2020-2021 have been the years of me allowing myself to get into science fiction - a genre that for some reason I always thought I couldn't understand?
I'm so glad I've ditched that mindset because it means I get to enjoy wonderful works of fiction like Jennifer Marie Brisset's 'Destroyer of Light'.
This book was slow to start and I was a bit wary of what I had got myself into but by the last 100 pages, I was whizzing through, desperate to unravel just what was going on.
I'll confess to having slightly forgotten that this was a retelling of Persephone until the last few moments of the book but I found it a very interesting take on the original story. The trend at present seems to be painting the relationship between Hades and Persephone in a very positive light, Brisset takes a different approach, creating a terrifying landscape of child soldiers and experimentation. I thought it was a dark but intriguing angle to take and in a sea of 'Hades is hot' it was a refreshing change.
This story has a wonderful tone that I can't quite pin down, it almost felt noir to me in its descriptions of flitting about the city and throughout time trying to uncover the mystery of just what was happening here. I think there are a lot of things about this story that would appeal to a number of different readers with different tastes. There is science fiction, philosophy, war, parenthood, brotherhood - and a whole host of other ideas explored within this relatively short text.
This story might not be for everyone, in fact I urge anyone planning on reading this to seek out content warnings before starting as there are some very graphic scenes within the book, however those scenes are an important part of the story and never felt gratuitous (at least not to me).
I will absolutely recommend this book to those I know who appreciate this kind of story.

So this book was rather difficult for me to get into and enjoy. And I will lay that primarily at the feet of the non-linear timeline. You jump back and forth between multiple periods in Cora/Stefonie's life and I personally always find that difficult to follow and create a connection with the characters. Cora/Stefonie definitely is not a likeable character, I couldn't even get behind her as she experienced horrible things. I definitely don't think she deserves them but it didn't make me root for her either. The twins however, are amazing and I loved them. I definitely wish that they played an even bigger part than they did.

Overall this book has it's ups and downs but I would definitely try something else by this author and I think for the right people this is an amazing book.

On the planet Eleusis, humans and the Krestge live together. This wasn’t what was intended to happen, when humans fled to this planet years earlier, after the Krestge attacked and destroyed Earth.
Eleusis is tidally locked with its star, and has four habitable zones on it, Day, Night, Dusk and Dawn, and the refugees from Earth settled primarily in three of the zones, with Night being ice covered.
The planet’s human population are refugees, who have organized themselves into have and have-nots, with a thriving criminal element, and genetically engineered individuals scattered throughout the population, some interacting with the fellow Krestge inhabitants, others unaware of why they’re different; these people are not looked upon favourably by those without the appearance of obvious mutations.
The primary characters are:
Twin brothers with unusual abilities. They’re contracted to find a missing boy.
A young woman, with a strange and powerful ability, raised by a warlord living in Night.
The warlord, who kidnaps children from all over Eleusis to build himself an army of child soldiers.
These four and their stories are told by the author, moving back and forth in time, with their story threads initially appearing to be separate, but eventually coming together.
Jennifer Marie Brissett’s world and characters are fascinating, with the aliens feeling nicely alien. They’re mysterious, with unknown motives for following humans to this planet with no resumption of hostilities. The human population has a believable mix of attitudes about the Krestge, ranging from hatred to love, with complex relationships developing. Meanwhile, the author has us wondering why does the warlord need an army: what’s their purpose, and what is the purpose of the engineered humans?
There is one element in this story that reminds me of something from the author’s earlier work, "Elysium"; the similarity to its "Elysium"-predecessor was an interesting way to tell part of the story, and to connect the characters and their experiences.
The author develops a complex world, with great possibilities with its transformed and unmodified humans and alien populations, rumblings of war and invasion, bigotry, complicated characters, and centres the stories of lost children amidst the big plot points.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Destroyer of Light is the second novel from Jennifer Marie Brissett, who wrote the novel Elysium back in 2014 with a smaller press. Elysium* is a tremendous novel that I HIGHLY recommend, being one of only 26 books I've ever given a perfect score since I started reviewing books back in 2015. I read Elysium in December of last year after I'd already heard about this book, and so I've been eagerly anticipating seeing Brissett's follow-up, which is described in the marketing as "The Matrix meets an Afro-futuristic retelling of [the story of] Persephone set in a science fiction underworld of aliens, refugee, and genetic engineering." That description should get nearly anyone interested - even more so if you know that Brissett has written before non-fiction analysis about the Demeter/Persephone myth and its connection to Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Talents."

