Hello Fellow Journeyers,
Next we have the first John Gwynne book I've gotten a chance to read, The Shadow of the Gods. I've heard a lot of John Gwynne over the last few months taking Goodreads by storm in the fantasy community with his first two series he's written. I was excited to get to listen to the Audiobook version that was highly recommended to me.
What's the story about: The Shadow of the Gods is a multiple POV story about three main characters: Orka, Varg, and Elvar, who each have their own goals and threads. It is only near the the last 20% of the story that they begin to converge for an overall plot. Orka's is a quest to reclaim her kidnapped son with a vengeance. Varg, to avenge his sister and find freedom from his life of slavery. And Elvar, to find battle fame and glory within a mercenary group while running from her heritage. Simple ideas that become gradually more complex as the story progresses.
The first thing that I noticed when reading The Shadow of the Gods was how similarly Gwynne writes to Pierce Brown, author of my favorite sci-fi series, Red Rising. I liked the short, direct, dramatic sentences that were action packed and filled with resonating imagery. This included dialogue that was never wasted or boring, but filled with character-depth and intrigue. And while many scenes after scenes were filled with repeating descriptions of weapons that eventually got a little old, everything else was vivid and raw. Being the first book by Gwynne that I'd read, you can tell his confidence and affection for action, adventure, and storytelling. It show and resonates deeply within his work.
Something that took away from his writing was how long it took to get the plots going. A really long time. Like many fantasy stories, there is background that is laid out, but not in the form of allowing us to get to know the characters very quickly, but just to develop the future plots and world-build the somewhat odd Vigrid, which was disappointing because I really wanted to get behind the characters early on. Unfortunately, each POV's story tended to get going at differing times. Orka's starts most traditionally with a worthy introduction, but doesn't pick up until the 50% mark. Varg's, because we have multiple POVs, picks up a little too late with most of his background history just told expositionally, which I thought was disappointing as he was a great character to follow. And lastly, Elvar's just kind of starts and doesn't really stop being interesting, but gets the most action and steady progression. It was only near the 66-75% point was where the overall plot started to become clear and even though I was invested, I was still a little disappointed at the amount of time it took to get going.
Lastly, the ending was epic, but I couldn't help but feel it was a little anti-climactic. Because each of the POV characters' stories were good, a lot of the progression and flow suffered from hard breaks to chapters where I'd forgotten what was going on with previous characters. Unlike many readers, I was deeply invested in all three storylines, so whenever we'd have a stark break, I was caught off guard and had to reorient my mind. My biggest problem with the book also came in the ending. It's becoming a trend in fantasy books to really have a cliffhanger ending that shocks the readers and this book is no exception. I felt that too many pieces of new information was revealed near the end and it left me with too many unanswered questions from the journey that we'd just taken. It was somewhat satisfying, but I didn't feel the conclusive bliss that should normally accompany a book (even one of a series) coming to a close.
★★★★ 4 Stars - Overall, The Shadow of the Gods is a very enjoyable story of Viking-inspired myth and legend. It moves along slowly, but with continual action to keep you engaged. The world-building is intriguing, if a little vague on history. The characters are written well and enjoyable to experience, but the side characters blend together with the similarities of Varg's and Elvar's storylines. The overall plot doesn't develop enough until the last third, but is worth following, even if it ends a little too much on a cliffhanger for my tastes. A great and action-packed read despite a few drawbacks!