3/5 stars

Interesting, quirky, satirical. I think you have to be in a certain mindset and mood to enjoy this book, and it is written for a specific type of reader. Despite its humor and light tone, it took me a very long time to finish this book. The way it is written is very fun, but nontraditional. There are some fourth wall breaking, and the author experiments with different formats for reading. If that is something that sounds good to you, then you'll enjoy it. If you want a more staid, traditional mystery/sci-fi experience. this is not for you. However, you'll find out quickly if this is something that suits you right at the beginning. It's thought provoking and inventive, but you need to have a certain amount of doggedness and patience, because the plot is not easy to follow (at least for me!) Overall, I thought it was an interesting read and would recommend if you're looking for something outside of the box. Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy!

Reading Acts of God was an extremely chaotic experience. Not only is it among the best absurdist humor I’ve read, but it includes storage instructions, a worksheet that asks the reader questions about the story, fourth wall breaks carried out by an actual wall, AND it played a joke on me. All firsts for me.

Dr. K is the smartest person in the world, but a horrible tragedy broke him and his interest in anything but his illegal simulation project. He’s got a whole lot of baggage, probably too much baggage to be the god of a simulated reality. Though the book is silly, Dr. K is extremely wounded and his grief is intense. There’s nothing like laughing at something completely ridiculous and then turning the page to the most beautiful passage about grief and death and crying as you read it.

I want to say it’s hard to call Detective P. Manjunath a detective, but he does investigate and detect, so I guess it’s accurate. He is one of the weirdest MCs I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. He reminds me of Leslie Nielson’s characters in his parody movies. This line from Airplane came to mind often: “Surely you can’t be serious?” “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley!” because Munjunath’s delivery and the way he took everything so literally was so similar to that kind of humor. It actually felt a bit nostalgic because I watched Airplane about a million times when I was a kid.

Obviously in absurdist fiction, there’s going to be a lot of… absurdity. There were a couple points where the goofiness went on a little too long, but I have to say it didn’t happen nearly as often as I thought it would. It’s honestly impressive that Kanan Gill was able to write something so incredibly silly that still has an impactful message.

I really enjoyed the madcap adventures of Manjunath et al. and Dr. K and seeing how their actions affected each other’s worlds. I’m excited to get a physical copy so I can annotate it and fill out the worksheet.

I wanted to like this, I did. I love all of Vonnegut’s works, so much so that I took an entire college course on just them. This novel is just not laid out in any coherent way; all of the pieces of a great sci-fi novel are there, just somewhere buried under piles and piles of other things that do not matter at all. And I do understand that is what Gill is going for, as so is stating in the beginning, but it just did not work for me. It just didn’t feel weird to me, like it was missing some key piece. It felt more like when a student glues a bunch of random things to a poster board and calls it their science project.

With comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, I had to check this one out — and I'm happy to report that for a debut novel, I think it held up!

Bumbling private detective P. Manjunath is on the case, trying to figure out who is targeting scientific institutes across the world — and why. Little does he know that his universe is overseen by Dr. Krishna, the highest level of genius of the universe one layer up and the only one of his status. Manjunath shouldn't be able to meddle so much with Dr. K's plans for his world, but as he and his assistant Heng wade deeper into the mystery surrounding the attacks on researchers, they somehow do. Mayhem ensues, punctuated with thought-provoking reflections on the consequences of playing God and the search for meaning within a fate that may be predetermined.

With philosophical musings and a lot of humor, this was a fun romp. Gill is prone to tangents that occasionally get a little too frequent and long, but if the reader accepts this and is along for the ride, it shouldn't be too much of a bother. The plot gets a bit unwieldy at times, but for a debut I was still impressed with how all the strands came together. I wouldn't believe every comedian would be able to pull-off a successfully funny and interesting novel, but Gill has done it here. Big thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone for the ARC!

Phew, where to even start with Acts of God?! There is just so much to this story, but also, I don't want to give a single thing away, but I guess I have to tell you some stuff? Well- I'll start with this: I am not familiar with the author's comedy, but I plan to rectify that! I immensely enjoyed his sense of humor throughout the book, so I absolutely need to familiarize myself with his other ventures.

Here's the thing about Acts of God: If you don't read the synopsis fully before jumping in, you might be lost. I was a little lost, I admit. I think this was partly because I didn't recall what the synopsis is about, and partly because the eARC format didn't have any dividers. I guess I will have to buy a finished copy to see if it does (look at me, making excuses to justify buying books I have already read). But once I realized what was going on, I was all-in.

