A review by naimar
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

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

1.5

I really wanted to like this book. I’ve heard so many good things about this series, and the concept sounded really interesting. However, this book just moved way to slowly for my tastes. Usually I enjoy multi-POV fantasy books, but I could’ve done without a lot of the Varg and Elvar chapters. Orka was the main character that I was invested in. It just felt like it moved very slow. The worldbuilding was really interesting and cool, but the story itself was too slow for me and the characters were overall not compelling enough. I think this was partially because their backstories are kept as secrets for so long. Also, this is a personal preference, but I didn’t love the amount of blood and gore in this book. I’m generally fine with fantasy violence, but this one was just a little much for me. I really wanted to like this series but I won’t be continuing with it. I feel sort of like I’m missing something because this seems on paper like a book I would really like, but I just didn’t enjoy it at all. 
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