gods of jade and shadow by silvia moreno garcia

Their rivalry ends with both their mortal proxies consigned to Xibalba for a deceptively simple contest: walking the Black Road to the Jade Palace, with the lives of the twin death gods and the fate of the world as the stakes. The root of the gods’ rivalry lies in Vucub-Kamé's lust to restore the bloody sacrifices and glories of Mayan and Aztec times, which Hun-Kamé is content to leave in the past. Throughout their journey, they must deal with the machinations of the god's brother and his inhuman and human allies, particularly Casiopea's cousin Martín, who serves Vucub-Kamé much as she does Hun-Kamé. As Hun-Kamé becomes increasingly mortal, he and Casiopea start to fall in love with each other, even though both of them know they cannot be together. Their parasitic relationship powers their quest, as Casiopea sacrifices more and more of her vitality to Hun-Kamé, and he in turn takes on more and more of the attributes of mortality. Their journey takes them throughout Mexico, from Yucatán to Veracruz, Mexico City, El Paso, and Baja California.

Once he is whole, he hopes to retake rulership of Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, from which he has been deposed by his brother. Bound to Casiopea, the god enlists her in his quest to regain his missing body parts, which his twin brother and rival Vucub-Kamé has scattered throughout Mexico and left in the keeping of sorcerers, demons, and other supernatural entities. A shard of bone pierces her thumb, restoring Hun-Kamé to a semblance of life. In a forbidden chest in her grandfather's bedroom, she discovers the bones of the Mayan death god Hun-Kamé. At eighteen, Casiopea works as a servant for her grandfather, dreaming of escape. She is especially tormented by her spoiled, bitter cousin Martín Leyva. After her father dies, Casiopea Tun and her mother move back to their native Mayan town of Uukumil in the Yucatán, where she grows up as an unwanted poor relation in her wealthy grandfather's house. The story is set in the late 1920s as Mexico emerges from its revolutionary era into the Jazz Age. The first British edition was issued in trade paperback by Jo Fletcher Books in February 2020. It was first published in hardcover and ebook by Del Rey Books in July 2019, followed by a trade paperback edition from the same publisher in February 2020.

Gods of Jade and Shadow is a historical fantasy novel by Canadian-Mexican novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Gods of jade and shadow by silvia moreno garcia