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kitszy's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 would be more appropriate - a good read, dark in places and a bit of a slog in others, but overall good
yayaish's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
obiwannicoley's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
aroace_ants's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Ok so, the premise was great, the third quarter was fantastic so much shit was happening. love. The writing style was meh. The first section of the book has more challenging themes mentioned casually - rape, sexual assault, sexual (gendered) violence, yada yada - it got les through your the book but you have to read through a bit of it to get to the good plot. Considered dnfing just less that halfway through, glad I didn’t.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Blood
powder_and_page's review against another edition
4.0
I was initially drawn in by the cover art for Godblind, but quickly found myself interested for many more reasons than that. The synopsis was intriguing and the prospect of a brand new female author publishing some serious grimdark work had me sold! Now the real question is whether or not it was as awesome as hoped…. Well it was pretty great.
Let me go ahead and warn you that Godblind is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. I’ve read piles of books featuring violence of all sorts, but a particular scene from this book takes the cake- it actually made me feel a bit queasy which has never happened before. Even now as I recall it I find that I am perturbed. The violence was not gratuitous and changed the course of the story as it had been progressing up to that point, but wow, I wish I would have skipped that scene. Godblind is a dark, gritty fantasy where hope is lost and society is at a tipping point- primed to crumble only to be rebuilt in a crueler, colder fashion with blood as its mortar.
Anna Stephens introduces a truly impressive cast of characters from the very beginning with each POV having only enough pages to draw you in. I was impressed to find that I could actually remember who the characters were after about two POV chapters each, which is a testament to her writing skills in my opinion. That’s not easy to do and there have been a few too many books where I’ve spent hundreds of pages reading only to find that I have no idea who half the characters really are. Rillirin was a particular favorite of mine- she was a slave of the Mireces but escaped when she knifed their king and left him in a puddle of blood. I liked her personality and her story arc, which took her from fearful slave to persistent warrior in training. There was a surprising amount of betrayal this book and I was often second guessing motives and doubting allegiances. I also spent much of the book mulling over what exactly ‘godblind’ meant but it’s sort of explained nearer to the end.
Overall, Godblind was quite good, but perhaps a bit too brutal for me to say I enjoyed it, though I certainly have an appreciation for Anna Stephen’s storytelling skills. If bloody, dark, and brutal fantasy is your thing then you should probably give this book a go! I found conflicting US release dates (thought it was June 20 until 5 minutes ago) but I’m going with Amazon’s declaration that it will be released July 11 in the US.
Let me go ahead and warn you that Godblind is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. I’ve read piles of books featuring violence of all sorts, but a particular scene from this book takes the cake- it actually made me feel a bit queasy which has never happened before. Even now as I recall it I find that I am perturbed. The violence was not gratuitous and changed the course of the story as it had been progressing up to that point, but wow, I wish I would have skipped that scene. Godblind is a dark, gritty fantasy where hope is lost and society is at a tipping point- primed to crumble only to be rebuilt in a crueler, colder fashion with blood as its mortar.
Anna Stephens introduces a truly impressive cast of characters from the very beginning with each POV having only enough pages to draw you in. I was impressed to find that I could actually remember who the characters were after about two POV chapters each, which is a testament to her writing skills in my opinion. That’s not easy to do and there have been a few too many books where I’ve spent hundreds of pages reading only to find that I have no idea who half the characters really are. Rillirin was a particular favorite of mine- she was a slave of the Mireces but escaped when she knifed their king and left him in a puddle of blood. I liked her personality and her story arc, which took her from fearful slave to persistent warrior in training. There was a surprising amount of betrayal this book and I was often second guessing motives and doubting allegiances. I also spent much of the book mulling over what exactly ‘godblind’ meant but it’s sort of explained nearer to the end.
Overall, Godblind was quite good, but perhaps a bit too brutal for me to say I enjoyed it, though I certainly have an appreciation for Anna Stephen’s storytelling skills. If bloody, dark, and brutal fantasy is your thing then you should probably give this book a go! I found conflicting US release dates (thought it was June 20 until 5 minutes ago) but I’m going with Amazon’s declaration that it will be released July 11 in the US.
jana98's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jenni_t_reads's review against another edition
4.0
This book was weird in a sense that it wasn't particularly special in any way, but I still liked it a lot.
What you get from this book:
- simple magic system, basically only the gods
- not much world building, but if the physical book contains a map, it can be helpful (I listened to the audiobook and I wanted desperately to see a map)
- multiple POVs
- character and plot driven
- grimdark, occasionally quite violent
This book reminded me (this may also be because of the narrator) The Queen of the Tearling series and maybe somehow also The Book of the Ancestor series. One of the major things I enjoyed this book so much was because I felt that the stakes were high all the time and I was afraid that all the characters were going to die.
I had some problems remembering all the POVs first, because there were so many, and because some of their names sounded similar to my ear and I mixed few characters. But now that I know and remember all the characters, I believe I can enjoy the next book more.
All in all I have a feeling that this series is really underrated, and I encourage everyone who loves grimdark epic fantasy to pick this up and give it a try!
What you get from this book:
- simple magic system, basically only the gods
- not much world building, but if the physical book contains a map, it can be helpful (I listened to the audiobook and I wanted desperately to see a map)
- multiple POVs
- character and plot driven
- grimdark, occasionally quite violent
This book reminded me (this may also be because of the narrator) The Queen of the Tearling series and maybe somehow also The Book of the Ancestor series. One of the major things I enjoyed this book so much was because I felt that the stakes were high all the time and I was afraid that all the characters were going to die.
I had some problems remembering all the POVs first, because there were so many, and because some of their names sounded similar to my ear and I mixed few characters. But now that I know and remember all the characters, I believe I can enjoy the next book more.
All in all I have a feeling that this series is really underrated, and I encourage everyone who loves grimdark epic fantasy to pick this up and give it a try!
chi_a_dika's review against another edition
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
binky75's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0