Gameboard of the Gods: Review and Interview with Richelle Mead

So…we’re biased.

We’ve been Richelle Mead fans from the beginning, you know. It’s how we got involved in creating merchandise for her Vampire Academy series. We geek out like clockwork when she releases new books, and eagerly count down the days until the next installment just like any other devotee. It’s no surprise that we would like Gameboard of the Gods, the debut novel in Mead’s new Age of X series. What was surprising, really, was WHY we liked it.  

Gameboard is a departure in many ways from Mead’s typical storytelling style. Some of the things that drew us to her in the first place – the snappy sense of humor, the quick pace, and the delicate balancing act that she maintains between whacky hijinks and genuine moments of poignancy – are downplayed in Gameboard. There are still sassy comebacks and quotable one-liners, but the humor comes more through small interactions between characters than it does through crazy circumstances. If you’re looking for angels accidently setting Christmas trees on fire, you’re not going to find it. Nobody puts ketchup on their tacos.

You won’t miss it, though. Mead may be taking her trademark humor down to a more subtle level, but it’s certainly not gone. And dialing it back a notch allows her the freedom to focus on other things that she does well – and exceed at them.

One of Mead’s greatest talents is her ability to create incredibly intricate, realistic worlds in which she sets her stories. In this respect, she’s at her prime with Gameboard. The post-apocalyptic society in which her story takes place is amazingly well detailed, yet the time spent on description is very balanced in the text: no one part of the book drags with exposition. We are immediately drawn into a world that has been shaken to its core by the ravages of an epidemic disease and the excesses of religious zealotry, gone through a rebuilding period, and is still struggling to deal with the political and social fallout.

Enter the characters. If you’re a Richelle Mead fan because you love her flawed and fascinating characters, Gameboard of the Gods is your book. There’s a large cast to intrigue you, and each character brings their own secrets, passions, doubts, strengths, struggles, hopes, and misunderstandings with them. A third person narrative allows us a wider glimpse into their respective lives, and we get to follow multiple characters through their individual parts in the larger story.

Justin March is a servitor, whose job is to monitor, debunk and sometimes shut down “cults” in a society that strictly regulates the practice of religion. Mae Koskinen is a praetorian: a super-soldier of the Republic of United North America, medically enhanced and deadly. Tessa Cruz is a sheltered teen, leaving her home and family with little warning in order to begin a new life in the RUNA.

Justin is in exile, and hears magical ravens.

Mae, after a rare display of lost temper, is facing disciplinary action.

Tessa, far from home, is attempting to adjust to a technologically advanced nation with a superiority complex.

And so, we begin.

Together, Justin and Mae’s task is to solve a series of mysterious murders that may just have to do with the very supernatural forces that their government denies, and along their journey we end up learning as much about their sorrows and their society as we do about who dunnit. Filling in on the sidelines is a complex cast of characters, each equally well fleshed out, and offering more than enough snap and substance for us to know that this is indeed a Richelle Mead novel. Also in true Richelle Mead fashion, the complexities and developing relationships of her characters allow her to create an intricate plotline in which each player is pursuing their own ends for their own reasons – and fascinating you in the process.

This is where Gameboard of the Gods is the perfect showcase for another of Mead’s strengths. Mead speaks often about her reliance on outlining: she’s an author who works best when she knows where her series is going before she sits down to write. Those who’ve read her books will recognize this process at work in Gameboard, used to full effect. This is our jumping off point, after all, and there’s an emphasis on world-building and establishing characters in this book for a reason. She’s very clearly setting things up for some serious complications down the road, where even the smallest details are potential set-ups for action yet to come. The large cast of characters merely increases the number of layers being added to the mix. And of course, there are multiple twists at the end that make us VERY curious to see where all of this is going.

So although Gameboard of the Gods is something of a departure for Mead, the core essence of what she does so well is still very much present and accounted for, and in fact is highlighted quite neatly by shifting the focus somewhat off of her typical style of humor. It’s for this reason that we like the book. We’re seeing an artist experimenting and evolving without giving up the things she does best. And because she’s still mid-series with Bloodlines, we trust that she’ll continue putting out books that will satisfy our cravings for whacky adventure woven in with amazing action. The Fiery Heart is going to be told partially from Adrian Ivashkov’s point of view, after all! But when we’re in a more serious mood, when it’s time for a more complex, detailed, and poignant read, we’ll be turning the pages of Gameboard of the Gods.

And we’ll be waiting, eagerly, for the next installment.

-Vault Guardian



Richelle Mead was kind enough to answer some questions for us:

First, some stats. How many books are you planning for this series? What kind of release schedule are they on?  

Richelle: The books will be on a yearly schedule, but I can’t say for sure how long the series will be. I have the arc and ending planned out in my head, but I usually don’t get a sense for how long it’ll be until I’m in the second or sometimes third book. That’s how it was with my other series, so stay tuned on this one!

There’s an incredible amount of detail in Gameboard – it seems as if the story and characters must have been rattling around in your head for quite some time. How long did it take you to plan this series out?  

Richelle: Variations of this story have been in the works for ages. Key parts of it came to me back in 2003, even before Succubus Blues (my first published novel) was conceived or written. I wasn’t ready at that time to write a book of this scope; I needed to develop my craft more. Back in 2011, when my son was born, I found myself with a lot of time to think while sitting up with him at night. That’s when the story began to reform, and I decided to give it another shot. Of course, actually writing something this complex as a new mother juggling a child made the process more difficult than I expected!

Gameboard strikes a different tone from your usual writing: almost more noir. What drew you to this style of storytelling?  

Richelle: It’s just a style I’ve always been interested in, mainly because it’s a new way to develop characters, and the characters are always my biggest interest in my books. Certainly the banter and action of my other novels is a great way to hone characters and their relationships, but a more serious storyline, where they must focus so sharply on their task, creates the potential for a whole new set of relationship dynamics. And that being said, I admit that if I was able, I’d probably fill Gameboard up with a lot of silliness. Alas, being set in the future, it doesn’t lend itself well to 1980s references. There’s still a lot of humor, particularly in how the characters deal with each other and their quirks.

This is the first novel that we’ve seen from you in third person. Why the shift? Did it end up being more challenging, or was it liberating?

 Richelle: It had to be third simply to accommodate the different characters telling the story. And at least for me, third lends itself better to world building. But it was certainly challenging! Very challenging at times. I’ve written nineteen other books in first, so this was a big change.

Will we be seeing an expanded role for Tessa in future books?  

Richelle: I can’t reveal what’s in store for her, but we’ll definitely still be seeing her as the series progresses. In storytelling, Tessa is what’s considered the “innocent”—the person who wanders into a new world and is able to explain it to the reader because it’s unknown to that character too. As that characters gets his or her questions answered, so do we. Think Harry Potter going to Hogwarts or Katniss arriving in the Capitol. Justin and Mae show us this futuristic society as insiders who know it and wholeheartedly subscribe to its beliefs. Tessa, having grown up elsewhere, has a different lens that’s more like ours.  



*Hey – who’s the Vault Guardian? Although she’s not an employee of Arcane Vault, the Vault Guardian works with us from time to time on special projects. She occasionally makes guest appearances on our Facebook page, usually marking her posts with a (g). Watch for her at Seattle signings!