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A review by lindzy
Godblind by Anna Stephens
5.0
Full review here
There was a spell last year where there were a lot of good fantasy books released. I’m sad that it took me so long to get to Godblind. I’m not sure I’ve ever consciously made the choice to not read another review book afterwards because I knew it wouldn’t compare. This played with my emotions on so many levels.
It was dark, gritty, gory, suspenseful and gripping as heck!
Ultimately, it is a story of good versus evil. There are the good guys, whose Gods are about flowers and dancing and light. Then there are the bad guys, whose Gods thrive off pain, blood and terror. Cliché, in a way, but the narration unfolds in such a way you never think that.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted. The entire plot is one consistent battle pretty much, and there are a few moments where I winced. The descriptions of the violence in a couple of places – mainly when a sacrifice was taking place – were so powerful it was hard not to visibly react. This doesn’t happen enough to put you off, but if you really can’t deal with that sort of thing, be warned!
From the beginning, the reader is aware that the “bad” Gods appear to be real. What I loved, however, is that this is not one-sided. These aren’t people clinging to old beliefs – their Gods do communicate with them.
It’s not only the Gods who are real: the world is a complicated, intricate one. I thoroughly enjoyed the world-building and it worked effectively to draw you in.
The book is fast-paced and while that is partly because of the effective tension building, it’s also because of the constant switching narrators. There are several characters we get to follow. It meant I didn’t always feel I got to know the characters as well as I would have liked, but it worked. It also meant that it took a while before I had a grip on who was who; who was a hero, who was a traitor and who just wanted to survive. All of the characters were engaging and either likeable or were so easy to hate it was just as enjoyable.
Crys and Rillirin were my favourites in terms of development. Rillirin was an escaped slave finally learning to live and love again. Crys was a bored soldier who ended up in the thick of things and learnt quite a bit about himself along the way. They were hardly recognisable from the characters we are first introduced to at the start of the book.
There are too many characters to go into them all in depth. Some surprised me – and not always in a good way. I was so engaged with the characters and their welfare, however, that I couldn’t put the book down. I was actually yelling at it by the end, and just knew it was going to end on a cliffhanger.
A whirlwind of a read and a definite recommendation from me!
There was a spell last year where there were a lot of good fantasy books released. I’m sad that it took me so long to get to Godblind. I’m not sure I’ve ever consciously made the choice to not read another review book afterwards because I knew it wouldn’t compare. This played with my emotions on so many levels.
It was dark, gritty, gory, suspenseful and gripping as heck!
Ultimately, it is a story of good versus evil. There are the good guys, whose Gods are about flowers and dancing and light. Then there are the bad guys, whose Gods thrive off pain, blood and terror. Cliché, in a way, but the narration unfolds in such a way you never think that.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted. The entire plot is one consistent battle pretty much, and there are a few moments where I winced. The descriptions of the violence in a couple of places – mainly when a sacrifice was taking place – were so powerful it was hard not to visibly react. This doesn’t happen enough to put you off, but if you really can’t deal with that sort of thing, be warned!
From the beginning, the reader is aware that the “bad” Gods appear to be real. What I loved, however, is that this is not one-sided. These aren’t people clinging to old beliefs – their Gods do communicate with them.
It’s not only the Gods who are real: the world is a complicated, intricate one. I thoroughly enjoyed the world-building and it worked effectively to draw you in.
The book is fast-paced and while that is partly because of the effective tension building, it’s also because of the constant switching narrators. There are several characters we get to follow. It meant I didn’t always feel I got to know the characters as well as I would have liked, but it worked. It also meant that it took a while before I had a grip on who was who; who was a hero, who was a traitor and who just wanted to survive. All of the characters were engaging and either likeable or were so easy to hate it was just as enjoyable.
Crys and Rillirin were my favourites in terms of development. Rillirin was an escaped slave finally learning to live and love again. Crys was a bored soldier who ended up in the thick of things and learnt quite a bit about himself along the way. They were hardly recognisable from the characters we are first introduced to at the start of the book.
There are too many characters to go into them all in depth. Some surprised me – and not always in a good way. I was so engaged with the characters and their welfare, however, that I couldn’t put the book down. I was actually yelling at it by the end, and just knew it was going to end on a cliffhanger.
A whirlwind of a read and a definite recommendation from me!