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redhead_reader's Reviews (834)
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
informative
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to love this book. I think I expected more because I’ve seen it so hyped up across bookstagram with my fellow fantasy lovers. It was a good book. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where the author’s prose fully transported me to the battlefield before. Gwynne’s writing is very vivid as far as battle scenes go. I felt like other areas could have been just as atmospheric as his battle scenes were but didn’t get the same imagery for the setting imo.
I also thought the characters could have been a bit more developed. I understand this is book one so presumably we’ll get more character building in subsequent books. I still feel like we don’t really know the characters whose POVs were the focus of this book and as such I only really cared about one character (Varg).
However, it’s interesting to note that despite what I felt was weak character development, there were scenes where I felt deeply for Orka, Elvar, and Varg respectively without truly knowing much about their characters.
I felt like the book was longer than it needed to be. And the different names of the secondary characters and the two main warbands were easy to get mixed up after hopping between 3 POVs because the names were all pretty similar (both battle groups start with B, multiple characters with G, V, B, and S names in each POV).
I loved the Norse mythology aspects and the Nordic setting. Overall I thought it was a good book and I plan on reading book 2 at some point.
I’d recommend it for Dark fantasy lovers looking for a Viking themed read. Or for lovers of Norse mythology.
I also thought the characters could have been a bit more developed. I understand this is book one so presumably we’ll get more character building in subsequent books. I still feel like we don’t really know the characters whose POVs were the focus of this book and as such I only really cared about one character (Varg).
However, it’s interesting to note that despite what I felt was weak character development, there were scenes where I felt deeply for Orka, Elvar, and Varg respectively without truly knowing much about their characters.
I felt like the book was longer than it needed to be. And the different names of the secondary characters and the two main warbands were easy to get mixed up after hopping between 3 POVs because the names were all pretty similar (both battle groups start with B, multiple characters with G, V, B, and S names in each POV).
I loved the Norse mythology aspects and the Nordic setting. Overall I thought it was a good book and I plan on reading book 2 at some point.
I’d recommend it for Dark fantasy lovers looking for a Viking themed read. Or for lovers of Norse mythology.