The Shadow Of the Gods
by John Gwyne
Author's Description:
“A century has passed since the gods fought and drove themselves to extinction. Now only their bones remain, promising great power to those brave enough to seek them out.
As whispers of war echo across the land of Vigrid, fate follows in the footsteps of three warriors: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman pursuing battle fame, and a thrall seeking vengeance among the mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.
All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods.”
As whispers of war echo across the land of Vigrid, fate follows in the footsteps of three warriors: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman pursuing battle fame, and a thrall seeking vengeance among the mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.
All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods.”
My Review - Rating - 7.5/10
The Shadow of the Gods was an interesting book with a lot of great elements, and a few significant problems which really take away from the book as a whole. I picked up this book at a busy point in the school year because I had a ton of work, a ton of stress, and very little time for reading. I wanted a book that wasn’t too complex or intellectual, and had easy points to stop at, since I would be reading this in short increments over a busy week and didn’t want to have to tear myself away. I was told about this book by a friend, who said that he enjoyed it, loved the concept, but didn’t ever get too immersed in it because of the way the chapters are divided between the characters. Well, I got what I wanted but not for the reason I wanted it - I never had to worry about pulling myself out of the book, because I never got invested enough to want to keep reading it. Just to be clear, I liked the book, and didn’t have to force myself to keep reading, but there were problems that made me never get truly interested in the book or it’s outcome.
The main problem was the constant shifts between character and general lack of character development made it difficult to really root for the protagonists. To demonstrate what I meant without too many spoilers, let me tell you about the beginning of the character’s stories. One of the three main protagonists, a thrall named Varg, had his motivation told to the reader almost immediately -- and I really mean told, Gwyne just basically told the reader through a piece of dialogue and never developed it. The reader had no reason to care about the problem that motivated him, beyond the fact that the protagonist cared, and that wasn’t anywhere near enough for me to become invested in his journey. A second protagonist, a warrior named Elvar, never was given a compelling motivation. We eventually learn the reason she is a warrior, which I will only describe as half-baked, unoriginal and uninteresting; beyond that reason there is nothing she is really after and nothing to root for her in. Neither of these characters were even slightly interesting to me. The third character, a mother named Orka, was slightly more compelling, since we got a sense of her daily life and the people she cared about before her motivation was revealed. While she was definitely the character I cared the most about, she still wasn’t ever too compelling for me because the author, once again, mostly told us about the people she cared about and never showed us why she loved them or why the reader should care about them. This lack of motivation and humanization made me pretty indifferent to the characters at the start, and the shifts every chapter (roughly every ten pages), I never got to know any of the three characters well enough to care about them before being shifted into another character’s story.
The reason this book isn’t rated far, far, lower than a 7.5/10 is because of the incredible worldbuilding in it. The characters may have been subpar but the world they inhabited was phenomenal - the locations and politics were well developed, and the lore was exceptional. The book has a great premise, of both normal humans and humans imbued with the power of the dead gods inhabiting a half-broken world, fighting over the literal scraps of ancient beings. Beyond that, the way the author developed the stories of the world was incredible. I had one moment where I genuinely loved this book, and that moment was thanks to a little piece of lore the author added. While one of the protagonists was on a journey, another character recounted the tale of an adventure that he went on as a young man, involving a troll and a wedge of cheese. This story added nothing to the overall plot, but I found it incredible. It was filled with the lore of the world, was suspenseful, and the conclusion of it was genuinely funny - I actually laughed out loud, something that hadn't happened because of a book in months. It was little details like this that made the story enjoyable, even if I didn’t care about the characters. The level of detail and world-building in this book is incredible, and a definite credit to the author. I can’t make up my mind on whether to recommend it to other fantasy fans or not - judging by my experience, this book could be incredible for a reader who is genuinely invested it the characters, but I’m not sure who that invested reader would be. So, if you want to take a risk, feel free to pick this book up. I hope anyone who sees this review and decides to read The Shadow of the Gods enjoys the book more than I did.
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