ARC Provided by NetGalley and Orbit

RJ Barker has done it again. What I appreciate most about RJ Barker is the way the worlds he builds, the characters that populate them, and the stories he tells within those worlds are so intrinsically connected to each other. RJ Barker's worlds in both Tide Child and Gods of the Wyrdwood are incredibly inventive. These are not fantasy versions of any real life cultures. You cannot discuss RJ Barker's books with any sort of "historical accuracy" argument because his books do not exist within this framework. The societies and people he creates are unique to the world they inhabit.

As such, there is a steep learning curve. Unlike a fantasy set in a quasi-medieval world, where the writer can use familiar shorthand of inns and keeps and courtiers, armor and swords and pre-modern technology, Gods of the Wyrdwood gives us a world of gasmaws and crownheads and Forestals, of trions and firstmothers and secondfathers. It is a world which in which air travel is possible, but not because of high technology, but because many animals have gassbags allowing them to float, and these animals are used for transport. Armor is made of wool hardened with tree sap and bows and arrows are outlawed much like guns in our world. The world that Gods of the Wyrdwood creates is wildly atmospheric and incredibly fascinating.

What is so lovely about RJ Barker's work, and so rare in fantasy these days, is that his stories could only happen in this world that he has created. His characters can only exist here, and nowhere else. The setting is no mere backdrop or aesthetic setpiece, it is living and breathing and the story is of this world and no other. The themes that Barker deals with are, however, universal. His main character Cahan du-Nahere is running from a traumatic past and strugging to face the truth of who and what he is, and learning to make connections and care about people again, when it seems safer and easier to just hide away in solitude. The trion Venn struggles with their vow to never kill, and has this conviction tested, while their mother tries to reconcile her need to keep her child safe with her increasing sense that what is required to keep Venn safe will cause irreparable damage to her relationship with her child. Universal themes, but set against a story and characters who are uniquely of their own world.

Suffice to say, RJ Barker has quickly become an automatic read for me, and is truly a writer who deserves far more recognition than he gets.

I like big trees and this book fulfills all my big tree dreams. Really, really big trees.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book for the first 50 pages or so, but I persevered because R.J. Barker has yet to let me down and by page 100 I was thoroughly hooked. The synopsis initially hooked me on the idea of someone raised to be the Chosen One, but being displaced by another rising instead and then dealing with the aftermath years later. What made me stumble upon beginning the book was the sheer amount of unfamiliar terminology and worldbuilding, and I’m not usually stymied by this stuff because I’ve been reading fantasy for decades.
We are introduced to Cahan du Nahere, a clanless boy who is taken by a priestess of the fire god Zorir and trained to be the Cowl-Rai of the god. This is essentially a high-mage or avatar type figure who would be served by the Rai, which are lesser mages, though still very powerful. Every Cowl-Rai to have ever risen has overthrown the previous god’s authority and begun their own reign of terror because let’s face it, none of these gods are benevolent or kind. Cahan’s childhood is given to us in dribs and drabs, always in an odd second-person perspective. After the god Tarl-an-gig rose to power Cahan returned to Harn, the village he grew up near and took up farming again. He’s shunned as clanless, but Cahan’s forestcraft skill (he actually goes by Forester) is unparalleled and he is called upon to aid the village in various forest related matters. He’s been waiting for the Rai of Tarl-an-gig to find him for years and the other shoe finally drops when he meets Venn, who’s mother is trying to awaken their cowl so they might serve Tarl-an-gig.
Cahan might be the main character, but the supporting characters themselves are quite memorable. There’s Udinny, a priest of Ranya, a forest goddess who basically forces her friendship upon Cahan. Venn, the young trion (non-binary), keeps encountering Cahan who is supportive of their decision to not use their cowl, as it is fed by death and slowly erodes one’s humanity. It’s clear that Cahan begins to care deeply for Venn and much of the latter part of the book focuses on him trying to help Venn and the village of Harn. I’m always fond of a good animal companion and Segur, Cahan’s garaur is a delightful presence though Segur is merely a pet.
My favorite part of this book is the setting, particularly when the characters are spending time in the deep parts of the forest, called the Wyrdwood. The cloudtrees are unfathomably tall and their tops cannot be seen from the ground, while the bases of the trees could take a day to walk around. For this reason, the fall of one of the forest giants is a momentous occasion as it provides income for neighboring villages for years. The forest contains multitudes of deadly creatures and fascinating plants and their presence and descriptions serve to make this one of the best settings I’ve come across in fantasy in years. R.J. Barker did a brilliant job on this and I’m thoroughly enchanted.
Overall, this was an excellent read and I do recommend patience when tackling this tale at first. The terminology and general set up of the story and worldbuilding was a lot to take in, but the payoff is absolutely worth it. I will be eagerly awaiting the sequel!

3 stars

I DNFd this at 12%. The world is really creative and unique, which I appreciate, but I am finding myself incredibly frustrated by the narrative style. There are times that it has the typical writing style, then all of a sudden without warning it almost goes into a breaking the fourth wall type narration, then we are right back at the normal sounding voice. I found myself becoming irrationally annoyed every time that this happened, so I know that I will just get more irritated as the book continues.

I think that if you can deal with that though this is definitely worth a try! It drops you in without much explanation of anything, probably more so than your typical fantasy, but it was easy enough to get my bearings. Based on the beginning, it's a queernorm world with a third gender and normalized polyamory, lots of old and sometimes forgotten gods, and what promises to be a lot of politics. I will definitely be checking out more from this author and hoping that the narrative style is less noticeable

This book has a lot to love. It’s got an interesting main character, great side characters, and an excellent plot.

The protagonist is a man named Cahan, known more generally as the Forester. He is Clanless, which is analogous to being part of an Untouchable caste. He lives alone on his farm, tolerated but never welcomed, and has earned his nickname by being willing to venture into the nearby forest. And not just Woodedge, which the villages will chance, but the deep forest of the Harnwood and even deeper forest of the Wyrdwood. Cahan has a past about which the villagers know nothing. He was raised by the cult of one particular god to be the messiah, elevating their god above all others; unfortunately, the messiah of another god beat him to it.

For various reasons (only some of which are related to the fact that the successful messiah is determined to hunt down and kill all the also-rans) the village comes under threat, and Cahan finds himself in the position of working to help those who have always shunned him.

It’s a good setup for a Seven Samurai-type story, and Barker goes to some very interesting places with it. It was an engrossing read, and I’m looking forward to the sequel where Barker (whom I hope is reading this) can correct his single biggest mistake: not a single *Monty Python’s Life of Brian* reference. For shame, RJ, they practically write themselves.

But all of that is secondary to the big star of this book: the worldbuilding. It’s *incredibly* cool.

It’s subtle, because it’s what the characters consider normal and therefore they don’t think about it or remark on it. But the world of the Wyrdwood is damn near alien enough for a VanderMeer book. No one uses metal; everything is made of wood, or sap-treated wool. There aren’t any wheels; creatures called gasmaws, and plants called floatvine, make such things unnecessary. The Wood itself is amazing. I want to read the next book just to learn more about the world. And then I want a sandbox RPG set here to go and play in.

Once again RJ Barker has crafted a unique world that simply asks you to lose yourself in it, and this time around it’s been even easier to do so because the world - or rather its huge living forest - is an intriguingly complex and also dangerous one. Crua is home to a vast forest system that becomes ever more perilous the deeper one goes through it; wood is indeed the ruling element in this world where everything comes from trees: soldiers’ armor is made from wood, water is obtained from special vines, there is even a kind of floating vine that allows the easy transportation of heavy loads. But the forest unlocks its secrets reluctantly and going deeper into it - into the titular Wyrdwood - means that one might never be seen again.

Cahan du Nahere is a forester, a man deeply attuned to the woods he knows well, careful in taking only what he needs without succumbing to needless greed. He lives a solitary life on his farm, dealing with the memories of a painful past: when he was a child, he was trained by the high priest of the god Zorir to become its chosen one, but on Crua gods come and go with appalling ease and once a new god’s faith swept the land, Cahan was forced to hide from the winner’s acolytes. His quiet existence is soon upended when his clanless status and rumors of his past put him once again under the spotlight, threatening his survival. The chance encounter with Udinny, a delightfully outspoken monk and with Venn, a troubled youngster running from an uncertain destiny, will force Cahan to leave behind his cloak of anonymity and take an active part in the turmoil sweeping across the land.

It would hardly be a stretch to say that the world’s huge forests are more of a central character than the humans themselves. Crua is a harsh world, and a divided one - not just where politics are concerned (although ruthless power play is a recurring theme), but in a very physical sense, because of its axial tilt that condemns the north, where the action is set, to an endless winter, while the south enjoys a more balmy climate. And the forests represent much of the uncharted territories of this world, where plants and animal life act often as deadly predators; despite this terrifying prospect, these forests hold the reader’s attention through their aura of mystery: the part of the story where Cahan and Udinny venture deeply into the woods in search of a lost child is one of the more spellbinding in this first volume of the saga - we learn, though the awestruck eyes of Udinny, of the perils and the wonders of this world-within-a-world, of the many forms of trees, bushes and flowers and of the creatures that thrive in there, and the readers can share in Udinny’s fascination as the picture of this living, variegated forest takes shape and texture through the brilliant, cinematic descriptions.

The societal system is equally intriguing, despite the bleak living conditions described - and despite the fact that there are a number of details that get little or no explanation, and that require the readers to pay close attention, since the author does not waste any time in reader hand-holding: if village life is no picnic on Crua, to be clanless means finding oneself at the very bottom of the social scale, with no means of defense or hope of help should dire need present itself. The family units are structured around group marriages, where two or three couples bond raising the children together and often include a trion, a genderless person acting as a bridge between the various spouses. And then there are the Rai, elite soldiers (or rather, shock troops) enhanced by the presence of a cowl: this is the greatest mystery I encountered because very little is explained about cowls - they sound like symbiotic creatures that enhance the strength and the offensive and recuperative powers of the people they are connected to, but they also require a constant stream of energy that comes from the (mostly horrifying) death of chosen victims, conferring a shade of ruthless cruelty to the Rai. Still, I’m wondering about what cowls truly are, where they came from and so on, and I hope that the next books will shed more light on this detail.

As far as the characters are concerned, Cahan represents a mystery that is revealed in small increments through the second-person flashbacks interspersed between chapters: at first I wondered at what looked like his passive nature - when the local authorities grant the use of his property to a family of farmers, his rights being non-existent due to his clanless state, he gives in with appalling ease - but little by little I learned of his constant battle with the cowl he was gifted by Zorir’s priesthood, and with his refusal to give in to the cowl’s demands which would lead to violence and death. The cowl’s constant intrusion in his thoughts, its relentless “You need me” as soon as Cahan finds himself in dire straits, made me think of the lure of drugs for an addict, the endless tug-of-war between cravings and willpower, and put into sharper focus the man’s character and the wounds of his past.

Udinny could easily be Cahan’s polar opposite: talkative and open, eager to experience the world and totally given to the path of her goddess Ranya, who represents a sort of unifying spirit present in all living creatures. I enjoyed her constant questions as she and Cahan moved through the forest in their search of a missing child, and how she did her best to bring the man out of his self-imposed shell of silence and aloofness. It would not be too far from the truth to say that Udinny is a very welcome ray of sunshine in the overall bleakness of the story, and in this regard I have to admit that Gods of the Wyrdwood presents us with a far grimmer world than RJ Barker’s previous ones, which is an unusual feat considering how dark they were.

And lastly there is Venn, the young trion whose mother, a highly placed official, put in the unenviable position of being a cowled emissary of the current god. The young man, though, constantly refuses to give in to the violence necessary to bond with his cowl and it’s clear that he’s still suffering from PTSD from the experience she put him through when he was “gifted” with it. That nightmarish event informs his character in such a way that he’s able to resist the pressures exerted on him (and here I have to say that I completely despised his mother for what she put him through) until he discovers that a cowl is not always an instrument of death…

Where the story builds with something of a leisurely stroll, which includes Cahan’s and Udinny’s long journey through the forest, the last third of the novel moves with a hectic pace in preparation for an event that kept me on edge until its final resolution. The various narrative threads merge into an epic battle in which the themes of rebellion against injustice and prevarication meet those of friendship and found family that have been one of the strongest elements in previous RJ Barker stories. And while that epic battle was equally thrilling and heart-stopping, the final twist at the end of the novel left me both shocked for its unexpected revelation and eager for the next book in the series. One I look forward to with great enthusiasm.

This is one of those books that you just have to dive into and trust that you’ll understand some of the specifics later on. I really liked how the pacing of the world building came at the perfect time to have things click and really make sense. It does seem like some events were there just to assist the reader in understanding pieces of the world, but it was enjoyable to be told the the dangers and history of the woods through the teachings and observations of the often grumpy main character.

I truly did enjoy the storytelling from the point of view of the main character, Cahan, who just wants to live the life of a recluse and not be bothered by the politics and machinations of others belonging to clans and cities. There’s enough comedy and joy to balance out the action and extreme consequences that seem to exist around every bend in the road. This book is an excellent setup for the rest of the series. This has been my first RJ Barker book, but it certainly won’t be my last.

Thanks to Orbit Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

After seeing much praise for RJ Barker's novels, decided to dive in when I got the chance to get this ARC, and I am so glad I did!! This is quite the world and I very much enjoyed RJ's writing. I also liked that you are just immediately immersed in the world and it's left to the reader to pick things up as you go. Were there moments of "huh, what?" ......for sure, but as I continued reading I never felt thrown out of the story and I was able to piece together everything just fine.
The world building is marvelous! I love stories centered around forests and all of the attendant mysterious creatures, weird vibes and creepy things that want to kill you. It is a character in and of itself and I loved the trips into the forest and the amazing details. The characters are varied with many layers of motivation, there are political moves and countermoves, all against the backdrop of one man trying to outrun his past. I adore Udinny and her relationship with Cahan, as well as Venn and his earnestness. The build up to the final confrontation certainly had some surprises and a satisfying conclusion, but then that epilogue!! GASP!! I see now this story is going to go to unexpected and fascinating places in future books!! Can't wait!!

Sadly I'm not going to be able to get to this in time, so i went ahead and purchased a copy for myself. Thank you for the chance to review this!

I can't really give a star rating that I'm comfortable with, so I'm just going to go with 3 stars, despite being pretty sure it would have been higher

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book. The pacing was slow and I found myself not wanting to pick the book back up any time I sat it down. I was also not a fan of Cahal's POV.

First I shoud thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy of R J Barker's GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD, first in a series called The Forsaken.

WYRDWOOD is a somewhat dense and stylistically unusual novel, introducting many terms that will be unfamiliar without a glossary (which hopefully they will see fit to include in the final published version). Sentence fragments and comma splices abound, a risky style choice to put before most readers. I was able to eventually adjust to this style and Barker's lack of hand-holding as he introduces his characters and the plot that consumes them. The good news for those who cry over infodumps is Barker avoids exposition like the most dangerous inhabitants of the Wyrdwood. If you love puzzling out the mysteries of a world on your own, WYRDWOOD's your book.

You may have read other reviews in which more adventurous readers embrace these peccadilloes of mine from word one. As someone who loves the conventions of the English language and approaches departures from it cautiously, my views should be seen as just that - my views, and my tastes. That Barker still draws me in is a testament to his skill in telling a story.

As the title hints, an underlying naturalistic element to this world plays an important part, and we quickly learn the further one ventures beyond the treeline the more dangerous the forest becomes. Which sets the scene for protagonist Cahan du-Nahere, a clanless nobody with a secret history, to serve as a merchant caravan's guide to give us our first glimpse of those forest dangers and the inhabitants there. And from there this dangerous world isn't about to let du-Nahere alone for any length of time, nor will Cahan be able to keep his secrets as hidden as he'd like.

Possessed of a "cowl" (one of many unexplained terms readers will need to draw inferences about through context) that would allow him to kill with a touch - and indeed a death is required to awaken one's cowl to begin with - du-Nahere long ago withdrew from and renounced his origins, claiming his dead family's farm and eking out a living there with only the most necessary contact with the clans around him. When he reluctantly takes on the guiding of the caravan - which travels through the least dangerous part of the woods - things go terribly wrong. As he had feared they might, hence his unwillingness to take the job - and in the heat of conflict he strips a warrior of her cowl, creating a mortal enemy with the unusual ability to suppress the cowls of others.

A young trion (another unexplained term that earns its bearer the pronoun "they" rather than "he" or "she") whose sole reason for being there is to kill someone or something to awaken the cowl he refuses to bear - or be killed himself should it be the only alternative - ends up returned to his mother, leader of a local village, still recalcitrant but feeling in debt to du-Nahere for his life. He will later be the key to discovering that the nature of cowls is woefully misunderstood within the society that employs them.

This all leads to increasingly tragic circumstances as various forces align against du-Nahere and trion Venn, with Cahan eventually threatened with betrayal  by the very pacifistic villagers he ends up swearing to protect against an imminent seige. All, as one might guess, in the name of regime change, as the powerful Rai, steeped in the superiority of carrying literal death at their fingertips, seek to overthrow both gods and men to keep everything to themselves.

Barker's writing style and somewhat obtuse approach to worldbuilding are overcome, in this reader's opinion, by the human story that unfolds, and I found this a worthy read and hope to continue with the series. A solid 4 star read, or 8/10, I recommend GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD to readers who enjoy unique worldbuilding and magic systems and who are unafraid of an equally unique style or characters that take some time to warm up to. It's the kind of book that, while not for everybody, those for whom it is aimed will swear by. I'm also told that fans of Barker's Tide Child series, which I have not read, will likely enjoy WYRDWOOD.

Gods of the Wyrdwood was not what I expected at first. It was a learning curve being exposed to so many new concepts early without always an explanation. It was fun following the path of the multiple viewpoints even when they were frustrating. Good fantasy novel for someone looking for something different.

Gods of the Wyldwood is the first installment in a trilogy from RJ Barker. This is my first experience with his work and, while there were aspects of it that I struggled with, I’m sure it won’t be my last. The world of Crua is incredibly unique, utterly unlike anything else I’ve ever read. However, I think the story suffered a bit at the hands of the world building. There seemed to barely be a plot at all for the first half of the book. And while there was an immense amount of the narrative dedicated to the world itself, very little of that was spent explaining anything to the reader. It felt info-dumpy from the sheer amount of time spent learning about the world, but it also felt as if readers are simply tossed into shark-infested waters and expected to swim. This is one of the oddest things I’ve ever read.

The world is a bit Lovecraftian in setup. The flora and fauna are utterly alien, and incredibly weird. There are tentacles galore, along with animals that float via gas bladders and vines that float. These things combined made for a tough world to picture until I finally envisioned an underwater realm, but without the water. The Wyrdwood at the heart of this world is greatly feared, and with good reason. Everything in it seems thirsty for blood. And yet, as it’s described at night, it’s also a place of breathtaking beauty. Think Ferngully, or Avatar’s Pandora. It’s luminous, and seeing it sounds almost worth the risk of death and dismemberment.

There is also an abundance of odd names and terminology, which was nearly impossible to keep straight. The social structure and positioning was also unusual and difficult to wrap my mind around. The family setup, with firstwives, secondwives, firsthusbands, secondhusbands, and so on, is interesting but difficult for my monogamous mind to comprehend. And then there are trions, those who are neither male nor female, husband nor wife, but something uniquely their own and prized for those differences. One of our main secondary characters is a trion, and they were pretty fascinating.

But our main character, Cahan, is by far the most interesting character in the story. He reminded me of Logen Ninefingers, or of Clay from Kings of the Wyld, in how he thought and kept himself a bit a part. But he is also wholly his own. While the story was slow to start, he did grow a good deal as the narrative progressed. Other characters I enjoyed were Udinny, a monk of a relatively unknown god, and Segur, who is something of a pet to Cahan but who I still can’t come close to envisioning in my mind.

Besides the fact that this over 600 page book seemed to have a 300 page introduction, my biggest problem with Gods of the Wyldwood was the writing itself. I’m not sure if they were stylistic choices or things that might be edited out of the final, finished copy, but the grammar was just about as wild as the Wyldwood itself. The amount of fragments, run-on sentences, and improperly compounded sentences was appalling. And don’t even get me started on the comma splices, which littered just about every single paragraph in the book. Again, I think these things might be stylistic choices, not a lack or knowledge or poor craftsmanship, they threw me constantly.

Barker has an incredibly creative mind. The world he crafted is truly unlike anything else I’ve come across in the fantasy genre. But it’s my belief that he was so enamored by he world he created that the characters and story took a back seat, and it showed in the storytelling. I’m not sold on this series yet, but I would at least attempt to read the sequel. And I still have high hopes for his Tide Child trilogy, which I have sitting on my shelf in its entirety. Here’s to hoping I can gel more with his writing in that series than I did with this particular book.

I am a fan of RJ Barker’s work and this was exactly what I expected. Not only did I know I’d enjoy it based off the author, but the cover art grabbed me and the synopsis really sold me.
“Cahan du Nahare is known as the forester—a man who can navigate the dangerous Deepforest like no one else. But once he was more. Once he belonged to the god of fire.
Udinny serves the goddess of the lost, a goddess of small things; when she ventures into the Deepforest to find a lost child, Cahan will be her guide. But in a land where territory is won and lost for uncaring gods, where temples of warrior monks pit one prophet against another—Cahan will need to choose the forest or the fire—and his choice will have consequences for his entire world.”
The characters were very interesting and had really great development. The settings were really laid out in detail and the worldbuilding was excellent! The little tidbits throughout “deep in the forest” were mesmerising and I really liked that aspect.
The only reason that I didn’t give the full 5 stars was because I don’t think I’d read this again. Not because it wasn’t good- great even- but once was enough, and I don’t see myself talking about this book all the time unless it’s brought up. I would definitely recommend and it was a VERY enjoyable read with a satisfying ending.
Fan of RJ Barker’s previous work, and fantasy/adventure readers definitely need to pick this one up!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for sending this book for review consideration! All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Orbit Books for the advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review!

This book was simultaneously the most frustrating thing I’ve read in quite some time, and also one of the most unique. It has a lot of the "alien" worldbuilding that you’d find in a scifi novel, in a very fantasy setting. I’d call this book a very slow burn (like an ember) and at the halfway point I was starting to question whether Barker was going to be able to pull this off. It feels like the pacing is completely off and the book is going nowhere. It reprises the ‘farm boy becomes the chosen one’ trope until you legitimately wonder just how many times this book can completely start over.

Hang in there. It's worth it! At 50% things pick up, and at about 75% through the book the last pin in the lock clicks into place and suddenly everything makes sense. Almost all of this book's action is packed into the end. As a writer, this book was fantastic, and has some absolutely genius plays thematically. Once I figured it out, I really admired the stylistic choice that was made here. As a reader, I kind of wanted to pitch a fit for being made to wade through the mud and thorns just like the protagonist. I doubted, but this earned my grudging respect.

4/5 stars. The ending elevated this into a fun romp that I’d recommend but while I understand the choices that were made, half the book is a long time to ask a reader to wait for things to start to make sense.

- DNF
- Lost in the Sauce
- World Building was Complicated with no Explanations

This is an unfair review.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for an ARC of Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker

While I truly appreciated the effort put into the world-building, I found it frustrating trying to grasp onto any of it without explanations of characters or words or even animals. (a crown-head is a sheep, right? And Graur a dog thing?) I enjoy being able to fully immerse myself in each book but unfortunately, in this case, I struggled to connect with the characters and any part of the world. I ended up feeling so lost in the sauce that I DNF’d around 10% in. The concept and overall dynamic of the storytelling seemed amazing I just wish we started with a more reader-friendly beginning rather than starting in the middle which left me feeling like I missed the introduction chapter or somehow started on book 2. I felt like the author had a whole language and world and I was completely lost to all of it. I really don't find that way of storytelling enjoyable ( I feel more like a kid who missed major lectures and has no idea what's on the final exam) I truly appreciate the opportunity to check this book out but unfortunately it just wasn't for me

3.5 🌟
I will start off by saying that I would probably like this book even more if life didn’t keep getting in the way and letting me only read 50 pages at a time.

Barker’s writing style was very difficult to get into at first. His prose is very choppy like a thriller novel but that only works when you’re writing something thrilling. Instead its more like “The tree. Green leaves. Rough bark. Tall. Good for climbing.”
After awhile I got in the groove of it and it didn’t bother me too much.

This book also desperately needs a glossary and character description. He has so much imagination, which I love don’t get me wrong, but it was a bit difficult for me to remember what everything was later on in the book. Also some characters he refers to as they/them. I’m not getting into social issues of genderless people but when reading a book, a singular character written as plural is incredibly difficult and unnecessary.

Now let’s get to what I LOVE about this book.
Barker’s imagination is just so refreshing and definitely top tier of fantasy authors. I simply can’t believe with all the material out there he can still come up with something so fresh.

When the main character leads a monk into a forest to find someone who’s lost (Sounds random but you’ll get it when you read it). The world building of the forest was so mysterious and ominous. You’re constantly worried about what new creature is going to attack or what the forest itself is going to do harm you or lead you astray. It took up the middle of the book and I loved every minute of it.

The ending of the book had such a long battle scene that was a blast to read. He’s no John Gwynne but he writes action just fine to me. Not to mention a crazy cliffhanger ending that will make you wanting more!

I will greatly enjoy this book more on a reread which I will do when the sequel comes out. If Barker’s prose could be a little more fluid, have better character development in the sequel, and give me a dang glossary, then this series has the potential to be very high on my list of favorites!

Review brought to you thanks to NetGalley and Orbit.

RJ Barker could write about actuarial science and I would be engaged - he is that talented. His prose is always lush and engaging; his worlds are always fasinating; his characters always come alive on the page. Luckily, Gods of the Wyrdwood is significantly more interesting than accounting, so much so that it was my favorite read of May - and it will be tough to knock it down as my read of the summer.

Describing Gods of the Wyrdwood is tough because, to be honest, it's plot is not its strongest element. I thought I should state this upfront because Barker's plot here does meander quite a bit; sometimes the pacing is a bit slow, there are parts in the middle where it drags a bit, and things don't accelerate until the last little chunk of the book. The book almost feels episodic at times, like an epic and dark slice of life book. Things definitely happen in this book, but they don't build on top of each other as you would expect from a traditionally plotted story. If you mostly read for plot, you might walk away disappointed.

The best way to think about Gods of the Wyrdwood is to take Shrek, make him a failed Chosen One, and place him in a dark, epic fantasy world. This is pretty much, Cahan, the main character of the novel. Cahan grew up thinking he was the Chosen One, a powerful magic user who could pull the world out of its perpetual winter. However, another Chosen One instead assumed the role as "Cowl-Rai", and thus Cahan has spent most of his life running away from his powers and past identity, desiring to live alone at the edge of the forest. Throw in a spunky undead sidekick for some comic relief, a new emergent Chosen One coming of age story, and a mother conflicted about what is best for her son and what is best for the nation, and you've got the basic outline of Barker's book.

This is a summary of Gods of the Wyrdwood, but when you are reading it sometimes doesn't feel like this is the plot at all. Because the book is so episodic in nature, this overarching plot often recedes into the background. It constantly emerges to the surface, only to recede once again as Cahan and co. get involved in subplots and side quests that build out the world nicely, but don't always make for a cohesive plot.

Therefore, there are many elements of the book - the deities themselves, the role of the genderqueer but magically powerful trion, etc. - that feel underexplored and underdeveloped in Wyrdwood. It is likely that Barker will further develop these aspects of the book in future volumes of the trilogy, but here it is almost like you are looking at all of these cool things out of the corner of your eye. They are obviously there and important to the story Barker is telling, but they never quite come into full focus as the plot unfolds.

I am particularly interested in learning more about the trion because they are such an interesting element to the story. I should note here that while the book (and by extension, Barker himself) is not transphobic, the world of Wyrdwood is not always a pleasant place for non-binary folx. At one level, the trion are revered as potential Cowl-Rai, and as possible saviors of the entire world. On the other hand, they are feared for having this power; they are forced to endure grueling trials and tribulations as their magic can only be awakened through very specific (and intense) circumstances. This is fairly standard practice in this world, and therefore none of the characters in the book itself admonish these practices (although many are sympathetic to Venn, the primary trion character in the book, and what they had to go through). It is obvious that Barker himself is critical of these practices in the world he built, and that he is directly critiquing the way that gender non-conforming people are used for political aims in our modern world (the trion are often traded around by powerful families for their magical potential). All of this is to say that some readers may want to avoid this book due to this content.

I can keep going on and on about the plot (or lack thereof), but at the end of the day I just didn't care that much that there were things underdeveloped or that the plot didn't always feel cohesive. I just wanted to spend more time with Barker's prose, world, and characters. Despite the lack of plot development I flew through this big, 600+ page book because Barker's writing wouldn't let me go.

The true strengths of Gods of the Wyrdwood lie in just wanting to spend time in RJ Barker's mind for a while because it is a mind full of creativity. If you've read and enjoyed his Tide Child Trilogy, starting with The Bone Ships, you'll know what I mean. While Gods of the Wyrdwood lacks that trilogy's propulsive momentum, it does have all of the wonderful worldbuilding elements that you would expect. Barker loves to build worlds that just feel "off", that resemble our world enough to feel comfortable but also alien, different, and unsettling. Barker populates the continent of Crua with strange creatures, dark forests, nebulous deities, magical trees, and more. This gives the world of Wyrdwood an excitingly weird ecology, one that you cannot help but to want to explore more deeply.

In fact, my favorite section of the entire book is when our protagonists are forced to venture into the dark and dangerous Wyrdwood. There they are forced to confront all kinds of dangers - human and otherwise - and Barker's true creative strengths are brought to their full potential.

The characters themselves are well-drawn and come alive on the page. As the main character, Cahan is particularly complicated and nuanced. The main narrative is often interruped through short interstitial chapters where we get (through a second-person POV) small glimpses of Cahan's past. Cahan is a broken person, a person whose entire identity from birth was taken away from him, leaving him with nothing. By the time we meet Cahan he has spent nearly 20 years trying to rebuild himself, to find meaning in a world that doesn't want nor need him. However, like Shrek himself, Cahan deep down is a hero, one who has much to offer and contribute to the world despite his desire to be a recluse. Cahan's character arc throughout Wyrwood was a joy to see unfurl as he finally started to come to terms with his own life and find new meaning within it.

The other characters in the book, like Udinny and Venn, are also complicated and complex, despite their relatively low page counts. I would like to see more of their pasts and development in the future, but the one character I would like to see more of is the secondary POV character, Venn's mother. She is so wonderfully complicated, with many contradictory elements to her that I would like to see more of. I can tell already that she will have a really big role in the narrative moving forward, but honestly for a lot of Wyrdwood she seemed to be spinning in circles a bit, waiting for Cahan's story to reach a point where she can play a more significant role.

The more I logically reflect on Wyrdwood the more I can poke holes in all of the little things that didn't quite work. But reading isn't always about logically going through everything; it is about the experience you have. And I was utterly and completely absorbed by Barker's world and writing. I can completely understand why others feel differently, but this was a five star reading experience for me and the next book in this series cannot come soon enough.

Concluding Thoughts: Anchored by a mysterious forest that you cannot help want to explore with the characters, Gods of the Wyrdwood is an exciting start to a brand new trilogy. RJ Barker brings the same level of magnificent worlds, characters, and prose from his Tide Child Trilogy and crafts a unique story about a man raised to be the Chosen One, but then was unceremoniously dumped and replaced. It is a story about finding a new place in the world. While not perfect, it completely hooked me and I was entirely absorbed into the Barker's story. May not work for everyone, but I loved this one.

This is a very imaginative story and I look forward to continuing the series. I will say I was left unsatisfied because I want to know so much more about Wyrdwood. I expect we will learn more as the series progresses though! There were a few parts that felt a bit like the story was going in a circle and not progressing, which left me slightly frustrated. I am completely fascinated by the world that Barker has built though and am invested in the future of the characters. Definitely a solid start to the series!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've heard great things about RJ Barker but never read any of his work, so I was excited to give Gods of the Wyrdwood a try. Unfortunately the writing style didn't work for me at all and I found the characters vague and hard to connect with. I've heard all of Barker's series are really different from one another, so I would still pick up some of his other work.

<b><i>“To survive is often to walk away from cruelty. But is that to live?”</b></i>

<i>Gods of the Wyrdwood</i> is the first book in a new fantasy trilogy by RJ Barker. This is the first book of RJ’s that I’ve read and overall it was a great time. The story follows Cahan Du’Nahere, a clanless farmer with a complicated past that is coming back to haunt him. Living on a solitary farm just trying to get by with his animal companion until he is forced to flea because of the Rai. The Rai are the authority figures in this world, they have incredible power and a very unique magic system. I will just say they are feared and rightfully so. The book focuses mainly on his POV but also features a few more, it also utilizes second person POV a little bit to get a bit of the backstory at the end of chapters. This is not featured heavily so do not be swayed away due to not liking 2nd person.

The book plops you right down within the world immediately. Requiring the reader to pay attention and stay focused. Important details on the world and characters could be easily missed. The atmosphere and world-building is incredible and I would say the immense forest is actually a character in and of itself. During the book you get a sense of scale and just how immense and important the Wyrdwood is.

The religions are also very interesting. Many different gods are mentioned but the main god of the story, Tarl-an-Gig, is considered the ‘one true’ god by most within the region. Especially the Rai. They are very strict with this enforcement and condemn all who do not follow their god. Tensions are very high, as there is also a religious war currently going on in the south but we don’t experience much of it in this book at all.

<b><i>“Give them gods, free them from a few of their responsibilities, keep them entertained and give them someone to hate. Then they were yours.”</b></i>

I enjoyed the characters and relationships that developed in the book, the ongoing plot and conflict as well. The stakes definitely felt high at most times. However, there were some slow parts that made the book feel a bit longer than it was. That does give some nice beathing room from too much carnage and action but I think for me personally it slumped a bit. Overall though I think it’s a great first installment and I’m eager to read the next one. The ending to this was very well done. I am also going to read more books by RJ Barker very soon!

<b><i>“The only truth someone with a weapon and the strength to use it hears is what they want to hear. The only justice they can bring is that which they believe is right.”</b></I>

4 Shields out of 5!