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.
Honestly… where to begin. The concept is cool, and I do think the way the story is told is fairly unique. I haven’t seen this exact style before, and I do think it would work for this… if other things were better. I do have the issue of this being VERY choppy- I understand the premise is a series of interviews, and you have to put the pieces together yourself. However, at times this… didn’t work as well as I would’ve liked. It really needed a bit more to tie interviews together, or at least introduce people and their role in everything better. Sometimes that was fine, sometimes I barely understood who was talking. This especially comes to fruition at the end of the book, where it’s wrapping up a lot of these “interviews”- I didn’t remember who half of them were and kept having to search for their name. It’s at least competently written- the prose isn’t bad, and each perspective does seem fairly unique even if I don’t understand what someone’s role was and why they’re being interviewed at times.
Now, I realize this was published in 2006, which was a very different time. Some of the political takes (I’m not going to go into detail) are incredibly naive, stereotyped, or unrealistic. Or all of the above. It’s a zombie apocalypse book, I can have suspension of disbelief, but only to a point. You mean to tell me the US military would be THAT stupid? That modern war weapons wouldn’t work because you had to get a head shot? The logistics were set up SO badly that the tanks ran out of AMMO? And air support? What’s that?? That was truly the dumbest portrayal of a modern military I’ve ever read.
Some chapters were actually good and portrayed a fairly realistic idea of how humanity would react, but unfortunately that only happened in a handful of the US chapters and the international chapters were… sure something. The stereotyping was BAD. And while some takes on human psychology were good, some were SO INCREDIBLY BONKERS I have no idea why Brooks thought it was a good idea. Between the good chapters and the “what the fuck” chapters, it was mostly kinda boring. It goes into some aspects that you might not think of, but it doesn’t always do the best job explaining itself… either Brooks tried TOO hard and it comes across as technical jargon mumbo jumbo, or he didn’t try much at all so the reader is confused on why that chapter is there at all.
Honestly, for book quality I’d probably give it 2.5-3 stars, but the amount of stupid so outweighed the good to me that I’m mad it wasn’t better. This could’ve been SO GOOD! AND IT WASN’T.
Honestly… where to begin. The concept is cool, and I do think the way the story is told is fairly unique. I haven’t seen this exact style before, and I do think it would work for this… if other things were better. I do have the issue of this being VERY choppy- I understand the premise is a series of interviews, and you have to put the pieces together yourself. However, at times this… didn’t work as well as I would’ve liked. It really needed a bit more to tie interviews together, or at least introduce people and their role in everything better. Sometimes that was fine, sometimes I barely understood who was talking. This especially comes to fruition at the end of the book, where it’s wrapping up a lot of these “interviews”- I didn’t remember who half of them were and kept having to search for their name. It’s at least competently written- the prose isn’t bad, and each perspective does seem fairly unique even if I don’t understand what someone’s role was and why they’re being interviewed at times.
Now, I realize this was published in 2006, which was a very different time. Some of the political takes (I’m not going to go into detail) are incredibly naive, stereotyped, or unrealistic. Or all of the above. It’s a zombie apocalypse book, I can have suspension of disbelief, but only to a point. You mean to tell me the US military would be THAT stupid? That modern war weapons wouldn’t work because you had to get a head shot? The logistics were set up SO badly that the tanks ran out of AMMO? And air support? What’s that?? That was truly the dumbest portrayal of a modern military I’ve ever read.
Some chapters were actually good and portrayed a fairly realistic idea of how humanity would react, but unfortunately that only happened in a handful of the US chapters and the international chapters were… sure something. The stereotyping was BAD. And while some takes on human psychology were good, some were SO INCREDIBLY BONKERS I have no idea why Brooks thought it was a good idea. Between the good chapters and the “what the fuck” chapters, it was mostly kinda boring. It goes into some aspects that you might not think of, but it doesn’t always do the best job explaining itself… either Brooks tried TOO hard and it comes across as technical jargon mumbo jumbo, or he didn’t try much at all so the reader is confused on why that chapter is there at all.
Honestly, for book quality I’d probably give it 2.5-3 stars, but the amount of stupid so outweighed the good to me that I’m mad it wasn’t better. This could’ve been SO GOOD! AND IT WASN’T.
Added to listMy Friends Cursed my TBR Againwith 20 books.
Short story (well, and in Brandon’s case, novella and “novellas” (Moment Zero is over 50k words BRANDON)) collections are always a little hit and miss, unfortunately. Here’s how I viewed each work: Snapshot: Very good. The idea is fascinating, and the story doesn’t quite go where you might expect.
Brain Dump: Intriguing idea! Loved the ending, personally.
I Hate Dragons: This one is so goofy and dumb, I wouldn’t say it’s good or bad but you can tell it was a writing exercise.
Dreamer: I liked what Brandon was going for in his explanation in the Postscript, but unfortunately I didn’t love how it was executed. It fell very flat.
Perfect State: Interesting concept yet again- Brandon is good at coming up with interesting ideas. The story itself was neat, but didn’t land for me.
Probability Approaching Zero: Honestly I’m just confused.
Defending Elysium: Not my favorite story, but it works well. It has cool ideas that eventually became the Skyward series, but similar to that series it doesn’t quite work for me for some reason.
Firstborn: Liked this one quite a bit! Nature versus nurture is always intriguing to me, and I thought the story was really well done.
Mitosis: Like the rest of the Reckoners series, it’s fine? The main character is still very cringy. Definitely jarring to read with no context from Steelheart. I’ve read Steelheart before, but it was so long ago I don’t remember it well.
Moment Zero: The BIG release in this collection, and it is well deserved to be the main title. The story is fantastic, the pacing is great, and there’s quite a bit of characterization stuffed into this small novel.
Short story (well, and in Brandon’s case, novella and “novellas” (Moment Zero is over 50k words BRANDON)) collections are always a little hit and miss, unfortunately. Here’s how I viewed each work: Snapshot: Very good. The idea is fascinating, and the story doesn’t quite go where you might expect.
Brain Dump: Intriguing idea! Loved the ending, personally.
I Hate Dragons: This one is so goofy and dumb, I wouldn’t say it’s good or bad but you can tell it was a writing exercise.
Dreamer: I liked what Brandon was going for in his explanation in the Postscript, but unfortunately I didn’t love how it was executed. It fell very flat.
Perfect State: Interesting concept yet again- Brandon is good at coming up with interesting ideas. The story itself was neat, but didn’t land for me.
Probability Approaching Zero: Honestly I’m just confused.
Defending Elysium: Not my favorite story, but it works well. It has cool ideas that eventually became the Skyward series, but similar to that series it doesn’t quite work for me for some reason.
Firstborn: Liked this one quite a bit! Nature versus nurture is always intriguing to me, and I thought the story was really well done.
Mitosis: Like the rest of the Reckoners series, it’s fine? The main character is still very cringy. Definitely jarring to read with no context from Steelheart. I’ve read Steelheart before, but it was so long ago I don’t remember it well.
Moment Zero: The BIG release in this collection, and it is well deserved to be the main title. The story is fantastic, the pacing is great, and there’s quite a bit of characterization stuffed into this small novel.