The premise is obviously incredibly thought provoking, as I certainly have wondered a time or twenty if I was in a really crappy simulation. The author also does an excellent job of increasing the thought provoking nature of the story by dropping a ton of very well-written lines that absolutely made me think even more than I already was. I'll even say some of these lines felt quite profound, and the mix of humor with some really serious life stuff worked well for me, as it made the story feel balanced. I feel a little confused by the ending, so if you have read it, let me know so we can talk! I have thought about this book since I finished it, which to me feels like the mark of a really solid story!

Bottom Line: Incredibly thought provoking but also really witty and engaging.

Acts of God by Kanan Gill is Genius Category B (I'm not 100% clear on the hierarchy of genius levels). I was laughing out loud before chapter 1. Gill's story is a mix of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. I found it both insightful and highly entertaining. Often I would find myself rereading parts either because it resonated so deeply with me or just because it was ridiculous and confusing. My only strong critique was the grammar, specifically the paragraph breaks. Otherwise, this was exactly my cup of tea. If you love satirical literature with a quirky narrator that enjoys breaking the fourth wall, please give this book a read.
-Marissa

“An Act of God causes emotional disruption to members of the Lower Reality”< Hey, that’s basically the name of the book!
I’m not sure how to even begin explaining a synopsis or my thoughts on this fantastic book. Is it too early in the year to say this is my favorite book of 2025?
Anyway, here are some short thoughts, because you obviously need to read this…
1) This book is reminiscent of the author, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams writing style. Very humorous.
2) This book flip flops a lot with different stories within the overall story. (For the most part, it will make sense.)
3) It is funny, thought-provoking and perhaps…even pure genius.
Read it now. That is all. Now I need to go watch Kanan Gill’s stand-up comedy specials.

#ThxNetGalley #KananGill #ActsofGod

I am a Vonnegut lover. Born and raised that way by my Vonnegut loving mother. So when I saw this title compared to Vonnegut's writing, I immediately requested it on NetGalley. Dear reader, I am sad to report that I do not think this writing style mimics Vonnegut's. I found this writing style to be much closer to that of Lemony Snicket's in the Series of Unfortunate Events series. The narrator is a character within the book, but it takes a while for the narrator to reveal their true identity. From there, I felt as though the narration was strange. The narrator did not narrate as though they were that character. Instead, there continued to be a sassy and philosophical third person narrator who was only re-connected to the story when it was necessary or convenient for the plot.

The author attempts to mimic writers like Adams and Vonnegut by adding philosophical ramblings and diatribes into the story, but they do not flow with the speed of the plot. Kanan Gill is first and foremost a standup comedian who is taking his first big step into novel writing. In the world of stand up comedy, a well placed pause can make or break a joke. It feels like this book doesn't recognize that very powerful fact, and instead tries too hard to overload the reader with jokes and philosophical questions.

Gill tackles subjects such as religion, grief, ethics, and found family within this story. I thought that the ending was absolutely amazing and tied together the plot in a way that I didn't expect. However, the sassy quips had burnt too much goodwill at this point. I was sad that I hadn't gotten to the ending sooner, while simultaneously frustrated that it had taken this long.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this advance copy in exchange for an open and honest review.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., this book is not. I didn’t make this comparison—the book’s promo does, along with comps to Neil Gaiman (booooo, by the way), Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett. Indeed, when you see a book compared to so many heavy hitters, you should probably increase your skepticism rather than you hype. Acts of God is an inchoate mess of a novel, though I rather suspect Kanan Gill might welcome such an excoriating statement, and he or his publicists are welcome to blurb me on his next book. I received an eARC from NetGalley and publisher Blackstone in exchange for a review.

Acts of God follows two parallel, connected stories. In one universe, P. Manjunath is a private investigator on the trail of a globe-spanning mystery. However, it turns out his universe is just a simulation that exists within the universe of Dr. Krishna, who has been simulating Manjunath’s universe illegally. Krishna lives in an absurdist, almost Kafka-esque dystopia built on a principle of absolute transparency, which of course Krishna has violated. Both stories are narrated by a fourth-wall-breaking sentient wall tile.

Look, on the surface, I should love this. I love Vonnegut and Adams and Pratchett. I enjoy absurdist humour and metafictional commentary. The simulation hypothesis can occasionally be done well.

To Gill’s credit, as a work of science fiction, Acts of God is pretty good! There’s some trenchant commentary about AI, the meaning of life, culture, etc., buried deep within this trainwreck of a plot. The simulation hypothesis physics is explained fairly well. The whole society of nuclear winter refugees is interesting.

