Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

49 reviews

meant2breading's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Slavery, Torture, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual content

joliebean's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lillimariexo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

mlottermoser's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Gore, Slavery, Trafficking, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Cursing

venomtancitaro's review against another edition

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

vvabecca's review against another edition

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

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

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

cluelessjr's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail