‘The Shadow of the Gods’ – John Gwynne (Orbit)

Just to prove that I do read ‘whole books’ every now and then… 😉 It’s been a bit of a crazy week but it’s done now and I’m hoping to get a couple more books under my belt over the weekend. Lets see how that pans out, shall we? In the meantime…

For a number of reasons (all of which were on me, not the books), I’ve been the only person (on Book Twitter) who couldn’t get into John Gwynne’s ‘Faithful and the Fallen’ books. Like I said, it’s not the books. I’ve either been burnt out on reading, hellishly busy at work or falling foul of my inability to finish series that are longer than a trilogy. ‘The Faithful and the Fallen’ is only one book longer than that but it counts ☹

I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing out though, especially when the rest of Book Twitter was having a great time with the books, and if there’s one thing I hate, it’s feeling like I’m missing out on something. So I thought I’d give ‘The Shadow of the Gods’ a go and see how I did with that. It was only the one book, I could do that 😊 And so I did and… Bloody hell, I really have been missing out haven’t I? I won’t make that mistake again.

THE GREATEST SAGAS ARE WRITTEN IN BLOOD.

A century has passed since the gods fought and drove themselves to extinction. Now only their bones remain, promising great power to those brave enough to seek them out.

As whispers of war echo across the land of Vigrið, fate follows in the footsteps of three warriors: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman pursuing battle fame, and a thrall seeking vengeance among the mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods.

I have spent the last couple of weeks taking every opportunity that I could to read more of ‘The Shadow of the Gods’; I dread to think of all the things that I put off to get this book finished but it was worth it, more than worth it in fact. ‘The Shadow of the Gods’ is an enthralling read that promises good things to come. I’m thinking very seriously about grabbing the hardback now so that I don’t have to wait to continue the story.

‘The Shadow of the Gods’ is a read where it’s all to easy to just slip into the story and find yourself standing in the shield wall, living through a bar room brawl or creeping through a forest, listening out for the Vaesen that are stalking you. Gwynne has a real gift for placing his readers right at the heart of things (with some quite frankly gorgeous descriptive prose, Vigrid is bleak but beautiful all at the same time), where it’s impossible not to feel the same as the characters that you’re stood with. And that’s why you have to keep reading, Gwynne raises that tension and gives you no choice but to keep reading so that tension can finally vent.

And those characters… While there may be an argument that there isn’t a lot of difference between the three main leads (what with oath keeping and honour being such a huge deal in Vigrid, everyone’s lives are defined by these traits), Gwynne proves he has a keen eye for subtle character development (along with his other eye for writing brutal scenes where people beat the absolute crap out of other people and/monsters, damn…) by exploring just what this means to his leads and how it affects their individual journeys. There is a single-minded obsession to oath keeping (and that’s how it should be) but it’s open to being challenged and that is where the story comes to life.

What really struck me though, amidst all the questing and fighting, is the importance of brotherhood and family in what is a fairly tumultuous land. This is what gets you through the troubles (as well as making for some nice little moments of ‘downtime’ between encounters) and so it’s a massive deal, so massive in fact that it feels almost tangible to the reader. I couldn’t help but engage with it as I wanted to feel a part of it and thanks to Gwynne’s attention here, I did. I’ve got a slight preference for the Blood Sworn, over the Battle Grim, but am really looking forward to seeing how these families develop, given what has happened to them so far. Gwynne really isn’t afraid to put them through the wringer, they can handle it though.

An intriguing plot full of treachery and hope along with a cast that are more than up to whatever is thrown at them. All of that set against a vast backdrop that you want to see on the big screen to really capture its beauty. ‘The Shadow of the Gods’ was just superb, I can’t wait to see what comes next.