Godstorm by Solitaire Townsend

‘Mothers who have come before. Daughters who have died in blood. Sons lost to the dark. Hear me’

‘This startling alternative history takes us to a newly-imagined world… The result is a vivid, ferocious adventure’ Kim Stanley-Robinson

‘A highly original, vividly-imagined fantasy Roman Empire where oil is power’ Ruth Downie

A Female Gladiator’s Vow. A Stolen Child. A Storm to End Empires

In an oil-fuelled Roman Empire which never fell, Arrow – a gladiatrix turned governess – must rescue Livy, the child she never meant to love, a girl who could tear down the world.

When Livy is abducted during a devastating Godstorm, Arrow must unleash years of the gladiator training she’d sworn to forget in order to save her. Defying her owner, a heartless Consul, Arrow turns to her ex-lover and the illegal druid underworld in a desperate attempt to rescue the girl she has tried not to think of as her own.

Her search will take her across Londinium, a city of petrol-powered chariots, to the pagan Old Town, and eventually the edge of the known world: the Amazon, where destiny and destruction intertwine.

Facing battle and betrayal Arrow must choose: reclaim her past as a killer-or risk everything for the child who might call her ‘mother.’

She is the Sword.

GODSTORM – an epic fantasy that is Red Rising meets Circe with a feminist twist. In a petrol-fuelled Roman Empire which never fell, Arrow, a gladiatrix turned governess must rescue the child she has loved as her own, a girl who could tear down the world.

About the Author: Solitaire Townsend is a climate expert by day, and storyteller by night. After decades of teaching governments, global brands and even movie studios how to communicate sustainability, she now has stories of her own to tell. She regularly blogs for Forbes, has a popular TED talk, and wrote the critically acclaimed non-fiction book The Solutionists. While some of her characters might not know that they are ‘LGBTQIA+’ or ‘neurodivergent’, Solitaire does because she’s also both. She lives in London, and once visited an oil-rig in the Amazon, which caught on fire. Visit www.solitairetownsend.com

15 Jan 2026
 

Godstorm: The Most High Octane and Original Fantasy Debut of 2026, where Red Rising meets Circe by Solitaire Townsend ISBN 9781835012604