colt_allen1068's review against another edition
5.0
This was my first book in the grimdark genre, and I was thoroughly impressed! I was a little hesitant at first, but I could not stop reading! There are a lot of POV characters, but I think it helps keep the story moving and really opens up the full narrative. This book is graphic, well written, and an epic story. I just got books two and three, and cannot wait to dive in!
aeirana's review against another edition
4.0
4.5/5⭐️
In my opinion this book is extremely underrated— on Goodreads and in general. Not a lot of people talk about this series and they should! It’s incredible!
I must say this book has everything I love: politics, war, religion and brutality (so much damn gore)!
Being a grimdark writer and lover, I think this book has it all. I love the banter, characters and pacing and I cannot wait to read the next instalment!
My only nitpick is that some chapters are very short and there are a LOT of POVs. I’m saying there’s like 100 chapters (all alternating POVs) in this barely 400 page book! That’s a lot.
It took me some time to remember all the characters as well, but maybe this is just me being an idiot. About 1/3 way through the book it really didn’t bother me anymore.
This book is incredible and you should definitely give it a try!
In my opinion this book is extremely underrated— on Goodreads and in general. Not a lot of people talk about this series and they should! It’s incredible!
I must say this book has everything I love: politics, war, religion and brutality (so much damn gore)!
Being a grimdark writer and lover, I think this book has it all. I love the banter, characters and pacing and I cannot wait to read the next instalment!
My only nitpick is that some chapters are very short and there are a LOT of POVs. I’m saying there’s like 100 chapters (all alternating POVs) in this barely 400 page book! That’s a lot.
It took me some time to remember all the characters as well, but maybe this is just me being an idiot. About 1/3 way through the book it really didn’t bother me anymore.
This book is incredible and you should definitely give it a try!
lolatarantula's review against another edition
1.0
Tropey, bloated, boring, standard Brit-author, GameofThrones-esque high fantasy. Even includes the colonialism classic of "bad guys are an unorganized tribal group that sacrifice humans to old Gods and live in longhouses" while the other side lives in your stereotypical fantasy city with your usual fantasy districts stumbling through their usual fantasy political intrigue (but sometimes there's shit and fart jokes so it must be grimdark). If it wasn't for that, I'd almost give it two stars but there was zero diversity, and whatever passed for world building was surface level at best. I could look up any fantasy book published in the seventies and see the same level of nuance.
Anyway, it's not creative or interesting and the number of characters is overwhelming, made worse by uninspired character building in the first place. Plot felt like an afterthought used to tape together a bunch of random fragments pulled out of a hat. All the characters were the same. Like they were all being portrayed by one mediocre actor on short notice.
Anyway, I enjoy a European style fantasy novel as much as anyone, racist undertones aside, but this is just stock. There's no spark to hold my interest or anything else to set it apart from the rest.
Anyway, it's not creative or interesting and the number of characters is overwhelming, made worse by uninspired character building in the first place. Plot felt like an afterthought used to tape together a bunch of random fragments pulled out of a hat. All the characters were the same. Like they were all being portrayed by one mediocre actor on short notice.
Anyway, I enjoy a European style fantasy novel as much as anyone, racist undertones aside, but this is just stock. There's no spark to hold my interest or anything else to set it apart from the rest.
womanon's review against another edition
5.0
This book was absolutely stunning.
In the beginning I was worried it was going to be difficult to follow with all the different POVs, but it wasn't, I found it perfectly easy to follow. Anna, you did a good job getting rid of those four POV characters.
Whenever a new POV is introduced, in the very first sentence it's made clear who it is exactly. Also, the locations at the beginning of each chapter are great, you can just look it up on the map, it'll help visualise the story better.
It is brilliant how Anna takes you by the hand and guides you through the story, her story-telling skills are impeccable, and it is not too hard to follow.
Last, Anna not going out of the way to add some gore to the story is a massive pluspoint. For me it made the story much better.
I can't wait to do a reread, and I can't wait for the next installment. Please read this if you are a Game of Thrones fan. You'll like it, I'm sure.
In the beginning I was worried it was going to be difficult to follow with all the different POVs, but it wasn't, I found it perfectly easy to follow. Anna, you did a good job getting rid of those four POV characters.
Whenever a new POV is introduced, in the very first sentence it's made clear who it is exactly. Also, the locations at the beginning of each chapter are great, you can just look it up on the map, it'll help visualise the story better.
It is brilliant how Anna takes you by the hand and guides you through the story, her story-telling skills are impeccable, and it is not too hard to follow.
Last, Anna not going out of the way to add some gore to the story is a massive pluspoint. For me it made the story much better.
