read someone's well-written spoiler and fast forward to the ending since the middle of these books contains nothing important save a slow passing of time, but I already paid for the book & it's taking up perfectly good shelf space.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing the story from Beyond the Gap. The description is getting a little old, I know what smetyn is by now and don't need it reiterated every other chapter. I like some of the turns the plot is taking, going up on the glacier itself brings a whole new aspect to the narrative. It's still the basic journey story, but has held my attention and remained interesting, I'll read the next book in the series, whenever it happens to come out.

[David R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was probably crazy to stick with this series. But I thought things might get more interesting in the second round. Regrettably, the characters became even more irritating to me and the book is a series of *long* hikes back and forth.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wandered quite a bit and everything seemed to end up basically where they started. Will still check out the next on audiobook because I do like the world and the characters, but hope it moves things along more.

[Eric Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series its a quick fantasy read. I dont like all the traveling back and forth from the glacier to the empire and back again. However you don't get long descriptions of stuff that you know such as mammoths and tigers. I'd have given 5 stars but the battles and magic are lacking.

[alan douglas dalrymple · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breath of God.

Less sexual problems and more direct story lines would have helped. Don't need to know how much sex or not some character is getting. Explain more about the magic and it's machinations then the bemoaning of a characters lack of being a man.

[Liviu]

loved the first book, but this is way too badly written to enjoy

[Kione · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh damn. this is the 3 book in that series.
Shit.
So what was the second book?
Dammit! It's not done.
So is there a 4th book...yet?

[Cathy Andrews · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think it's as good as his other books, I am getting bogged down in some sections.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I continue listening to this series. It's mildly entertaining but really one book delivered in three chunks. Frankly, Turtledove rambles a bit.

[The Docta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some interesting twists and turns.

[Kurt Vosper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good conclusion to this two parter. Some great battles and some mythology come to life. Fun read.

[Jake Moody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook and found it very enjoyable. Will have to look into more turtledove books

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 2 of the trilogy.

[Brentman99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great series that Turtledove has created. I love the characters and the war with the Rulers is well done. I enjoyed this series.

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it enough to move on to the 3rd volume in the series...

[Abel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book easy reading and very enjoyable. Its another triology that is hard to put down. It has cost me a lot of sleep, due to contious pace and excitment.

[Drmorton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself looking forward to finishing this book, We gain a few more characters then in the first book. The witty dialog especially from Skakki is great. I enjoyed this one a lot.

[Mark Hanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was rather long and didn't develop very rapidly. Graphic physical scenes detracted from the story.

[David Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept - An ice-age empire. What I didn't find interesting was the constant bitterness and whining over various women that the hero Hambet engages in (even in the midst of a battle!?).

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as Alt. History goes, you can skip this one.