*Destroyer of Light is technically a stand-alone sequel to Elysium, and the book contains a few easter egg references for readers of that book, but requires no foreknowledge for the reader, which makes sense as that book was published by a small press and this book is published by Tor/Macmillan. You won't lose anything by reading this book first.

And while Destroyer of Light isn't quite as tremendous as Elysium, it's still a pretty damn strong novel and well worth your time. The story deals with themes of motherhood, class struggle even on what is supposed to be a new more equitable world, dealing with conquerors after the conquering is over, child soldiers, and children remaking themselves through trauma in both pleasant and not so pleasant ways. It's also a scifi story taking place on an alien world that humanity has fled to and established new lives, alongside the aliens who once conquered them, dealing with genetically engineered humans with various mental powers. There's a lot of depth here (although not quite as much as in Elysium, as this story is a lot more straight forward despite its multi-level narrative) and another winner of a novel, marking Brissett as clearly one of the top writers in the genre people should be reading and looking out for.

Trigger Warning: Rape (on page, even if not described in great detail), Sexual Assault, Child Abduction and Child Soldiers. These scenes aren't gratuitous, but are involved enough that many readers may not be able to get past them. Reader discretion is very much advised.


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Four Hundred Years ago, humanity fled the Earth after being conquered by the strange space-shifting aliens known as the krestge - and after centuries in stasis they came to the world of Eleusis, a world habitable only in certain areas - which became known as Dusk, Dawn and Night. It was supposed to be a new more equitable world...but the first humans who landed on Eleusis took the best land and richest parts of the world in Dusk and made the less fortunate latecomers toil for their benefit in Dawn. And then the krestge came as well, claiming to come in peace, and now wanting to live alongside the humans they once chased across the universe.

The result was a powderkeg of a world, one which would be ignited by the confluence of three stories:

10 Years Ago, in Dawn, a girl named Cora with strange eyes and strange visions is abducted by a violent anti-krestge warlord, leaving her mother desperately searching for answers.

3 Weeks Ago, in Dusk, a pair of brothers with strange eyes, a telepathic connection, and strange powers known for tracking things down are tasked with searching for the son of a rare human/krestge couple....only to find a conspiracy of human trafficking and more questions than answers.

1 Month Ago, in Night, I find a boy like myself in Aidon's camp, a boy Aidon can use just like me in his campaign to take back this world from the krestge and the foolish humans who have fallen in line with them, and am given the chance for the first time in ten years to leave Night and return to the civilization I came from, under a different name, to enact a plan that will change Eleusis forever.....
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Like Elysium, Destroyer of Light takes place in a non-linear fashion, although unlike that book what timeline and where things are taking place is always made clear by quick timeline/place notes at the start of each chapter (i.e. "Dawn, Ten Years Ago") . The story is told in a mix of third and first person, with Stefonie's chapters (beginning with Night, 1 month ago) being told in first person, in addition to occasional asides and bits from a seemingly omniscient narrator that are also told in first person, to add to the mystery of it all. As you might expect, this signals quite strongly that Stefonie is our main protagonist, as the seeming adaptation of Persephone in this story.*

*Despite the selling point that this is an adaptation of the Persephone/Hades/Demeter story, if you didn't know that was the case it would be very easy to miss, and the story is not harmed if you miss it at all. I didn't really recognize that fact until I read Brissett's above-linked piece comparing the story to Butler's Parable of the Talents, and from that framework a reader will recognize a lot of what Brissett is trying to do here with various characters - but again, you won't lose much if you miss it all.

These characters exist in a future world that is fascinating in its spin on our own world from a sci-fi perspective. Humans may have fled their own world to a new one that was supposed to be a land of equality, but inequality reigns quite prominently - with the best parts of Dusk claimed by the first humans to touch down on the planet, and the last stragglers being forced to live in Dawn as farmers of the valuable material that is needed to live for the rich bastards in Dusk. The people in Dusk have a frequent racism towards those with light colored eyes, representing genetic modifications, even when such modifications allow those others to provide for the people in Dusk. And then the alien conquerors, who conquered Earth and drove humanity away, have returned....only they want to live in peace with humanity now, and do so on uneven terms - with new generations of humans thinking of them as normal people to cohabitate with, often with technological masks and drugs that put them on the same level, while older generations who remember earth looking at them with immense distrust and refusing to do anything with their alien technology. And then there's the warlord Okoni, a human scientist with various personalities who leads an army of child soldiers he abducts from the poor people and dawn in an attempt to overthrow what he sees as humans collaborating with the hated alien conquerors - and is willing to both love and hate a girl who possesses powers of the aliens, and to inflict mass harm on the poor humans for their goals.