I can't wait to do a reread, and I can't wait for the next installment. Please read this if you are a Game of Thrones fan. You'll like it, I'm sure.
henriklukee's review against another edition
3.0
2,7 stars.
Meh. Very grimdark with the good and evil gods going at each other with people as their pawns. I usually like this style of fantasy but the world just didn't feel right to me. I also felt like there were too many characters even though they all had their part to play in the story. Will not be reading the next parts of this series.
Meh. Very grimdark with the good and evil gods going at each other with people as their pawns. I usually like this style of fantasy but the world just didn't feel right to me. I also felt like there were too many characters even though they all had their part to play in the story. Will not be reading the next parts of this series.
kitvaria_sarene's review against another edition
5.0
This was bloody brilliant! Bloody both as gritty and as amount of awesomeness...
This is grimdark at is best! It is the closest thing I ever found to ASOIAF in tone and scope - it does read easier though. With Godblind I didn't feel like I would miss important stuff, if my attention waned for even just one second, and still it managed to be epic, have a lot of POVs and characters and an expanding world.
I loved the characters, and enjoyed following them and their growth throughout the books. They felt very realistic and changed over the course of the story. I especially enjoyed the good mix of female and male characters, that were very divers and not stereotype in any direction... (neither damsels in distress, nor ice cold assassins, neither heroes in glorious perfection, nor villains just for the sake of it.)
The world was set invitingly, and I'll be glad to return to it with the next installment - as I listened to the audiobook, I sadly didn't get to have the wonderful map in the Hardcover version, but I already ordered one for my shelf! I need this one to look pretty on there...
Some politics, but it never got boring, different factions and religions to follow and gods trying to get back to earth after being banished...
The plot was complex enough to keep me engaged and interested, yet easy enough to follow so I didn't feel like I needed a flowchart to be able to follow the story. It was varied and has different subplots, so it never gets boring.
The prose was perfectly fluent and I never once was thrown out of my reading "flow" due to a bumpy phrasing, or chapter breaks at the wrong moments.
It is proper grimdark, so not for the faint of heart. There are human sacrifices, torture, attempted rape, and all kinds of violence in Godblind. But they felt like a natural part of the story, and not at all like they were added just for the sake of it. And they are important for character development.
All in all I can't really recommend it highly enough - what an astounding debut!
This is grimdark at is best! It is the closest thing I ever found to ASOIAF in tone and scope - it does read easier though. With Godblind I didn't feel like I would miss important stuff, if my attention waned for even just one second, and still it managed to be epic, have a lot of POVs and characters and an expanding world.
I loved the characters, and enjoyed following them and their growth throughout the books. They felt very realistic and changed over the course of the story. I especially enjoyed the good mix of female and male characters, that were very divers and not stereotype in any direction... (neither damsels in distress, nor ice cold assassins, neither heroes in glorious perfection, nor villains just for the sake of it.)
The world was set invitingly, and I'll be glad to return to it with the next installment - as I listened to the audiobook, I sadly didn't get to have the wonderful map in the Hardcover version, but I already ordered one for my shelf! I need this one to look pretty on there...
Some politics, but it never got boring, different factions and religions to follow and gods trying to get back to earth after being banished...
The plot was complex enough to keep me engaged and interested, yet easy enough to follow so I didn't feel like I needed a flowchart to be able to follow the story. It was varied and has different subplots, so it never gets boring.
The prose was perfectly fluent and I never once was thrown out of my reading "flow" due to a bumpy phrasing, or chapter breaks at the wrong moments.
It is proper grimdark, so not for the faint of heart. There are human sacrifices, torture, attempted rape, and all kinds of violence in Godblind. But they felt like a natural part of the story, and not at all like they were added just for the sake of it. And they are important for character development.
All in all I can't really recommend it highly enough - what an astounding debut!
bluepinkfeather's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
This book had some potential at the beginning, but it was sadly squandered. The worldbuilding was completely lacking (besides there being the 'evil' vs 'good'), and there were far too many characters introduced for us to care about. These characters, in my opinion, also lacked depth and were sometimes complete cliches due to a lack of proper development.
The writing in this book, although mostly competent, at times felt like it was an adapation of some cliched medieval fantasy video game. Chapters were annoyingly short at times, which gave a bit of a disjointed reading experience. I also felt that the use of violence in this book was extremely gratitious at times. I finished reading this book, and had absolutely no desire to continue the rest of the sequels.
For my final gripe:
The writing in this book, although mostly competent, at times felt like it was an adapation of some cliched medieval fantasy video game. Chapters were annoyingly short at times, which gave a bit of a disjointed reading experience. I also felt that the use of violence in this book was extremely gratitious at times. I finished reading this book, and had absolutely no desire to continue the rest of the sequels.
