A review by br33zy268
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-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

4.75

Wow. I’m not sure what I expected when I started reading this but I thoroughly enjoyed it, the build up, and how the three characters stories were collected. Maybe I’m easier to entertain but I’m not sure how folks ended up mistaking the character voices. Like…were they the strongest characters? probably not. Were they distinct and relatable and frustrating all in their own ways? I would argue yes. Orka especially captured my heart. Elvar I had mixed feelings about up until the very end and Varg was great, although sometimes his story got a little repetitive and he frustrated me the most. It was incredibly satisfying toward the end to finally see how all these stories linked together (some connections were revealed earlier of course). And there was a nice little reveal at the end of Elvar’s story that I didn’t anticipate. All in all I throughly enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would and can’t wait for the rest of the series (here’s to hoping it holds up). I did knock half a star because sometimes it did feel some things were just constantly repeated (like in Varg’s story) and in some of the descriptions of locations etc to the point I was like “where are we…are we think we are where we are?” But other than that I find I have few critiques of this first book.