I swear I think that was the name of the book, pretty sure it was the first of a trilogy, I read in the mid-80's to early 90s. All searches for that name come up with several more recent books of the same name, however, and none with a plot even remotely similar.
In the one I am talking about, the protagonist is a lovely young woman who basically has a sort of amnesia, who arrives "out of the wasteland", as it were, with no explanation as to how she survived the devastation in the north, where apparently everyone was wiped out possibly a decade ago.
The city has "a thousand gods" and the politics to match, since number of and faith of worshippers seems to translate in to actual god power. She befriends simple innkeeper types who show her kindness, but they are endangered by a group of hired thugs who claim they are there for the "live entertainment" after their star entertainer goes missing.
It's clear they are there to purposely give the appearance of a spontaneous mob, but the girl goes onto the stage (she's never performed before) and proceeds to go into a trance. She has no memory of what happens, but others tell her afterward that she danced in a way no one had ever seen before and used some sort of power that not only mesmerized but made the thugs afraid of her.
She also is friends with the city's greatest thief for some reason, but he comes to a tragic end later on.
Later on the dance becomes more significant when the city is inundated with God power and about to be destroyed from the huge outpouring of power. She again goes into a dance and channels the power more safely, by dribbling it into the cities many gods. She is able to bleed off enough excess power into the gods she considers fairly benevolent to keep the whole city from being razed.
In the sequel, she's out searching for her brother who she has remembered, accompanied by an old warrior of their race that she somehow rescued by mentally bonding him before he killed himself out of shame from surviving the devastation of his house. She finds old ruins and you get a bit more about their race but it mostly remains a mystery, along with most of her past. I don't know how many sequels were after that.
Does any of this sound familiar? I swear the name of the first one is Godslayer or something similar, but it's NOT the ones I have found in searches since then. It's not the Jacqueline Carey Sundering one and was earlier than that anyhow. Same goes for James Clemens. Has nothing whatever to do with any games that I know of, Spawn comics, etc.
Is this plot familiar to anyone at all?
In the one I am talking about, the protagonist is a lovely young woman who basically has a sort of amnesia, who arrives "out of the wasteland", as it were, with no explanation as to how she survived the devastation in the north, where apparently everyone was wiped out possibly a decade ago.
The city has "a thousand gods" and the politics to match, since number of and faith of worshippers seems to translate in to actual god power. She befriends simple innkeeper types who show her kindness, but they are endangered by a group of hired thugs who claim they are there for the "live entertainment" after their star entertainer goes missing.
It's clear they are there to purposely give the appearance of a spontaneous mob, but the girl goes onto the stage (she's never performed before) and proceeds to go into a trance. She has no memory of what happens, but others tell her afterward that she danced in a way no one had ever seen before and used some sort of power that not only mesmerized but made the thugs afraid of her.
She also is friends with the city's greatest thief for some reason, but he comes to a tragic end later on.
Later on the dance becomes more significant when the city is inundated with God power and about to be destroyed from the huge outpouring of power. She again goes into a dance and channels the power more safely, by dribbling it into the cities many gods. She is able to bleed off enough excess power into the gods she considers fairly benevolent to keep the whole city from being razed.
In the sequel, she's out searching for her brother who she has remembered, accompanied by an old warrior of their race that she somehow rescued by mentally bonding him before he killed himself out of shame from surviving the devastation of his house. She finds old ruins and you get a bit more about their race but it mostly remains a mystery, along with most of her past. I don't know how many sequels were after that.
Does any of this sound familiar? I swear the name of the first one is Godslayer or something similar, but it's NOT the ones I have found in searches since then. It's not the Jacqueline Carey Sundering one and was earlier than that anyhow. Same goes for James Clemens. Has nothing whatever to do with any games that I know of, Spawn comics, etc.
Is this plot familiar to anyone at all?
