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

3.0

Since this is a new series by John Gwynne, The Shadow of the Gods was one of my most anticipated book releases this year. I’ve been eyeing Malice since 2016 but didn’t get the chance to read it. Considering the hype and praise surrounding Gwynne in the fantasy community, I was ecstatic that I was approved for an arc. I’m not a fast reader but books rarely take me over a week to finish. Especially arcs. The Shadow of the Gods took me 10 days even though it wasn’t particularly long. I wanted to love this book wholeheartedly. I was however just not interested enough.

The Shadow of the Gods is based on Beowulf and Ragnarok. It’s in a land called Vigrið and in a world where the gods warred killing and imprisoning each other. The only remnants of them today are the bones and relics as well as their blood descendants of the “tainted”. Enslaved, they are thralls sold and bought by Jarls, warbands, and well, anyone who can afford them. They possess supernatural strengths, magic, etc. depends whose blood they have.

The book follows the story of three characters:
- Orka, a renowned warrior with excellent battle skills, she’s forced on a journey to hunt down her son’s kidnappers and take her vengeance.
- Varg, a previous thrall and a farmer, joins the Bloodsworn to discover his sister’s killer.
- Elvar, the daughter of a rich man (let’s say), seeks battle fame with the Battle-Grim.

I won’t go into too much detail and retell the plot and the story – I rarely do. Instead, I want to discuss the book itself.

Let’s talk about the characters first. They are the most important element for me in any book. Even if the pace was slow (which it was) if I truly liked the characters I wouldn’t mind. Little was going in [b:Before They Are Hanged|902715|Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2)|Joe Abercrombie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1179318094l/902715._SY75_.jpg|2116927], which I read recently. Yet, I rated it 4 stars because of the excellent characterization, I cared a lot about our characters (even in book 1). Sadly here, I wasn’t impressed. I couldn’t connect with them nor feel much towards them. My favorite was Orka and her chapters interested me the most. Not a lot to be clear, but more than the rest. Varg’s chapters made me want to know more about him at first but later on, I lost my curiosity. Now Elvar was definitely my least favorite. Only a few of her chapters interested me (when we discover a bit about her past) but even at the end, when the action was at its peak, I wasn’t invested in her part of the story. I simply felt detached from the characters.

This brings me to my next point: the pace. I know most of the time, fantasy books are slow-paced. And it’s fine by me. But at least the characters make up for it sometimes. Yet, here, everything was moving so slowly that I was often scrolling Instagram in the little reading time I have. I could not care about anything other than the poor children. Elvar’s chapters didn’t help either because yes sure stuff was happening but the stuff I wasn’t invested in whatsoever. The person who saved her chapters was the witch Uspa because I wanted to know more about her. The history part was well told and the rich world building was also one of this book’s strengths for me. Yet, when we got to the end, I was able to stop reading anytime still (bad sign) and found it underwhelming (I was expecting something mindblowing). I would’ve appreciated it more if I was into the story.

Another thing that annoyed me was the lack of a glossary. I’m not very familiar with Norse Mythology besides common knowledge. There were words and terms I have no idea what they mean even by the end of the book. I also messed up things a lot in my head due to the lack of a clear definition and the abundant use of (Icelandic? Certainly not Scandinavian) terms. There were a lot of those and many times with no translation in the following text whatsoever. This sadly made it more difficult for me to enjoy and get into the book. And given the large cast of characters, it took me more than my usual time to remember who’s who.

It wasn’t until the end that we see how these characters’ fates intertwine and connect. The main plot or let’s say common mission is the reason I want to read the sequel. Since it wasn’t completely resolved, I do want to see how Gwynne will develop the story especially since the gods part was increasing towards the end of the book. My friend also told me that he also struggles with Gwynne’s first book but it gets much better later on. I haven’t read Malice yet because I wanted to buy the hard copies (I mostly read ebooks). Now honestly, I’m reconsidering. It was next on my buying list but now it’ll have to wait till the release of this book. I want to read more reviews (especially ones like mine) and see how they’d compare it to Malice.

Finally, I want to end by saying that I believe Gwynne’s fans will enjoy this book more than I did. The overall story intrigued me enough to want to read the sequel. I hope by then the pace will pick up (actually, I’m sure it will after the ending). My review might be mostly negative but I did appreciate the world-building and the gods’ history (and would’ve admired it more with a glossary). I’m also curious about a particular plotline and the characters concerned in it. As a first read by a new author, it wasn’t that bad but I expected a lot more that I’m sad and disappointed in myself for not appreciating this book more.


Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for sending me an arc of this book