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A review by mizuka
Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker
4.0
No one can convince me that RJ Barker's editor actually reads any of this books. I've been through The Wounded Kingdom trilogy, and I don't think I've ever seen so many typos, punctuation errors or mismatched tenses on the printed page (and that's ignoring the fragmented / run-on sentences, which I assume are stylistic). The pacing of the book definitely feels indulgent as well -- at some point, the characters spend multiple pages gathering sticks. From a forest.
It's a real testament to his writing that his books remain enjoyable. I liked the interludes between the chapters, revealing the pieces of Cahan's backstory one at a time. It's very skilfully done, evoking a dreamlike atmosphere and never long enough that it feels like it's interrupting the main story. I think these interludes contained the best writing in the book.
Apart from that, Gods of the Wyrdwood retains the same flaws as Barker's earlier work -- only the main character is really fleshed out, while the others are either caricatures or blend into one another. The reborn women in particular felt more like plot devices than actual people.
Some parts of it definitely feels repetitive, especially the that takes up the last third of the book -- I suppose there are only so many ways to write but it could have been spiced up a little with more instances of cowl magic. For how prominent they are in the Wyrdwood world, it felt like the Rai did very little during the actual battle, which was a little disappointing.
It's a real testament to his writing that his books remain enjoyable. I liked the interludes between the chapters, revealing the pieces of Cahan's backstory one at a time. It's very skilfully done, evoking a dreamlike atmosphere and never long enough that it feels like it's interrupting the main story. I think these interludes contained the best writing in the book.
Apart from that, Gods of the Wyrdwood retains the same flaws as Barker's earlier work -- only the main character is really fleshed out, while the others are either caricatures or blend into one another. The reborn women in particular felt more like plot devices than actual people.
Some parts of it definitely feels repetitive, especially the