I cannot express enough excitement for this book! Thoroughly engaging and deeply rooted in lore, The Hunger of the gods is an exceptional look into true storytelling with characters that will make you laugh, cry, and maybe even scream at the pages late in the night when you should be going to bed but can't bear to leave them behind. This book alone makes me want to go back and read John Gwynne's entire backlist. I do recommend you read, The Shadow of the Gods before you jump into this one though, just because it enriches the story and you're not going to want to miss a single moment of the journey.

This book was so good!! I loved the world building in this book, the characters were well thought out and interesting!! I would highly recommend this book to everyone!!

There's a ton of moving parts to this fantasy novel, and keeping all the characters straight was a little hard, but the world building is really good, the bad guys are fun to hate and the plot is fast paced and very well written!

Another amazing trip with Varg, Orka, Elvar, and some new POV characters. John Gwynne continues to build this world and mythology with some new surprises and more than once shocking character...dismissal. Or three. Much like The Banished Lands before it, Gwynne is making Bloodsworn a must-read for any and all fantasy fans.

This was such a great sequel! I loved it! I couldn’t stop reading! I just had to see what happened. Highly recommend.

How to even describe a second book in a series that is absolutely fabulous? Other than for me to tell you to go and pick up the first one, I’m not sure how to describe this. I have adored to the series and have been lucky enough to receive ARCs of both books so far (thanks so much, @netgalley!). We continue to follow a mother seeking her son, a brother seeking vengeance for his sister, and a heiress running from her past by diving into her battle-ridden future. This is an incredible series and I cannot recommend it enough if you like high fantasy. The setting is immersive, the mythology is outstanding, and the consequences are serious. Genuinely, if you have not read the first one yet, pick it up.

One of my most anticipated reads of the year, John Gwynne did not disappoint!! This was even more intriguing, exciting, and descriptive than the first!

I absolutely devoured this book. We continue with the same perspectives as the first installment; Varg, Elvar, and Orka, in addition to two perspectives of characters we were introduced to in the first one.

The plot picks up immediately where the first left off. Without giving spoilers, I will say this was a bit faster paced than the first, but this matches the pace of the story which I truly appreciated. We see all of our characters change, grow, and adapt to their current places.

The world-building continues as we learn more about the cultures, the world, and geography. We travel to new locations, each unique and described so clearly, I felt as if I were in that very world looking through my own two eyes.

This is a definite MUST read for any fantasy lover, especially if you love Nordic inspired stories of ancient ruins, sleeping gods, and battle fame!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review

ALL THE STARS

Can I just start this review off by saying big freaking thanks to Orbit for allowing me to read this early? And for including a recap of the first book! I need more books to prove this.

THE COVER? It is so freaking badass and I cannot stop staring at how amazing it is.

Dare I say I loved this more than “The Shadow of the Gods,” because yes yes I did. I was so anxious waiting for this book because I thought no way could this top the first book. But it absolutely did.

John Gwynne is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors of all time. I am constantly impressed with this writing, characters, and his ability to weave a perfect fantasy setting. There wasn’t a single thing I disliked about this book. That right there is impressive itself.

My favorite characters and storyline will always and forever be Orka. She is the ultimate badass and I cannot get enough of her story. Her background is so well written and I love her determination. Varg is my second favorite, I loved him. I did really enjoy Elvar’s story more in this book as well. I just can't get enough of these characters or this book series. I need more and I need it asap.

If you are interested in reading this, I highly recommend it. These are must-reads for all fantasy lovers. I did struggle a bit with the first book at first because the names were a bit confusing and they kind of blurred together. I ended up restarting and reading along with the audio and that helped tremendously. But 10/10 would recommend the audio for the Bloodsworn Saga.

What a ride this book was. After a monster cliffhanger ending in Book One, The Shadow of the Gods, I was so pumped to dive into this one. It's quite long and the multiple POVs are increased from the three in Book One to five in this book. It was a lot to keep track of and it slowed me down a bit. But the heart of the story is so interesting with such a lush world that I couldn't help but keep going. The characters are complex and the overlapping stories with conflicting interests keep thinks incredibly interesting. Not to give anything about the ending of this one away, but I'd love to have Book Three ASAP.

This was a great sequel to The Shadow of the Gods! This series is my first John Gwynne series, but now I'll definitely have to read some of his other books. I love how vast the world in this series is; although it's inspired by Norse mythology and I definitely see the Norse and Viking influences, the world is still unique.
Like the previous book, I found myself enjoying Orka's character and her chapters the most, but I still liked the other points of view.
I also really appreciated the recap at the beginning of the book. I had been planning on rereading the first book before starting this one, but the recap covered everything I needed it to.

Absolutely stunning work yet again. Vivid story telling, world building and lore. Gwynne creates such masterful worlds and characters, amazing action scenes that keep your pulse racing and a story line that enthralls and breaks your heart.

One of the most disappointing things to ever happen in my life is the fact that I'm DNFing this book. I've given 5-stars to the EIGHT previous books I've read from this author, including book 1 of this series. But this one was just not for me.

I received an eARC from Netgalley before the release of this book (thank you to the publisher), and I was slogging through it, so I waited for its release and then got the audiobook from my library. But that didn't help.

What went wrong with this one? Well tbh, it's definitely just a preference. This book had a lot of "crude humor," I guess you could say. A lot of sex jokes and such, which just felt odd in this book and made me uncomfortable considering the author's a man. And like it wasn't anything bad, and I feel like the humor could work for some people and I could see it even making them like the characters more, but it wasn't my thing. Another thing is that in this world there are enslaved people, and there were a couple of scenes that just rubbed me the wrong way (although I can't speak on it and it was also in the ARC copy I was reading).

