This period of respite is, however, truly just Hadrian avoiding his responsibility and his destiny to play his part in the Quiet's grand design. Soon enough, time catches up with him and the Sollan Empire forces him out of "retirement", granting him a full pardon and tasking him with killing a "god"... a powerful entity which could be weaponized against humanity by the Ceilcin.
Of course, things are learned in the encounter, but a less-than-complete success leaves grave danger unchecked and the Sollan Empire, in a desperate and unprecedented move, invites representatives from all of humanity - even those as far removed (physically and ideologically) from humanity's center as the Extra-Solarians - to a meeting, which is part summit and part rally as Emperor William the Twenty-Third seeks to unify all of humanity in the fight against the Ceilcin. However, the Sollan Empire has a history of strong-arming its neighbors and out-right abuse and disdain for the Extra-Solarians, so this meeting goes about as well as one might have expected it to, proving to be a bit of a political powder keg.
Additionally, though the Emperor has officially pardoned Marlowe, that doesn't mean the Chantry likes him... or even tolerates his continued existence. This leads to another challenge to Lord Marlowe's Half-Mortal status... and an unexpected, yet educational meeting with the Quiet. Hadrian "finds himself" a bit, coming to realize that, while he might no longer have the drive to save the Sollan Empire or even the entirety of the human race and all of its permutations... he finds he is willing to do anything to save the life of his daughter, Cassandra, and to give her a chance at a long and happy life. It is with this renewed vigor and the Quiet's hand that he finds himself a man - renewed, remade and rededicated to the task at hand, willing to do "whatever must be done" to save all of humanity. That includes dealing with the Extra-Solarians and even returning to Vorgossos and treating with Kharn Sagara for a weapon that can kill a Watcher. Hadrian finds himself fully dedicated and ready and willing to ally himself with whoever - or whatever - is necessary to accomplish his deadly task.
Each book in this series has ended with comments directly to the reader, stating that the author (Hadrian Marlowe) understands that some might well not want to continue reading and that is fine, but that he will continue the story... which is not for all. In truth, Disquiet Gods has been the weakest book to date in the series. I'm not sorry to have read it and I very much look forward to the next book in the series, but it felt like there was less action... less advancement of the story, itself, in Disquiet Gods. There are certainly events that occur within, as well as the introduction of Cassandra, the reintroduction of several characters from previous books, with new and interesting changes in position, reveals on characters' feelings toward Hadrian, which he hadn't been privy to in his time on Jadd, and even insights into the underpinnings of the whole of creation. Yet, ultimately, this installation felt like a pivot point in the story... and while "pivotal" can make something sound important, there's not a lot of movement going on when something is simply pivoting in place. In this book, Hadrian better understands who he's fighting for, realizes what he's fighting for and goes from "retired" to "heading off to battle." Taking a page from Star Wars (the other space opera I'm familiar with)... this book sort of felt like it could have simply been a summary text-crawl at the beginning of the next book; not a "feature film"*.
All in all, Disquiet Gods does answer some questions and advances character development on multiple fronts. It feels like just shy of 700 pages is a lot of room to get things done, but this installation feels very transitional. If it were even fathomable to consider starting the series on this book, I would strongly advise against it, recommending to instead start with the first book in the series. If, then, we assume that you are reading the books in order and you've arrived here, then, yes, I would recommend reading Disquiet Gods to continue with the ongoing adventures of Lord Marlowe. Just know that it's not as action-heavy as previous books. I will say that I feel like there's a whole lot of action to come, so my expectations of the next book are higher now than before reading Disquiet Gods. Time will tell...
* He had a daughter engineered on Jadd, using his own DNA and that of Valkas, from his locket.
** Were it Star Wars, Cassandra's childhood would surely be told in a cartoon series to fill in some of the gaps.
