Blurb:

THE GREATEST SAGAS ARE WRITTEN IN BLOOD.

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.

Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic, and vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

Review:

Well... a review of a book with norselike gods was inevitable, at least from me. I grew up reading Rick Riordan's mythology series, including "Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard". "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman I read barely two years later, either on the flight back from visiting family or the day after. And a few days ago, I read "The Shadow of the Gods" by John Gwynne on a flight going the opposite direction of the aforementioned one. And considering that I now review books out of fun (and also for endless reading material, thank you, authors), I thought it would be fun to try writing and submitting a review whilst on a plane flight, which ultimately didn’t pan out.

If I had to convince you to read this book in less than 160 characters, I'd say, "Three lives. One a former warrior, one a former thrall, one a former jarl's daughter. Each is tied together, without knowing it.", alongside the usual question at the end. But again, that doesn't do this story justice, nor does it explain why I chose exactly that jargon (the Norse had some interesting terminology).

Let's start off with the characters. Orka, Varg, and Elvar. Orka is a former warrior, held off from drink and blood by her family, those being her son and husband. Things are peaceful, until they aren't, and she finds herself off on a journey to reclaim her kid. Meanwhile, Varg is running away from his "victims” kid, trying to find out what happened to his sister. And Elvar... Elvar is off gallivanting with a war-band, wanting to make her own future away from her father and older brother, until circumstances bring her right back to where she started, with both pain and fame lying within her future.

With Orka, we see a minimal amount of changes in how she behaves throughout the book. We get introduced to her being a mentor, with a mind for violence and drink, and her son being kidnapped brought that out full force and by the end of the book,

Varg is a different kind of beast altogether, figuratively speaking. An excellent boxer, and former thrall to a cruel man, he is out for vengeance against those who murdered his sister. On his quest for vengeance, he runs into a famous, or infamous, depending on how you look at it, war-band. That war-band takes him in as a tryout warrior, and so begins his path that'll inevitably lead to his sister. The war-band gave Varg a new purpose, giving him a sense of family and belonging, and he slowly learns the ways of the sea-wolves.

After Varg we have Elvar. Elvar is someone who doesn't know what she wants to do, but because it sounded like something cool and it brought her away from her awful family, signed up to a war-band as soon as she could. One day, that war-band she joined captures a berserker and his family, and after that, end up going to her ancestral home. One thing leads to another and by the end of the book she has seen far more than anyone could wish for, and has felt more pain than anyone would ever sanely want to feel.

After the characters, we have the plots, the three way line of diverging fates that slowly merge together at the end, bringing all three of the aforementioned characters into closer connection with each other than they were at the beginning of the book. At first I didn't think there'd be much nuance to the plot. And then the names started adding up, and the one cult-like force made itself clear, which then led to me pulling on a mental string and left me holding far more thread than I could ever want to hold.

Orka's journey is much like the journey to throw the one ring back into the fires of Mordor, with her having only one thought in mind and no sense of self preservation. Hers is the easiest to follow of the three, since it follows the line of happy beginning, tense conflict, insert the obligatory oath of vengeance or what have you, and the journey to fulfil that oath.

Now, to the other two lovable, but lebensmüde geniuses.

Varg and Elvar both have a more complicated journey, however simple it may appear at first., Varg wants to enact revenge on the group who killed his sister, and in doing so gets roped into a much grander plot line that decided to take such a detour from what he originally wanted to do that he decides to try to both fit in with his new family and to fulfil his previous oath, with temptations to forgo the former for the later or the later for the former, and at the end of book one, he is no closer to the end of his quest than he was at the beginning, with only a few new scars and more mental anguish than at the beginning of the book. Elvar wants to carve a name for herself, and so, she runs away from the luxuries of her home, and hides the fact that she's the daughter of a jarl. She's happy, then ends up back home, which leaves her angry, and her father gives her a decision which she rejects, and then she goes on a quest.

From plot to world-building I move, and what a world Gwynne has crafted. A land called the battle grounds is where this book takes place. Why is it called the battle grounds? Gods stomped about with their immediate children and went about slaughtering each until only one or two still remained. Throughout the land bones and other various artefacts can be found, with a variety of magical properties, especially the bones and irons. The bones for warding off dangerous vaesen, and the irons for keeping thralls bound to the master of the irons. Why does the iron do that? This is where Gwynnes world-building really starts making me glad to have picked this book up. The lore within this series is massive, and within that lore we can find out why the god-iron has the ability to bind others to someone's will. But that is a topic for the next paragraph. Besides the dangerous vaesen, there's the descendants of the gods, the tainted. Each one of the tainted has a certain specialty to them, each being able to do things beyond human capabilities.

From world-building we move to the lore... the lore is deep with this one. Gods begot gods and the vermin had spread the lies to the Gods destruction. This is both like and not alike to Norse mythology. The Eagle and Dragon, under different names, are the same as Nidhogg gnawing at the roots and the unnamed eagle buffeting the worlds with winds of chaos. The Rat, Gwynnes version of Loki, is also Ratatosk, the mad squirrel, bringing misinformation and scorn to the two if only to fuel it's own lust for power or their lust to bring death and mayhem One thing leads to another and almost all the gods are dead, with the father of all dead and the wolf, the protector murdered in irons. Almost three centuries since then have passed, with the chains that bound the wolf broken and smelted into collars, mankind can fully enslave both their own kind and others. And this is where our intrepid heroes find themselves,

Finally, we come to the fun part of any world, the magic! Runes are the name of the game, with blood and will to drive them. For the more serious things, blood is required, for the less serious, sheer willpower and the wielder's strength bring things into fruition. The magic can vary, however there are things set in stone, to teach those who can use magic the ways to use it. The books the mages of this world use are none other than the gods personal notebooks of their kind of magic, and it's surprisingly effective. But those tomes can also be destroyed. Shame on the gods for not properly placing protection on them.

If I had to gripe about one or two things in this book, I'd say that some parts went by far too quickly to be properly savored. Luckily there's a second book and I can delve into that whenever I have time to do so.

As always, thank you for taking your time to read this somewhat long and rambling review, and I hope I've helped nudge you towards your next book. If this high fantasy epic doesn't ring with you, feel free to check out other reviews on the site for other incredible books in other genres, such as Dave Lawsons review of “Wistful Ascending” by JCM Berne here and Jess’s review of “Three Kinds of Lucky” by Kim Harrison over here.

Wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!