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thecaptainsquarters 's review for:
The Shadow of the Gods
by John Gwynne
Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .
Unpopular opinion time! I had previously read the author's malice and thought it was just okay. The plot of that book is completely gone now. But I wanted to give the author a second chance. I got to 63% and abandoned ship. This author's work is apparently not for me. I found the world to be somewhat interesting but not exceptional. The pace was extremely slow and plodding. However the main problem was the characterization.
Ye follow three POVs for this one. One is a slave (thrall) named Varg. One is a warrior woman and mom named Orka. The other is a warrior woman who wants fame and money named Elvar. I liked the set-up for Varg's story but lost interest after his "training" and lack of explanation of his "mysterious" past. Elvar's story was so mundane that I never cared for her. I started to hate seeing her name at the top of her chapters. Orka was by far the best but her fighting skills seemed like superpowers and her reactions never varied. Maybe if it was just her story with more insight into her motivations, I would have liked this book better. I felt at times that their voices were indistinguishable. There are also two warbands (with Varg and Elvar) and I kept getting them confused because they were so similar that, outside of the leaders, the warriors in them were interchangeable.
I also had a problem with the non-English words. I don't normally care about this but they seemed a weird combination of real and made-up words. I kept being annoyed that some would translate online and others didn't. I don't normally want a glossary but I did for this book. I also thought the writing had too many awkward similes and repetitive descriptions. Also the author used the word "thought-cage" for brain 70 times (I counted), as many as 5 per chapter, and for all three POVs. That be approximately once every 7 pages. It drove me crazy!
Even the promised dragon was not enough to get me to finish this book. I will not be reading any more of this author's work. Arrr!
Unpopular opinion time! I had previously read the author's malice and thought it was just okay. The plot of that book is completely gone now. But I wanted to give the author a second chance. I got to 63% and abandoned ship. This author's work is apparently not for me. I found the world to be somewhat interesting but not exceptional. The pace was extremely slow and plodding. However the main problem was the characterization.
Ye follow three POVs for this one. One is a slave (thrall) named Varg. One is a warrior woman and mom named Orka. The other is a warrior woman who wants fame and money named Elvar. I liked the set-up for Varg's story but lost interest after his "training" and lack of explanation of his "mysterious" past. Elvar's story was so mundane that I never cared for her. I started to hate seeing her name at the top of her chapters. Orka was by far the best but her fighting skills seemed like superpowers and her reactions never varied. Maybe if it was just her story with more insight into her motivations, I would have liked this book better. I felt at times that their voices were indistinguishable. There are also two warbands (with Varg and Elvar) and I kept getting them confused because they were so similar that, outside of the leaders, the warriors in them were interchangeable.
I also had a problem with the non-English words. I don't normally care about this but they seemed a weird combination of real and made-up words. I kept being annoyed that some would translate online and others didn't. I don't normally want a glossary but I did for this book. I also thought the writing had too many awkward similes and repetitive descriptions. Also the author used the word "thought-cage" for brain 70 times (I counted), as many as 5 per chapter, and for all three POVs. That be approximately once every 7 pages. It drove me crazy!
Even the promised dragon was not enough to get me to finish this book. I will not be reading any more of this author's work. Arrr!