theliterarygnat

[theliterarygnat]

THE HUNGER OF THE GODS BY JOHN GWYNNE

2/5 stars | Major Spoilers Unfinished and unpolished

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Even if I were to enjoy this book, I would not be able to rate it over 2 stars. There is much in here that shows The hunger of the Gods is unfit for publication as it is an unfinished product. A traditionally published book generally goes through several edits before is goes out to the public, and this has clearly either not received that treatment or the editors did not do their jobs well; whether that be because the publisher didn't let them or not is a different matter. However, my paperback edition published in 2023 contains hella many issues. Dialogue tags either disappear into the nether or appear out of nowhere, sometimes they are disconnect from the dialogue and in the wrong place, characters on multiple times are misnamed or have their names misspelled, there is inconsistent italicization, inconsistent hyphenation, inconsistent capitalization, and many sentences (much like this one) should have been split at least in half if not into threes. I cannot fault Gwynne for this as this type of polishing and finishing is the job of the editors, for them to either do or point out to him to get it fixed. From my understanding, Gwynne's daughter had died the year this book had been published. It seems to me that Orbit, the publishing house, has not given Gwynne the time to grieve and pushed for publication of what is essentially a partially-uncooked meal. It's generally solid, but the lack of these finishing touches adds up to a lackluster product. I cannot blame this on the author, so I will not; I am however looking askance at Orbit.

About the actual content of this novel! I have blogged my experiences with this book on this blog as I went through the chapters, where my most detailed thoughts and critiques of prose can be found. I get somewhat redundant there but also very specific about what isn't working and why.

The pacing is generally better than The Shadow of the Gods, though there is much build-up to a rather short climax. The main reason the pacing works better, despite this book being meatier, is that the characters tend to be in harmony regarding the energy and action-levels of their chapters, making the flow generally more consistent than in book one. Likewise the multi-POV structure feels more natural. My biggest gripe with TSOTG was that it should have been three books instead of one, or at least three short-stories that we read in full one after the other. The head-switching in The Shadow of the Gods felt pointless with how little the stories overlapped. There are multiple scenes in THOTG that we can see from two to three different POVs, which helps make the multi-POV quirk work much better. Some chapters feel less important than others, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for some of them to be there.

However, there are problems with this book. Mainly, there are underutilized, underdeveloped, and unexplained elements that muddle the story. Raising gods from the dead is done twice, and neither of them amount to anything; not to mention that while the Battle-Grim have the wherewithal to raise Ulfrir from the dead, they somehow don't consider bringing Agnar back at all. That is despite him dying a bad death in book one. We also know from Varg and other sibling-Tainted that Tainted born of the same mother and father have a mental link going on, which lets them know if their siblings are alive, hurt or well, or dead. Glornir, despite being Thorkel's brother, apparently didn't know he was alive, AND didn't realize he died only weeks/months prior?

The characters do not grow significantly (besides maybe Varg and Biórr) and some of them get worse if not stagnant. I will not speak at length about the characters as I have done that enough on this blog and all my issues with them. However, to be short and concise:

Orka is the same the whole two books; stone-hearted, hellbent on getting her son back and willing to do anything it takes to get to him. This isn't really bad when it comes to Orka specifically, but it does get hard to care sometimes. She gets more supporting characters this book, which helps keep her chapters exciting, though there is… not enough drama/emotion there for my liking.

Varg is getting better at fighting and smarter with how he speaks with people (mostly if not only with Sulich) but there are some things that Gwynne does with his character that just do not land with me. He's still the character I enjoy the most because I like the archetype of his character, but there is not much focus on his personal quest, which sucks.

Elvar is much of the same and worse, not just a mercenary slaver but also a slave-owner who will not hesitate to beat her slaves if they cross her. I don't really like how the book kind of gives her everything she wants and didn't care for before she got it; it's handed to her on a silver platter when her character is one of the shallowest of them all. She gets more depth added here, her backstory becoming more prominent, but that only makes her worse. There was no hint of any of that in the first book when that should have come out the second her father started trying to manipulate her in Snakavik. It feels tacked on to make her more interesting. It also retroactively makes the chapter of her trying to decide between the Battle-Grim and her father in TSOTG worse and more stupid, and I already hated the fact we needed to devote a whole chapter to it only for Elvar to have to be told by someone else to not be an idiot. I rant about her a lot during my "live-reading" summaries because there is just so much that does not work for me with this character.

Guðvarr surprisingly tolerable but also the most aggravating of them all. Gwynne kept on trying to make him more pathetic by mentioning him potentially pissing/shitting himself almost every single chapter, which got boring quick, and didn't really have the desire effect. I just started rolling my eyes. He also seemed a little inconsistent, both extremely self-aware at times and bordering on self-hatred only then to genuinely self-aggrandize with no capacity for introspection whatsoever. It's not necessarily unrealistic but I wish Guðvarr's character was more straightened out because while I hated him as a person, he had the potential to be an intriguing character.

Biórr had potential that got squandered in his first chapter. He was not the character I wanted nor expected, and honestly he is worse for it. I had high hopes about him being a strong-willed anti-slavery warrior who'd be among the first to question Lik-Rifa, enough to maybe break ranks, but not really; he's whiny, constantly talking about Elvar and Agnar (made all the worse by my dislike of these characters) and he doesn't have much solid substance to him. Not offensively bad, but he was not someone I really cared about.

Lik-Rifa also lacked gravitas or charisma on the page, being rather two-dimensional and very transparent to the reader. There isn't much to say about the plot. Nothing impactful truly happens until the very end, making it a very, very slow build-up filled with blips of excitement. This story overall is not one I particularly enjoy or care about, but that I will be seeing through when the last book comes out. This is less because I'm genuinely invested and more because the Bloodsworn Saga has been frustrating for me, and I want to know what all of this was for. My hopes especially are that Elvar gets what she deserves (which is: nothing fucking good. she needs a serious humbling), and I want to follow Varg around some more. I also hope that Snakka will actually have some actual presence in that book, because while Ulfrir is on the cover of this one, he does fuckall.

[theliterarygnat]

Reading Summary: 1. May, 2024 (The Hunger of the Gods, Chapters 50-78)

CHAPTER 50 | ORKA I actually like Vesli and Spert, though I do wish they were more developed and had more nice interactions with Orka to help play up the emotions in this scene. Spert's scenes and appearances usually boil down to 'Spert hungry. where porridge?' and Vesli, while having had more scenes, feels like she's brushed off by Orka more than not.

I also wish we'd have gotten more scenes with Vesli and Breca in the first book to help solidify her motivation. There's not much going on there, even though Breca was the one who found and saved her. I wish that Orka's story in the first book was organized differently to allow us to get more invested in her family. I knew since chapter one that they'd be killed and abducted, so it was hard to get into their presence since I knew they'd be gone soon. Because of how distant Orka felt from them at times, I also think I didn't really get the emotional undercurrent in their relationships. I wish there was just more there in general. More feelings, more substance, more conflict too; I wish Orka was struggling harder to be a good mother and feeling guilty about her failures and needing to get her son back not just because she needs and loves him, but also because she feels like she has to make up for failing him thus far. I want her to think more about Thorkel, and I wish they'd had more genuinely romantic moments, like a kiss here and there.

There's just a lot, I think, in the pacing of both books that makes it hard to get into the characters as much as I know I could.

CHAPTER 51 | VARG Okay at first I thought they were revenants but now I'm thinking maybe vampire thralls??? Because of the tongue with teeth. Like maybe it's only one guy that's an actual monster (the one with the worm-tooth-tongue) while the rest are people he killed and 'revived' or started mind-controlling. It's a very fun battle-scene. The second one I've liked so far I think. There was a bit too much snarling and snarls but I can imagine one runs out of synonyms at some point. I also wish that Varg's wolf being set free was a bit better described, since it feels like we do the book equivalent of cutting to black even though we were getting to the coolest part of all.

CHAPTER 52 | GUÐVARR I really enjoyed the way everything fell into place here. I'm even almost happy for Guðvarr here; not because I like him, but because his chapters were finally interesting, and only because this dumbass finally spoke up and used what little brains he's got to make shit happen. I wish his self-awareness had been more consistent through his chapters instead of flip-flopping like it does sometimes, but I liked its implementation here. I just wish Gwynne gave up on the 'pissing his pants' characterization already. It's tired, it's grating, it doesn't add anything when it happens every chapter, and it's boring.

CHAPTER 53 | VARG I fucking LOVE tungumaturs!!!! Oh my god what a concept. Beautiful, amazing, showstopping, it's so disgusting and I absolutely love it. I never would move to Iskidan either, Varg.

pg. 454

"I think he's dead," Æsa said as she ran past him, grinning wildly as she sprinted after a handful of men and women who were running from the settlement, fleeing into the gloom of the beech-wood beyond. "Best be after them," she said, "don't think we want any of these parasite-spreading niðings getting out of here," and without waiting she was running after them. Varg broke into a run after Æsa, Einar saw them and followed.

These paragraphs are both very awkward. Right off the bat, the first one is an entire sentence even though it would flow better if it was split up more. As an example:

"I think he's dead," Æsa chuckled as she ran past him. Grinning wildly, she sprinted after a handful of men and women who were fleeing into the gloom of the beech-wood beyond.

"running from the settlement" is implied by "fleeing", so I feel it would have been best removed.

The second paragraph also has some formatting issues. "Best be after them" and "don't think we…." are both full sentences, so the dialogue tag should end in a period, and the following sentence should be capitalized. "Einar saw them and followed" also does not feel connected to the first clause of the last sentence. It'd have been more natural if instead of a comma, that passage was split into two sentences with a period.

Furthermore, Æsa is described on multiple occasions as running/sprinting, or in general moving further away at high speeds. However the way she is described as speaking and running "without waiting" does imply that she had stopped at some point to impart this information to him. Either she should have been shouting so we'd get the sense of growing distance between her and Varg (dropping the "without waiting" clause), or we could have had Einar speak in the second paragraph instead. As an example of how the two edited paragraphs could have looked:

"I think he's dead!" Æsa told him as she ran past. Grinning wildly, she sprinted after men and women fleeing into the gloom of beech-woods beyond the settlement. Einar lumbered up close. "Best be after them," he noted and patted Varg on the pack, shoving him forward. "We don't want any of these parasite niðings getting out of here!" Before he could finish speaking, Varg broke into a mad dash after Æsa. Einar swiftly followed.

Einar would maybe have said it in a different way, but I'm not here to do that much work. But I do think that having Einar speak in the second chapter is more clear regarding the action. I also varied the language a little bit, since we get "ran", "running" and "run" quite close to each other. This is a first pass, something that would probably go through an edit or two during editing proper.

I want to note that while I do rag on the language and formatting in this book a lot, it is with the knowledge that Gwynne is probably a victim of his publishing house here. It is a publisher's duty to make sure that a book goes through edits and is improved and polished before it is sent out to the public, and it is rather clear to me that this either did not happen, or that it was not done enough. That's not Gwynne's fault. From what I gather, he lost his daughter whilst working on The Hunger of the Gods. My theory is that Orbit forced this book to get published before it was ready. So while I will continue critiquing the prose in this novel, it is done with the knowledge that Gwynne isn't the culprit here.

pg. 455 "like a wild thing" is a rather weak simile. I think maybe "struggling and bucking like a frightened/wild horse" could have had a better effect? Not sure on that, but I just know that "like a wild thing" isn't working for me here.

"Einar hacked tongue-people to the ground, trampled them" feels… maybe not clunky, but incomplete. "trampling" could have worked better in this instance.

pg. 459 First of all, with how Vol is called 'Glornir's woman', I thought that 'I am the prince's man' meant they were together. Presumably I am wrong about this.

Second of all, EINAR!!!! BEST BOY EINAR!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

CHAPTER 54 | BIÓRR pg. 463 "I'm worried about Kalv, Papa." TOT Lik-Rifa doesn't really have the charisma of a cult leader. Not with the way she's portrayed. I'd have wished she had been given more gravitas and spoke more to the hearts of her followers, even if she didn't exactly mean what she'd say. This would have been a great opportunity to show how she frames this to her followers, how they're asked to think about their deeds. "It is us who shall end the ruination of this world, who shall bring freedom and prosperity to all. No more shall the Tainted be hunted and shunted, no more shall you be beaten and bruised, no more shall you know the terror and fear of hated and isolation. You shall walk upon these lands equal with all around you, the Tainted and the untouched, and none shall ever again feel the weight of a collar around their neck." Like, that would make everyone's devotion a lot more believable. It would also make Lik-Rifa feel actually cunning and dangerous beyond her threatening to eat people, which gets old fast (to me, the reader). Giving her a moving speech would genuinely be a great addition.

CHAPTER 54 | ORKA pg. 469 Why, why, WHY is Sæunn referred to as 'the Hundur-thrall' in ORKA'S POV? Why not 'the woman' or something along these lines? I can understand why Orka hasn't taken the collar off yet, since she needs Sæunn and there is a chance she might escape if she doesn't keep it on, but like. I can see Sæunn still helping out, for one, and for two, give her some dignity and personhood beyond thralldom. It's Orka's POV! She's Tainted too! She shouldn't be dehumanising people like that. Just say 'the woman'! Same goes for 'the Hundur-blood'. It's so demeaning, especially with how it calls back to Elvar's treatment of Ilmur and the supposedly impactful moment when Biórr told her Ilmur has a fucking name.

pg. 473 I saw the 'Halja only humps women' conversation on tumblr and thought that maybe it will come off forced or out of the blue but actually, I love how it's implemented. It feels natural, especially the fact that the Bloodsworn aren't actually sure what her deal is; and it plays nicely into how they tend to lovingly bully Lif in general.

CHAPTER 56 | ELVAR I'm wondering if Gwynne means for Skuld's confidence and borderline narcissism to excuse Elvar's treatment of her. Skuld clearly thinks herself to be a higher lifeform over the humans she is surrounded by, which is to be expected from a god, but that doesn't really mean she deserves being enslaved and abused as she had been. Honestly I hope Elvar gets hella humbled or dies at some point; I am so sick of her being handed everything on a silver platter by the story even though she hasn't really struggled for it and doesn't have enough substance for me to care about her. Few of the characters do, but at least they aren't as infuriatingly horrible people as her.

CHAPTER 57 | ORKA pg. 484 Again, teeth usually don't draw back; but lips sure do!

pg. 487 The ravens paid off their debt already. They do not have to be here. Why are they here? Are they trying to make Orka indebted to them?

pg. 489 Ahh, I see. It's nice that the ravens have a reason for appearing beyond helping Orka out again like some Deus Ex Machina. It's also nice to see that there are more people like Orka who are able to work with non-humans on friendly terms.

pg. 490 Please don't tell me the ravens will do the favour for free, citing her saving them from the frost-spiders. They paid that off already, as they said.

CHAPTER 58 | BIÓRR Finally a Biórr chapter when him mentioning Agnar and Elvar doesn't piss me off. I do like that he was so quick to let Bjarn and Kráka go. I had been waiting for Gwynne to pay-off the bloð svarið on Kráka and I really like how he's done it. The fact that Biórr got it, that he put up some resistance but knew at heart he needed to let them go… beautiful. The fact they got caught so easily though…. a bit less beautiful. I like Breca putting up a fight, I like Rotta being actually kinda scary with how he is nice (whether genuinely or not) in a convincing way, how he is smart and knows things and leverages it, and with how ruthless he gets. It's something I wish Lik-Rifa was capable of as well. It was overall a very good chapter. I legitimately wondered if Biórr was gonna get out of it alive and well!

CHAPTER 59 | VARG Varg's slice-of-life chapters are a nice breath of fresh air. It's fun seeing everyone bully him so fondly and I love Røkia choosing to match hairstyles with him. There's also a lot of growth shown in this chapter, with Varg actually being interested in what he is learning and asking questions. The others were right to call him out on it, because he truly never really seemed to have that drive to actually work on that aspect of his character. I miss the focus we had on his motivations and Frøya, but it might be the wiser choice considering that he wouldn't be able to do anything about it while chasing after Vol.

CHAPTER 60 | GUÐVARR Guðvarr is becoming the funniest coward on earth. What a pathetic, whiney cunt. This was a great chapter, honestly. Frek being a dick to Guðvarr was so funny. Guðvarr has a knack for lying and acting though, just a little bit. It's interesting to see the shit he gets himself into over and over again; every fit of fear leads to another fit of pathetic attempts to beg for his life, however that may actually manifest. It's borderline relatable? Digging yourself a deeper grave whilst trying to hold up a web of lies because you know the consequences are shit if anyone breaks that web down.

CHAPTER 61 | ELVAR pg. 526 I feel a little torn about Skuld thanking Elvar. On one hand, Skuld has been characterized as extremely proud and stern, indignant at the abuse and disrespect she receives. On the other, Elvar has hurt her significantly and lords her power over Skuld every chance she gets. I can see Skuld trying to keep to Elvar's "good side", but I also wish that she hadn't said anything; too prideful and righteously angry at her treatment to say thank you, but too afraid of Elvar's power over her to go on a tirade about her anger at being parted from her sword and how she finally has what is rightfully hers or something like that. I guess my position is "I hate it, but I get it."

pg. 529 Agnar said that saying once in the entire Shadow of the Gods novel, in the very beginning. I wish he'd said it once or twice more so that the reader would understand it's a saying he uses often and not just something he said in the spur of the moment when he found out who Uspa is.

pg. 530 Bragging about all the people Elvar hunted down and/or enslaved is not as cool as she might think it is. It only doubles down on the suffering she is responsible for.

CHAPTER 62 | BIÓRR PLEASE let us see Orka find Breca in this book and then fail to save him. PLEASE that would be so juicy. And maddening. But so juicy.

CHAPTER 63 | VARG Why did this chapter have to be so short ToT I wanted to see them get ready to kick Jaromir's ass NOW. Dammit :(

CHAPTER 64 | ORKA pg. 541

Something glinted up ahead, catching Orka's eye, and Sæunn stopped, hand raised. "Frost-spiders," the Hundur-thrall hissed.

Again, why is Sæunn objectified/demeaned by being referred to as 'the Hundur-thrall' multiple times on this page? In this instance, 'she said' would have worked well, since she is the last to have performed an action.

Likewise, in this passage:

"Stay behind me," she said to the Hundur-thrall.

the dialogue tag did not have to specify that Orka said this to Sæunn. If that had to be mentioned, it'd be much better to define Sæunn as either a person with Hundur-blood (instead on focusing on her status as a slave, focus on her personhood), by a feature of her appearance, or by an action she was doing. There aren't that many spaces in this book where a person is constantly spoken of this way in the narrative (such as in Varg's or even Elvar's chapters anymore), with their names usually getting repeated or dropped because specification like that isn't needed. It is quite off-putting that Sæunn is being treated this way by the text. Not to mention that this is not less repetitive.

CHAPTER 65 | ELVAR pg. 547 I wish Elvar had been the one to either say or think Grend's dialogue here; and I wish she had the wherewithal to group herself in with all those who arrived. She is no better than them, her only motivation being battle-fame/fair-fame and money. She would not have gone on to do anything else if not for the bloð svarið.

CHAPTER 66 | VARG Gods, please, don't let this be Varg's last chapter. There's like a hundred pages left and I NEED to see this shit go down.

CHAPTER 67 | ELVAR pg. 556 SO MUCH of that should have played a major part in The Shadow of the Gods! We should have learned all that back then, the first time Elvar has returned to Snakavik, when her father tried to manipulate her into coming back with the shallowest offer possible. It feels like this information wasn't taken into consideration at all when Gwynne had written that whole-ass chapter; it seemed like Elvar didn't have anything of that happening in her life at that point. This feels almost like a retcon. There had been no sense of this bitterness or this past when Elvar was here last time, when these emotions should have been at their peak.

Likewise, in the first book, when Elvar came back, it was supposedly a big deal that Jarl Störr was her father. But I never wondered about her parentage because there was never any hint that her parentage was important. When she apparently had an issue returning to Snakavik, familial issues were only one of many potential backstory conflicts, so it wasn't really anything that resonated when there was an explicit confirmation that yes, the major conflict of her past was family-related. There wasn't really any weight to the reveal nor to the offer she received, and that chapter was one of the weakest and most frustrating. She should have festered in her hatred for her father during her time away, made her return to Snakavik impactful in the first book, instead of her having fuckall feelings and thoughts back then only now to suddenly sprout a backstory that affects her while she returns for the second time.

pg. 558 I'll give this one and one compliment only; "Hello, Father" is a damn good callback to the first book.

CHAPTER 68 | VARG YES he is still in the game! I have checked some reviews for this book and one claimed that the book gets worse once Varg's chapters disappear at the end, and so I am dreading when that happens.

It's nice to see Varg actually use some wits and the skills he's been taught to find good opportunities to attack instead of running into battle with nothing in his head but chop, chop, chop. About time really. This battle was generally very fun to follow, though it does make me question how many Bloodsworn there are exactly. They seem to be sprouting like daisies and multiplying like rabbits.

CHAPTER 69 | ELVAR pg. 570 I wish Elvar had said 'I will not' instead of 'I cannot'. "I cannot" implies she would be willing to ally with her father under other circumstances, which does not sound right to me; not with all the hatred she is supposedly holding towards him for the abuse and manipulation she had endured at his and Thorun's hand.

CHAPTER 70 | VARG pg. 574 Varg should have been a fuckin' acrobat! Perhaps he will be known as Varg Wall-Scaler in the future.

pg. 582 Oh my god???? Was Jaromir, or someone he's associated with, trying to resurrect their own gods in Iskidan????

CHAPTER 71 | ELVAR I guess Gwynne meant for this to be a feel-good victory maybe? But I don't feel much of anything. "Oh, great, Elvar got another thing handed to her on a silver platter because she owns slaves". What a wonderful, joyous occasion. Wahoo. It's honestly rather annoying that Orka and Varg have stronger motivations with actual deep meaning that affects them greatly but keep losing or being veered off-course, whereas Elvar's just out here, a selfish cunt who's doing all this only because she has taken the blod svarid and doesn't actually give a shit, and gets everything. Guðvarr's struggles are more compelling than this, because he at least gets constantly humbled and thrown around; Elvar just… gets things, even things she never seemed to real care for until she got them and suddenly it's supposed to matter?

I hope her POV stops here or doesn't get used too much after. We have other characters actually wanting something important to them to follow (and also Guðvarr and Biórr, but at least Biórr is rare.)

CHAPTER 72 | ORKA Lif strikes back! He was taught not only how to fight, but also how to bully folk. Well done, little man. And Orka actually does have a different plan this time! Still lacking the deep-cunning a little bit, but maybe this is yet another strategy to be made off-page (ughhhhh) to come back with a vengeance later.

CHAPTER 73 | BIÓRR Whining about Elvar and Agnar again… gods. If Agnar and Elvar had been character I liked or respected to some degree, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but it is annoying regardless, made worse by my dislike of these characters specifically.

Was this chapter… truly necessary? I had thought we switched to Biórr to see Orka attack, or at least getting close to it. Without that explicit tie-in, I just feel like this chapter should have been cut, really? It doesn't feel like it adds anything meaningful enough, neither to plot nor character (even with Myrk).

CHAPTER 74 | ORKA Okay, many of these late chapters are actually really good (if we ignore a small handful). Lif saying he won't sleep through this job is hilarious. The parallell between Myrk and Biórr and Revna and Gunnar was also a little funny? But not really. I have stopped pointing out awkward sentences and other choices made prose-wise but I do want to note that they do happen pretty much every chapter, including this. It's not bad, not entirely, but yanno. Also, Harek… see, I don't really feel much here? I don't feel like there has been enough focus on how Harek was doing, pretty much only following Breca and Bjarn through Biórr's POV, which makes it kind of difficult to be surprised or care or be angry. Some children were in general described at being into this whole Lik-Rifa business, but since Harek has been set up all the way in the first chapter of the first book, I feel like there should be more to him than getting mentioned a couple of times only for him to then bring about the failure of Orka's rescue mission (which is what I'm guessing happens here). It might have been by choices, but if everything is a choice here, then the choices have made this book very difficult to care about, because nothing seems to have any tangible impact. Not on me.

CHAPTER 75 | BIÓRR Not gonna lie, Ilmur saying he'll kill the Bloodsworn for Biórr and then immediately dying was…. a moment of dark comedy for me. I don't know why he thought that was the best choice for him instead of getting reinforcements, considering we never saw him learn weaponscraft.

Some chapters, such as this, I don't really have much to say; it was quite nice.

CHAPTER 76 | ORKA SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERT MY BOOOOOOOOYYYYY!!!!!

CHAPTER 77 | GUÐVARR DAMN. They REALLY brough back Orna just for her to die IMMEDIATELY. That was actually so fucking funny. Idk if we were supposed to laugh but I sure did. I'm also not surprised Sigrún sided with Lik-Rifa; it is a game of guile, and when faced with a power one cannot stand against, it is smarter to join it. Unless you disagree significantly with it. I expect both Guðvarr and Sigrún to be killed since they're not Tainted, which would actually be a nice ending here.

CHAPTER 78 | ORKA You know, it only now occurred to me that if Glornir and Thorkel were birth-brothers and not just brothers because they were both berserkers, shouldn't Glornir have known that Thorkel was alive all these years? Varg knew that Frøya lived and died and so did Storolf and Fain with Kalv; why'd he not feel Thorkel's life nor his death?

_____________________________________

What an ending!

It definitely got my adrenaline pumping, though I understand why some people said it had been rushed. There is a lot happening, build-up that took place across multiple books lasting a chapter or two before being more or less resolved (or, in Varg's case with his sister, not really addressed). There are many things that felt like they should have been explored deeper in this book, and a lot seemed to happen because it needed to but didn't really strike through emotionally or thematically, nor was it always enjoyable to read.

While I do rag on how many chapters were from Guðvarr's perspective he is…. an unfortunately major player in many of the events at play, so I understand why he'd be such a frequent character. That doesn't change the fact that out of 5 POV characters, I consistently only cared about Orka and Varg, mildly disliked Biórr for being somewhat whiny and indecisive and lacking conviction, disliked Guðvarr but laughed at him, and actively hated Elvar. So many elements were underutilized, the gods at Elvar's disposal no less.

The frequency of magic also raised an issue I mostly forgave in the first book; how the hell does Galdur-magic and Seiðr-magic work? Why is it so easy to revive a dead god and build them a new body but so difficult to free Lik-Rifa? Why didn't the Battle-Grim have Uspa raise Agnar from the dead? This I haven't really touched on but really! They all seem to care so much about Agnar but they raise a god from the dead with nothing but bones, grow him a completely new body, and Agnar is just… allowed to stay dead? They don't even seem to consider it. They're just like "oh well, our chief is dead… shucks :/" and then they re-make a god. Y'all. What the fuck.

I cannot believe I read 210 pages in one day. How the fuck.

[theliterarygnat]

Reading Summary: 30. April, 2024 (The Hunger of the Gods, Chapters 41-49)

Wasn't able to read as much as I'd have wanted. Such is life when one gets to go to work.

CHAPTER 41 | GUÐVARR A strong, shocking start. Guðvarr's capable of apologizing and admitting failure? Damn. It's also quite interesting that Guðvarr can recognize and feel thanks towards his aunt's help, even feeling responsible to return the good deeds. Also I think this might be the first chapter (that I noticed) where there's no mention of Guðvarr almost pissing or shitting himself, or having otherwise unfortunate reactions in his crotch area. Progress!

CHAPTER 42 | BIÓRR The godsfall isn't much of a godsfall if only like 2-3 gods died.

CHAPTER 43 | GUÐVARR Gwynne, please, I beg of you, why are we in his brain so much. Stop.

I'm having a hard time picturing the events of this whole shield-dance, but honestly this doesn't truly feel all that important so maybe that doesn't matter.

pg. 386 No joke, I wish Gwynne had cut that thought "I wish I was getting paid", because that is just an objectively funny thing to say about anything ever.

