Malice, my debut novel, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2012 and went on to win the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Debut of 2012. That was a truly wonderful moment, as David Gemmell is a hero of mine and one of the reasons I write. The Hunger of the Gods tempestuous final chapters have successfully prepared readers for the grand conclusion to come. Absolutely nothing.... Maybe I'm a little biased when it comes to John Gwynne but I honestly couldn't find anything wrong with this book. If I have to complaint, only thing I can thing of right now is that there is no book 3. I need it ASAP 😬 This book! Now I can say yes I fully understand why is Gwynne so hyped and now I'm motivated again to read the Faithful and the Fallen. I also have to thank my friends, I probably wouldn't have read this book without them since they decided to buddy read this book and I decided to join them.

Debo mencionar algo que no muchos hacen y yo personalmente agradezco, este libro incluye al principio una sección de 4 o 5 páginas detallada del anterior libro. Ademas de un glosario y una lista de personajes. The Shadow of the Gods is a gritty and violent Norse mythology-inspired tale that features monsters, magic, vengeance, warbands, and shield walls. It takes place approximately 300-years after the Gods of Vigrið fought and battled themselves to annihilation and follows three distinct point of view perspectives as they traverse Gwynne’s well-realised dark fantasy world. Characters in a book that often be a huge deal breaker for me. However, I’m pleased to tell you that you’ll absolutely fall in love with some of the character in The Shadow of the Gods. Gwynne’s talent for world-building just by telling story is only matched by his ability to write genuinely engaging and interesting characters. I think what sets Gwynne’s writing apart (aside from mind blowing world building), would be his incredible way of portraying exceptional characters. How they honor their family, friends, responsibilities, own up to their mistakes, find humor, strength, and love in the darkest times, and how the best people look out for those being mistreated. Ohh and his epic bloody battles, shield walls, and my personal favorite… revenge.

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The final character arc featured in The Shadow of the Gods follows the young warrior, Elvar. Elvar is the daughter of a powerful jarl who gave up a life of comfort and forced marriage to join the Battle-Grim, another notorious mercenary warband who specialise in killing monsters and trapping Tainted to sell them for profit. After capturing an unusual family of Tainted, Elvar and the Battle-Grim embark on a quest of epic proportions that will change the world. This was another impressive and captivating storyline which has some very unique differences from the other character arcs. Elvar is an excellent point-of-view character with a complex past, who presents an interesting counterpoint to the other two protagonists. While Orka and Varg and primarily motivated by family and vengeance, Elvar is primarily concerned with proving her worth to her crew, her commander, and her overbearing family, and is determined to win enough battle fame to outshine her father. I also loved the comparisons between the Bloodsworn and the Battle-Grim, and it was interesting to see how the similarities and differences between the warbands, especially as the Battle-Grim are more concerned with wealth and reputation. This storyline is a particularly ambitious and contains some amazing battle sequences, especially one at the start against a troll, and there is much more of a focus on fighting within a shield wall as a unit. This storyline also has one of the best twists in the entire novel, as well as an extremely impressive ending that will have major implications for the rest of the series. Soon, all three of these fighters are faced with new and life-changing challenges. Orka is forced to embark on a bloody mission of vengeance when her peaceful life is shattered and her son is taken from her. Varg attempts to reconcile his responsibilities to the Bloodsworn and his own personal oaths, as the war band march into the wilderness to face a mysterious foe. Elvar and the Battle-Grim embark on a legendary quest to find the final battleground of the gods. However, all three will be unprepared for the revelations, lies and bloodshed about to be unleashed before them. A dangerous conspiracy is forming in Vigrið that will shatter the very land and bring untold chaos to humanity. Not all the gods are dead, and those that survive are very angry! There are moments of this book I absolutely loved, and I really enjoy this world and these characters, so even a step down is still fantastic. I cannot wait for book three after that amazing ending.

The POVs in this book are slightly expanded. In book one the focus was pretty much on three main characters, however we get a little bit of a wider scope in THE HUNGER OF THE GODS and this makes sense given that the story is expanding considerably as well. That being said, I didn't mind the fact that we experience some other characters' journeys and it wasn't confusing as their stories intersect with the main characters much of the time. So Gwynne has definitely given us a broader view of the players in book two and the results are spectacular. The element of slavery or “thralls” instantly fills me with rage, and from the first book I’ve been hoping for an uprising or revolution. I had no idea where that plot line would go but I’m so excited to see it pan out. Admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan of Elvar for the first half of the book. Where Orka and Varg were introduced in a way that shows who they are as people (and what their motivations are), Elvar was just… there. She is shown to be a very competent fighter and to really care about the opinions of those around her. But it wasn’t until maybe the halfway point that we get a sense of who she is. Until we’re given a glimpse of the context behind her character. This delay in unearthing her more interesting facets frustrated me a little, and I found her earlier chapters to feel quite generic in comparison to those that came after.I live on the south coast of the UK with my beautiful wife, three sons and my daughter, and an assortment of animals (at the moment three dogs, a horse and a lamb who thinks she's a dog).

Ares is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he meets with Posiedan of whom he finds is still very angry over what happened with the Empire of Numeron. During this early part of the chapter the two discuss their mutual invovlement in the Rise of the Atlantian Pantheon and how much they had both invested in that attempt. The arrival of Odin brings them to talking of what went wrong with the Pantheon and they agree that if they tried again they would do things differently, leading to the three leaving eachother and Ares thinking on doing what they did with the Atlantian Pantheon again but this time have a single person in charge and they would act alongside this individual. So, closer to the start of this year I heard about a new independent bookshop selling science fiction and fantasy books (perfection, right?) – The Broken Binding. Indescriptible lo que crea este autor desde personajes, momentos y escenas que hay que leerlo para entender lo difícil que es para mi explicar el nivel de detalle y de precisión de John Gwynne. Mejor ni hablemos de lo que engancha. Elvar is equally a cool character. She’s determined to be a warrior and gain fame for it, instead of being used as a way for her father to gain more power. The Battle-Grim she’s a part of are mercenaries who seem to mostly care about making money, no matter what they have to do for it. However, they’re still basically a great example of found family. I think it’s important to note that can be said for both the Battle-Grim and Bloodsworn, they’re both predominantly a collection of random people who come together and look after one another no matter what.

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In conclusion, The Shadow of the Godsis an excellent read. If you like action-driven fantasy and Norse myth or Vikings, this is a must-read fantasy book for 2021. The writing was great and it is not really a surprise because Gwynne has that atmospheric prose that makes you dive into the story and enjoy it. I think what makes this book stand up are the characters. The story is told through multiple POVs like the first book and the author makes them all intriguing and intertwined in a way that made me think a bit too much about his writing process. I also wish that I had a big map of the world with statues of he characters that I could move along the map and see how everything come together because that’s simply how much I was submerged in the story.

Get moving, Varg No-sense… Or are you waiting for an eagle to swoop down and carry you the rest of the way?” Of course, it helps that author John Gwynne is a legit Viking re-enactor. When he’s describing a warrior’s kit of gear, there is zero suspension of disbelief required. It is thoroughly obvious that the man knows what he’s talking about when it comes to weapons and the innumerable Viking/Norse elements that he’s layered into the story. There is a sense of authenticity to Gwynne’s world that makes it so easy to immerse yourself in it, and sets it apart from other Norse-inspired stories. Hunger of the Gods somehow improves upon Shadow of the Gods which I didn't think would be possible. Some of the fun of fantasy books is exploring a world for the first time, but Gwynne finds a way to keep this world interesting even after it was properly made clear in the first book. I’ve not enjoyed characters this much in a book, let alone a fantasy book, since I read Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself. The Shadow of the Gods summary – 5/5

So, a little life lesson for me here: when the entire reviewing world says a book is good, then you can be damn sure that it will be an amazing read! In this case, The Shadow of the Gods turned out to be an exceptional and captivating novel which provides an intense and clever story with great characters exploring a harsh and broken world. Gwynne did an incredible job with his latest novel, and this was easily one of the best fantasy books I have read so far this year, earning an easy five-star rating from me. The Shadow of the Gods has an incredible and powerful narrative that becomes even more addictive and exciting the further you get into it. This is an outstanding and dark fantasy story which cleverly Gwynne has anchored to three separate point-of-view characters, Orka, Varg and Elvar. I really liked how Gwynne came up with three separate narratives that are fun and memorable in their own unique way, and The Shadow of the Gods is stronger because of this.