Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

13 reviews

kylieqrada's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

Ba-da-ba-ba-ba, I’m loving it

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meant2breading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

My first ever Norse mythology and John Gwynne book. Did not disappoint! While I didn’t love what happened to a couple of the characters, I understood how it was important to the larger story. How could you not root for Orka and all of her badassery? I also read this with audio and Colin Mace was an outstanding narrator!! He made me feel like I was there for every minute of each POV,  including all the cheese eating (Svik is fantastic), shield walls, and absolute GORY skull crushing. Gwynne sure writes some of the best fight scenes. Looking forward to finishing the series! 

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venomtancitaro's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Very slow for 75% of the book but the last little bit really hooked me. Everything finally came together and I’m hopefully the next book will be more story focused rather than character focused.

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aedory's review

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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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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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plume_de_renarde's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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jcooper221's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Amazing world building but man, what a terrible book. Story is boring, characters are all basically the same and have almost identical problems to overcome. Around the third time a significant character was
kidnapped I realized Gwynne doesn't have any idea how to motivate characters to move from one place to another. Three POVs was definitely too many, he should have merged the two characters in war bands. I started to mix up which side characters belonged to which war band.


The worst blunder in this book was the lack of narrative motion. Nothing important happened in the first third of the story, Gwynne could have cut it out and nothing important would have been lost that couldn't be filled in with exposition. Minor spoilers here, but
there is no resolution to any of the plot arcs or conflicts raised throughout the story. It was about halfway through the book I realized I wasn't reading a standalone book, but part 1 of a story that's too long and suffers from too much meandering plotting from an author clearly struggling to fill up the blank space between critical plot points.
Sorry buddy, but your idea isn't good enough to stretch across three books.

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hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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ohloulou's review

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

4.5


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josiah17's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

Update 11/3/24: Having finished the series and rereading books 1 and 2, I believe Shadow of the Gods is actually my favorite Bloodsworn book. I think it's such a strong introduction to the gritty world and the characters, probably the most balanced with POV interest for me (post reread), and ultimately very memorable. I love this book.

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Reread 9/8/24:

Just as good on a reread, if not better. The worldbuilding is amazingly mystical. This series is just purely awesome and enchanting. I appreciated these characters even more now, especially the beginning of Elvar's arc. I can't wait for The Fury of the Gods next month!!!

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Original review:

4.5 ⭐

Fantastic book. This is my first introduction to John Gwynne and Norse-inspired fantasy, and boy he didn't disappoint. This was gritty, burtal, mysterious, and extremely captivating. Gwynne writes character interactions and action sequences impeccably. I became quickly invested in 2/3 of the main POV's, especially Varg, who is my favorite character. 

The Norse-inspired world was incredibly interesting. I'm looking forward to Hunger of The Gods, and hopefully reading the rest of Gwynne's works next year. 

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