Small Gods

In a secondary-world theocracy, the worship of a great god has become tangled with institutional power, fear, and coercion. A novice with an unusually strong inner life becomes the only person who can hear a deity trapped in the body of a tortoise.

As the novice and the god are forced into contact, they move through a world shaped by priests, inquisitors, philosophers, and competing truths. Their journey pushes both of them toward a wider understanding of belief, authority, and what religion has become in practice.

The narrative uses their relationship to test ideas about faith versus structure, sincerity versus dogma, and the responsibilities of both gods and humans. The story builds toward confrontation, revelation, and a moral reckoning that many readers describe as funny, dark, and surprisingly thoughtful.