CHAPTER 44 | BIÓRR I do love the conversation between Rotta and Lik-Rifa. Exactly the type of genuine (at least genuine-seeming) affection and emotion that I've been wanting from her! It's also interesting that on pg. 391, it's mentioned only Kráka and Bjarn were quiet; even Breca is having fun, it seems!

pg. 392 Tannbursta… tannbørste… toothbrush…. Idk if I like it or not, but it is a little funny.

CHAPTER 45 | ORKA pg. 395 "Myrk's teeth drew back and she hissed at them" I mean I do hope you mean lips and not teeth, because those don't really tend to do that.

CHAPTER 46 | GUÐVARR pg. 407 I just cannot stop laughing at this man.

pg. 408 Im imagining Guðvarr's reaction is that bloated emoji face.

CHAPTER 47 | VARG Funny. Not much else happened. I honestly would have preferred the chapters to be more meaningful sometimes, and longer. It's becoming a little exhausting to have to jump this much between the different characters' heads without any payoff or time to get invested into their story again.

CHAPTER 48 | GUÐVARR I am getting second-hand-embarrassment just from reading "Guðvarr lurched to his feet, upending the table". I had to actually skip some lines just to avoid my face cringing into the fourth dimension.

pg. 418 Ughhhh and here I thought we finally left this bladder quirk behind. I genuinely don't think it does anything for his pitifulness when it's used so many times; mans probably got a medical condition at this point.

CHAPTER 49 | ELVAR pg. 424 Why is Gwynne allergic to question marks and the 'asked' dialogue tag? If it's a question, mark it so! Use tone indicators! More varied punctuation! Use mood and tone to make dialogue more impactful!

[theliterarygnat]

Reading Summary: 29. April, 2024 (The Hunger of the Gods, Chapters 29-40)

CHAPTER 29 | VARG That is one hella harrowing scene at the slave market. Genuinely makes me sick to my stomach. Gwynne did well capturing the horror of such a place.

pg. 273 A couple of things bother me. Firstly, the fact that Varg wasn't the one to kill Brimil. Second, Varg has already killed multiple people of equal horribleness to Brimil, if not less. While it's understandable that he'd be horrified about the death of the druzhina, he hasn't shown the biggest remorse for the dragonborn nor the temple guards he might have attacked despite being more directly responsible for their deaths, and despite the fact he had less reasons to hate them. The fact that we have a question of Varg feeling guilty about the death of a slaver and the slaver's guard, especially a slaver as disgusting as Brimil, is… definitely a choice, and a horrible one.

Third, the prose is just weird. "He wasn't sure how he felt: Guilty? That he was responsible for these people's deaths. Angry, that Brimil had not died by his hand?" The guilt-and-anger sentences should have at the very least matched in formatting, not to mention 'that he was responsible for these people's deaths' does not really fit grammatically in this context. A better edited version would be "He wasn't sure how he felt: Guilty that he was responsible for these people's death? Angry that Brimil had not died by his hand?" Although am partial to a complete rewrite of this passage (and elimination of guilt, considering who has been killed). If Varg should feel guilty about anyone here dying, it'd be the bartender, but I'm not sure the bartender is dead? At the very least unconscious with a fucked up head injury. But guilt? After how Varg had killed before this (and didn't care), how horrible these slavers and slavers' guards are? No. I don't buy it.

That's not to say Gwynne shouldn't have Varg feel guilty about the deaths he may have caused in general, or that Varg cannot be conflicted about what the Bloodsworn do for a living. But in this specific instance, it does not feel right nor natural. It's such a strange time for Varg's guilt to flare up.

If Gwynne really needed to bring up guilt in this scene (which he really does not; Varg's murders could have been explored through other victims of his) he should have added a thrall to it. Option one, the most basic, is to have Brimil parade himself around with a thrall near him, underlining and emphasizing his sleaziness and bastardry; and have Varg accidentally kill the thrall or necessitate the killing of the thrall because of him losing control of his wolfishness.

Option two, one that I favor a little bit, is if the female guard behind Brimil had been an Úlfhéðnar thrall that looked a little like Varg's sister. Maybe Brimil would have ordered her to protect him and kill Varg and Svik and Røkia, leading to Varg personally (or Røkia still) having to kill his sister's lookalike to be able to ask their questions. Seeing as Varg is already somewhat haunted by his sister, this Úldhéðnar guard could have become the visual representation of Varg's sister, or there could be scenes in the future of one fading into the other, of Varg feeling so guilty about her death that she'd start haunting him as her own character. After all, Varg's loss of control would have been the reason she had died with a slave-collar around her neck. Like Frøya.

This whole scene should have been a powerful cathartic moment of Varg finally hunting down and killing one of the people in his revenge quest, brought down into horror of having killed someone innocent. From an emotional high to an emotional low, a memorable and meaningful rollercoaster that would solidify the impact of the scene due to the contrast of moods. But no. Varg's just maybe guilty about killing a slaver that repeatedly beat and raped his sister. Such emotional depth. Much wow. Very #complex.

pg. 275 Another misnaming/misspelling; Jökel instead of Jökul. Also I remembered reading Brák's name in the character-list in the beginning, so I went back and noticed another inconsistency; Státa the stoat and Státa the Stoat. The capital Stoat seems to be the error here, as all other gods have uncapitalized animal titles (like Gröfu the badger, Fjalla the mountain goat, etc.) Originally I had thought this book to be a little unpolished, but the more errors I find the more it seems like this book was simply not ready to be published. There were not enough editors brought on this project, not enough rounds of edits were done, and there had been not enough thought put into some of the concepts implemented into this book. The Hunger of the Gods is not a finished product.

CHAPTER 30 | BIÓRR Biórr's characterization is getting old. Give him some defining traits beyond Agnar and Elvar, I beg of you. These two cunts don't really deserve that kind of affection or impact on Biórr. It weakens what little characterization he did have beforehand (hates slavery). It's not really adding depth when there is nothing else to this man. And it detracts from what I expect to be his arrc of turning on the Raven-Feeders because of the enslaved and entranced children. Biórr should not care for any of the Battle-Grim (especially not Agnar and Elvar) and he should be focusing more on Ilska's child-slaves. If his morals are so weak that he loves slavers so much, then his future indignation and anger at Ilska and LIk-Rifa and the enslavement of children is not going to be that strong. It'll be undermined by his constant whining about Agnar and Elvar and his betrayal. Biórr would have been much better of a character if he didn't really care that much about the Battle-Grim and threw himself whole-heartedly back into the Raven-Feeders, only to think they have fallen to lows equal to the Battle-Grim with the child slaves. Why is that not the focus?

pg. 281 Here Biórr claims to have spent a year among the untouched, but pg. 53 says that Biórr left the Raven-Feeders close to three years ago with the task of infiltrating the Battle-Grim. So how long was he gone then?

The point Gwynne is making with Biórr and his thoughts here is also extremely heavy-handed while also undermined that Biórr is into slavers. His affection for Elvar and Agnar truly does this character a disservice. I will also reiterate that Lik-Rifa's depiction and characterization is boring and cookie-cutter, she doesn't feel intimidating, has no charisma or presence on the page. While nuance and complexity is important, the characters and elements that need that nuance simply don't have it, and the things that do are mishandled. Biórr does not need to regret or feel guilty about his act of betrayal to be a nuanced and strong character, but Gwynne tries to do that anyway and fails at making it meaningful. In part because Elvar herself is such a weak and shallow character.

pg. 283 I do noooot like Ilmur beign referred to as 'the Hundur'. Firstly, it feels too close to Elvar's constant usage of 'the Hundur-thrall', dehumanising and objectifying. It's not necessarily wrong to identify the Tainted by their parents, because I find no fault in people being identified as 'dragonborn' or 'berserkir', but Gwynne should have come up with his own names for the descendants of other gods. He has enough access and knowledge of Norse and Proto-Germanic to use that as his magic-speech, so he should have taken the time to come up with more world-specific terms. A descendant of Hundur the hound could have followed in Úlfhéðnars' footsteps and be called 'Húndhéðnar', or maybe 'Hundgerar' (inspired by Garmr and the proposed etymology of his name), or 'werehound' (like werewolf), 'maðihundar' (since 'Maður-boy' means 'human-boy', apparently (so this would be 'human-hound')), or maybe 'Hundhadda' which means 'hound-haired' (from 'hadda', a name element found in Blóðughadda, 'bloody-haired'). My favorite option is 'Gerghest', based on barghest and translating roughly to 'growling guest'. Regardless of how shitty my propositions are, my point stands: for a more unique, consistent setting, and stronger world-building, I think Gwynne should have come up with the name for all Tainted descendant groups beyond berserkir and úlfhéðnar.

pg. 285 The squandered potential of this book hurts. It feels like an author's first foray into epic fantasy, and they're trying to make it nuanced and complex without knowing how nuance and complexity work. Gwynne is also dissonantly heavy-handed with many other elements. It ultimately ends up feeling more shallow than it would have been otherwise. Nuance is paid lip-service to but not actually exercised.

CHAPTER 31 | ORKA pg. 289 The scene where Lif manages to land a hit on Revna is so cute ToT I really liked that.

CHAPTER 32 | VARG Einar my beloved and his new gaggle of kids. Precious murder baby.

A little note on Svik's tale and the formatting of dialogue therein. It would have been much easier and orderly if all in-tale dialogue was between single quote-marks ('Help me,' said Einar the troll), as opposed to this book's standard double quote-marks. The combination of double and single quote-marks in the story isn't really necessary and looks quite weird, frankly.

Love the story though. It does genuinely feel like a true and proper fairy-tale that fits in this world, and I love the little interjections with the children and Einar. I didn't find Hakon's comment that funny, but it was rather endearing the way he elbowed Frek about him being in the story. Hakon also being tentative about what his own role would be… overall this is a very solid, fun chapter. I unfortunately have to agree with Hakon that I don't fully get it; as in, not entirely the names and roles they were chosen for (Hakon is not that nice), but that's on me.

CHAPTER 33 | GUÐVARR pg. 305 "'I have,' Skalk said, running his fingertips across the staff. Ripples of light flickered across the grain in the wood at the Galdurman's touch. Skalk saw the staff's head was thicker, and he could make out faint features. A curl fo hair. The hint of eyes, a nose and mouth, and abruptly Guðvarr realised what it was."

In this paragraph, it appears that another misnaming had happened. The second 'Skalk' is likely supposed to be Guðvarr, as in "Guðvarr saw the staff's head was thicker, and he could make out faint features." That's the version that makes more sense.

pg. 306 Gwynne, please make up your mind. Just how self-aware is this man? Sometimes he lacks any introspection and then he busts out lines like this. It doesn't feel like depth, it feels like inconsistence.

"Yrsa behind him" is giving me war flashbacks. The sentence is also somewhat awkward because of its inclusion. I'd have preferred "He gasped and stumbled, his legs going weak and he began to fall, but Yrsa caught him and hauled him upright."

CHAPTER 34 | ELVAR pg. 311 Literally how old is Elvar? Why would anyone be okay with her leading the Battle-Grim when she's got no idea what she's doing ToT

pg. 312 So. Störr, Elvar's father, beat his wife/Elvar's mother, and Elvar seems to have seen it personally, and had been held back by her brother Thorun, who was enjoying the show. And… she still was considering going back to her father in The Shadow of the Gods. She needed a whole chapter to be told by somebody else that she should not return to Störr's side, even though her father has been a piece of shit who beat Elvar's mother and tried to make Elvar into Prince Hakon's "brood bitch". And she was genuinely torn over whether or not to stay with the Battle-Grim or return to Störr's side.

Lmao dumb bitch literally get the fuck away what do you mEAN this makes that chapter even more frustrating and retroactively fuckign STUPID because we should have gotten taht big of a lore drop IN THAT CHAPTER with Elvar telling her shitass father to fuck off. Oh my god. what idiocy. what the fuck is this. I want to DNF this book so bad but I spent actual money on it… I might as well read it to hopefully figure out whether Elvar gets shat on like she deserves.

pg. 314 Uspa, you have seen Elvar enslave your husband and been treated as a thrall by her, you've seen Elvar enslave two gods and beat the shit out of one of said slaves, you have heard her act as if she is gracious for offering to treat the slaves well if they "earn" her respect, and you have seen her thoughtlessly slaughter a battle-sister because she did not consider that perhaps they shouldn't be losing combatants even though it had been pointed out to her. She also hasn't actually done anything to lead the Battle-Grim at all. I get if Uspa is trying to butter Elvar up, but with how much has been mishandled thus far in this book I am not holding my breath.

pg. 317 Skuggar… means shadows… literally what language do these people speak. Literally why are all the names middle-grade. "Shadows was always one for the shadows" I am fucking weeping.

pg. 320 I truly do hope Uspa was just buttering Elvar up and being facetious, because that meaningful look and "haven't realised it yet" bit truly doesn't work here. Elvar had all the time in the world to figure this shit out, and many people in her place would. She ran away from being manipulated and controlled after all; away from being a "brood bitch". People her age and younger would have been able to figure things out for themselves without resorting to being revolting slavers. She has no sympathy from me, not with how she treats people, and I hope she's getting no sympathy from Uspa either.

CHAPTER 35 | BIÓRR pg. 327 "And those with those animals in the blood were valued higher than any other Tainted among the jarls and pwoers of Vigrið." Would have been nice to actually see that somewhere. Instead of just being told.

A general note is that I just… don't find the shapeshifting aspect of the gods to be very intriguing, especially the descriptions. Would have preferred if they didn't shift back and forth all the time, because I find it hard to believe they can do so this quickly unless they are actually very small. I just don't get the sense of scale or time whenever this happens.

CHAPTER 36 | ORKA pg. 330 "Orka nodded." shouldn't be in italics.

I'm guessing Sæunn is a descendant of Hundur; makes sense, since they have been shown to be amazing trackers. Orka constantly gathering scents and blood samples ties in with what we've seen of Ilmur. Poor Sæunn though.

I hope the other characters will start to put Elvar in her place once they meet, if they meet.

