Book Review: The Goddess In the Mountain (Millennium Man)

Reviewed by Timothy Thomas

A unique addition to the post-apocalyptic genre, thoughtfully exploring religious complacency, coercion, and corruption

The Goddess in the Mountain is book two of the Millennium Man series, following Thomas the Vitruvian, one of an untold number of individuals with projected thousand-year lifespans, each with a particular expertise that they consider to be of greater value than the others. 

The series is non-linear, intending to jump around to various points of significance in Thomas’s life to tell a larger story that revolves around the collapse and subsequent rebirth of society, so do not be surprised if you find yourself lost in time, regardless of whether you’ve read the first installment. You can still enjoy it no matter when you are.

In this entry, Thomas is approximately 310 years old. Having lived to see the cataclysm caused by the asteroid Apep’s collision with Earth and its subsequent chaos, Thomas now wanders the planet looking for other Vitruvians, and he’s found one. Entombed in an iron cage within a mountain where her devotees work tirelessly to free her from its clutches lays Atah, a goddess regaining her strength. 

This convenient mythology, crafted by the Vitruvian Magdalena Ordonez (Maggie, for short) to keep the people complacent and submissive, feeds her vanity and keeps her insulated from the outside world, sparing her from having to share her gift with humanity to rebuild civilization. Can Thomas convince her otherwise, or will the realization that her society is more a prison than a shield come too late to avoid his own entombment in the mountain of Atah?

The Goddess in the Mountain is a quick, enjoyable read packed with commentary on the nature of manipulation and religious fanaticism. Its portrayal of a post-apocalyptic society in which the religious imagination of a populace is being manipulated and controlled for the personal gain of the few feels honest, and the sentiments expressed through Thomas’s perspective in response to it is relatable. This gives the story some grounding which, in combination with the lack of fantastical elements, helps make it feel realistic.

One downside of the short length of the book is that the characters lack some depth. I would have liked to understand Thomas and Maggie’s motivations and history more, to gain greater insight into their dynamic. With the series set to explore more of Thomas’s life, I’m hopeful and certain that if this has not already been addressed in the first book, it will be addressed in a later installment. 

With The Goddess in the Mountain, DeLauder has succeeded in writing a compelling, self-contained story that fulfills the promise laid out by the intriguing larger narrative. It’s easy to read and quite exciting to explore this world through Thomas’s adventures.

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