Other than that I think this book also just suffered from middle book syndrome and was boring.

DNF @60%

I will go against what I am seeing, and say that I enjoyed this ever so slightly more than Shadow of the Gods, but still less than FatF, I am going to not go in that much depth for style, cause it is almost 1am and I am tired, and just say what I like about this more and less than Shadow of the Gods and Faithful and the Fallen.

Ok, comparison vs SotG

I think SotG is paced better, and generally the plot is more dynamic through the middle. This is probably why most people like SotG more, and it is a point in it's favor.

HotG has more scheming and deep cunning. In SoTG it really felt like almost all the conflict was people trying to stab each other, which is good, but I miss the manipulations from FatF. This had more of that, largely in the new PoV Guthvarr, who is the person people have described as Glokta esque, because of the way his internal monologue is different. Although his snide comments are very different from Glokta. Glokta is actually generally cold, witty, and snide in his head. He gives of the impression that his anger is cold, but when he is actually angry at people he really shows it

Guthvarr generally is angry at people, and not sarcastic in his head, but just hateful. So a character written in a similar style, but a very different person.

So I got more scheming, which made me happy.
Also I just like the final act of Hunger of the Gods more, while liking the rest of the book almost as much. The last 150 pages of HotG were definitely my favorite 150 pages of the two books.

So now i'm going to say that when comparing the writing of FatF, as the in the prose, to Bloodsworn, the writing in Bloodsworn is better. Not just a little bit better, but vastly better. Also the worldbuilding in FatF is kinda just there, and in Bloodsworn it is against really good. And yet I still like FatF more, why?

The reasons are twofold.

1. There are no antagonists in Bloodsword that inspire deep hatred. As in people I would murder in real life. Faithful and the Fallen has like....4, at least.
2. Both series have conflict between higher powers of some kind. The conflict in Bloodsworn feels more like a straight up war, there are sides, they hate each other, lines will be drawn behind ring leaders, and the 2 sides will duke it out. In FatF the conflict between the higher powers felt like they were playing a chess game, using people as chess pieces. It involved way more manipulation, and subtlety from the higher powers, and I just enjoyed reading it more.


7.7/10

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

This book is dense. Although, if you’re familiar with the author, it’s not unusual. I really found myself slogging through this. I wasn’t obsessed with the first, but it ended interestingly. So I thought maybe it was just more of a setup, and that the second would take off. I was wrong. Lots of things happened of course. But there was too much information, and I didn’t entirely remember all the details of the first story. There was a summary at the beginning which I loved.! If you really liked the first, I think you’ll really enjoy this story. If you were on the fence about the first or didn’t entirely like it, I’d probably count your loses and not continue.

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

This is a solid sequel that did not disappoint. I loved The Shadow of the Gods and was very excited to get to this second installment. The writing is still amazing, the characters compelling, the battle scenes still gory and action-packed. I loved that there was a recap of the first book and that the action started right where we left off. The story progressed nicely, and I will be anxiously awaiting the next book as well.

THIS IS WHAT A 5-STAR FANTASY BOOK LOOKS LIKE!

The Hunger of the Gods is the second book in the Bloodsworn Trilogy and it picks up right where The Shadow of the Gods left off. This second installment is a masterpiece and John Gwynne just keeps getting better and better!

This story alternates with several POV characters and I love how each of these storylines are starting to intersect. The world building is just simply impeccable, as is to be expected with a Gwynne novel. Specifically, I so enjoy the character of Orka and her journey on doing whatever it takes to save her son.

The action is nonstop and what I love about this story is that there is no filler chapters or any time wasted throughout the story. Every single line is moving the story and characters forward and the stakes are continuously getting higher.

Overall, this story is fairly hard to summarize since John Gwynne has created such unique and incredible fantasy story where the world is so well thought out and detailed. The only small personal issue with me is just being able to correctly pronounce all of the Norse character names, but a pronunciation guide is provided which is extremely helpful! Although this Norse vocabulary made the reading a tad slower for me, I would not have wanted it any other way since it shows how much research that was done and the high level of passion John Gwynne has for Norse culture.

If you are a fan of a fresh take on fantasy with a Norse foundation and want a book to get completely lost in that is fast-paced and fun, then this is the story for you! I cannot wait for the third book and conclusion to this series!!

I admit that before i had gotten the eARC of this book I hadn't read anything by John Gwynne but I had wanted to read the first book in the series for a while so this gave me the kick in the butt to read the first book.

Well I got so hooked in the first book that I ended up reading this second book in the Bloodsworn Saga right away.

I love the world building and the story so much .

If you are into Fantasy books I do recommend this book series.

An excellent read - sequel to " The Shadow of the Gods. " "The Hunger of the Gods" picks right up where the last one left off. Orka is still searching for her son Breca and Upsa is still searching for her son, Bjarn having enlisted the aid of the Battle-Grim. A fierce fighter, we find out the roots of Orka as she meets up with the Bloodsworn. We also find out who is stealing the children and why the children are key to a resurrection ceremony.

The second coming of the old gods is imminent and much of the book delves into old alliances and hatreds. Not all of the Battle-grim and Bloodsworn will make it out alive and treachery abounds. War is coming !!!

I absolutely loved this book. The first one was a favorite of last year and this one didn't let me down. Orka is the best and that last page just.... I need the next one!