In this world is the story of Cora and Stefonie, who are pretty obviously the same girl in separate times from the start. Cora was a girl with strange powers and strange eyes, who had a mom that was interested in her own religion and a bit negligent at the start....but who did care for her and went desperately searching for her when Cora was abducted by Okoni's army. Cora is raped by Okoni's men, but finds salvation in Okoni himself, who recognizes in her power the key that he's searching for to possibly overthrowing the aliens. And so Stefonie marries him and lives unhappily for ten years....for she knows that Okoni is a bad person and a liar and a monster....but at the same time she can't help but be attracted to his darkness and ideals.

Because, and we see this through the other viewpoints in the book as well, most prominently the two brothers who were also the product of genetic enhancements who hate the rich racist privileged snobs of Dusk and try to find and help people with their own gifts, Okoni is evil but he isn't entirely wrong. The Alien conquerors attempt to now be allies without paying any proper contrition, and cannot see why they are wrong - even if they may now be well intentioned....something Stefonie discovers with her own gifts. And the Aliens who did try to destroy humanity and don't feel bad about it are indeed still out there, willing to do it again out of fear of what humanity could become. And so the book leads to Stefonie making a decision, after she's spent her whole life in various forms of fear, and seen what fear leads others to do, to embrace her own darkness and make a choice that will change everything in the world forever. It's a remarkable ending that works for the most part really well.

Not everything quite worked for me despite it all - Okoni's multiple personalities/being possessed by spirits is something that you'd think would go somewhere but never does; the rape scenes, while never that descriptive, are not easy to read even if never unnecessary, and the final tie to the Persephone story, the adaptation of the pomegranate scenes, just feels a bit out of place. But still, this is a strong tale of transformation, of the horrors that fear, that power, that racism and greed can inflict upon us, and how inadequate allyism can be to make up for it all. Brissett is definitely an author you should be reading, with two real winners in novels so far, and I can't wait to see what she puts out next.

Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett is an amazing story. It had me hooked from the first page and it's great.

Trigger Warning: This book includes many explicit descriptions of violence, rape, and abuse against women and children.

This book contained scenes that made me absolutely uncomfortable. Many readers and reviewers felt these scenes were unnecessary and added nothing to the story. The only reason I disagree is because this book as a whole is a metaphor for what the West did to Africa. The West stole their resources to make our selves richer and then called it charity to send help during disasters. But the West also does nothing when dictators steal children to create an army. The abuses that happen in this book are direct parallels to the abuses that happened and are still happening in some parts of Africa today. Things that wouldn't have occurred were it not for the actions of Western culture. I am not usually one to talk about "historical accuracy" in a book being an excuse for writing about rape and abuse but in this case I feel it is different because it is part of a larger story and a larger metaphor not not the only example of "historical accuracy" in an otherwise fantastical book. Every part of this book is in some way rooted in the dialog of African history. Especially the uncomfortable parts.

Destroyer of Light is an far future re-telling of the Hades and Persephone story. This version is truer to the original than many modern re-tellings in that the Persephone character was kidnapped and stolen by the Hades character it is not a romance or a love story. And because of the futuristic setting and the addition of other plot lines a reader could easily not notice that this is a re-telling. The mythological inspiration is most obvious in the characters Persephone, Hades, Demeter, and Zeus have very obvious equivalents. The plot stays a little less true to the story but the main points still occur.

The worldbuilding was one of the most interesting parts of this book. Humanity had to flee Earth after an invasion by an Alien species and has now found it's self on Eleusis. A planet that doesn't rotate where half the earth is a frozen night and the other half a burning day. Humanity has settled on the thins sliver of livable land between the two extremes. The world is divided into Dusk and Dawn. While all of the supplies were supposed to be equally spread between all of humanity the citizens of Dawn landed first and have hoarded the technology and created a grand city to live in. The people of Dusk however lack the technology and live on the out skirts as an agrarian society providing the food for Dawn. The lack of technology also prevents them from protecting themselves from the raiders from Night, who steal their children.

This book actually has a few plots running throughout. The first is the abduction of Cora (Persephone). Which is told mostly from Cora's POV and is absolutely brutal with it's depictions of child rape and abuse. Do not read this book if these are topics you are uncomfortable reading about. Cora is taken to the land of Night and is claimed by their leader to serve as his "wife". She is picked because of her unique eye color and the odd powers to use Alien technology this seems to bring. The leader of Night wants to use his army of children to kill the aliens living on Night. These Aliens were the ones who destroyed Earth but also the ones who helped the last of humanity flee to a new world. She is desperate to escape when one day she is told she must go on an assignment to the city of Dawn where she will meet her mother. Once there she discovers more about the who the Aliens living on Eleusis are and about who she is and the power she has.

