Reviews with content warning for War - The Shadow of the Gods

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The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

64 reviews

ash_reads_fantasy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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aedory's review against another edition

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4.0

At first the switching POVs, unfamiliar terminology and (initially) slower pacing of this book made it hard for me to get into it. I almost gave up on it a few times, but the vivid and beautiful writing style kept me engaged enough to keep going - and I'm glad I did.
I became incredibly attached to all the POV characters (but not really many of the side characters tbh) , and am excited to see their growth in the next book, as well as (hopefully) seeing their stories overlap.
Though the pacing remained a bit too slow for my liking, it really picked up in the final quarter or so and I was completely hooked from that point until the end - and even would've careened straight into the next book had it not been very, VERY late lol.
Now that I'm more familiar with the style and world of this trilogy, I hope the next two books will be a bit easier to dive into :)

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riththewarluid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

TL;Dr I enjoyed this book a lot and would recommend this book to anyone looking for an extremely violent Norse-inspired romp with incredible world building, who doesn’t mind excessive non-English phrases/words or reading “thought-cage” over and over.

Pros: the world building is SO cool, and I really felt immersed in a fantastical mirror of our own earth. Loved the hints of international politics we got with Gravka and Sulich (but also so many questions about why Sulich is with the Bloodsworn?). Orka’s storyline is my favorite, as I feel like she is the most complicated of the three main characters and is the most dynamic to read about. The last few paragraphs of the book broke my heart!! Varg and Elvar were interesting but just felt more trope-y and I didn’t see a ton of actual growth with them; maybe in the next book. I’m curious to see what happens with Elvar in particular in the next book, and I’ve got real questions about Ilska and the Ravenfeeders??

Mostly about why [name redacted] is pro-liberation of the tainted but is ok with the kidnapping and enslaving of tainted kids????

Cons: this book is clearly primarily a set up for the rest of the series. Because each of the character’s stories start in media res you don’t have a clear sense of where they are coming from or where they want to go to, until maybe the last few chapters of the book, which makes the story hard to get into. The writing style is very adjective and metaphor heavy, which is fine but not always my cup of tea. The thing that bothered me the most was the use of “thought-cage” to just mean mind. It felt clunky as opposed to immersive, and it was used so much that it got annoying. There’s also a lot of foreign language used, which doesn’t bother me except when it’s not translated (or isn’t easy to figure out based on context), which is often the case for various spells. But I was reading this on a Kindle, so maybe there’s an easy glossary that I just didn’t see.

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sabrinakreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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singalana's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Maybe I read this book at a bad time, but getting through it felt like a chore. It’s a shame because it’s in no way a bad book!

The Shadow of the Gods is the first instalment in a Norse mythology-inspired fantasy series by John Gwynne. This is not his first series, but I haven’t read this previous work. I’d classify this book as grimdark - if you’re a fan of epic battles, grisly deaths and vengeance-fueled characters, this book might be for you.

In this fantasy world, the gods have killed each other in a fearsome battle and nearly destroyed the world in the process. Those with the gods’ blood in their veins are hunted and enslaved. We follow three main characters; Orka, Varg, and Elvar, who all have their quests and secrets.

Two out of the three main characters are women: Orka, who lives in the wilderness with her family, and Elvar, who is a member of a mercenary group called the Battle-Grim. Varg is trying to find out what happened to his sister. All the characters are interesting, and I found myself caring for them, especially Varg and Orka.

The world is rich and interesting, and it’s revealed bit by bit. I enjoyed the writing in every other aspect except one: the author loved to use the word “thought-cage”, which in this instance refers to the thinking mind. The word appeared in almost every chapter, and every time, it managed to jolt me out of the story.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this book: the blurb is absolutely useless and tells nothing about the book. If I had seen this in a bookstore, I would not have bought it based on that. Alas, I got it as a gift, so here we are. Perhaps the lack of a blurb hurt my reading experience because I had no idea where we were headed with the story. Since this is a series, the first book was pretty much a set p for the series. Even though a lot happened, I felt the book really started to intrigue me only in the last third or so.

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