For my final gripe:
Spoiler
There is a significant plot twist in relation to a character, but I also felt that this was not adequetely addressed: the Prince doing a 180 and deciding to brutally torture his older brother as a sacrifice to who is essentially the 'dark lord'. This is something, to me, that requires a reasonable background, perhaps the brother did something awful to the Prince that warranted such brutal treatment? But in my reading, it was none. Characters simply did things as convenient for the plot, although in my opinion, a good plot is one that is driven by characters acting in believable ways. </spoilder>malglories's review against another edition
4.0
"Then fuck you all, she thought, I'll save myself.”
Godblind is a wild, gory, sweet, and surprisingly funny ride. Here we have a world in which two gods, the Red Gods, have been banished, and their worshippers with them; called the Mireces, those who still follow the Red Gods live in the mountains, engaging in petty raids, and as you do, torture and sacrifice. They desire to bring the Red Gods back to the world, and as these gods are fed by pain and blood and death, war is their purpose. They seek to reclaim Rilporin, from which they'd been exiled, which now follows kinder gods and which is ruled by an ill king.
We follow several viewpoint characters: a seer who's slowly being torn apart by what he sees, caught between both kinds of gods; a slave who escapes from Mireces and comes into her own; a captain in the Riporian army, who fights to save his land; the bloodthirsty, proud priestess of the Mireces; and many, many others.
Just to be clear, Godblind is a grimdark novel. It is violent, it is bloody, it is shocking at times in its goriness and repulsiveness. Curse words are the least of your worries here.
But this book is also addictive and fast-paced, excellent in its development of female characters both young and old, and conscious of social issues such as sexism and homophobia. One of the characters discovers his sexuality in such a tender way, and another is one of the only female soldiers in her army, who takes no shit and suffers no fools. There's abundant court intrigue (and everyone loves court intrigue), mysterious destinies hinted at and fulfilled, and the shadows of gods lurking in every corner.
As for faults, one of the biggest things that stood out was worldbuilding. I wish the cultures and societies had been more fleshed out, especially between the Rilporians, the Watchers and Wolves, and the Mireces. Their differences are minor and not very compelling. Also, the names: you have characters named Rillirin and Galtas and Sarilla, and then there's a side character named Joe. Uh, no. Also, I think the pacing was somewhat off in the second half of the book, especially in terms of relationships between characters.
All in all, though, Godblind is a thrilling debut, and Anna Stephens shows so much promise, as does her series. As a final, very important note: I'm so unbelievably happy that more women are writing fantasy, and here's to many more to come.
Godblind is a wild, gory, sweet, and surprisingly funny ride. Here we have a world in which two gods, the Red Gods, have been banished, and their worshippers with them; called the Mireces, those who still follow the Red Gods live in the mountains, engaging in petty raids, and as you do, torture and sacrifice. They desire to bring the Red Gods back to the world, and as these gods are fed by pain and blood and death, war is their purpose. They seek to reclaim Rilporin, from which they'd been exiled, which now follows kinder gods and which is ruled by an ill king.
We follow several viewpoint characters: a seer who's slowly being torn apart by what he sees, caught between both kinds of gods; a slave who escapes from Mireces and comes into her own; a captain in the Riporian army, who fights to save his land; the bloodthirsty, proud priestess of the Mireces; and many, many others.
Just to be clear, Godblind is a grimdark novel. It is violent, it is bloody, it is shocking at times in its goriness and repulsiveness. Curse words are the least of your worries here.
But this book is also addictive and fast-paced, excellent in its development of female characters both young and old, and conscious of social issues such as sexism and homophobia. One of the characters discovers his sexuality in such a tender way, and another is one of the only female soldiers in her army, who takes no shit and suffers no fools. There's abundant court intrigue (and everyone loves court intrigue), mysterious destinies hinted at and fulfilled, and the shadows of gods lurking in every corner.
As for faults, one of the biggest things that stood out was worldbuilding. I wish the cultures and societies had been more fleshed out, especially between the Rilporians, the Watchers and Wolves, and the Mireces. Their differences are minor and not very compelling. Also, the names: you have characters named Rillirin and Galtas and Sarilla, and then there's a side character named Joe. Uh, no. Also, I think the pacing was somewhat off in the second half of the book, especially in terms of relationships between characters.
All in all, though, Godblind is a thrilling debut, and Anna Stephens shows so much promise, as does her series. As a final, very important note: I'm so unbelievably happy that more women are writing fantasy, and here's to many more to come.
edaguniz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5