The other story line follows two genetically modified twins living in the underbelly of Dawn searching for a kidnapped boy. The clues seem to be leading them out of Dawn and out into Night.

The book switches between story lines, and characters and even POV which was confusing at times, but overall I found it well written and engaging.

DNF 24% in. I wasn’t connecting with the story and then it started getting very graphic and I decided to stop reading. The twins were cool at first but their characters felt kind of gimmicky and mysterious in a way I don’t like.
The world building was confusing and there were too many settings that seemed to have very different rules but the scenes jumped between them too quickly for me to get a handle on any one setting and I felt lost.

Review of Uncorrected Advance Reading Digital Galley

The aliens came, they attacked, they destroyed Earth.

Gathered up and resettled on far-away Eleusis, remnants of humanity live with their conquerors, ostensibly in peace. Settled along the planet’s narrow perimeter, they live in the area that circles the center of the world. On Eleusis, Dawn is one half of this narrow habitable ring, Dusk is the other. The borderlands are known as Night.

The shimmering/shifting krestge believe they hold control over the humans on Eleusis, but they remain unaware of some long-ago preparations. And they have failed to account for how the alterations wrought in some could change everything they believe they understand.

What does fate hold in store for krestge and human when, ultimately, the often-troubling years lead to confrontation?

Does humanity harbor resentment toward the krestge or have they moved past the memories of that long-ago attack when the krestge came and rained down total destruction on their home world?

And what do the krestge think and feel?


The unfolding narrative alternates between the abduction of Cora, the strange abilities of genetically-modified twins Jown and Pietyr who search for a lost boy, and the rise of a young woman with uncommon powers. Revealed alternately, occurring in one of the three habitable areas of Eleusis, and moving forward and backward in time, the stories eventually coalesce, but readers may find the presentation a bit confusing.

Nevertheless, the worldbuilding here is first-rate; the characters, diverse and interesting. Along with some important social morés . . . haves and have nots, prejudice, drugs, family dynamics . . . there’s an intriguing coming-of-age component in this evolving narrative. The stage is set for a conflict between human/post-human and krestge in what readers might consider a staple of the science fiction genre. But some unexpected twists and unforeseen events change everything, taking the story in a surprising direction.

All of these components make for a complex, intriguing story that could certainly be a positive contribution to the science fiction genre.

HOWEVER . . .

It is difficult to believe that depicting the vicious rape of a child is necessary to the telling of any story, science fiction or otherwise. These brutal scenes do absolutely nothing to advance the telling of the tale. So, why, on more than one occasion, do readers find themselves confronted with this heinous act? To say it is simply a part of the story, a component in the telling of this child’s life on this alien planet, seems to suggest that, on some level, the foreignness of this place and this culture makes this acceptable.

In truth, it does not.

Add the wanton murder of other children, and it simply becomes too much . . . the story that follows pales in the light of these horrors so nonchalantly tossed into the narrative with no more apparent concern than a discussion of Cora sitting in the kitchen eating kremer porridge.

The struggles of an alien civilization and humanity seeking to exist together on a planet far from Earth could become an amazing story, but that narrative lies sacrificed on the altar of detestable events that seem inserted into the telling of the tale simply for the shock value they bring. And that is an insult to the reader.

If scenes like these are a necessary part of the “new golden age” of science fiction, many readers will simply decide that the genre is not for them, after all. Who would blame them?

Although the book carries a warning . . . “This book is designed for audiences 18+ due to scenes of physical and sexual violence, and themes that some may find disturbing” . . . it fails to supply the essential information that these scenes of rape and violence are being perpetrated against young children.

As a result of these concerns, this book earns a lowered rating and cannot be recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley
#DestroyerofLight #NetGalley

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an advanced copy of this science fiction novel.

Jennifer Marie Brissett's Destroyer of Light if a very good, very difficult book to read. There is a a warning on the book for both physical and sexual violence, and yes there are sections that are disturbing. Plus the narrators points of view change, and a lot of narrative time jumping, which can de disconcerting in the beginning of the novel, as a reader I can see where that could cause some confusion. However Ms. Brissett is doing science fiction with big ideas and big concept. Ms. Brissett is pointing at the upper decks and going for that home run. There might be some problems with the swing, but I would rather read an author going big and trying hard, than some authors who seem to be happy with the same old narrative and plots.

