Katherine
My overall impression is “meh”. I liked the start of this series, though I do think The Shadow of the Gods has a major issue with NEEDING to have a battle scene every chapter and being a bit repetitive. I thought the setup to this whole trilogy was quite interesting. I loved the idea of a sort of post-Ragnarok world with people who have the blood of the gods. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go anywhere that you can’t predict, it doesn’t do enough with these god-blooded characters (why do all of them seem to have basically the same powers? You could’ve gotten SO creative with it) and it’s very hard to care about the characters when they are SO one dimensional. The IDEA of each character and their motivation is at least decent, but every chapter with them feels the same. Orka wants revenge. Varg wants revenge. Elvar wants fame. This character is a coward. This other character is a hypocrite. There isn’t that much character growth, and even if some occurs, it doesn’t feel earned.
The repetition is to the point that I barely remember what happened in book 2 despite having read it twice now. And book 3 continues that trend. Sure, there are new things happening, but so much of it feels bloated and repetitive. Overall, the series is meh. It doesn’t stick with me and it’s going to be the end of my Gwynne journey. This much action with this little character development just isn’t my thing. Also… I’d be kinda glad to not have to read a description of a shield wall battle for a while.
My overall impression is “meh”. I liked the start of this series, though I do think The Shadow of the Gods has a major issue with NEEDING to have a battle scene every chapter and being a bit repetitive. I thought the setup to this whole trilogy was quite interesting. I loved the idea of a sort of post-Ragnarok world with people who have the blood of the gods. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go anywhere that you can’t predict, it doesn’t do enough with these god-blooded characters (why do all of them seem to have basically the same powers? You could’ve gotten SO creative with it) and it’s very hard to care about the characters when they are SO one dimensional. The IDEA of each character and their motivation is at least decent, but every chapter with them feels the same. Orka wants revenge. Varg wants revenge. Elvar wants fame. This character is a coward. This other character is a hypocrite. There isn’t that much character growth, and even if some occurs, it doesn’t feel earned.
The repetition is to the point that I barely remember what happened in book 2 despite having read it twice now. And book 3 continues that trend. Sure, there are new things happening, but so much of it feels bloated and repetitive. Overall, the series is meh. It doesn’t stick with me and it’s going to be the end of my Gwynne journey. This much action with this little character development just isn’t my thing. Also… I’d be kinda glad to not have to read a description of a shield wall battle for a while.