The Shadow of the Gods

Let's get this out there before we start, this is my first John Gwynne book. I have been meaning to read his books for quite some time, but unfortunately, commitments usually got in the way and delayed me from starting his books.

When people usually mention John Gwynne, there is always an undertone of reverence whenever his stories are mentioned, so I was eager to read this book, and this seemed the perfect time to become acquainted with John Gwynne's works.

The story is the start of a new storyline that is not based in the same world as his previous books and is set in a Viking world, full of battle-hardened warriors, Jarls and monsters (If there's something that is going to get my attention, it is definitely monsters!).

The Shadow of the Gods revolves around three main characters; Varg, Orka and Elvar. Each with their own separate storylines, running side by side. Each one showing different aspects of the world of Virgid.

With Varg, we follow him as he joins the warband the Bloodsworn (the very same Bloodsworn on the front cover that this saga is all about!). We share his experiences as he initially joins the war band and then his adventures as he travels the land of Virgid.

Independently, of this, there is Elvar's story. Elvar is a member of another warband, the Battle Grim. Elvar's thread opens up the world further, showing us another perspective of the world that the characters reside in. Elvar's story does take time to gain momentum. However, when it does, her part in this saga is gigantic (In fact, my jaw literally dropped and I found myself going Whooooa, like a big kid. Gordon Bennett, I wish I could tell you more, but you need to read it and I don't want to spoil it).

And finally, we have Orka! Upon reading many of the reviews and comments about The Shadow of the Gods, Orka's story is the one that has had the most resonance with readers, and when you read the book, you can see why. Orka is such a brilliant character, she has both warmth and depth, and is a proper badass! She is a woman fueled by vengeance And she will stop at nothing to enact it, she's like a force of nature.

One of the many strengths of this book is the rich and complex characters that populate The Shadow of the Gods. However, besides the main protagonists of the story, there is a dearth of individuals who make up the supporting cast. Each one of these adds to the texture of the book. Characters like Svik, who delights us each time he is on the page, especially when he waxes lyrical about his love of cheese. Which had me in peals of laughter.

This book worked on so many levels. Gwynne's world-building is so gorgeously crafted and immersive. In ‘The Shadow of the Gods', John Gwynne throws the reader into an expansive world made up of monsters and cities built on the skeletons of God's. It is a brutal world, ‘a world of tooth and claw, where life is battle',

However, not only that, but John Gwynne keeps you enthralled even in the quiet moments. For instance, when Svik tells the story of a time he was captured by a troll and engaged him in an eating contest. I was as engrossed at this story as much as the Bloodsworn sat at the campfire.

It's amazing how he interjects the furious battle scenes with moments of humour and comradeship, that grip you just as much as the massive, bloody fight scenes.

Let's talk about the battle scenes! Oh my goodness, John Gwynne writes some of the most blood-pumping battle scenes that I have ever read. When he writes a battle scene, you can almost hear the clash of steel reverberating around you, smell the perspiration of warriors next to you and feel the jolt of metal as sword hits shield.

I constantly marvelled at John Gwynne's masterful storytelling, I found myself unable to lift my head from the page. It's books like this that show the wealth, depth and scope of stories written in the fantasy genre and keep me begging for more.

With his new book The Shadow of the Gods, John Gwynne shows us that the pen is indeed mightier than the seax, as he swathes his way to the top of everyone's to be read list in this must-read fantasy book of the year.

Firstly, the cover of this book has to be the single best fantasy cover I have ever seen. I really want to get a print version of it! If you judge a book by a cover this one would be one of the greatest! Does the book live up to the cover? For the most part it does a pretty good job.

This is a Norse inspired epic fantasy. We find ourselves following 3 different characters - a retired warrior, an escaped slave and warrior trying to make her name for herself. Through them we explore the world Gwynne has created, where the remains of gods lie where they fell after an epic godswar. A lot of Norse words and titles have been worked into story giving it a very strong nordic flavor. As someone who lives in Norway and speaks some Norwegian it was interesting to pick up on some of these, although some have been utilized better than others (some names do sound a little bit strange when read with a knowledge of what they actually mean!)

The prose itself is very readable, the characters engaging and the story epic. I really look forward to the next book!

DNFed at 35%.

I was so excited for this book due to its premise and the high-rate reviews. I wanted to like it, but it ended up being a disappointment for me.
I will start with the positive aspects, for which this book still deserves a couple of stars. First, it is a well written book, well-thought and with graphic descriptions. Unfortunately, that's it for me. Not even the dragon was a good ground enough to keep going.
Why it did not work for me?
1. Plot: absent. Practically, nothing happens. Each chapter is about a battle of some sorts. I can argue of course that something might happen later on in the book and I just missed it. Yes, true. However, even in the hughest-rate reviews the lack of plot is mentioned and that did not give me any hope to go on.
2. Characterization: that's probably the main reason why I abandoned this book. We followed three characters, but they all sound pretty similar and besides for their name at the beginning of each chapter, I could not really say who was talking. Plus, I did not feel any connection for the characters. We are not told their motivations, so that I could get an impression of what the story could lead nor to feel any emotions for their choices.
3. World: the world did not catch my interest. The old gods are now dead and their bones are valuable, dragons feed on teeth. Ah. The author makes use of norse-inspired and partially invented words, of which I could not always find the meaning on the internet and this made my reading experience pretty frustrating. Sometimes, I could figure it out from the context or from viking-inspired TV series but was not always sure if what I imagined matched what the author meant. A glossary would have been of great help.

Even if this book did not work out for me, I will still give the author a chance and read his other series. maybe that will work better for me.

