God & the Conquered

by Ezra Arndt

A human stolen by angels during the Rapture is gifted to The Lord Almighty as a plaything. Only this human fights back as God the Father toys with them. Will they escape and make their own destiny or will they break down and worship at His feet?

Genres: Queer, Fantasy, LGBT

Paperback

First published June 23, 2023

About the author

Queer indie editor/author of the gothic and grimdark.

Reviews

[Linn]

"The Lord Almighty growled." is a sentence I never thought I'd read lmao. This lacked what I appreciate most about biblical erotic horror - lyrical prose, and explicitness without the need to cross into vulgarity.

[DC Guevara]

Equal parts evocative and horrifying, God & The Conquered is a bite sized exploration about what happens to individuals after the Rapture, after the Earth has been decimated and abandoned to the frocks of death and decay, and we see a new interpretation of God and His angels like never before.

Arndt, in the miniscule amount that it took to read this impactful short story, managed to create a God equal parts grand as he is menacing, spewing vitriol and agony with every waking moment of our nameless protagonists time. And in keeping said character nameless, it creates a thin line between the narrating voice and the reader absorbing the story.

GOD & THE CONQUERED is a tour-de-force of holy punishment, saccharine decadence, and what it means to defy God and all of his creations. It is an excellent, haunting read to continue my journey down spooky season.

[on storygraph (macclown)]

While I really enjoyed the setting of this and was pretty intrigued with the introduction to the characters, I feel like it fell off once the smut was over (and honestly the smut wasn't as good as I thought it would be). I think maybe with a bit more fleshing out, maybe more of an explanation of the motives of the characters or some more build-up to the finale, this could have been fantastic! Worth a read if you're into queer, angelic short stories though!

[Brianna]

I am not the target audience regarding religious allegories or whatever. However, the smut was A+. I’m not one for analogies, metaphors, allegories, whatever. My brain just doesn’t work that way. But I can appreciate the smut and dirty bits.

[Ladz]

This is a story that speaks directly to all the kids who wish they could tell God to go f*ck Himself for the things done in His name. Angry, sexy, and feral in the way the best queer art is.

[arin]

oh, this was fucking exquisite. there were a couple of moments where i think better words could've been chosen (they just threw me off the vibe for a sec) but fuck. i'm just. this was everything.

[S.S. Genesee]

WEW man. Such an eerie short story. I could FEEL the anger, resentment, mystery, and unexpected lust so vividly. It was delicious and I LOVED IT!!!

[may]

3.5 ⭐️

wow I wasn't expecting that... I love the take on god

[kienn]

love a little blasphemy... short and sweet and i love the concept

[Jake Vanguard]

What a fantastic thing to read. The perfect length to show us God sucks.
Loved every single moment of it

[Geo]

This was blasphemous, but silly. A little juvenile creatively. This was an erotic short story about God forcing himself on a nonbeliever. This was a short piece of fiction, one that I’m sure is the author using this piece as a vehicle to explore a literal interpretation of what it feels like to have religion forced upon you. Having God rape the protagonist was simultaneously an interesting metaphor and extremely unsubtle. This functioned as a metaphor for how religious domination in society is used to break and manipulate anyone who exists outside of that system and attempts to subjugate any and all who oppose that framework. I think my younger self would have appreciated this more, and I read this at the wrong time. Maybe I’m biased as my own personal journey with spirituality has only just begun this year. I am no stranger to criticizing religion and Christianity specifically, and I have many of my own criticisms, I just felt like this idea could have been done better, but this is an easy idea to fall into corny territory. Regardless, I like what the author was saying and what they were trying to do with this story.