The GodSpill

Threadweavers #2

by Todd Fahnestock

A quest to save friends. The rise of a malevolent god. The shocking price of magic.

Mirolah achieved the impossible: she returned the magical GodSpill to Amarion. But an unpaid debt has come due. The GodSpill wants to pull her soul from her body and absorb it. As she fights the insidious call, she and Wildmane plunge into a quest to save her lost mentor.

Back in Teni'sia, the philandering swordsman Mershayn works to keep the new king alive in an unstable court. Tripping over his own character flaws, he struggles to match wits with power-hungry lords. If he cannot stop them, the new king's reign-and his life-will be cut short.

Rising in the north, the dragon god has turned his smoldering gaze on Amarion. If Mirolah, Wildmane, and Mershayn cannot overcome their personal challenges to stop the bloodthirsty god, he will bathe the human lands in fire.

The GodSpill is the second book in the Threadweavers epic fantasy trilogy. If you like epic fantasy, detailed world-building, and strong female protagonists, you'll love Todd Fahnestock's Threadweavers.

Genres: Fantasy

380 pages, Paperback

Published June 19, 2018

About the author

TODD FAHNESTOCK is a fantasy/sci-fi author of the bestselling Tower of the Four, Threadweavers and The Whisper Prince series. He was a winner of the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in 2021 for Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy, and a finalist in the Colorado Authors League Writing Awards for the past two years, for Charlie Fiction and The Undying Man. His passions are fantasy and his quirky, fun-loving family. When he’s not writing, he teaches taekwondo, swaps middle grade humor with his son, plays Ticket to Ride with his wife, scribes modern slang from his daughter and goes on morning walks with Galahad the Weimaraner. Visit Todd at www.toddfahnestock.com.

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore these characters. Which makes what happens to them so much more painful! I don't want to spoil it, but let's say that Todd doesn't pull any punches. The stakes have definitely maxed out and they're still trying so hard to save Amarion. One of the new characters, Mershayn, added more depth to the story because he's much more complicated than the returning characters. He's very human, very flawed, yet still has a strong loyal streak and a ton of charisma. Love him. I can't wait to get to book three.

[James Blevins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters, who were already district and memorable, really come to life in this book. Really enjoyed the adventure and further expansion of the magic system. It is becoming more distinct with each chapter. The world building is subtle with a gentle learning curve. No exposition dumps. Highly recommend.

[Raewynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book of Todd's that I have read and....they just keep getting better.
Awesome..again!

[Jodi Bowersox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one ends as a kind of an unsatisfying cliffhanger, but keep reading because the whole series is worth it.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of the books I've read of this series so far, this is my favorite. It's like The Empire Strikes Back in the original Star Wars trilogy, and for some of the same reasons. It's the second act, the one that sets in motion all those tensions and conflicts introduced in the first act. We get a lot less worldbuilding info dumps, and we get more trials and tribulations for the main characters. As the author himself says in the "Reader Letter" in the back of the book,

The GodSpill is an important volume in the Threadweaver's trilogy, perhaps the most important. It is a book where the characters fail more than they succeed, and they have to face their own shortcomings.

Mirolah comes into her own even more in this book, and we begin to get hints of how unusually talented and powerful she is, although she doesn't yet realize it. Yes, she's now the lover of Medophae/Wildmane, but she still doesn't orbit him quite the way other characters do. That sycophancy annoyed me in the first volume. We're also introduced to Mershayn, a devil-may-care bastard (in the literal sense) playboy whose half-brother has ended up as king of Teni'sia, due to an unfortunate death. He's Jack Vance's Cugel, and Neil Gaiman's Marquis de Carabas all rolled into one. After listening to his brother moan about how he's not cut out for ruling,

Mershayn couldn't argue with that. Watching Collus try to rule was like watching a fish try to fly. "Next time be born a bastard. Nobody expects anything of you," Mershayn said.

Ah, uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

There's still some first novel pitfalls, but not nearly as many as Wildmane. A good example is when Medophae and Mirolah are having a great visit with her family in Rith, and a spine horse, a molten lava creature, that they thought they had given the slip to shows up. Well, of course. If our heroic lovebirds settle into happily-ever-after domestic bliss, we wouldn't have much of a story. But, the scene is rather clunky and heavy handed.

Villagers ran, screaming and covering their heads as the heat washed over them. A little boy at the back of the pack tripped, tumbling to the ground before the monster.
The spine horse paused as it looked at Mendophae. Its windy, clacking roar shook the buildings. The little boy curled into himself, screaming as his clothes caught fire.

Yep, that plot device little boy is toast. You would think that Mirolah can save him, causing her former neighbors to be a little less fearful of her threadweaving, but no! She can manipulate reality to the point of healing herself from injury, but it doesn't work on other people. Why? So that she can't save a child, has to leave town quickly, and feels terrible about it. Mendophae later gives her The Talk. You know, the one just about every superhero has about how "what use is this power if we can't save everyone—sorry them's the breaks and just do your best to save as many as you can." If you can't tell by now, that particular section broke the suspension of disbelief for me.

However, as I said before, there are less of these pitfalls in this book. The ending was a proper cliffhanger, leaving our heroes in the darkest and tightest of spots, as any decent second act should. Now it's on to the third book, to see how they get out of this, who survives and maybe an explanation on why "GodSpill" is spelled camelcase.

[Savannah Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book really dives into the new magical world. Each character continues to grow and find their purpose within the team. They understand they can't do anything alone and must work together. Another on the edge of my seat ending but this time I dived right into the Threads of Amarion.