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A review by carolinethereader
Godblind by Anna Stephens
3.0
HMM... I have such mixed feelings about this book! Here's the deal:I think the world building was completely lacking (basically non-existent tbh). As was the character development. The perspective switched WAY too frequently and the entire story was missing the complexity and depth that I associate with high fantasy. BUT I still I enjoyed reading it a lot. I was engrossed in the story and powered through a 450 page book in a few days because I was so hooked. I'm gonna try and explain my thoughts a little better but who knows how that will go.
Godblind is a debut fantasy by Anna Stephens and I've gotta say that I enjoyed it. I initially thought the plot was really predictable because I thought I was super smart and had the whole plot worked out but it turned out I was wrong and the story surprised me which was fun. The politicking was well-done for the most part. The emphasis on religion was great as well- the different religions were one of the most well developed aspects of the world building in the book. The other thing that I think was good was some of the relationships between characters; they felt genuine and real. Honestly this book had solid foundations and could've been something much MUCH better so it's a shame that it wasn't.
There were just too many things in this book that dragged in down for me:
- SHORT CHAPTERS + TOO MANY PERSPECTIVES - I do love various perspectives in fantasy so for me to list it as a negative really means something. There are about 10 different character perspectives in Godblind and a few of them are unnecessary and repetitive. Not only that but the perspective switches every 3-5 pages so in this 400 page book we have about 100 chapters which is absolutely ridiculous. It means we get less character development because we are with them for a short conversation and then it switches to another character. Very frustrating.
- LACK OF CHARACTER DESCRIPTION AND DEVELOPMENT- Because of the switching perspectives and short chapters we don't get much introspection from the characters. A lot of the chapters are dialogue or action heavy (which is fine) but means we miss out on internal monologues and learning more about them. I don't feel like I know any of the characters particularly well which is very disappointing at the end of a long book. Also they never really get described. Like halfway through it gets mentioned that a character has red hair and I was like ??? and that made me realise that none of the characters had been properly described.
- PRETTY MUCH ZERO WORLD BUILDING- I knew that the Rilporans and Mireces didn't like each other and worshipped different Gods. I knew that Mireces people lived in a cold area and wore blue... and that's about it. I didn't know the style of dress in either area. I didn't know their culture or customs. I didn't know about different languages or even slang terms. I didn't know what kind of foods they ate in each area (like seriously we never get a food description). Like seriously there is no depth to this world and it's sooo disappointing because it's not that hard to slip in a mention of food or clothing or anything.
So yeah those are my thoughts. I still enjoyed this book and will probably pick up the next in the series but there's definitely stuff to be improved upon.
Godblind is a debut fantasy by Anna Stephens and I've gotta say that I enjoyed it. I initially thought the plot was really predictable because I thought I was super smart and had the whole plot worked out but it turned out I was wrong and the story surprised me which was fun. The politicking was well-done for the most part. The emphasis on religion was great as well- the different religions were one of the most well developed aspects of the world building in the book. The other thing that I think was good was some of the relationships between characters; they felt genuine and real. Honestly this book had solid foundations and could've been something much MUCH better so it's a shame that it wasn't.
There were just too many things in this book that dragged in down for me:
- SHORT CHAPTERS + TOO MANY PERSPECTIVES - I do love various perspectives in fantasy so for me to list it as a negative really means something. There are about 10 different character perspectives in Godblind and a few of them are unnecessary and repetitive. Not only that but the perspective switches every 3-5 pages so in this 400 page book we have about 100 chapters which is absolutely ridiculous. It means we get less character development because we are with them for a short conversation and then it switches to another character. Very frustrating.
- LACK OF CHARACTER DESCRIPTION AND DEVELOPMENT- Because of the switching perspectives and short chapters we don't get much introspection from the characters. A lot of the chapters are dialogue or action heavy (which is fine) but means we miss out on internal monologues and learning more about them. I don't feel like I know any of the characters particularly well which is very disappointing at the end of a long book. Also they never really get described. Like halfway through it gets mentioned that a character has red hair and I was like ??? and that made me realise that none of the characters had been properly described.
- PRETTY MUCH ZERO WORLD BUILDING- I knew that the Rilporans and Mireces didn't like each other and worshipped different Gods. I knew that Mireces people lived in a cold area and wore blue... and that's about it. I didn't know the style of dress in either area. I didn't know their culture or customs. I didn't know about different languages or even slang terms. I didn't know what kind of foods they ate in each area (like seriously we never get a food description). Like seriously there is no depth to this world and it's sooo disappointing because it's not that hard to slip in a mention of food or clothing or anything.
So yeah those are my thoughts. I still enjoyed this book and will probably pick up the next in the series but there's definitely stuff to be improved upon.