The moment I saw a gigantic dragon on the cover, I knew I needed to read this one.
The book has 3 main characters doing 3 different things that somehow end up tied to each other. Orka is a woman living with her husband and their son on an isolated farm, though it's obvious she is hiding something. Varg is an escaped slave trying to find a way to take revenge for the murder of his sister. Elvar is a warrior in a mercenary group, trying to find relics of long dead gods.

In a way, I am a bit disappointed this isn't a 5 star read for me; I was super excited and everyone seems to love this one. I have read one book by the author previously, though I don't remember much, so I have to get on that. My expectations weren't based on being a gigantic fan of his. Now, don't get me wrong, I still liked the book and some things about it were just great.
The action scenes are fluid. Sometimes when authors go too technical or too long-winded, I kind of zone out. There, I said it, action scenes can be a bit much. Not here. There were a lot of physical fights, people using axes and shields, mostly. They worked well.
The world is modelled after Nordic cultures and societies. Again, a good call. Even though it's getting pretty warm here, the descriptions were evocative and I could almost feel the cold and snow. Concepts around the gods worked fine and by the time we actually get to see more of them, it all makes sense and works. Now if you are not into other languages being used in the story, not always translated fully, you will not enjoy that, but that's about it.

Two out of the three main characters were cool. It's always refreshing to finally have a protagonist who is not a child or young adult. Orka is an established wife and mother, she knows where she is going and what she is doing. She and her family are loving and there is no typical “the husband is always abusive” type thing. It was cool to see them being self-sustaining as well.
Varg is also fine. He is interesting because he makes mistakes. Of course a former slave is not all great when it comes to social norms between free people, he also lacks knowledge and skills others have. The development of his character make him sympathetic. The way he bonds with his new group makes him endearing. Where Orka is practical and almost cold, Varg has these very human moments.
Then there is Elvar... The one that kinda sorta flopped for me a bit. Her story is the good ol' “I don't want to be a wife or whatever, I want to be a warrior”. It's one of those go-to motivations and tropes for uninspired female characters that are supposed to make me feel all powerful, but are just one note. Her part of the story is saved by the interesting things her group does. So she isn't too special, but the storyline works out.

Now I will talk about the few things I didn't love about this.
Did we need the very repetitive descriptions of every single character that shows up for two seconds? They had braids and beards, having axes. Cool. I don't remember which black-haired woman with a braid and an axe was which and I doubt it matters. The repeating words were sometimes very noticeable.
Why is every second warrior a woman? That was never realistic. No, an average woman still can't keep up with average men when it comes to pure physical strength. There is nothing wrong with admitting that, I am kind of annoyed by the fact we can't say that, because it's supposed to be insulting. It's still not. Some female characters are above average, they have special powers, but you can't claim that when it's literally every second freaking warrior. Don't buy made-up things like how totally every single viking woman was a warrior.

All in all, it was a good read, I will pick up the second book when it's coming out.

My book club billed this one as "reading Skyrim," and I think that's pretty spot on for better and worse. The characters and setting are all pretty excellent with great world building. I especially enjoy viking warrior mom even if I kept misreading her name as Okra instead of Orka. Honestly, I appreciate everything Gwynne does to subvert the patriarchal norms of historical fiction and saying, this is still fiction. This is fantasy. Let's just make a society where the genders are more or less even because we can.

The plot, however, is meandering and constantly interrupted by random encounter fight scenes. Fun to play as a game, less fun to read. And those fight scenes are gory to a level that I just don't enjoy. It also suffers from being only half a book, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to pursue the sequel right away. We shall see, but overall, a unique piece of norse-inspired fantasy though not entirely my cuppa.

Oh this was such an excellent book. After a long time have I read such a fresh new fantasy novel. The world is so different than what I'm used to with the usual epic fantasy novels I read.

I absolutely loved this. It started off a bit slow, but once the action kicks in, it's relentless. The last few chapters are absolutely intense.

4.75 stars rounded up!

What a great start to a high fantasy trilogy. Loved that it blended in some Norse themes which led to great vibes for me.

The story centers around three main characters and I felt each one had great characterization. Most side characters also felt strong but there were a few that fell flat and could have used more development.

Not really the authors fault, but I had some struggle with some names being really similar which made it hard for me to track who was who. That's really on me though.

It also slightly dragged for me around the 2/3 point. However it didn't last long.

I really loved this book and can't wait to read the sequel!

”we are Bloodsworn, bound to one another. Stand or fall, we are sworn to each other. That is our strength”

I enjoyed this book so much! The characters, the Norse world, the stories. I've always been fascinated by the Vikings, though I don't know as much about them as I would wish.

And, as a Swedish person it was fascinating to see the words and names that I could trace to Norse languages (not that I'm an expert in any sense of the word), and trying to figure out why it's vaesen, but Sälla, Frøya but Störr.

I will definitely be reading more by John Gwynne.

A good solid norse-inspired story, albeit with one or two too convenient story twists that don't appear to serve much purpose other than to get the story from A to B (the rescue by a giant raven, which also happens to drop in certain characters was particularly egregious). Despite these misgivings, I am tempted to give the sequel a try.

I'm speechless, as someone who's never read anything by John Gwynne (not for lack of trying), I'm impressed by the beautiful world building and complex characterization. Gwynne's previous work had too many character point of views for me to follow having three characters in this series seemed more manageable plus I am now very much intrigued by norse mythology and we'll probably only read epic fantasies inspired by norse mythology unless it's queer of course lol. All three perspectives / characters were so different and so intriguing in their own ways I cannot wait for this saga to continue.

I really enjoyed this first installment of a new fantasy series by John Gwynne. I am new to the author and haven't read any of his other books, but hope to rectify that soon.

This book focuses on three main characters and that is what really pulled me into the story. They are each very unique and it didn't take long for me to feel invested in their lives. The world-building and plot were solid and I look forward to the next installment.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC.