Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

35 reviews

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Maybe I read this book at a bad time, but getting through it felt like a chore. It’s a shame because it’s in no way a bad book!

The Shadow of the Gods is the first instalment in a Norse mythology-inspired fantasy series by John Gwynne. This is not his first series, but I haven’t read this previous work. I’d classify this book as grimdark - if you’re a fan of epic battles, grisly deaths and vengeance-fueled characters, this book might be for you. 

In this fantasy world, the gods have killed each other in a fearsome battle and nearly destroyed the world in the process. Those with the gods’ blood in their veins are hunted and enslaved. We follow three main characters; Orka, Varg, and Elvar, who all have their quests and secrets. 

Two out of the three main characters are women: Orka, who lives in the wilderness with her family, and Elvar, who is a member of a mercenary group called the Battle-Grim. Varg is trying to find out what happened to his sister. All the characters are interesting, and I found myself caring for them, especially Varg and Orka.

The world is rich and interesting, and it’s revealed bit by bit. I enjoyed the writing in every other aspect except one: the author loved to use the word “thought-cage”, which in this instance refers to the thinking mind. The word appeared in almost every chapter, and every time, it managed to jolt me out of the story. 

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this book: the blurb is absolutely useless and tells nothing about the book. If I had seen this in a bookstore, I would not have bought it based on that. Alas, I got it as a gift, so here we are. Perhaps the lack of a blurb hurt my reading experience because I had no idea where we were headed with the story. Since this is a series, the first book was pretty much a set p for the series. Even though a lot happened, I felt the book really started to intrigue me only in the last third or so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, War, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Grief, Animal death, and Slavery

Minor: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Cursing, Child abuse, Excrement, and Alcohol

cluelessjr's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Blood, Murder, Torture, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Trafficking

lausiusplau's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, War, Animal death, Blood, Kidnapping, Body horror, Classism, Murder, Slavery, and Violence

violinknitter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

So much viscera and fighting. So much. Also, despite the fighting, the main plot moves very slowly. I didn’t mind, since I was enjoying being immersed in the world (whenever I wasn’t having to skim gory fights), but it didn’t really do much until the last part of the book. And it’s not a standalone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Kidnapping, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Misogyny, Gore, and War

zoelinea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

The world is rich detailed and based around a cool concept, but it is clear the author intended this book to be the first of three. The pacing is incredibly slow. I would have liked to get further into the plot before the end of book 1 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: War

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My book club billed this one as "reading Skyrim," and I think that's pretty spot on for better and worse. The characters and setting are all pretty excellent with great world building. I especially enjoy viking warrior mom even if I kept misreading her name as Okra instead of Orka. Honestly, I appreciate everything Gwynne does to subvert the patriarchal norms of historical fiction and saying, this is still fiction. This is fantasy. Let's just make a society where the genders are more or less even because we can.

The plot, however, is meandering and constantly interrupted by random encounter fight scenes.  Fun to play as a game, less fun to read. And those fight scenes are gory to a level that I just don't enjoy. It also suffers from being only half a book, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to pursue the sequel right away. We shall see, but overall, a unique piece of norse-inspired fantasy though not entirely my cuppa.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Cursing, Torture, Child abuse, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

zeroschatz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Slavery, Violence, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Vomit and Injury/Injury detail

dmeda03's review against another edition

Triggers

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Blood, War, Vomit, Murder, Violence, and Slavery

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Slavery, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Gore, Blood, Genocide, and War

sinaprst's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

this was ngl one of the best fantasy books I've ever read!

the plot, the lore, the characters, the monsters, the magic, the fighting, all of it is just amazingly written and really sucks you into this beautiful and compelling but deadly world, where nothing and noone ever feels save... 

... and the ending just leaves you wanting for more! 

(the beginning was a bit slow though, which is the only reason why I'm not rating this 5 stars)

recommended reading ambience: https://youtu.be/ERW4uLhNoH8?si=9qcRSMORewkBwLev

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Murder, Blood, and Cursing

Moderate: Kidnapping, Animal death, and Torture