I dnf'd at 30%. I didn't like the fragmented way of writing, and even for a 14-year-old I found Venn terribly obnoxious

I really enjoyed the world-building, especially the ways in which it different from classic fantasy settings, such as the abundance of land-squid and mollusk creatures populating the world. The nature was beautifully described, and I could easily envision myself among the dense, magical trees. As other reviewers have mentioned, I was uncomfortable with the treatment of non-binary folks in the story, regardless of whether the author intended their oppression to mirror oppression in the real world. I also struggled with how much information was dropped at the beginning, and how it took a long time for some of the broader plot to make sense in the context of this ill-explained lore. The characters felt stereotypical and largely unsurprisingly, not good or bad but merely following along the paths of similar fantasy character tropes. .

2/5 Stars

TL;DR - This book has a lot of things going for it, namely the world itself and the magic system, but it’s also long and boring and shoots itself in the foot by including some puzzling, tone-deaf classism and frankly appalling treatment of non-binary people, and then offering no rebuking or commentary on these issues.

Big thank you to Orbit/Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

***Trigger warning for the objectification, dehumanization, and straight-up murder of non-binary people.***

‘Gods of the Wyrdwood’ by RJ Barker is the first installment in an epic fantasy trilogy detailing the struggles of the land of Crua. It’s told from two main points of view, that of Cahan Du-Nahere, formerly a powerful magic user who has quit that life and resigned himself instead to the life of a forester and farmer, and Kirven Ban-Ruhn, the high ruler of Crua struggling to maintain her power. War rages, the northern lands are slowly dying to perpetual winter, and the shadow of politics and greed for power reaches across the world, even to the doorstep of a clanless farmer who just wants to tend his flock and live in anonymity.

First and foremost, this book includes a few really problematic elements. To sum up the smaller issues, there’s some really gross sentiments about unhoused people in the world-building, criminals and poor people are made forcibly naked, to like, embarrass them or make sure they know their place or some such nonsense, and the main character, Cahan, looks down on some people at the start of the book who, by his estimate, were poor, inner-city folk who “didn’t know how to live out in the middle of nowhere”. There’s just a lot really icky classism that I feel like was included to emphasize the depravity of the ruling class, but the issues aren’t ever discussed, at least not in any meaningful way, so there’s just a heaping helping of not-cool things happening and no solid commentary or effective denouncement of it.

And then there’s the trion, the third-gender people who exist in this world. I was excited at first - I’m always down for some enby rep - but it quickly faded. These people are, in the words of Venn, who is a trion themself, “simply traded between powerful families”. We find this out, of course, right before Venn tells their mother how thirty trion, themself included, some barely old enough to walk, were sent into what is, in essence, a magical gas chamber meant to awaken their magic, that summarily kills all but Venn - and it’s well known that the process kills most trion AND THEY’RE SENT IN ANYWAY. Just…what the fuck? Why? Why purposefully have non-binary people as a prominent feature in your world just to objectify, dehumanize, and then murder them?

I almost stopped reading at that point, about 11% into the book, but I was so shocked that I was sure I must have misunderstood what I read and kept reading to figure out what the hell was going on. There was no further clarification in the rest of the book, except that, apparently, every magic user goes into the gas chamber to awaken their magic, not just the trion, and a lot of them die, too. Oh yeah, and the fact that all those trions were sent to die because the villains (including Venn's MOTHER) need a trion magic-user for some big magic thing to win the war, which is just another level of gross and infuriating objectification foisted onto these people by the author. I'm genuinely upset with this book and I wish I'd DNF'd it. However, I was given an ARC for an honest review and that’s what I intend to give, even if it makes me uncomfortable to give positive feedback on this book after reading the aforementioned scenes.

The strongest point of this book is easily the world and its flora and fauna. It’s familiar enough to settle into initially, giving me vibes of the British Isles in ancient times, before the Romans showed up and ruined everything, but it’s also distinctly alien in a way that reminds me of the world from ‘The Stormlight Archive’ by Brandon Sanderson. Instead of crustacean-based critters, in this world we have many creatures that are mollusk-based, specifically squids - except these aren’t ocean-dwelling squid-things, these ones fly. Lots of interesting animals, both mundane and magical, including a lot of deep-forest dwellers that are somewhat familiar fae-like things, while others are straight out of Slavic folklore nightmares.

The Wyrdwood is an incredible setting. I’m always down for a story set in an ancient forest, and this one delivers 110% on both the beautiful, lush side of traveling through a deep forest, and the terrifying, soul-stealing, what’s-making-that-sound side. There’s deep magic in the Wyrdwood (and the titular gods), and it came across as a really poignant and timely message about how deeply humanity’s relationship with nature runs, and how vital it is to respect and preserve it.

The magic system is pretty interesting. No spoilers, but I am a sucker for living magic, that is, magic that is itself alive, and this book offers a fresh take on it. I wish the acquisition of magic and the forces behind it were explained a bit more thoroughly, but it is book one of a trilogy so I expect more will be revealed going forward.

Those few praises aired, the rest of the book was mostly a disappointment.

There are a hundred thousand new world-specific terms that are all dumped on you in the first few chapters, and pretty much none of them are explained alongside them. For the first probably 30% of the book, I didn’t know what so many things meant, because they were never given context. There are a lot of animals that are given no description, and I still don’t know what some are supposed to look like. Paradoxically, I felt like there was way too much description of everything, and yet, I still couldn’t visualize what I was being told about. It constantly felt like I was watching the part of Pokemon where they ask “Who’s That Pokemon” and give you just a silhouette of said Pokemon - I could visualize general shapes and vibes, but never in enough detail to know what the hell was going on.

The majority of characters are just…there. They’re not shallow, but they’re not deep, either. All of the protagonists make interesting choices and have their own personalities to an extent, but I never really connected with any of them because the lens of the story is always zoomed out and focused on what’s happening to the characters, not what they’re feeling on a deep enough level to satisfy me. That’s totally a personal preference, but it did really hamper my connection to and enjoyment of the characters.

The villain and antagonists, though, yikes. Boring villain do predictable villain things. Boring villain followers also do boring villain things, give boring villain speeches. Bad people are bad. Their shiny new god is the one true god, the old gods are fake, they kill anyone who doesn’t convert, and really just kill anyone in their way because they’re in power and that’s what people in power do - and the book really harps on those points. Those points being, people in power bad, tyrannical religion bad, prejudice bad. It’s worst in the beginning of the book, just being beaten over the head with them again and again and again, adding nothing to the conversation that’s been had a million times before, no nuance, just tired tropes. It tapers off as the book goes, but man is it heavy-handed at the start.

Speaking of heavy-handed, the beginning of the book is chock full of really clumsy exposition. Everyone seems to retell stories to people that would, ostensibly, already have heard them. I know that high/epic fantasy generally has a lot of world-building and backstory to fit in so things make sense, but I really feel like it could have been done better than it was.

Also, on the subject of the beginning of the book, I don’t know why, but it feels like the first 200 or so pages of the book were a separate-but-related book, not part of this one. It felt like there was an inciting incident and the start of a plot arc, but then it stopped and went back to the beginning, and then we got another inciting incident, and THEN the actual story started.

And by started, I mean meandered along at such a slow pace that it was a true slog to finish this book. I mentioned above that I was reminded of Brandon Sanderson’s ‘The Stormlight Archive’ series by this book, and ‘Gods of the Wyrdwood’ shares that series’ absolute snail’s pacing and general wordy, pointless over-bloating. There’s just too damn much here and the vast majority is uninteresting. Something like 650 pages and I felt like I was trapped in amber for most of it.

There are so many times where the author tells us that something major happens, like a mini-spoiler, and then takes 2+ pages to get to that actual event, and for me, that really kills the flow and tension of the story. I would have preferred not to have the sentence that tells us something happens in a few pages and just have it revealed at the time it happens. A small thing, maybe, but one that I really didn’t enjoy.

To top it all off, I do not jive with the writing style. Things get repeated, sentences go on with little punctuation (or have a period where it should have a comma or semi-colon, one of my biggest pet peeves), and some things are just plain weirdly-worded. There’s also a lot of passive voice and it’s grating. I found myself constantly re-reading sentences and even paragraphs because I genuinely didn’t understand what was being said because of how it was written. This is probably a me thing, but it is a thing, and it really detracted from overall enjoyment for me.

Final Thoughts:

Setting, good, magic system, good. Everything else, ‘meh’ at best.

The whole trion incident was a major issue for me, and because of it, I will not be reading the rest of this series when it comes out, nor will I be reading anything else by this author. I don’t know anything about the author as person, but what he chose to include in this book is doing him no favors. No thank you.

RJ Barker has Created a very different world, where he uses language from much of his own creation.

The story is very detailed, and very unique, but the prose can make it confusing if not paying close attention.

God's, and magic from a tribal societies perspective. Different from the usual.

I'd check out the next book to see where the story leads...

Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker is a fantastic fantasy read that I could not put down for days. Neither will you.

The world-building in this series debut was so thorough--it's clear that the author spent a copious quantity of time getting all the details in there. However, I almost felt like there could sometimes be too much focus on said details, with all the world-specific words and phrases. I saw another review mention a glossary, and I feverishly second that idea. I loved the plot and I thought it was super intricate with well-fleshed out characters, but I wish that the pacing was a bit faster. I really enjoyed the world and characters, the plethora of fantasy creatures and ideas, but I just felt myself slogging through this instead of being super invested in the story. The pacing wasn't necessarily horrible--I know a lot of people will enjoy this pace--but for me it was just too slow.

Also, I think the blurb for the book is a bit confusing as it mentions a character that doesn't appear until the second half of the book.

GotW is another astoundingly original & epic fantasy tale from the mind of RJ Barker. From fully realized characters and prodigious world-building to a unique & intriguing magic system, GotW ticks all of the boxes & then some. Simply breathtaking.
Note: May contain land squids

Synopsis:

The northern regions of Crua are trapped in an unending winter, but according to prophecy, there will be a chosen child who will reign in the name of their God and bring warmth back from the South. Cahan du Nahere was brought up to be this chosen one, known as the Cowl-Rai, the savior. Taken away from his parents, he was groomed for his fate.

However, his time never arrived. At the age of fifteen, he became irrelevant. Another Cowl-Rai had emerged, a different chosen one, raised in the name of a different God. The grueling physical and mental training he had undergone, the sacrifices he had made, all went to waste. He was nothing.

Twenty years later, Cahan lives in secrecy on the fringes of Crua's vast forests, concealing his identity and running from his abilities. But when he is compelled to reveal his true self, he sets in motion a chain of events that will uncover secrets capable of shaking the foundation of his world and exposing lies that have persisted for generations.

Thoughts:

Gods of The Wyrdwood by RJ Barker is the first book of his Forsaken series and the author has invested considerable effort in constructing the world of Crua, featuring meticulous world-building and a compelling storyline. As much as I loved this fantastical world, oftentimes I found myself perplexed by the plethora of unique terms and jargon that were introduced without adequate explanation. Therefore my request to the author and the publisher is to include a glossary for this book which would make the reader's life much easier.

I am no stranger to High/Epic Fantasy. I have fallen in love with many fantastic long high/epic fantasy series such as Mazalan Book of The Fallen, The Way of Kings, The Wheel of Time or The Black Company to name a few. I mention this because I don't mind expansive books or thorough exposition, as it's crucial in establishing a detailed fantasy world. However, while reading Gods of The Wyrdwood, I sensed that something was amiss. I am not even sure whether it was the terminologies, the names of places, gods or people, I felt kind of underwhelmed and most of the time frustrated reading the first half of the book. I think it was because, although the family system was really unique, it was never explained well and I had to spend time reading back and forth trying to figure out the hierarchy of military/religious/political statuses of characters. There were a lot of fantastical creatures and animals that were never described properly. Some were and others were left to reader's imagination.

Unless I read the Goodreads book blurb I don't think I would have ever guessed Cahan's age and please take note in the Goodreads blurb his name is mentioned as 'Cahal' but in the book it is Cahan. In the Netgally Udinny is mentioned mentioned as a front runner but her character is revealed only in the second half of the book. I was very confused and was wondering who this character was or whether she was mentioned by mistake in the blurb while I was reading the first half of the book.

The plot was beautifully crafted and the author's writing style was excellent. Cahan, Kirven, Venn and Udinny were great characters. However for some inexplicable reason I felt it was like a chore to pick up this book once I put it down after a reading session and at times I thought of simply not finishing the book too. I begrudgingly trudged through simply because I was intrigued by the plot and wanted to see how the character arcs progressed.

Gods of The Wyrdwood has a lot of potential going forward. I just would like to see adequate explanations for novel terminologies/animals and such.

I will post the finished reviews on goodreads and my blog within thirty days prior to the publication date as per Orbit's review publishing rules. My sincere thanks to Netgally and Orbit books for giving me the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker is a mesmerizing fantasy novel that takes readers on a journey through a land of many gods and the people who serve them. The story follows Cahan du Nahare, the forester, who possesses an unparalleled ability to navigate the treacherous Deepforest. However, his past association with the god of fire leaves him torn between his loyalty to the forest and his old allegiances.

When Udinny, a servant of the goddess of the lost, seeks Cahan's guidance to find a missing child in the Deepforest, he embarks on a journey that challenges his beliefs and choices. In a world where gods reign supreme and their followers engage in constant power struggles, Cahan must make a life-changing decision that will impact his world's fate.

RJ Barker's writing style is lyrical, immersive, and captivating, with vivid descriptions that bring the forest and its inhabitants to life. The characters are well-developed, with each of them carrying their own unique struggles and motivations. The dynamic between Cahan and Udinny is particularly well-done, as their relationship evolves from an uneasy partnership to a deep friendship.

Gods of the Wyrdwood is a must-read for fans of epic fantasy, with its intricate world-building, complex characters, and themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the price of power. RJ Barker has crafted a masterful debut that leaves readers eager for more.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reading copy of gods of the wrydwood by rj barker. This was a longer read and really goes in-depth into the world he created. I don’t always love when authors make a whole new language but it kind of worked this time,