Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

93 reviews

venomtancitaro's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

phaedruus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

chrysalissa's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gore, Slavery, and Violence

vvabecca's review

adventurous emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ash_reads_fantasy's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery

hufflebuff's review

adventurous challenging dark funny 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? No

5.0

Gwen has an amazing ability to tell 3 separate perspectives/story lines at once. Each one high paced and interesting keeping you enthralled and engaged from cover to cover. Strong female mains and growth/development from male main. The world is familiar but mysterious and the battle scenes bring you right down into the action, you feel like you’re in the shield wall! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, and Blood

maur_damar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery and Kidnapping

aedory's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and War

Moderate: Slavery and Torture

Minor: Sexual content and Vomit

twinkle_flavored's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Brilliant! I cannot sing the praises of this book loudly enough, why did I wait so long?!

This book hits the ground running, and will have you tearing through pages, until you realize you’ve finished, but it’s 3 a.m. and you don’t have the other book. So word of advice, buy them both immediately. 

This was the five star, epic fantasy I have been waiting for all year. Old Gods, brutal Viking battles described in gory beautiful detail, the threat and pursuit of vengeance weaving throughout. 

The amount of times I gasped out loud, or kicked my feet in joy at a prose in this book…made it worth it. The way things started falling into place during the last 1/3 of the book was just magical. Truly, gwynne is a master of his craft. This book leaves you on a cliffhanger, but simultaneously leaves you satisfied- idk how. But it is true.

Read it. Go on now, git!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Slavery

singalana's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexual content, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol