I came late into John Gwynne’s last series. I sorry I waited as long as I did, but at least I had the whole story waiting for me. Now, however, I’m stuck waiting for the next book in THIS series.
In Shadow of the Gods, Gwynne creates a new world, based around Viking culture. It is lush and vivid.
The characters are fleshed out and real. Under the author’s deft hand they almost come off the page.
I can definitely say that I am looking forward to the next book in this set with great anticipation.

To be honest, I went into this book blind and strictly off of my peer (book blogger) reviews. I am really glad I did because it has become my favorite way to read books lately. It did make things a bit more intense and surprising.

This book focuses on three main characters: Orka, Varg, & Elvar.

Orka is by far my favorite in this book. I don’t know if it’s for the fact that I have a son and I just related to that aspect of her story. I would do what she did, no regrets. She’s ruthless and has one goal- to find her son. One of the things I found most interesting about her characters, is how much her son had an influence. Honestly, this kid had so much wisdom at his age and he taught his mom a lot. There are few things that he brings up to her that she later practices. It makes the world of difference in what happens and who ends up helping her when she’s in a tough spot. He shows so much compassion and mercy that I think that translated well for her to apply, in certain situations. The struggle she feels from trying to reign in her full force warrior to showing compassion is something I enjoyed about her. I can say, her story had the most impact on my emotions.

Varg’s story on the other hand is one that I struggled the most with. I’m not sure if it wasn’t because I didn’t relate to anything or just that his story felt a little boring to me. There are times that it just drags on and nothing happens. By the end of the book, I did see how his story connected and appreciated it a bit more. I still wanted more from him though. I think that’s something that can happen in the next book.

Elvar’s story was interesting and full of shock at times. I did have times where I kind of disconnected from her and her story was just flat. I have to admit that I was way more interested in Uspa and her story. I want more from her story in the next book. She saved a lot of the chapters for me. I think with Elvar, I needed more growth as a character. She’s just after battle fame and I wanted a little more from her at the end. There is a lot of potential in the next book though.

All in all, the characters were good but I found myself losing interest in them at certain points. I do see how there is a larger story coming together but it takes a long time to get there. I think that’s why it slowed my reading pace down a bit.

The story itself was compelling. The writing was good if at times it was rather slow-paced. I think with the characters losing some steam at times, it made my pace slow down a lot. I don’t mind a slow burn book but this is a bit slower, so keep that in mind. I do think it would have been a bit easier if we would have had a glossary too. I know, I’ve seen this complaint a bit. There’s a lot of things I didn’t understand and we had no glossary to help out with that. It would have made a big difference.

The last 20% of the book picks up. The ending was really good. So much is happening at once and the climax was great! I didn’t see that coming and it was a brilliant end to this book! I will say, there’s nothing that ties up neatly, so keep that in mind too.

Overall, this was a great opening and I will be continuing the series. I need to know what happens with Orka’s story. I know, a lot of people love his previous work and I can’t wait to jump into those too.

Possible Triggers:
Death | Violence | Mutilation | Graphic Gore

Characters:
This book follows 3 main POV’s (Orka, Varg, and Elvar). Really it follows a group of people that revolve around those POV’s, which is even more amazing because you get a lot of awesome side characters fleshed out. John Gwynne weaves all the storylines expertly - when you read it you will KNOW.

Usually here is where I go about writing some of the characters I really enjoyed and why, and I WANT to do this, but I also don’t want to give anything away from the awesome slow reveal you get while reading the book itself. So instead… There are underdogs, strong female characters, renowned warriors, new recruits, and all manner of fighting prowess and age groups galore. If you are looking for some specific kind of character, chances are you will find them in this book.

Positives:
+ Frost spiders, trolls, tennur, giants!!!!! It’s like an entire bestiary up in here that I have not had the pleasure of thumbing through before today. So many details of so many species, both familiar and completely new. It was an absolute breath of fresh air to read about so many unfamiliar awesome monsters/beasts.
+ The scenery is just WOW. Each new place you read about is more amazing than the last. So much detail. So much beautiful imagery. John Gwynne paints such a beautiful brutal world in the mind's eye. You could fill an entire coffee table landscape art book of the amount of jaw dropping, inspiring places he writes about in his world. Actually, can we have a beautiful landscape art book?
+ I love the way that the story flows, slowly at first and then picking up speed like white-water rapids careening towards a waterfall. The ending was fantastic.
+ “Heya” and “thought-cage” will never not be in my vocabulary now.

Negatives:
- The only negative is that i don’t own a physical copy of this book in my hands right now and that is, of course, no reasonable negative. Note, i wrote this on the 3rd...it is now the 4th and i absolutely have a copy now.

Final Thoughts:
Holy heck mates, hold my thought-cage. This was actually my very first foray into a John Gwynne book and lemme tell you… I was absolutely NOT disappointed in any way. Sometimes when I see gigantic raving reviews of authors that I haven’t read yet, i get really worried about reading their book, because what if i don’t feel the same way too. Slap me senseless and gimme all his books mate; i was wrong, wrong, wrong and now i have a gigantic backlog of books by him i simply MUST own and read. This book in particular though, wow. So epic! So much battle! So many new creatures i was not familiar with, and others i knew of but by other names. So many cool characters! So far, this is hands down, my favorite read of the year. 5 stars! I finished it yesterday and have already called a few of my mates to gush about how excited I was about reading it. Do yourself a favour and get a copy so you can be blown away.

<I>Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.</I>

After a fantastic initial chapter that seriously gripped my attention, this hugely anticipated book fell pretty flat for me, I'm sorry to say. While I didn't find anything wrong with Gwynne's writing from a linguistic standpoint, the actual content had trouble keeping my attention after the first few chapters. Gwynne is definitely an intense world-builder, but that was where most of the problems can in for me. Most chapters in the first half of the book are so focused on descriptions and background information that the story, and its often by the numbers plot points, began to feel like a mere afterthought. '

The sheer number of clothing descriptions in particular became a real issue for me. Every single new character (and ever recurring character on a new day) has to have the minutiae of their clothing described. Every. Time. Which could be interesting if not for the fact that pretty much everyone is wearing the <I>exact same thing</I> with minor details changed. I know this might seem like a trivial thing, but literally every couple of pages is another "slightly different" outfit description. Usually preceded and/or followed by a lengthy scenic description. And when you're waiting for a dragon or a god or SOMETHING to finally arrive on the scene, this gets pretty old pretty fast.

This combined with the lackluster plot, tension-less fight scenes (you know immediately who the winner will be almost always), and typical character types took this from a book I desperately wanted to love but instead desperately struggled to finish.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley for a fair and honest review.

The book started slowly and I was a bit unsure of the whole norse theme and the constant switching of viewpoints. I was convinced, for a while, that there was a time element to it, showing us a previous viewpoint. But then, the story came together, the characters become more defined, the action and plot ratcheted up and the webs came together.

By the end of the book, the action was constant, twist and turns were coming thick and fast and all the threads were woven into a coherent and exciting whole.

The worst part of the book? The cliffhanger ending and the wait for book 2! Definitely worth a read!

Although I haven’t finished this book yet I wanted to send some feedback as the book will be released tomorrow. I am enjoying this book a lot though it is kind of slower paced, though that is similar to a lot of epic fantasy books. Orca and Varg are my favorite povs. I know this is a series I will continue and definitely a book I will be looking to buy a physical copy of.

8.5/10

What a brilliant book. for those who have red faithful and the Fallen, you know what to expect. Gwynne doesn't disappoint.

This is a Norse mythology inspired book and follows three main characters, Orka, Varg and Elvar. Though we switch between PoVs, the books has a nice flow to it. the world building is fantastic as usual and it's easy to get immersed and lost (which I did btw) in it's splendor. Not just the three mentioned, but all the characters are all unique and have their own personalities making them stand fresh in mind even after reading. Not just the characters, the relationships are well done too. We are drawn into the cortex of the story and never realize how deep we are in, until too late. Fantastic!

As with Gwynne, he doesn't shy away from making readers cry and this is no exceptions. Like any well written book, this seems to emit some kind of dust that makes my eyes wet. Strange that!

I heard someone describe this book as an "epic", and that's annoying because I wish I could describe it like that.
This book is a true epic, a classic epic, a tome of epic story and proportion.
The Viking theme is refreshing, as is not knowing shit about anything. Who is the talking centipede with a human face sworn to protect a child? I've read too much about Greek and Roman and Irish fantasy to have to wait to find out, but again, the suspense is refreshing.
**I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars!

The Shadow of the Gods is an action-packed saga following three very different people: Orka, warrior turned mother living a quiet life on her steading; Varg, runaway thrall who finds himself among the legendary Bloodsworn while seeking to find out what happened to his sister; and Elvar, daughter of a Jarl who escapes the deadend expectations set upon her shoulders by joining the notorious Battle-Grim mercenaries.

Three stories about family, loyalty, honor, and vengeance, and I'm here for all of them.

John Gwynne balances character and plot and seamlessly constructs the rich world of Vigrid, the Battle-Plain, while giving us epic battles and visceral, high-adrenaline fight scenes. Packed with powerful women, monsters and creatures galore, fallen gods, and three characters with nothing more to lose, you'll immediately get hooked and be rooting for Orka, Elvar, and Varg.

I docked half a star because my brain struggled to process the names of all the characters—which all looked similar on paper—against the quick chapters that jumped from POV to POV; the read through was very jarring for me in that sense, taking me a little longer to read the book than is normal for works of this length. Some clunky structure/phrasing here and there, but these were very minor compared to all the pros I had with Shadow of the Gods. Well-worth the read—compelling characters and riveting battle scenes.

I'm already anticipating book 2: Dead Gods Rising!

I screamed like a school girl when I got this ARC. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this. First of all, this is my first John Gwynne book. I have not gotten around to Malice, even thought I own it. I have heard nothing but praise for this book. While I did enjoy it, I do have criticisms that I feel are important.

When I read a multiple POV story, I have to at least get down with 50% of the characters. There are 3 POVs in this story. I got along with two of them at the start, and that dwindled to one of them by the end. I loved Orka's characters. She is a strong female warrior who believes in family and honestly that's really rare in a fantasy novel. She was written very well. The two other characters (Varg and Elvar) I kept getting confused. They are both in two different war bands and when their POVs would come up I kept getting confused about who was in which one. They are all on their own separate mission, which do merge together towards the end of the book.

It took me a whole week to read this book, when I normally read a book in 3 or so days. I was bored at times, mostly because I just wasn't invested in the characters and the world the way I wanted to be. Like most fantasy authors, however, the ending is fantastic and it makes you want to read the next installment.

Finally, the words thought cage happened literally 500 times in this book, which I feel an editor should have toned down. I cringed every time it came up, which was literally almost every page.

Even though the story has valid criticisms, I still feel like it was a solid fantasy story. I enjoyed the world and Orka was a great main character. Gave this on 3 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for providing me an advanced copy of this book.

John Gwynne created a wonderful second world fantasy that is reminiscent of Norse legends and Viking lore. So much is familiar in this book but also so many new twists and additions to the typical fantasy book. While there are battles that pit warring tribes and clans against each other, there is also something lurking beneath the surface. The gods may have been defeated long ago but their legacy and their touch on humanity continues. Who are the tainted? What can they do?
What kept me turning each page were the characters. Orka and her quest to rescue her child while keeping her violent past hidden until it is called upon. Varg on a quest for revenge but also finds his true nature in the process.
Elvar who is trying to escape the shadow of her warrior king father to make her own name and finds love and betrayal along the way.
Gwynne has built an intriguing and fleshed out world that leaves the reader wanting more. I want more of how the tainted are created, why the gods had to fight and die and where can we go from here,.

We do Booktube! My review is available here: https://youtu.be/E_javRLD7AI

Overall I'm not as high as other reviews because I didn't think there was as much thematic depth, but I loved the pacing and action. The end was epic. Excited to read more of the series!

Night-wyrms that bind you with their slime-covered bodies, and wriggle up your nose as you watch them fill your intestines and kill you slowly.

A guardian creature who feeds on your blood mixed with spit every morning.

Emaciated dragons with patches of rot and yellow pus, and putrefying corpses hanging off its scales.

I started this review with visual glimpses because I thought it was the best way to convey how gritty The Shadow of the Gods is. This is Viking culture in all its gore and glory, where warriors carve their battle-fame in blood and steel. It’s told from three different perspectives—a former slave, a nobleman’s daughter, and a smallholder who’s mysteriously gifted in battle. Each have different goals, whether it’s to avenge a sister’s murder, or to find the fabled battleground of the ancient gods.

I’m not usually a squeamish person, but this is so not the type of book where you get cozy with a mug of hot cocoa. This is a tale of unrestrained violence that still manages to weave themes of love and kin into a gripping experience. Gwynne is amazing with action scenes! I could almost hear the thrum of energy over my breathing in each brutally compelling battle.

My only wish is that it didn’t take half the book to warm up to the story. It took until the very end for the three storylines to converge, and when I say end, I mean the very last page. It ended with a cliffhanger, after which I was hit with a “the story continues in the second book…”
It was a great cliffhanger, but I felt like it would’ve worked better for a TV show. For such a lengthy book, I would have liked the plot to be tied up more neatly in the end, for the sake of those not vested in a multi-volume story. I like when book series end with subtle hints at a possible continuation, but doesn’t outright push you into the next one.

Overall, this was such an original world to dive into, where divine heritage may be a blessing or a curse, and the savage Viking lifestyle is expertly entwined in a tale of freedom, family, and battle-fame.

You guys! The hype for this book is completely 110% justified! I cannot believe how much I loved this, even after seeing all the super early reviews waxing poetic about the glory of John Gwynne’s latest fantasy book. I will warn you though… there aren’t actually any dragons until very late in the book despite the ominous beast on the front cover. That might genuinely be my only disappointment in the entire book. I also got slightly confused at one point because every main character was on separate boats at the same time.

The Shadow of the Gods has three point of view characters. The first is Orka, a retired warrior who is trying to live a quiet life in the country with her husband and son. Children begin to go missing in the area and one day she returns from a short outing to find her home burned and her son gone. Thus begins Orca’s journey to find Drekr, the leader of the child nappers. Then there is Varg, an escaped thrall who wants to find his sister’s killer and therefore must find a seiðr-witch to perform a reading. This leads him to join the Bloodborne - a company of mercenaries who become his new brothers and sisters. Lastly there is Elvar, a woman escaping her past and family, who has joined the Battle-Grim to forge her own path and make a name for herself. While the characters are all similar in their toughness and bad-assery, they are distinctly different people with their own journeys and motives. I genuinely enjoyed each POV and I devoured every word of their chapters.

The story is phenomenal - emotive and deep in lore - and oh how I want the sequel in my hands! John Gwynne could not have ended this book on a more incredible, jaw-dropping note (or that’s how I felt anyway). The character reveal, if you can truly call it that, blew my mind. I think I might have actually yelled out loud I was so shocked and ecstatic. There is going to be bloodshed and vengeance to come, folks! Leading up to this banger of an ending is a series of incredible journeys. Elvar and crew are stomping their way across little known lands to find the tree where the gods fell, with enemies at their backs. Orka is both running from enemies and towards others, with a pair of semi-competent local guys that just want vengeance for their murdered father. Varg’s story is surprisingly one of the happier ones in my opinion, as he goes from slavery to being a new, yet liked recruit of a respected mercenary company. The book strikes a fine balance of dark moments with lighter or at least hopeful ones and it grabs the attention.

This is hands down probably one of the best books I’ll read all year. I can say with certainty this is my favorite of John Gwynne’s books thus far - I fell in love with it almost immediately, while I found his other series to just be good (controversial, I know). I love the setting, the characters, the story thus far and can’t wait to see what traumatic adventures he takes readers on next! Fortunately for us, he’s recently announced that he’s finished writing  the second book in the series! No release date yet, but I’m sure it will soon be on the radar.

There are many themes in fantasy that we have experienced time and time again. Personally, I end up reaching a point where I need a break because everything starts blending together. When beginning The Shadow of the Gods, I had my own expectations of what I was getting into. Those were immediately thrown out of the window and I was captivated by something brilliant.

In this story, you follow three perspectives:

Orka is a wife, mother, and warrior seeking vengeance. She was my favorite character to follow. When first introduced, you could immediately tell that there was more to her back story than she was letting show. I felt the most connected with her. Of all three characters, I felt as though she needed to work the hardest to reach her end goal. Orka is a fierce warrior and I could feel her pain in everything step that she took along the way.

Elvar is a young woman seeking battle-fame among the Battle-Grim warriors. She has chosen this path for herself instead of the life of bowing that her father had planned for her. Elvar is headstrong and will do what she must to prove that she has earned her battle-fame on her own.

Varg is an ex slave seeking his own vengeance for his sisters death. In order to discover how she died, he must first figure out how to become a member of the Bloodsworn. His perspective was my least favorite. I still enjoyed it, but I did prefer being with Elvar and Orka.

Each cast of characters follows their own paths of battle, death, and betrayal. As the story progresses you begin to see how everything connects. Gwynne accomplished this stunningly.

The battle sequences were done so well. I felt like I was a part of the chaos and never felt like I knew exactly what was going to happen next.

I will say this, The Shadow of the Gods is very much a set up for something bigger. While there were many moments that kept me on the edge of my seat, and many chapter cliffhangers, this story really focused on building the world we are in and setting up the plot for the rest of the series. There was a lot of character development and learning about the old gods. I enjoy that type of writing immensely when done right, and I definitely feel that it was done right.

I received an earc of this book from Netgalley and Orbit in exchange for an honest review (thank you!!) I don’t think this has influenced my review.

I really enjoyed the first book of The Bloodsworn Saga! It was intense, bloody and had some very interesting characters! It was a little predictable, but I still had fun reading it. This book has many of my favourite elements: Norse stuff, secrets, found family, betrayal, revenge, A DRAGON! And I honestly don’t remember the last time I enjoyed battle scenes so much! Gwynne definitely knows how to write gore and isn’t hesitant to kill off characters!

