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Last God Standing
Written by Michael Boatman
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot (March 25, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 085766395X
ISBN-13: 978-0857663955

Last God Standing came as something of a surprise. Written by Michael Boatman of Spin City fame, it initially seems like a light hearted look at what might happen if capital G God decided to incarnate himself as a somewhat nerdy human named Lando Cooper but still had to deal with fighting gods and demons from other pantheons.

And it is light hearted. Mostly.

Light hearted that is until about half way through when Boatman takes the story into some unexpectedly dark places. There’s still a rich vein of humour present throughout the book, but anyone expected a read with no consequences is going to be in for a shock. There is a lot of death, a lot of killing and a very deep look at the nature of reality from God’s point of view.

Despite looking at the world from Yahweh’s perspective, Lando is sufficiently self-deprecating (and tellingly, out of his depth) that the story keeps up a good sense of tension throughout.

It’s not perfect; there’s a long patch where there is a forced change of perspective that I found jarring, even though it did fit in with the narrative. There are also a few times where it feels a bit too easy for Lando to jump back into being all powerful. It would have been great to see more of the creative problem solving that crops up elsewhere in the book rather than just a raw power smackdown.

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Ultimately, as much fun as the story is, it’s the dialogue that carries the day Last God Standing. The conversations between Lando and his equally well named friend Yuri Kalashnikov had me laughing right from the start, and Lando’s arguments with his hare brained father and psychologically unbalanced mother are both hilarious and oddly sweet.

There’s also a second story in play. For all the god vs God action going on, the love story between Lando and his badass girlfriend Surahbi never feels forced or tacked on, and it gives the whole book a very grounded centre from which to launch itself into some very weird places. Towards the end of Last God Standing Lando/God is faced with a series of problems that he can’t use cosmic powers to fix, and I appreciated the way that Boatman handles the unravelling of those problems. In the end it’s a very human solution to a very cosmic series of problems.

The ending suggests there could be a sequel in the works. I’m not sure where Boatman would take Lando in the next book, but if it’s even half as fun as Last God Standing, I’m in.

Reviewed by Andrew Jack

Last God Standing


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Andrew Jack

Andrew Jack

Andrew Jack lives with his wife in Christchurch New Zealand and has been misusing the written word for most of his life. He even got his first rejection letter from Random House at the age of four, who kindly suggested he learn to read and write before resubmitting. A life long martial arts enthusiast, Andrew spends his time getting beaten up by his friends, writing like he’ll starve if he doesn’t and trying to stop his cats from destroying his house.