Greek Myth, African history, genetic manipulation, drugs, diasporas, love, family, lies and aliens. A lot is going on here. The world is interesting, a planet giving to humanity after aliens conquer the Earth. The memory is still fresh to many of the colonists, who find themselves sharing a planet with the same aliens who conquered them, and on a hostile world, that the haves kept the best for themselves, and the have-nots farm what they can, or plan revolution.

The main characters switch time and POV and sometimes the inner voices can be a little hard to keep up with. Time also changes, but as the author uses this to explain both plot and how the world has been made, I found this not to be a problem. The story slowly unfolded as characters mixed meet and even changed names and identities.
Science fiction seems to be entering a new age. Stories seem much more inclusive, more personal and real with ideas that seem fresh and interesting. Sure it's aliens, strange planets gifted humans, but the ideas here just seem different. And engaging. I hope there are more books set on this world, and I have to look for other works by this author. Just be aware some themes are for adults, and not even for all adults.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dude, I'm going to be honest - I DNF'd this by about 15%. I'll get into why below, but there is a reader for this book, it's just not me.

Okay, let's go.

To give credit where credit is due, the worldbuilding here is cool. The idea of a cold planet with a narrow, habitable ring around the equator is handled a bit better in Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor series, but the inclusion of aliens here was cool.

It's the writing that gets me. The very first section jumps between third and first POV, with a hint of 2nd in there too surprisingly, and then we meet the twins, the most interesting characters I encountered.

The text reads like an early draft to me:

"Jown especially hated them because they smelled like nothing. And nothing smelled like nothing to Jown that is, except oil birds."

Uhh.....what?

For all that the twins were interesting enough, the way their dialogue is written was super annoying.

None of the above is "bad," it's just not for me. The story itself seemed super interesting, so if the above issues don't bug you, this might work for you.

Sadly this is not a book I think I will finish. It's just not appealing to me and as I am now at twenty five percent in and a young girl has been brutally violated I do not find myself wishing to read more. Plus it jumps about time wise constantly which isn't grabbing my attention enough.

DNF'd at 25%

Listen, I knew going into this there was going to be some sexual abuse, but I was not ready for children being raped and reading from one of their perspectives as it happened. That was my final straw. Apart from that, the writing is disjointed and confusing, the dialogue between the twins makes me cringe, and the jumps in perspective and time are jarring. I don't know what's even happening in present time because it keeps jumping around in the past. I would not recommend this book and won't be touching it again.

1 star. I did not finish this book. The narrative was disjointed and jarring, making me spend more time scratching my head and being annoyed instead of wrapped in the story.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy to review. My opinions are my own and not influenced by anyone. Ever.

The writing style of this book was too cold and distancing for me. I had a lot of trouble staying interested, and the multiple narratives did not help. The twins were the only ones that grabbed a bit of my attention with their mystery, and introduction to the world which is very well crafted, but I did not manage to go to the end of that book. This is totally personal taste, but I need to be invested in the characters when I read a book. That one might have worked better in a different medium for me.

DNF

The world building and jumping from perspective and times is confusing. However what caused me to stop reading is the continuous rape.

I'd rather not.

The writing style is one of the best I've ever read. It's the perfect balance of description and dialogue for me. I like that it's written from an outside perspective similar to The Book Thief. The connection of the characters is wonderful.

Overall this book has an intriguing spin on the story of Persephone and Hades. I will not contain spoilers in this review, I am glad that I had the chance to read it an an ARC for feedback. The book took me a little while to get into the flow of, which for me is not uncommon when reading a sci fi book, or if there are sci fi elements to a book. The story line is captivating, as you move through the story and learn about the connection between different characters.

Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett is a well written book.

In a futuristic world where Humans and Krestege ( a kind of Alien) Live together on a planet called Eleusis. You have main character called Okoni, Cora, Stefonie and more. Stefonie is unique and special she is one of the few that in their genetic coding can blend in with time and move around and experience other memories and whats it like. ( Also telepathic ) Okoni looks for these kind of people and recruits them. At one point the Krestege and Humans were enemies they currently have a peace treaty. This book was very emotional in its writing and style. The characters were one of a kind. You could feel their feelings in the writing.

* Alien race may be spelled wrong my computer may be in the mood for autocorrect...

This Arc was given to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Greek god retelling mixed with afro-futurism? SIGN ME UP.

This was honestly everything I was looking for. I've been looking for a good diverse retelling of Greek myths and this delivered, signed and sealed. This is also very adult, and I'm glad I knew that going into it. If you like Greek myth retellings that spin something on its head and leave the reader begging for more, this is the one for you.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.