The reason it wasn’t a 5-star read for me is that I loved Varg and the Bloodsworn SO MUCH that I just wasn’t all that interested in the other 2 POVs... even though they were necessary for the story progression. I probably would have been less annoyed with the POV changes if the chapters were longer. It jumped around too much to let me settle and get an actual feel for the characters. I also would have appreciated a glossary/guide for the types of “tainted” and what their specific abilities/strengths are.

Overall, this was a solid intro to a new series and I’m very excited to see what happens in book 2!!

I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about the book. Ive known the author had written Malice and that’s been on my tbr for a long time but this is my first book by the author!

Going in, the first thing i noticed was the melancholy undertones, which maintained throughout the book and I’d accumulated an expectation of absolutely loving this book. Unfortunately I did not enjoy it and was severely disappointed.

Before i get into the things I didn’t like, I’ll mention that i loved the ending of the book. Right from the “i am tainted” scene of Varg to Orka, the ending was just SO FLAWLESS. Probably one of the major reasons i did not give this a 1 star. Next, some of the character work, especially building tension with character backstories, was done really well and i enjoyed reading (most) of Varg and Orka’s storyline.

Jumping right in to the things I didn’t like, I’ll elaborate on characters. With Orka, I absolutely loved her first chapters right until around the 60% ish mark, where things started to get repetitive. Orka as a character was very distinct. However, she lacked a lot in development. Like throughout the story, yes she was moving from one location to another, but her as a character remained the same. Her head space and character growth, all stopped changing and evolving right from when the plot picks up. So it was a lot of external mobility, but her as a character felt like wasn’t going anywhere.

With Varg, I initially loved him and the premise of a brotherhood and found family really made me excited for where the story will take him, but unfortunately the Bloodsworn really didn’t do anything to me in the sense, i just didn’t care for the trope dynamic, the author was not bringing anything new to the trope and it just felt boring to me. But towards the end especially with a certain scene Varg’s character made a complete U turn and i suddenly started getting invested in him but ehh it was too late in the book.

With Elvar, she did not have a huge impression on me, i was like okay cool moving on, thought around the middle her chapters kind of slapped but then around the end i lost interest. Basically i just didn’t care for her plot line.

In regards to the plot, I think, this being the first of a series, it was just slow and i could look over that, but i’d atleast hope that an internal storyline within a book of said series gets completed, but with this book, there wasn’t a solid plot that got completed. The main focus/ plot threads of Varg and Orka remained incomplete and they were not any closer to it by the end than they were at the beginning.

Now with Elvar idk wtf was her plotline, it was chaotic and confusing but i did not hate how it ended.

One other thing is that the pacing was really slow (with Varg and Orka) and it was just sooo boring when nothing of essence is happening. Now with Elvar, that’s a whole different story, its like being thrown into a speed launch after rowing a boat, the contrast was really evident and I didn’t exactly enjoy that.


The biggest thing, though, that made me not like the book was the writing style. I know i enjoy beautiful, gorgeous, atmospheric and sombre writing A LOT, but it definitely doesn’t HAVE to be a writing style of that type. This book definitely wasn’t, and i really wouldn’t have minded if it just wasn’t *so* boring. So i guess the main problem was this just wasn’t to my taste.

At the end of the day, I think it definitely has potential to be a good series, but I personally just didn’t enjoy this.
Note: i received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.

Some thoughts i had while reading!!

- like Varg
- dk tf’s going on with Elvar but she’s cool
- Orka supremacy
- orka MILF???? Okay???? Badass so true of u
- maybe Elvar does have rights
- I am tainted sequence of Varg, chef’s kiss
- Dont love the bloodsworn
- THAT ENDING????

4/5 Stars! This was a rich, detailed, immersive debut fantasy! It was somewhat predictable at times? However, that did not take away from the pure enjoyment of this rich world! Very much looking forward to the next books in this series!

5⭐
John Gwynne's writing just gets better and better. The Shadow of the Gods is the first book in his new series The Bloodsworn, and man is it an amazing entry into this brutal mythical viking-inspired world. There are 3 main characters you follow, Orka, Varg, and Elka. You become invested in the main characters and their stories right from the beginning. There are intense fights, gripping moments and heartfelt scenes throughout. This book was hard to put down and I can tell this is going to be one of my favorite series of all time. Highly recommend picking this up!

An epic fantasy. Stunning storytelling of a reimagined Viking mythology.  The world building is fantastic and beautifully written. Brutal, bittersweet, action packed. There is some great banter and interjections of humor and camaraderie. Relatable and entertaining characters. The best of fantasy and folklore.  The battles scenes are breathtaking, edge of your seat good. The tale has a slower buildup then explodes into a page turner.