Q&A: Hannah Kaner, Author of ‘Godkiller’

We chat with debut author Hannah Kaner about Godkiller, which is the explosive #1 internationally bestselling fantasy debut in a new trilogy for fans of The Witcher and Gideon the Ninth.

Hi, Hannah! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hello! I grew up in the countryside in the north of England, and now live in Edinburgh in Scotland by a river. My pronouns are she/her, and I’m queer, in love, and have been writing since I knew how to hold a pencil.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve been making stories for longer than I can remember. From climbing trees and conversing with the faeries, fancy-dressing adventures (and forcing friends and family to play along), to waging war with swords on my cousins. I consumed books like they’d turn to smoke in my hands, and was notorious for telling tales. It was only the next step for me to begin to write them down.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

This would be like trying to find a piece of hay in a haystack. My parents used to read to me, Edward Lear’s nonsense poems, my dad would go wild with the voices.

Maybe the first book I remember reading was because it got me in trouble. I took a book from the upper class’s bookshelf rather than the nursery, maybe The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper? Still one of my favourites. Of course, I would have struggled with it, but I knew a few words, and I got a right telling off from my teacher. I remember the absolute terror and fury that I wasn’t allowed to just. . . read a book? My parents were told, it was a whole thing. I think that inspired me to write more than anything else, because I felt that I was stuck with stories I didn’t want I would write my own.

Your debut novel, Godkiller, is out September 12^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Big, badass woman kills gods.

What can readers expect?

The story is a quest at its core, because I love a quest and the fellowship that comes from it. You get to move through a world and explore it with our chracters. The world itself is varied and complex, queer norm and gender equal, and it has a strong theme of found family, love, faith and resilience.

Where did the inspiration for Godkiller come from?

I wanted to write a book in the tradition of older fantasy books, but write it fresh. And at its core I wanted to write a powerful, difficult woman. The position of women, womxn, and tran women in this world is under constant threat; our bodies, our lives, our pay, and our pain is under scrutiny, and every corner we turn could contain danger.

This comes out in many fantasy books as well, where women and queer folks are often threatened with assault, imprisonment and isolation. I wanted to write a book with a queer woman at its core who was exactly who she was, and had no reason to be afraid. I wanted her to be irreverent, and unmovable, and what’s more irreverent than killing gods? So the book was born from these thoughts.

However, there’s a lot more inspiration in the bedrock: the trade routes around Arabic, Mediterranean, African and North European empires, the medieval cult of the saints, the capricious and brutal gods of Greek, Roman and Celtic folklore, and traditions of storytelling.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I love the gentle moments, like havens in a storm. Where folks gather around a campfire and break bread, or swim under the stars, and all the threat of the world falls for a moment away. I think this is where you see the real heart of people, and are so important to the warmth of the text.

On the other side of the equation, the moments of betrayal are both brutal and delightful to me. I can’t say which specific one(s) without spoiling, but those moments where the world falls out from under a character’s feet are so interesting to write and explore.

And, finally, my favourite scenes are the delicious combinations of sex and fighting. Apparently I’m unusual in some author groups because I just love a fight scene, perhaps because I’ve dabbled in martial arts over the last thirteen years, and have an interest in historical military strategy. For me, both love and fight scenes are such an intimate clash or combination of wills; a meeting; a dance. 

Can you share with us a little teaser for Sunbringer, the sequel to Godkiller?

If Godkiller is A New Hope, then Sunbringer is The Empire Strikes Back. I take everything I have made out of the characters in book 1, and then I make them all worse.

What’s next for you?

Inevitably, the third book in the trilogy, which is yet to be named. I’m also interested in exploring a trilogy about the darker sides of war, a kind of fantasy Fullmetal Jacket… but we’ll see.

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Always. If you like sweeping, speculative fiction with a love story at its centre, I loved The Surviving Sky by Kritika H Rao, or something more of an epic and brutal fantasy adventure, I’ve got to say The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi. They’re the kind of books that remind you why you love reading so much.

Will you be picking up Godkiller? Tell us in the comments below!