CHAPTER 37 | VARG pg. 337 + pg. 338 issue on pg. 337 with a period being used where a colon (:) would have been much more fitting. we also lost a quotation mark somewhere in the ether on pg. 338

pg. 341 Okay no but Røkia telling Varg about the brynja and the sea chest and him being a dumbass is actually so adorable. I love it.

pg. 342 Okay, see, this moment, reflecting on his first kill, would have been a good time to reflect on Varg's relationship with his deeds and the death he caused! Not just of that druzhina, and he doesn't necessarily have to feel the guilt; but he could remember the fear and the guilt he had felt back then, and then reflect over how he feels now. Maybe feel disgusted with himself or conflcited about the fact he does not feel guilty anymore, or maybe he's not sure. Maybe he thinks he should regret it, he should fear this man he's becoming. This is the best time for the guilt-discussion! Not with a revolting slaver!

I do like Varg's moment with Sulich though. However…

pg. 343 That 'is' doesn't really fit in "He's a proud one, is Sulich". I think it would work better as "He's a proud one, that Sulich."

CHAPTER 38 | ELVAR Didn't Elvar say, just last time we were with her, that she feels the burden of caring for the Battle-Grim weighing heavy on her? The questions of how to get food, how to pay, how to keep them alive and healthy and well? I would have preferred if we continued with that aspect of her character, instead of ping-ponging around. If she was actually struggling to be a good chief and maybe second-guessed herself it would have the potential of growing on me. I do hope Gwynne won't fumble the ball with Elvar, because she just feels like such a non-character. She's a villain more than a hero, but I feel like I'm supposed to see her as a hero? Which might be a disconnect of sorts. She's not even an anti-hero, she's too evil for it to me, and there's nothing to really care about with her. I want to skip her chapters so bad but in this book, the POVs actually matter… mostly. They're more closely-knit and play off of each other, so it's not as off-putting as in the first book. THOTGT actually does a very good job at justifying the multi-POV approach; The Shadow of the Gods genuinely would have been more enjoyable if it was more like a short-story compilation/anthology and we followed each character's entire journey before hopping on to the next.

CHAPTER 39 | ORKA I fucking hope Orka beats Elvar's ass at some point. I fucking hope Varg beats Elvar's ass at some point. We don't see much of Ulfrir but he seems great. I don't want Elvar to get anywhere near Orna tho. I want them chains loosened on Ulfrir and Skuld as well, but the whole situation doesn't seem like it's gonna be resolved; at least not proper.

CHAPTER 40 | BIÓRR Biórr has not mentioned Elvar and Agnar yet, thank god. It's also quite nice to see Kráka be confident and playful, verbally toying with Storolf. The fact that she is an equal really shows here, which I really like. Even if Lik-Rifa is very two-dimensional, I like that Gwynne is fleshing out the common Raven-Feeder and showing that there is a strong kinship and sense of belonging there. I'm a little surprised the children are actually handling this situation so well? But I guess they saw what happened to Breca, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised after all.

[theliterarygnat]

Reading Summary: 28. April, 2024 (The Hunger of the Gods, Chapters 12-28)

CHAPTER 12 | GUÐVARR Dreading this chapter hard. Hated the character so much in The Shadow of the Gods that I expect this to be as tiring as Elvar's chapters, if not worse. pg. 102 Okay, so this isn't all that bad, actually. I like how he is self-aware, for the most part. Would have loved for this to continue with Mord's death; he should've reminded himself that he killed Mord dishonorably. Mord was immobilized and vulnerable, trussed up by someone else. That was a coward's kill, an easy kill, and it would be nice to see Guðvarr have the balls to admit that to himself as well.

pg. 103 Was "and crotch" really necessary here? Really? I hope this is supposed to be foreshadowing something fucked up going on between Guðvarr and his aunt, because otherwise this just seems to be another instance of Gwynne's obsession with testicles.

Also, since the audience is used to italics being used to signify a character's unspoken inner thoughts, I don't think adding dialogue tags there is necessary, especially since it had been explained how and why Guðvarr does this. A better use of dialogue tags here would be giving an impression of what Guðvarr himself thinks about the habit and how it manifests. Like "he added bitterly" could help gain an insight into how he's feeling, or "his thought-cage supplied" implies that the insult was thought automatically and without Guðvarr's conscious input. Granted, my examples are shit, but I'm also not a published novelist or a writer. But if we are to use dialogue tags here, they should either add tone or add context; otherwise, 'he thought' is a waste of words. A reviewer on Goodreads did point out that Gwynne tends to overuse dialogue tags and I do agree. It is rather choppy and not really insightful when it comes to the tone or how the characters act, giving the dialogue a flat affect.

Worst thing is, Gwynne does drop the 'thought' dialogue tag further down this page, so I don't understand why he'd keep it here.

pg. 104 Ah, another instance where Gwynne reuses the same/very similar phrase very close together. This time it's "bound wrists and ankles". In the same paragraph no less…. divided by a whole one line…

How did Vol speak with such clarity if there was a gag in her mouth? Sólín gets "aksentéd dialogue" because she lost some front teeth but Vol just speaks perfectly well through either a rag or something else stuffed into her mouth? Nuh-uh.

pg. 105 They have the concept of hell? I mean, we didn't really hear about the afterlife these people believed in besides the Soul Road, but I find it strange that Gwynne didn't say 'Hel' or use a variation of any of the other underworlds that can be found in Norse mythos. It does feel like an oversight frankly. Also, "she-bitch" is redundant, since 'bitch' is already female by default, on account on being a female dog. "She-bitch" makes no sense; a 'she-devil' would have worked fine in this sentence, which makes me wonder if the original sentence was 'A she-devil from hell' that got clocked as too modern or unfitting for the setting, so someone during editing changed 'devil' to 'bitch', without taking the stupidity of 'she-bitch' into account.

Is Guðvarr a good man? No. Is he even all that complex? No. But somehow, he is more enjoyable to read than Elvar. Wow. I dreaded this chapter for nothing.

CHAPTER 13 | VARG So much leaping and howling. Are there really no other words you could have used?? Like 'Varg scrambled to his feet' or 'his blood boiled, a deep, beastly hiss in his ears' (which isn't even all that good) or 'Varg's blood gurgled in his veins, as though shaken by a wolf's growl'. Is that a little cheesy? Sure. But so's all the howling.

I don't know why exactly, but this chapter has been rather meh to me. Not necessarily bad, but lacking the charm that Varg's chapters are usually imbued with. It might be because of the action scene that took up most of it; though I did like the detail with the helmet strap being messed up again. It wasn't all that funny, but it did put a smile on my face.

CHAPTER 14 | BIÓRR pg. 120 Inconsistent hyphenation strikes again…

Also, again, because of who Elvar is as a character, I simply do not see why Biórr would fall in love with her, or care. Like he says, she was happy to live a slaver's life, and while he doesn't know what Elvar is doing now, there wasn't anything really worth liking about her before she became a typical conservative slave-owner. Biórr feeling regret or any emotional attachment to her honestly cheapens his character for me; I was in Elvar's head and there is fuckall going on there. What does he see in her? I feel like Gwynne wrote himself into a corner here a little. It's distracting that Biórr is longing after a cardboard-cutout of a slaver, but Gwynne also cannot really have Biórr thinking about what he likes about Elvar. It would give context to why he likes her, sure, but it also would distract even more from the story, and make Biórr seem weaker-willed than he already appears to me. Writing Biórr this way is a lose-lose situation in my eyes; Gwynne could have written a significantly more compelling character if Biórr truly was removed from the Battle-Grim on an emotional level. Gwynne already is competently writing Guðvarr (somehow???) so I think it would have maybe worked with Biórr.

I have to admit to a fault of mine in understanding the last chapter from Biórr's perspective, I think? I have thought that, at the beginning of Chapter 9, we have already crossed the Isbrún Bridge and left that region of Vigrið, mostly because of how time supposedly had passed. And I thought at the end of Chapter 9 that we were returning in direction of Oskutreð to kill Ulfrir immediately. But apparently not? I'm somewhat tempted to blame the text for being written awkwardly enough to lead me to that conclusion, but I think in this case I'm the idiot who just didn't understand. I'm taking the L on this one.

CHAPTER 15 | ORKA pg. 131 I do rather like the bit with Lif and Vesli. Lif has a solid characterization that goes really well with his background. Solid guy.

Although the prose with "a soft, sucking sound" was a rather awkward. The more I pay attention to Gwynne's writing the more I notice just how weak it sometimes can be. It's not the best to read, and it's not really imaginative. For example, in Varg's chapter, when they go into the meadow and there's sheep running, I would have loved for the environment to be better described. There isn't any atmosphere, any mood, any sense of the world or what it looks like; just character x and y doing things and events happening around them. Combined with the writing style, it doesn't paint the picture of a living world, nor is it particularly immersive. This book is already chunky and honestly maybe even clunky, and I do not believe the story necessitates the length.

CHAPTER 16 | GUÐVARR pg. 138 Ah, would yoou look at that? This ties perfectly into my point on the prose not being the best. We didn't need to be told that Guðvarr thought the italicized phrase and refrained from speaking it; one would imply the other. A better-flowing sentence would be "Guðvarr thought to himself, knowing better than to anger the hard-looking man with cold eyes and scarred hands."

pg. 140 The dialogue tags strike again. Too much 'said', too many tags in general. Also, instead of doing the stupid "'With my life,' Guðvarr said. Never with my life, he thought." why not just have it be "'With my life,' Guðvarr lied easily." If the dialogue tags weren't used so abundantly and awkwardly, then the original version would have worked; but because the dialogue tags already feel cluttered and clunky, this type of 'he said, he thought' combo is a little grating.

pg. 141 I. Don't know how I feel about the people of color in this world apparently being Slavic? Like I thought that they were described as 'darker-skinned' because they were tanned, their climate warmer, since there is much sun in the Balkans and Central Europe. But. 'Crow-black'? Not to mention the way their hairstyles to seem to me to be inspired by Manchurian queue (since the Cossack oseledets isn't braided like described in this book). This hodge-podge does make me rather uncomfortable. Like, if you are including people of color and want to give them "ethnic" names different from the "ethnic" names of Vigrið's people, then use the languages of the people that you based the aesthetics of the culture from, instead of pasting another ethnic group's culture on top?

pg. 143 Hmmm… I think that's a little redundant. There is already a clear implication that Guðvarr does not care what happens to the others as long as he's safe, considering he is "relieved that it wasn't him" who was to follow the Galdurfolk into the tower. I think that thought could have been shortened to "Or perhaps it won't, but truth be told I don't really care" without losing anything. In fact I think it would be clearer/less repetitive.

pg. 144 Damn. Did Guðvarr and Vafri fuck??? Poor girl.

Also, why write that sentence like that? Just ssay "The female Úlfhéðnar stepped closer to Skalk" instead of dividing it so awkwardly. It's such stilted prose.

pg. 145 Honestly, with how much attention Gwynne tends to pay to the every-day disgusts of medieval life, I'd have expected him to actually talk, or at least mention, the air being hard to breathe in Queen Helka's chamber, since the smoke from the torches cannot escape on account of the room being windowless. I'm actually a little hung up on that detail now. How are people there breathing?

CHAPTER 17 | ELVAR Elvar, how are you more frustrating and disgusting than Guðvarr?

I really don't want Elvar to take Agnar's place as the leader of the Battle-Grim. Without Grend her ass would be grass many times over; her achievements hardly feel hers when she'd been dead without an oathsworn protector to save her.

Also, the gods don't really have the presence of gods. It's part of them constantly transforming, for one, plus with how easy they are to resurrect and tame. Why is resurrection so easy, anyway? Why isn't there a bigger struggle, a greater sacrifice necessary? Why is magic just so easy?

pg. 159 Well, Elvar is not really proving Huld wrong with that petty ass attitude. I can see Gwynne trying to add depth to Elvar's character but that is in many ways too little too late. This growth, this depth, should have been present and explored in the first book, especially when the Battle-Grim were in Snakavik, where Elvar and her father could have talked, where Elvar could have proved better than Thorun, where Elvar should have been brimming with emotion and anger and rage and be constantly reminded of her past. But she wasn't. She was swaying and weak and considering returning until somebody else had to tell her that her father, whom she knew was a conniving and manipulative ass, was probably not being genuine in his offer. She also should have seen him handing her a warband just like that as an insult! He had not seen her in action, he knew nothing of her reputation; he just saw her with the Battle-Grim and leveraged her past and current desires against her. She should have been livid. She wasn't. She was tempted. And nothing happened between then and now to make her grow and suddenly gain this depth. This is an inept handling of her character. It reads more like a reaction to the poor reception Elvar's character got.

Frankly, if the first book had been a meal, Elvar would have been a medium-cooked, unseasoned chicken. Her portrayal in THOTG is the equivalent of being given a spoonful of salt and pepper after one already had been forcibly fed said chicken.

CHAPTER 18 | ORKA The banter is fine. Not the best, but fine, not as comedic to me as to the characters, which is alright. But god, the length of that sentence as Orka and Ingmar fought on pg. 168… no thank you. I did toy around with adding periods into it and frankly, it got better. Some 'ands' and -ing verbs can be removed or swapped out, keeping the speed of the action but making the passage less exhausting to read.

CHAPTER 19 | VARG Well, Varg, I hope you get to live up to that promise, and fuck Elvar the hell up if y'all ever meet.

CHAPTER 20 | ORKA Why are the brynjas always splitting and falling apart. No matter how well made they supposedly are, they literally never seem to offer any protection. Also, since most if not all Raven-Feeders proper are Tainted, why the fuck is it so easy for Vesli and Lif to kill one? We keep being told that the Raven-Feeders are a great danger, but on-page they are weak, constantly dying in greater numbers to lesser combatants. They feel like a joke; not like anything actually scary. It's difficult to take them seriously, and as such I don't really care when they appear on page. I feel no fear, no sympathy, don't see the stakes in the fights against them.

Also, the word 'land' exists. The word 'crash' exists. There is enough modern language that there is no need to use 'alighted' every single goddamn time Vesli or Spert land somewhere. It's repetitive and distracting with its frequency. It also lacks any mood or gesture. Do they land softly? Do they crash into bodies in a battle? Do they drop on the ground gracelessly? Everything is written so flatly, including much of the dialogue, which isn't even punctuated correctly. I feel like this book needed one more round of edits at least to make sure the grammar and punctuation were decent, the language more varied and captivating.

CHAPTER 21 | GUÐVARR pg. 186 Yeah, this really needed another editor just to check over the formatting and punctuation. There is a misplaced comma outside of the quotation marks during a dialogue. The flat affect is also at its highest hear. Everyone's bellowing and yelling and shouting, but there are no explanation points, creating a dissonance between the tone and mood of the dialogue and the dialogue tags themselves. It's rather unfortunate that the prose--surrounding the dialogue especially--is so weak here.

pg. 193 "palpable, like a physical thing" ah, yes, what wonderful prose; definitely not at all redundant and repetitive. Why is the writing so unimaginative ToT I'm fucking weeping. What is this??

CHAPTER 22 | ORKA Literally what is the reason for Vesli/Spert's dialogue being italicized only sometimes. Why is that not consistent.

pg. 200 If Myrk is smirking as she speaks, then there is no need to end that paragraph with "Another smile." since she is presumably smiling throughout the dialogue. It's so unnecessary. Likewise, there was no need to specify that Myrk was the one speaking. If Gwynne had used any other dialogue tag besides 'said', then perhaps that choice would have been justifiable. Maybe he wanted to add mood, establish tone… but no. 'said' is used, which is unnecessary and redundant here. As am I, with how often I repeat that something is redundant, but that is a testament to the lack of technical skill displayed in this prose.

CHAPTER 23 | GUÐVARR pg. 206 Too much 'follow'. I get what Gwynne wanted to achieve on some level, but it doesn't sound as good on the page as one might have hoped. It'd have been more fitting with a description of distance, giving us a mood and visual.

"Guðvarr followed, Yrsa close at his heels." this feels oppressive, like Yrsa is hounding Guðvarr, cutting off any escape with her body, not giving him a chance; an intimidation tactic.

"Guðvarr followed, Yrsa marching three steps behind." professional, at a distance, a cold disregard and hatred towards Guðvarr; or hinting at some different duty, perhaps there to stop Guðvarr from running away. I just think these two options would have been much evocative than "Guðvarr followed, and Yrsa followed him." Like, I get it, but getting it isn't good enough to excuse that flatness.

pg. 207 "Skálds" are capitalized, for some reason. That wasn't the case in the previous book at all, nor really in this book before now. The more I read the more does this book feel like an unpolished product. It really needed an outsider's eyes to catch on the formatting issues and the weird inconsistency going on.

pg. 208 "He felt Yrsa's presence behind him." "Guðvarr gulped, tried to take a step back, but Yrsa's solid presence was a wall behind him." "Guðvarr followed, a little reluctantly, but Yrsa's presence behind him felt like an unseen hand, pushing him on." In case you didn't get it, Yrsa's presence was behind him. Behind him was Yrsa's presence. Yrsa's presence behind him was. Yrsa's pres-

I stand corrected. My initial impression that Guðvarr was capable of self-reflection and had any cunning about him was entirely unfounded.

CHAPTER 24 | VARG See, because of how minimally the book is written, I cannot tell if the confusing description at the end is supposed to be this way for storytelling and mood purposes or if that's just how Gwynne would have written it regardless.

CHAPTER 25 | GUÐVARR The first fight scene I enjoyed! The writing really flowed well and didn't feel as repetitive as in other battles. There was this sense of swiftness and brutality, without anything being confusing. There was such clarity to the prose that I really could picture Taras the Bull on fire, the hole in the wall, the warriors piling in, Skalk's apprentices falling, and so on. I enjoyed the eagle's presence and the payoff to the focus on it the previous chapter. It was actually decently well masked what with the other monsters and critters around, but it was given enough special attention that I knew to expect something. Overall, this was truly a great moment and a fun segment to read.

It was fun to see the Iskidan people get proactive. They certainly have a lot of skill. I don't really care for the way Gwynne is portraying and focusing on Guðvarr's bodily fluids and reactions, but eh, mileage may vary. The way we saw Jökul's death from Guðvarr's point of view though… I actually really love this choice. Love to see how easy it was to recognize the characters, more by their weapons than appearance, but at least I knew who was getting their brains burst open with their own weapon. I cannot wait until Guðvarr finally dies…

CHAPTER 26 | VARG pg. 238 Not gonna lie, I did not actually remember or read who's descendant Æsa was, but I did remember that Fjalla the Mountain Goat was a god, so that… was not hard to understand. On one hand, the simile makes sense. Mountain goats are good at scaling mountains and cliffs. On the other… I dunno. I think I'm just not enjoying myself to the point where even fun prose and hints like this don't land well. I'm not saying this is bad, by the way; that's actually a fun way to work Æsa's divine ancestry into the descriptions! It's fitting and all. I just didn't care for it. Which sucks so much when I know it's actually competently done.

pg. 240 Another misnamed character moment. Instead of Svik and Æsa coming to Varg after he called them, it is apparently Varg that comes to himself with Æsa.

pg. 245 Oh, I absolutely love Einar getting bit in the leg! The fact two Úlfhéðnar tried to sink their teeth into him and only Varg succeeded is just chef's kiss. Love the reference/callback. I also think that if Varg's sister was alive (and who knows, mayhaps she is…) this would be a wonderful way of introducing her. The italicization of Úlfhéðnar is grating when the word is used so many times on the page though.

pg. 246 Damn. I really love the way Gwynne writes Varg figuring out and seeing that his ear was bitten off. I can't articulate why exactly, but there is a comedic timing to it; the slow realization of something being off, the snap to the Úlfhéðnar, the one-liner… I love it. It's so fun.

CHAPTER 27 | GUÐVARR Why is Guðvarr so important to Gwynne. A couple of chapters here and there, like with Biórr would have been fine, but the more I see this man, the more page time he consumes, the more I despise reading from his point of view. I enjoyed the first few chapters, was even pleasantly surprised; but Gwynne's presentation of Guðvarr is getting tired. I have the unfortunate feeling that Guðvarr is never really going to get resolved satisfactorily. There's just something about him that makes me think Gwynne will focus on Guðvarr long after the niðing drengr has overstayed his welcome, to such a degree where whatever is coming for him will feel like it's come too late narratively to feel cathartic in any way.

pg. 250 I am begging Gwynne to stop mentioning Guðvarr pissing and/or shitting himself every single godsdamned chapter. It's not even adding to Guðvarr's sorry, pitiful, pathetic characterization at this point. It's just another one of Gwynne's weird fixations, like testicles in the first book. It is not making any meaningful impact when it's used with such frequency; it grows annoying, borderline childish and immature. Much like Guðvarr's POV chapters turning into something grating, some of the "jokes" and "running gags", especially those related to Guðvarr, are being overused.

CHAPTER 28 | ELVAR Damn. Am I counting right it has been 11 chapters since we last saw her?

Also, the opening to this chapter is a little confusing but did not really have to be that way. We could have played catch-up with what had been going on with the Battle-Grim first, describing the camp, and then have Elvar go to Uspa; it would have flowed better and made more sense. Like, it's so weird that Elvar wakes Uspa up just to say "my thanks". Thanks for what? I'd be great to see the thought process there, see why it's being said. This isn't a strong start, to be honest.

pg. 259 Again, where was this characterization last book? Elvar has not done any deep thinking or reflection upon herself, her father, or anything from what the audience has been shown, nor was any of this part of her motivation last book. Where did this sudden spark of complexity come from? Elvar didn't even reject her father's offering because it had been an insult; she had refused it because Hrung told her "a wolf cannot become a lamb" and she realized her father was likely being facetious and trying to manipulate her! It wasn't about her reputation and earning her fame back then!

pg. 260 That prose would have been better if it was like this instead: "Elvar nodded, and as she listened, her hand wrapped around her sword hilt. She drew it a short way, checked that the blade was not sticking, and let it slide back down."

"Elvar nodded, as she listened her hand wrapping around her sword hilt, drawing it a short way, checking the blade was not sticking, then let it slide back down."

pg. 263 That. Actually pissed me off. On pg.259 we have the text saying "her injured shoulder". If that hadn't been there, then this would have made sense, and justified the strange opening of the chapter. I still don't think it had to start the way it did; Elvar could have, in her narration, be vague about the interaction, only putting "my thanks" into proper dialogue. Regardless, the fact that Elvar herself (since, while this is 3rd person POV, it is limited and thus the world is viewed through Elvar) refers to her shoulder as "injured" is deceptive. Did I pick up on the lack of pain? Yes. Did I assume it was done for brevity's and clarity's sake because of the line on pg.259? Also yes.

Worse yet, because of all the mistakes and awkward phrasing in this book I cannot even tell if Gwynne meant for that to be there, or if the "injured shoulder" was included in the text by accident. If it was purposeful, then it was deceptive, and frankly I hate the fact Gwynne resorted to outright lying to the audience here. I also personally do not find this particular scene to be interesting beyond the frustration it caused. I had hoped Huld would win when the holmganga was officially happening, but knew at once there were no stakes in this situation because it was "to the death".

I'd have preferred if Elvar didn't kill Huld; instead maybe forced her out of the holmganga spear-square, make her feel like a true leader. It had been noted that every good warrior counts. It should have been Elvar's priority to ensure that. But noooo. There is nothing cunning about her; not even the shallowest puzzle. At least Guðvarr is trying to manipulate people and get out of the shite he gets himself into, which shows at least some conniving, if not intelligence. Elvar doesn't even have that. It's hard to appreciate her healing her shoulder and creating an advantage out of it when the reader is lied to this way.

Okay, I am being facetious and purposefully exaggerating. Elvar's trick with the shoulder is smart though strangely conveniently timed. However, there is nothing about Elvar to like, nothing to be enjoyed about her. Even with the newer depth of her motivation with her father, she does not have any appeal for me and continues to be a weak character. If Elvar was smart and skilled enough to both win the holmganga and ensure Huld survives it, showing that she is serious about the quest to save Bjarn and cares for the Battle-Grim, I could have at least appreciated her as a leader. But Elvar doesn't show any true regard for the Battle-Grim around her, doesn't think about the future, their future, does not have the makings of a leader, which could have been her thing. It could have been her appeal. She is a shit person, a slaver, but she loves her fellow battle-brothers and battle-sisters, and she will keep them alive with brains and brawn at any cost, even when feuding with them. But this holmganga squanders that possibility, that complexity and appeal; and for what? Elvar could still have pulled the shoulder-trick to force Huld out of bounds and win.

Besides, why the hell did Elvar wait so fucking long before getting it healed? Uspa didn't seem tired or tuckered out by reviving a dead god at all; why wouldn't Elvar get herself up to fighting speed earlier, especially since she knew there would be difficult encounters ahead (such as the tennúr)? It feels like Gwynne just came up with this oh-so-very-cool idea for a scene and stuck with it even when it doesn't make much sense on this level.

I also think it's both funny and depressing that my first thought when reading this chapter was "oh god, another shit order of events" rather than "hmm, mysterious". Gwynne has failed to make logical progressions and sensible prose before (see: Orka's first chapter) so if something is worded vaguely I just assume it's another case of inept writing rather than a meaningful choice.

pg. 264 Misplaced quotation mark in Sighvat's dialogue.

I also don't really like the fact Ulfrir smiles at Elvar here. There is too much congeniality between Elvar and Ulfrir; I would have much rather the god not make any expression. After all, Elvar has enslaved him. This honestly adds to the lack of grandeur the gods possess. Skuld, Ulfrir, and Lik-Rifa both just… don't feel like much. The reader can see right through Lik-Rifa, and her threats are ultimately banal, lacking the 'deep-cunning' necessary to make her feel like a grand villain. The Raven-Feeders come off as pathetic and I cannot see them as ever having posed any legitimate threat. I would have loved if Gwynne actually made Lik-Rifa a loving, genuinely caring individual with extremist views, who would be kind to her followers, show understanding and sympathy, make her promises full of conviction. It would have been such a beautiful thing to witness a loving corpse-eating, starving, malnourished dragon god who, for all her flaws, truly loves her children, who have slaved over her freedom for centuries. It would have been so painful for Biórr and maybe others to realize that Lik-Rifa, as much as she loves them, is flawed and will not make the world better.

I can imagine a heartfelt, emotional, gut-wrenching scene of the Raven-Feeders, or perhaps just Biórr, taking part in the last stand against Lik-Rifa, crying because they truly love her: I want Lik-Rifa to be unwilling to fight and hurt her children, begging them to stop, asking why they've turned on her, and maybe have her kill Ilska and Drekr or someone, any dragonborn, and I want her to stop and take in that she killed her own child, and I want her to howl in despair and stop fighting back, letting herself be killed by her children; because now she is no better than Snaka.

Epicness of violence can only get this story so far when I don't like the characters. When there's no emotion to be felt or had. I'm quite pessimistic about the fact that, with the story as-written, Gwynne will not be able to top my emotional investment in a half-baked scene that doesn't exist in any tangible or meaningful way.

[theliterarygnat]

Reading Summary: 27. April, 2024 (The Hunger of the Gods, Chapters 3-11)

Unfortunately slow-going with the progress. Journaling my experiences and thoughts about this book eats up much of the allotted reading time, though it makes the story easier to digest. I'm also not really captivated by the characters or the story so far. On to the actual notes:

CHAPTER 3 | VARG pg. 33 "and her one of the most…" excuse me, what kind of sentence.

pg. 34 I actually like the way we delve into Varg's inner state and thoughts here. I feel like Gwynne is, in this book, going deeper into his characters' psychologies, and frankly it is about time; though perhaps a little too late for some characters. I do like how he writes Varg here though.

pg. 35 What is 'fech' and why can't I find info on it? Neither the dictionary nor Wiktionary have any information to offer. The closest thing I can find is 'fecht', but that's Scots for 'fight', which is irrelevant, since Varg is 'haunted' by his sister Frøya here.

pg. 39 "did not make you a close friend with compliments" I like that! Much better than the dumbass "winters clung to these woods like a hunched old warrior clung to his past" or w/e from Orka's first chapter in The Shadow of the Gods. Varg's simile works quite well here.

CHAPTER 4 | ELVAR pg. 41 Weird formatting of speech. "The dragon slew her two sisters" is its own sentence, so if uninterrupted by the dialogue tag, it'd end in a period. Thus "what chance would she have on her own" should both start with a capital letter ('What') and end in a question mark, rather than be written this flatly.

pg. 42

Okay so. just WHAT language are these people speaking? Considering this is set on a singular continent with only Iskidan mentioned as a different country/continent, with no mention of dialects or accents or any such thing, it seems like there is one unifying language the characters speak. What language is that? When Sighvat mentions 'binding words', does he mean the whole Old Norse thing, or does he mean the words of their spoken language used to activate the collars? Is Old Norse the equivalent of Old English to the people of this land? What is The Deal? … "Brief scuffle with Skáld"?????? Is this a misspelling of 'Skuld'?? Skuld is the one that choked her. There's no character named 'Skáld' as far as I can recall either; a skáld is a bard.

If I had a nickel for every time a sequel has misnamed a character, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but its strange that it happened twice. (I am glaring at Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner) … I wonder if Grend is bitter about being sworn to Elvar. Does he want to be here? Does he care about her? Does he like her? Had he loved her once, but is growing to dislike her now?

pg. 44 If Elvar was interesting, I may have been able to tolerate her being a piece of shit slaver too, but nah, she's just boring and banal and so conservatively evil. Just the whole fucking sentence being "I shall treat you well and give you the chance to earn my respect" is SO balls to the walls unhinged in the worst ways possible. By the gods. If there is one thing Gwynne is good at, it is creating characters I despise and want dead. I wish Elvar the worst. Hopefully this is the point of her; if not, I am worried.

pg. 48 I wonder if all vaesen are actually transformed corpses/dead people, like the rat in the chamber.

pg. 49 I wonder what Lik-Rifa was called before she became the corpse-ripper. She better not have been born with that name. I expect her to have started out with a name like 'Draka', following in Snaka and Státa's footsteps. Why was Lik-Rifa's gaol this close to the Soul Road, anyway?

CHAPTER 5 | BIÓRR pg. 52 What the fuck does "wide braid of a grin" even fucking mean ToT

pg. 53 "men and women he had grown up with" yeah we got that the FIRST time you said it!!

I genuinely don't actually get why Biórr misses Elvar, what about her attracted him to her. She's presented to the character as a prideful, shallow, stupid slaver, who believes that the Tainted are lesser and is fine with them being enslaves; thinks its their rightful place even. In TSOTG, I thought Biórr was manipulating Elvar because he saw her get close to Agnar, the leader of the Battle-Grim, and wanted to be close to the leader though her for his infiltration plan to work. I understand that since he'd live among them for so long, he might have grown to care about them in general, but why Elvar? Especially when she's shown her apathy towards thralls and complacency with their treatment? She didn't know Ilmur's name! Did Biórr forget? Does he not care? Or is he willing to compromise on the humanity and personhood of himself and his people so long as he gets well-fucked to make up for the mistreatment?

A more general note I have on the Raven-Feeders is that I would have loved if they didn't call themselves 'Tainted'. While it makes sense for The Bloodsworn to continue with the usage of that word, the Raven-Feeders seem to be worshippers, somewhat cult-y in nature, and I would have loved if this was reflected in the language they use about themselves. If they call the not-god-spawned people 'untouched', then it would've been nice to see them call themselves 'Touched' or 'Blessed' maybe even, as a direct response to the indication that they are 'Tainted' and thus lesser because of their ancestral line.

CHAPTER 6 | ELVAR As much as people compliment Gwynne on his action sequences, I find this one to be rather badly-written. The sentences are too long and not really descriptive, and the constant usage of -ing verbs feels very repetitive. Some sentences are also structured awkwardly, like on pg.63. Not a fan.

pg. 64 Elvar's chapters are getting harder and harder to read. She is not interesting! There's this quote by Ursula Le Guin ("This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.") that I think illustrates what I mean here well. Yes, Elvar is evil, but she is banally, boringly evil. There is nothing exciting about her villainy, nothing to attract me to her as a character or her story. This has been true since her introduction in TSOTG. I don't know what Gwynne is trying to do here, and I don't really care to find out. There isn't coming back from this, not to me, and there is no twist or turn that I could be presented with to give a shit about Elvar. Her being the way she is actually cheapens Biórr's character; I liked him in the first book because I thought he was hellbent on his goal, loved seeing the glimpses of his true self championing for the thralls in the little ways he could; being kind to them, angrily informing Elvar that Ilmur had a name, and I cheered when he killed Agnar. Yes, the Raven-Feeders are also bad, but they are sympathetically, interestingly bad (mostly…). Elvar does not make sense, nor is she sympathetic, nor appealing. I'm so tired already.

pg. 65 A better way to say that would have been "a black book", since it's the first time Elvar's noticing it; also, it'd be nice for it to be better described. Sidenote: is this Galdrabok gonna be called "Svartskinna/Surtskinna" or smth to that degree? Would make sense with the Gráskinna and Raudskinna being color-coded.

Likewise, the sentence describing the Battle-Grim is weird; where are they gathering? Closer to each other, closer to Uspa, somewhere else? A better structure would be "The Battle-Grim that could (move) gathered closer to Uspa, trying to glimpse the mysterious book, while others tended to wounds, whether theirs or somebody else's." Granted this makes the assumption that they are trying to look at the book/are gathering near Uspa, which isn't clear, but that's the interpretation I went with here. There's just no reason for this sentence to be this weak and confusing.

CHAPTER 7 | ORKA pg. 73 "Swords are overrated" feels too modern to fit here; and also a little bit like a history nerd critiquing an inaccurate medieval fantasy story. Also, what does earning a sword have anything to do with them being overrated? It would have been better if Orka said outright that they're trophies, not weapons; boons taken from slain enemies, a show of skill and not really a main weapon.

CHAPTER 8 | ELVAR pg. 77 For fun, trying to (very roughly) translate Uspa's chanting: "Snaka's blood, freshly out of my veins, give life unto this dead iron, let it (hear/listen to) my words and answer my orders". "By blood are we bound, two of body, in this iron. Hear us." I hope this means Uspa can command the collar as well, and that she will free Ulrir at some point. I want that wolf to go batshit insane and rip Elvar apart.

pg. 79 This translation is harder, since 'klettur' seems to mean 'rock' while 'loft' means 'air', so either one of these words is supposed to mean something else, or a comma has been lost here. I will assume the latter. That gives this translation: "(Earth/soil) and stone, air and (heavens/sky), create (or created by) blood and runes, rise up and fill the bones of Ulfrir."

pg. 80 I don't think that Elvar's story of how she learned the 'binding words' of thrall-collars adds up with the complexity of her orders. I get it if she knows how to activate a thrall-collar, how to force punishment unto the thrall and how to force the thrall to listen and follow her orders; that a child could realistically overhear and remember. But why is she able to make grammatically correct sentences with the proper conjugations? It doesn't seem like Uspa would have taught her, since the collar being surprise (somehow) comes as a surprise to them. So how did she know to conjugate 'opinn' as 'opna' if she learned the binding words by overhearing? There must be more to this. I know she mentions listening in on her father's lessons with Silrið, but I just don't buy this. Elvar demonstrates a far too evolved and deep understanding of the language than is warranted by her backstory.

It seems like the magic-speech (Galdraspråk? Seiðrspråk?) is dissimilar to the everyday language everyone is using, but how different is it? Like, I had been assuming in the first book that everyone is speaking Old Norse or some fictional derivation thereof and can understand the magic-speech just fine, because that makes sense. There's never a language-barrier mentioned with Iskidan, even though it's a different country with Slavic names and the names would not even be conceived of in a country that speaks a Nordic language. So if there is no attention or mind paid to language barriers/differences (as far as I can remember) why would Sighvat not know how to use binding words? How come there is that amount of distance between the languages here? I speak modern Norwegian (mostly a dialect of it) and I understand the gist of the magic-speech just fine even without looking up words in dictionaries; why would these people not understand it? It is when the text is spoken that I hear the most similarities. I wonder if this is an oversight on Gwynne's part, something that is muddles by the prose, or… a third option.

I really do hope Gwynne explains and explores the language at some point because this is eating me alive.

pg. 81 Now. Hold the FUCK on. The red-skinned book? It was black the last chapter! What do you mean, red-skinned book? What do you mean, made from the skin of Skuld's sister? This is not the Raudskinna, so how why is it red and how do they know it's made from Skuld's sister?

Also, I still wonder what language these people are speaking that they do not understand magic-speech. Or cannot guess at some words that still sound very similar in many modern Nordic languages.

pg. 83 Ooohhh, is Grend an Úlfhéðnar? A different kind of Tainted maybe, to be standing still?

pg. 84 Why can't Gwynne just let the gods be animals? I don't want them to shapeshift every other second; loses the entire appeal for me. Not gonna lie though, my heart truly went out to Ulfrir here, the poor sod. Made even poorer by the company that surrounds him.

CHAPTER 9 | BIÓRR pg. 85 Gwynne's writing style is starting to grate on me. "The crackle of forest litter and a man came to stand beside him" is the same structure that Gwynne uses over and over, both in and out of action scenes, and it is not more effective than conventional sentence structures, nor is it clearer, nor more impactful. If anything it makes the book harder to read. This could have been communicated with more variety to his descriptions, or using an easier-to-read sentence. As an example, I'd have preferred it to be "With the crackle of forest litter, a man came to stand beside him" or "Forest litter crackled as a man came to stand beside him" or something to that effect. This might be personal preference clouding my judgment, but I did see some reviewers mention that Gwynne's prose was flat and hard to read, and I agree because of sentences like these (and more).

pg. 89 Okay, that at least clears up the fact that it was not the Raudskinna Elvar and her people found in Lik-Rifa's chamber; it's probably another error when it's described as red-skinned instead of the black in its first appearance.

I will also note that while Biórr's observation is right, and Lik-Rifa did just eat someone, Lik-Rifa only promised not to eat her own children/creation; it isn't specified whether the one she killed is a dragonborn or a Tainted child of a different god. Biórr is, after all, Rotta's descendant, and there are more in the Raven-Feeders ranks who come from different divine ancestors. I wonder if this distinction will become important in the future.

I would also have loved some consistency with the hyphenation in Gwynne's prose. 'Deep-cunning' always appeared hyphenated before its usage on this page and there is nothing to suggest it shouldn't have been hyphenated here as well.

pg. 90 I feel like the choice to turn the Raven-Feeders around is a poor one. Whatever sense of progress there had been feels halted now.

CHAPTER 10 | ORKA pg. 96 Yaaaas, the deeper feelings! The deeper thoughts! I live for moments like these, where the minds of the characters are finally explored. It feels so rare, and to me these moments are the most important and engaging, the ones that make me care and want to read and know more. I wish Gwynne utilized them more often instead of prioritizing the factual surface-level happenings.

CHAPTER 11 | VARG pg. 98 + pg. 99 Svik, my love, I hope you get that free cheese one day. However, as happy as Svik's arrival made me (and as comedic as the interjection was), the following few paragraphs don't really feel like they fit. There is too big a gap between Svik's voice and his appearance to feel natural. The information could have been given more organically. The details about when Røkia awakened him, for example, fit quite well into the passage where he speaks of sólstöður and twilight. It's still a little long for the conversation between the two, but Røkia's dialogue could have been re-worked to come before or after the information is given, thus not affecting the pacing as much as it does.

[theliterarygnat]

Reading Summary: 26. April, 2024 (The Hunger of the Gods, Chapters 1-2)

PRE-STORY

The names of the gods still follow the same middle-grade style convention of being named after the animals they represent, which is made egregious by constantly being called 'the animal' at the end. Example; Refur the Fox, where Refur means 'fox' in Icelandic There is an improvement with Gröfu the badger (whose name seems to be of Dutch origin? related to something being 'rough') and Fjalla (the Mountain Goat named 'mountain'. At least she's not named 'goat').

Another issue is the fact that Rotta's name is misspelled as 'Rota' on page x in Halja's entry. A character is also named Kalv, which translates to 'calf'. At least that's a child of Svin ('Pig') the boar, not Ku the cow.

Small gripe with the geographic names is Iskalt Island vs. Iskalt Islands. The map shows that this region is made up of multiple islands, looking a little bit like the shards of a shattered mirror, and they are called Iskalt Islands (plural). However, the prose consistently refers only to a singular 'Iskalt Island', which is strange.

CHAPTER 1 | ORKA

Not much to say about Orka's chapter. It's nice to know what type of Tainted she is (Úlfhéðnar) but not much happens. I'm also not sure I agree with the sentiment of her owing Mord and Líf the knowledge of her divine ancestry; like Orka said, it could cost her greatly. It could have also meant that Mord and Líf would leave her, and without their help she might have struggled to move as she lacked a boat. It just does not sit right with me to make it seem like this is something she should have shared, when it's such vital information; nobody is owed access to it. It's a small gripe, but eh.

Also, what the fuck was it with the swimming scene? Orka just leaves Líf to have a moment to bathe (without checking in with him)? Why put this massive break between Líf asking Orka to talk and them actually talking? This would have flown better and smoother (and used fewer words) if Orka woke up, felt horrible and couldn't go back to sleep, got into the river, and Líf came to her with towels and new clothes and asked to speak with her and then they DID that.

A reviewer on Goodreads said that this book lacked any sense of urgency, especially in chapter 1 when Orka and her family took their sweet time moving towards the scream at Asgrim's steading; and yeah, that's true both for TSOTG and THOTG. Here the urgency is lesser (conversing with Líf instead of investigating screams) but it still is just extremely strange to have the book be paced this way and for Orka to just do that. Also, the fucking gall of this woman to tell Líf that she won't wait for Líf to speak, when she forced him to wait until she bathed and cleaned up before hearing him out.

It's honestly just a bizarre choice for the order of events. Did Gwynne need to lengthen the chapter or something? Is that why it's like this? Honestly, I'd rather it just have been shorter, or maybe we could have spent more time in Orka's mind and her reflecting on the Bloodsworn and how she felt about being with them again. We don't actually get much of that. Just a lot of description of her bathing and some thoughts of her missing Breca.

I really wish Gwynne delved into the psychology of his characters a bit more, made things intimate. His characters tend to have this flat effect where I can tell there's a lot going on in their heads, but because I can't get a glimpse into that goings-on, I don't feel as much for the characters as I think I could.

CHAPTER 2 | ELVAR

pg. 24 I wonder if Kráka is experiencing any symptoms of the bloð svarið, considering she had sworn it too. Hopefully this will be addressed.

pg. 25 I wish we had gotten this aspect of Elvar's personality clearly in the first book. She seemed to be all too willing to agree to her father's offer, seemingly only uncertain if she should because of her connection to the Battle-Grim; and she was swayed not by the implication of her father's offer, but by the possibility it could be a lie or a manipulation tactic to get her to stay at his side. It doesn't feel like it necessarily comes out of nowhere, but this could and should have been present from the very start of her journey. Her father should have been mentioned in her thoughts and added to her motivations instead of being kept a mystery; if it can even be called that? The 'reveal' that Elvar was the noble's daughter didn't feel like much of a reveal, and because of Gwynne's writing and handling of Elvar's character especially, it didn't feel like a particularly poignant moment.

Elvar is defined by her hunger for fame, desire to prove herself, and her pride/arrogance since the moment we meet her; she should have been insulted and not tempted by her father's offer, and she should have been petty and bitter about his manipulations in TSOTG with as much fervor as is shown here. It feels like Elvar has only now become a proper character instead of a cardboard cutout.

pg. 27 Misplaced question mark. It should have been placed within the thought ("How has the string not rotted in three hundred years?, she thought.") and not after the 'dialogue tag'. However, the entire dialogue tag could have been dropped, since the reader is by now familiar with the fact that an italicized sentence styles this way is a direct thought in a character's head.

pg. 29 Elvar truly is incapable of self-reflection, huh?

Elvar 'liked' the thralls, but she didn't care to learn Ilmur's name nor even really thought about the fact he had one, and she never went out of her way to be nice to Kráka or Ilmur nor protected them from mistreatment, and she enslaves Tainted for a living. Of course they'd want to run away from the objectification and abuse; it's the exact thing Elvar did, running away from her father who saw her as nothing but a pawn to use. Except here, Kráka and Ilmur were both abused and dehumanized and objectified worse than Elvar ever had been. Elvar didn't see them or like them as people, she liked them as possessions and tools and pets. If anything, this moment makes me hate Elvar. Only time will tell if this is the reaction Gwynne wanted the reader to have or not. I hope it is. I hope Elvar goes through some development and figures her shit out about this, but considering the last book, I expect disappointment.

Elvar is just so flat and boring and so void of flavor; it'd have been much more compelling and better if she actually started the story with pro-Tainted and anti-slavery sentiments, but not having enough reputation or skill or influence or bravery to do anything about it. She should have been conflicted about her job and what she does. Conflict is, ultimately, where the heart of a character lies, where their essence resides, where their mettle is tested. All of Elvar's personal conflicts have been hollow and shallow, and thus she is little more than a name. It would have been much better if she was distinctly more complex and complicated than this (from the get-go; not developing a personality out of the blue now).

pg. 31 Ah. Elvar is shaping up to be a character I dislike. I see. Great. Hopefully this will be handled competently, although I do not really have the faith in that. It would be for the best that Gwynne doesn't let this go unexamined, and it does appear like this book hopefully will be taking an anti-slavery stance, and that Elvar will either grow and be better or end up like Agnar. Frankly, Elvar is not interesting enough to also be a bigot and incapable of introspection and empathy. Her supposed origin story - a noble girl running away from a life of being manipulated and offered as a "brood bitch" (servant/slave wife) - doesn't actually seem to affect her much. Why isn't she showing any amount of recognition in the other? Why doesn't she see that the fate she escaped from is the one she forces others into?

Elvar is just such a disappointment and a waste of everyone's time (mine, Gwynne's). I can understand that Gwynne might have big, long-term plans for her, but she is not interesting enough, not complex enough, to carry the story this way. This is a major flaw and drawback of his writing style. Because it is so distant, because it doesn't focus on the characters' inner thoughts and feelings and their psychology, it is very difficult to become interested in them unless their outward archetype appeals to the reader. There's very little to latch onto and get attached to.

[theliterarygnat]

THE SHADOW OF THE GODS BY JOHN GWYNNE

2.5-3/5 stars | Major Spoilers Should have been three decent books instead of one that's kinda shit

____________________________________

This is a long review, full of spoilers, and it is more a way to vent than something meant to help readers decide whether they want to pick up this book or not. I am of the very unpopular opinion that while this book has some solid concepts behind it, their implementation and execution is not really that good. However, this novel still resonated with many people, and so I do not think that my dislike/lack of enjoyment should be a discouragement to those interested.

There are things worth enjoying in this book. The Shadow of the Gods (henceforth TSOTG) features a world inspired by the old North of the viking ages, and this Norse aesthetic is extremely strong throughout. If you liked The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski for its mood, its cynical realist setting, and the melancholy tone throughout (especially in the short story collections), then I think you will find the world and setting of TSOTG to be very compelling. John Gwynne is a reenactor and it shows, both in the enthusiasm and detail with which he writes, and the incredible amount of research and inspiration that has been packed into this book. Every page seems to have been a labor of love and joy. Daniel Greene of BookTube fame has described TSOTG as “an author’s baby” (pos.), “something that the author has wanted to put out for so long” and I do agree with this assessment!

However. Unlike Greene, who came to this conclusion because he enjoyed the book, I had the very same thought because I was questioning whether this book or not was Gwynne’s debut. I never read Gwynne, this being my first book from him, and I knew nothing about him before I picked up the book solely based on the cover and the blurb. While reading the story I did actually look up whether Gwynne was established as an author or had published anything, because there were many things on a conceptual or a executive level that felt somewhat juvenile and maybe even inept; they just seemed to me to be hallmarks of a beginner author. He did publish many works before this, but like Greene said, it feels like Gwynne has worked on this book for so long I wonder if the concept predates the books that predate this one.

My closing thoughts for this non-spoiler introduction is this: go to your local library or pirate a copy of this online, and if you can get through like 100 or so pages, consider buying it (if you pirated a copy). The build-up is slow, but I think if you accept it and can get through that 100 pages, you might find at least some nuggets to enjoy here.

Now, on to the spoilers, and the vent proper:

This book is SO frustrating. Whilst reading I so often thought to myself that this could have been good had these stories and characters been explored in standalone novels in a much bigger series rather than a trilogy. Much of the weakness of this story comes from the lack of pagetime and space to build things up proper and give them a satisfying pay-off. The stories of the characters also do not connect in such big ways that the multi-POV gimmick is useful in any way; there is little to no overlap in characters, locations, events, or themes, and especially in the beginning there is a drastic difference in the pace of the three stories, which messes with the pacing of TSOTG as a whole. This lack of interconnectedness makes the multi-POV structure extremely tiring. I find it unnecessary and, as my rating and previous words imply, I think it detracts from what Gwynne could have achieved.

The characters we follow are: Orka, a mother and warrior; Varg, an escaped thrall (slave); and Elvar, a mercenary slaver. I think that Orka’s story should have been told first, Varg’s second, and Elvar should have just been removed and replaced wholesale, or at the very least overhauled as a character in her entirety. I will talk about each POV character on their own first, with general notes and criticisms included in each section as they become relevant, with more prose and world-building-related thoughts afterwards.

ORKA

Orka is the first POV character. Her story is slow to start, but it goes through three stages: living the normal life, the inciting incident, the revenge plot. This not an unusual structure, but it being interjected with Varg’s and Elvar’s POVs, all of which have started at different point sin their lives, develop at different paces, does make it feel slower than it already is. The multi-POVs distract and detract from each other rather than supporting each other, and I felt it gruesomely when it came to Orka. It is not that I disliked her chapters, but I felt like the thought put into the development and presentation of her story has suffered the most because of how little space there was to explore it.

With Orka, I think that laying the groundwork pre-inciting incident is important. Mostly because it’s almost necessary for the revenge plot to be enjoyable. Orka has built for herself a life as peaceful as this world has to offer with her husband, Thorkel, and her son, Breca. We learn throughout her POV that Orka and Thorkel both have at some point been thralls and warriors, bloodied and brutal and violent, and they have left that life behind. Thorkel with more success than Orka. She is still haunted by her past, and it actually affects her ability to be a good mother. She is emtoionally stunted and prone to lashing out, either in words or in actions, such as slapping Brace, because she was worried and angry that he’d run off in the night to tend to an injured monster-critter when they know they are child-abductors around. Thorkel is actually the one with emotional intelligence, who shows the greatest range of emotions and care and gentle affection. It’s an interesting dynamic, especially because Orka appreciates this fact about her husband. Respects and desires it for herself even. While I didn’t find their relationship to be particularly romantic or appealing, I did like that Orka was the one that was struggling to be a good parent.

Exploring her in her time of peace and as a parent is very important, because the revenge-plot is not about her growth, it is about her regression. And therein lies the greatest frustration: this exploration is shitty.

From the very first chapter, the reader knows exactly where the story is going. Gwynne is very heavy-handed when it comes to Orka and Varg. With Orka, it is abundantly clear that her inciting incident, what will set her off to join Varg and Elvar at some point, is the death of her husband and the abduction of her child. Gwynne then tries very hard to get you to care about Thorkel the husband and Breca the son, and it so clear that he needs you to care about them, that he is going out of his way to make them appealing. He makes Thorkel a whipped husband and a caring, gentle father; Breca an inquisitive child too kind and soft for this world. Because I already knew where Orka’s story was going and what would happen to these characters, I found myself growing frustrated that it was taking us so long to actually get to the point, and I actually disliked the characters because of how hamfisted they felt.

The inciting incident of Orka’s story is also the main reason why I thought this had been Gwynne’s first novel ever written. It hinges on the existence of Froa; a tree spirit that guards Orka’s family and home, whom Orka respects enough to seek advice from when territorial tensions rise and war seems imminent. Because Orka goes to get that advice, she leaves her steading and family for a little while, and during that little while, her home gets raided, Thorkel killed, and Breca is abducted.

Froa is introduced in the very same chapter her existence leads to the biggest turning point in Orka’s story, and we don’t even get to see her; she’s dead. Froa is literally nothing but her supposed existence has a massive impact. She comes out of fucking nowhere and feels like something Gwynne pulled out of his ass to get Orka out of her home. The fact he couldn’t find something more organic or relevant to what was going on in Orka’s story so far was honestly mindboggling and made me stop reading for some time. It is such a beginner’s mistake. I can understand that the concept might have been “the most horrible things can happen for the most insignificant reasons”, but this was not the best execution.

After Orka’s inciting incident, Orka quickly starts to regress. It is obvious that she is returning to her old ways. It gets extremely cheesy and even outright campy sometimes, because you will get lines of Orka thinking “I am death. I am vengeance”, and it reads like a meme. It’s just… not really that good? But at least it seems kind of in character for her, which cannot be said for some other things that I will explore more indepth in a different section. The main saving grace of Orka’s story is that she has two sidekicks, Mord and Lif, who play off of her quite decently. They showcase her as something of a grouchy old aunt, which gives her more dimension than if she had been left alone. However, I see many readers say she becomes very flat, and yeah; her reactions are predictable, her brash nature can get boring, and her regression isn’t the most compelling or even terrifying because of how shallow the exploration of her character had been in the build-up to the vengeance. Still, Orka is one of the more enjoyable POV characters. She and her story would have made for a good standalone book, if Gwynne took the time to develop and pace and plan the story out better, changing the order of events and injecting some more life and thought into the early story.

VARG

My beloved. He would have been a wonderful 2nd installment if TSOTG got split into three distinct books; his story ties into Orka’s in the very last chapter in such a way that we actually meet her again, and there are some small bridges connecting his tale with both Orka or Elvar’s stories, making him a good mid-point between the two. He is honestly the best thing about this book.

While the stakes in Orka’s story were foreshadowed in a very heavy-handed way, Varg keeps nothing secret; the reader knows immediately what his deal is (runaway slave looking for a way to learn who killed his sister so he can avenge her) and what the stakes are (getting caught and forced back into slavery if he fails). That isn’t to say that his story isn’t weak or that it is exceptionally strong. I just have a preference for his archetype, and I found him extremely compelling and sympathetic due to his circumstances. I was enamoured enough that his sister’s death didn’t register to me as fridging, even though I wouldn’t deny that it can fit into that trope commonly found in men’s stories.

The thing about Varg is this; his vengeance is his driving motivation, but it is not really the point of his story. Varg quickly falls in with the Bloodsworn, a warband of warriors who protect him from his potential slavers and accept him into their midst, teaching him how to fight and be a part of the team. Varg is adorably absent-minded; he forgets to put on his helmet and unsheathe his spear in his first big fight, but he still has the guts to try unconventional attack-strategies, and this works out well for him. He has this scrappy, kicked-dog feel about him. He is also very obviously not just a human; I had theorized from the very beginning that he was one of the Tainted, and it is made almost painfully obvious to the reader. This got tiring, but not as outright frustrating as him constantly passing out at the end of his chapters. Did it happen in every single one? No. Did it happen often enough to be annoying? Yes.

But I am getting off-topic. While every single thing Varg does and goes along with is, in the end, motivated by his quest for vengeance, his story is more about him finding his way in the world, about becoming a free man and learning what that means, growing into himself while surrounded by a new family, new friends, new allies. Varg is generally very easy to root for and was the highlight of the book for me. Especially given the fact he is surrounded by some of the more enjoyable side-characters. I love Svik, Einar, Røkia, and Golnir, and pretty much everyone else in the Bloodsworn warband.

There is the downside of everything feeling a little shallow, in part because of the writing style and how little time we spend with these people. I also found myself surprised by how quickly some characters accepted Varg, but that was somewhat resolved by the “big revelation” (to Varg) that he is Tainted. I actually like how this goes down. Gwynne assumes the reader has known this, and so he doesn’t make the reveal something big; he makes Varg’s reaction to this reveal big, the main focus, and it is a choice I applaud him for. The fact that all of the Bloodsworn are Tainted is great. It also explains why Torvik would be so quick to call Varg brother; they both could have been the descendants of the same god, making them true blood-kin brothers in a way.

Varg’s story is still flawed. After he is saved from becoming a slave again, he is not exactly aimless (since he is still looking for a way to avenge his sister), but the stakes are… gone. Kind of. Varg’s story depends on the reader caring for him and just wanting to see how he deals with the life he is thrust into. Nothing horrible is really going to happen if the Bloodsworn reject him and he does not get the aid he wanted from them to learn about his sister’s murder. At worst he might die, sure, but that isn’t related to his quest wholesale; him being a warrior trainee and him seeking vengeance feel like two separate things in a way, which makes his story very slow, without really many scenes or skirmishes relevant to the larger, overarching tale of this world.

Despite this, Varg made this book significantly more enjoyable than if he wasn’t included. His chapters were the light I needed to guide and motivate me to finish this book. His is a flawed story still, but these flaws are minor compared to Orka (in the beginning at least) and Elvar. Speaking of Elvar…

ELVAR

Elvar should not have been the POV character. She doesn’t have anything actually going for her, nothing to make her interesting. With Orka, you know what’s going to happen, but you still want to see it; the violence, the brutality, the depths she will fall to as long as she gets her son back. It’s a dark pull. With Varg, you want him to heal and grow, want to see how his story will unfold. With Elvar, there’s… really nothing.

She is a warrior of the Battle-Grim, a warband of mercenary slavers. Her first chapter is them hunting down and enslaving a man, abducting his family to keep the whole lot under their thumb, and Elvar just… doesn’t have any thoughts on this. She’s completely brain empty up in here. This is frustrating because we later learn that what Elvar ran away from was a life of servitude; her father wanted to marry her off for political ties and power, but she didn’t want to be a “brood bitch”, so she ran away to make a life for herself, to gain reputation and fame on her own merits. She specifically escaped because she didn’t want to be a pawn in somebody else’s game, didn’t want to be a servant, a slave. But she has no thoughts about being a slaver? She doesn’t care about those she hunts down and collars, doesn’t feel any sympathy or empathy, any connection, any regret or conflict when she forces others into the life she escaped from?

Elvar only wants one thing in this story: fame. Well, she wants two things if you count the money too, but she speaks of “battle-fame” the most. She wants to be known, to have a legacy, to live forever in the saga-tales and songs of skalds.That’s fine to some degree. However, Elvar lacks depth, she lacks interest, she lacks any reason to root for her or be invested in her as a character. Even Greene, who I mentioned has liked the book, does not mention her once in his review, despite making the claim that Orka and Varg would become big and popular amongst those in Gwynne’s audience. Elvar does not have the makings of a protagonist; but she would be a decently interesting side/supporting character.

Speaking of side-characters; hers are not that great. Elvar’s story is actually the one that grows to be the most connected to the event that this book is supposedly building towards; the freeing of an imprisoned god. However, most of the characters are as one-note as Elvar, with nothing to characterize them besides the desire to be rich and famous. They are all, like Elvar, mercenaries and slavers, and the leaders and high-rankers within the Battle-Grim are especially shown as being unpleasant at best to their slaves. Elvar is also extremely uninterested int he slaves; she had not known the name of Ilmur, and referred to him only as “the Hundur-thrall” (demigod descendant of the dog god (and also slave)) for her whole fucking story; it is not until Biórr, a major supporting character, informs her the slave’s name is Ilmur that she realizes she didn’t even think about the slave having a name.

Elvar is also kind of just. Stupid.

Elvar’s one and only personal conflict nearly made me throw the book out. The Battle-Grim go to the highest bidder to sell their newly-captured slave, and that highest-bidder happens to be Elvar’s father. He is a jarl and the one who planned for her to become a “brood bitch” for political connections. She has never, not even once, thought about her family up until her blood-relation to the man is revealed. It is clear when she does actually think back on her relationship with her father that there is no love lost between them. Her father’s just straight up a dick; a manipulator, a liar, someone who did not care for her, someone to whom she was a pawn. Gwynne slams the reader over the head with this. Elvar’s father offers Elvar something she had once wanted in the past; her own warband of drengr, elite warriors she would lead. There a whole fucking chapter dedicated to Elvar figuring out what choice to make. Should she stay with her chosen kin, the Battle-Grim, whom helped her achieve everything she ever wanted, with whom she has bled and fought and sheltered, with whom she earned battle-fame and coin on her own merits and skill; or return to a family that she knows is prone to manipulation and lies to get… the same thing she already has, except gifted to her instead of earned. Earning something on her own merits has been her core motivation this whole time!

Wow. what a hard choice it must be. I am saying this with the utmost sarcasm. This """dilemma""" is so fucking hollow and underdeveloped and a waste of everyone's time. It's a waste of my time, a waste of Gwynne's time, a waste of the pages and words that could have been better used for something and someone else. I hate this. It's so bad. It's not compelling, it's not deep, and it makes Elvar just seem like a stupid fucking idiot for needing to BE TOLD by somebody else that HEY. THIS GUY? YOUR FATHER? HE'S KIND OF A LYING CUNT. YOU KNOW THIS. DON'T TRUST HIM.

I wish this was removed. I wish Elvar was removed. Her installment is weak and lackluster and unnecessary. Her story has two supporting characters that I think would have worked better as protagonists, would have been more compelling. There is Grend, Elvar’s taciturn protector and bodyguard oathsworn to her, who I think could offer a lot of wisdom and interesting perspective whilst running after Elvar. She could still be the star of the show (though that’s quite unnecessary), and I think that she'd genuinely be more interesting as a side-character instead of a main one. The other character I think could have replaced her is Biórr. Biórr is the only member of the Battle Grim that seems to care about the thralls on their team; he learns their names and is kind to them. He is also not actually a Battle-Grim; he infiltrated their ranks to aid a different warrior group defeat them. He has so much going for him, I wish we'd have followed him instead. Especially because he was the only one I was rooting for! Sure, I didn't give a fuck about him until he, rather angrily, informed Elvar of the fact Ilmur had a name, since she was dehumanizing and objectifying the guy to hell and back, but after that? Chef's kiss, Biórr was the highlight of the story, and I cheered when he killed the leader of the Battle-Grim. I wish Elvar the worst because maybe then she'll actually grow into someone interesting to follow. I do not plan on reading The Hunger of the Gods but the fact Biórr DOES supposedly have a POV there is tempting me.

Another thing about Elvar that doesn't work is that she's just... irrelevant. Her story ties into the Big Event of the book mostly by accident. Elvar wants to be famous, so she goes looking for fame, and accidentally gets caught up in a different group's ritual to free the god. Elvar is Just Kind of There. Her motivation is shallow, her involvement is weak, and she has nothing interesting to say or do thematically.

Elvar gets 1/5 stars from me. That one star is Biórr.

THE PLOTTING; A CONTINUATION

Like I have already pointed out, both Orka and Elvar have some scenes (or, rather, entire chapters) that make no sense or are dissatisfying; Orka’s thing with Froa feels like an asspull, and Elvar just loses braincells and any possible respect I’d have had for her. There’s not actually too many scenes like this, ones that are offensively horrible, but there are many that are just… very weak.

One is in the very beginning. It’s the first infodump in the story, and it is both a) too early, and b) irrelevant and unnecessary.

This infodump comes in the form of Breca, Orka’s son, asking his father Thorkel to tell him a story about Snaka the Snake, whose calcified bones have become a massive mountain range across the landscape. I get what Gwynne was trying to do. He was trying to justify the infodump by combining it with characterization; showing the reader that Breca is inquisitive and obsessed with the gods and heroes and their tales, and that Thorkel is a softie. But that is not enough. It is not executed well enough, it is not timed well enough, and it is simply not necessary. We could already tell Thorkel was gentler and kinder than Orka, and this characterization continues throughout Orka’s chapters, making this moment nothing special. It also doesn’t reveal any profound depths in Breca’s character. It’s too early in the story, it’s in an awkward spot, and it's entirely redundant. Breca had just missed a spearthrow during his first proper hunt. He is upset by this, which we seemingly forget just to have him ask about Snaka. But then we return to that dejection he feels when Thorkel goes out of his way to comfort him. This infodump feels out of place, like a random interjection. Breca’s obsession with saga-tales could have been explored in this moment instead; Thorkel could have told Breca some story about his favorite hero or god learning and failing at doing something they later became good or even the best at for comfort; boom! Both characters have their personalities expanded with a strong emotional undertone of a father comforting his child, with lore being dropped at the same time.

We could of course just not include any of that, and the story would be fine. It just felt like an enthusiastic and inexperienced author's attempt at worldbuilding that ended up as subtle as a piano crashing onto the pavement. It was not a bad concept (using infodumps for characterization) but the execution was lacking.

This is true for most of this novel. The execution is never really satisfactory, but I can imagine the concept Gwynne is trying to breathe life into here; but little of it works, and that’s a big shame! This is going to sound horrible, but the only time I had anything good to say about his plotting and prose was on page 436. Throughout the book, Gwynne does a lot of telling of some things I would have preferred being shown, like Elvar’s thought-process when presented with her personal conflict and Einar sharing some bread with Varg. This telling and no showing grated on my nerves, especially because the prose is, while inoffensive, not the most evocative or emotionally engaging, and thus depends on showing to create depth. On page 436, there is a callback that is in some ways similar to these mentioned tells, except it actually hearkens back to a scene that WAS depicted earlier in the story! I was so surprised that Gwynne knew what a callback is and how to implement it well… which is genuinely a rude thing to be surprised by, especially with how rudimentary that writing device is, but I truly thought he just wasn’t capable of executing it well, and so I think it’s the fact that I actually liked that scene that surprised me.

THE PROSE AND SOME OTHER STUFF

The way Norse is used honestly cheapens the story. Incredibly so.

Because of the setting, I have assumed that the characters either speak Norse or a modernized version of Norse, and that the Norse we see written on the page is either a) untranslated for the purposes of the audience to signify when magical words are being used, or b) untranslated because in-universe it's the equivalent of someone speaking Late Middle English. Gwynne never clarifies in-book what language is spoken or if multiple languages exist, as even though there is a different continent with Slavic-named characters, I cannot recall a language barrier or the mention of any accents or dialects. As such, when Gwynne writes shit like 'Gudfalla the godsfall', which to the characters would have sounded like 'Gods-fall the godsfall', I am Very Annoyed and Frustrated.

Especially because this happens all the time! Especially with the gods! Do you wanna know what the eagle god is called? Orna. Do you know what Orna means? Eagle. She-Eagle if you want to be very specific. So you have She-Eagle the Eagle, Rat the Rat (Rotta), Wolf the Wolf (Ulfrir), Hound the Hound (Hundur), etc. The only god that doesn't fit this shitass, middle-grade level naming system is Lik-Rifa, who's name means 'corpse-tearer/corpse-ripper', who is a dragon. Good for her. Except I couldn't help but have war flashbacks to Lightlark's naming system, (Wildling, Starling, Sunling, Moonling, Nightshade...>). This was just horrible. We also have two brothers literally named Murder and Life (Mord and Lif). One of Elvar's brothers is named Brodir, which literally means 'brother'. The only time this horseshittery works is with Iskalt Island, because it translates to 'Ice Cold Island' and, if nothing else, it made me cackle for five minutes straight. Granted, it was at the book, but at least that was enjoyable.

The prose itself is otherwise generally inoffensive. I noticed that the word 'rippling' got used a lot, which was distracting, but I think it's just me. There were also some moments where the prose did feel repetitive, like when Varg and Einar fought; there was the imagery of 'hammers' and 'hammer-fist' and fists hammering, and it got tired very quickly. My biggest gripes is the amount of italics and 'thought-cage'. Some words are always italicized, such as brynja and drakkar and more, and it was unnecessary and a little annoying really. Italics enforce tone and emphasis, and having these things be emphasized over and over again is just plain frustrating. They should have been emphasized once when used for the first time to clue the reader into them being special, but no more than that. And thought-cage.... for whatever reason, Gwynne decided that he would replace the word 'mind', 'head', and 'brain' with 'thought-cage', and I just do not get it, because all three of these words exist in this world. What the purpose was I don't fucking know.

See, I started reading this novel because the premise interested me, but I like to be prepared for what might work and what might not, so I watched multiple reviews on YouTube. Both good and bad. And the thing that came up over and over again was the hate of the word 'thought-cage'. I thought to myself that surely, it cannot be that bad, Gwynne is definitely trying to achieve something here that he might have overdone but that still has importance and relevance and a reason! No. I was deluding myself. I had this whole theory about it. I thought that 'thought-cage' would be either something unique to Orka and Thorkel or something very specific; something that warriors deal with, a different word for trauma perhaps, where you are paralyzed or stuck in a pattern or feeling or catastrophic thoughts, like getting triggered; or maybe it was about Orka's pessimistic and depressive and cynical thinking and how she'd get stuck in circles and 'thought-cage' was a word Thorkel invented and she'd use it often in her narration as a call-back to her lover...

No. Nope! None of that. Everyone uses it for everything. Sometimes it feels like Gwynne is purposefully writing sentences just so he can include 'thought-cage' in them. It's clunky, it's distracting, and it's unnecessary, and it's bad.

Still, despite all this, I don't think I can say that this is a badly written book. It's just... serviceable? Middling. I can neither recommend it due to my own lack of enjoyment for so much of it, but I also cannot say to stay away; there are elements with much appeal, and while I called much of the writing juvenile and inept, Gwynne can write well. It's just that he also plots shit. Overall this was just a frustrating read with a lot of squandered potential. I wish Gwynne took the plunge and dedicated himself to writing these POVs as standalone novels or novellas in a fantasy series (it could have been a whole ass 3 books to just introduce the readers to the world and its players, then multi-POV sequels following that; kind of like the Percy Jackson novels) instead of a comparatively small trilogy. If he was given more room to explore, these stories would have been much better developed, plotted, and executed. Hopefully. But this is not the reality of this book, and The Shadow of the Gods remains a dissatisfying, disappointing read.