However, in his attempt to make this book into a weird kind of romp, Gill has done the literary equivalent of throwing a bunch of paint at a canvas and hoping the result is a masterpiece. Sometimes it is! Sometimes—most of the time—it’s just a mess. Pratchett’s secret lay in his deeply compassionate characterization: even the most minor characters, for him, were people who had these full, reified lives, even if we never saw them. Most of Gill’s characters barely have names—and that is fine, not every character has to be fully realized. But, you know, at least give us more backstory for people like P. Manjunath? Or his assistant?

Vonnegut wrote from a place of trauma—“Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time” is a great opening line, and it also signifies Slaughterhouse-Five’s abiding allegory for PTSD. I can see how Gill might be attempting to follow in these footsteps in Acts of God, where Krishna is grieving and processing the death of a colleague who was, in many ways, the closest thing he had to a friend. Yet the reader has very little to ground themselves in here, for the society Gill describes is so foreign it might as well be alien—and there is nothing, nobody around, not even the wall tile, who can really interpret for us the way, say, Arthur Dent can do in Hitchhiker’s Guide.

I want to bring one more author into the chat: Samuel R. Delany. Because he’s also great at writing weird science fiction and fantasy, and his stories are often set in societies far different from our own. Nevertheless, he grounds his characters in the real—it’s just the real for them—in a way that allows readers to grasp the fundamentals. (Except for Dhalgren, of course, because that’s just … pfft. James Joyce wishes.)

Anyway, if I’ve spent most of this review talking about other authors, it’s just because Acts of God didn’t leave enough of an impression for me to critique it very deeply. I don’t want to be harsh. Maybe my sense of humour has just contracted over the past decade. Maybe this is a hilarious book that have many doubled over with laughter! If so, that’s fantastic. But it absolutely did not work for me. Much respect to Gill for swinging big and writing a story that is very much his own, but in this reader’s humble opinion, he has a long way to go.

Come for the story, stay for the ride. The author is a fairly well known stand up comedian in India and the humor in the book stays true to form. I had been hearing a lot about this book for a while and was glad to get my hands on it. Looking forward to more!

More of a 3.5 I think.

The author is Ofcourse a well known figure in India with his standup comedy and I’ve always been a fan of his pretentious movie reviews series. So when I saw that he had written a sci-fi series, it almost felt unbelievable. It’s already so so rare to find a desi sci-fi being written, that too from India (and not the diaspora) and on top of that, it’s someone we know - it felt too good to be true. And I definitely had the expectation that this would be absolutely hilarious, in line with his humor.

The humor is there. The weird and the absurd, the various tangents and ramblings the story goes into, the incessant philosophical themes throughout - it all felt very signature Kanan Gill but there just was something missing. The beginning was pretty confusing and it took me a while to get used to the verbose writing style and while I didn’t feel like giving up, it also wasn’t something I couldn’t put down. It almost came into its own towards the final 100 pages, where plot points converged and we got to understand the characters better and got a peek through their hearts and minds. The world created here is interesting, futuristic but still gives you a very real lived in feel, something familiar and possible in our reality. The characters are quirky and vulnerable but also have a mystery about them which takes a while to unravel, but I think I ended up liking the sentient wall the most.

Overall, this was both fun and exhausting but I’m still glad that it exists and I got to read it. I only hope it encourages more Indian writers to delve into the SFF genre and crave many more wonderful worlds for us to explore. Recommend this one to readers who love satire and philosophy and wackiness in their sci-fi books.

How to describe this book? It is complex, interesting, engaging, humorous, thoughtful, with interesting concepts to explore and philosophical and scientific ideas to let rumble around in your head. But what is it about? Scientists create a simulated universe, and the story follows both the scientists and the simulated universe. Every universe they create runs and ends the same way, destruction. Can the scientists nudge it in a different direction? Can they do it in secret since all their work is illegal? Are the scientists in a simulation? Will their universe also end? And why is the same guy in each simulated universe disrupting the scientists' work? There is a lot here, and for me, it required a lot of concentration to put all the pieces together. But it was worth it. This book is going to live in my head for a while as I think through all the bits. Oh, and the book gets pretty meta in places where the narrator addresses the reader directly and makes fun of novels and writing. So some humor, some hard thinking, and a fun interesting story.

*Acts of God* is a wild, philosophical adventure that blends humor and existential musings in a futuristic world turned upside down. Private detective P. Manjunath's quest to uncover global mysteries collides with the machinations of Dr. Krishna, the God-like figure in a utopian future, resulting in a series of absurd, mind-bending events. Kanan Gill's debut is a laugh-out-loud, thought-provoking romp that challenges the very nature of reality, identity, and the human condition.