Question for you guys. Who came up with the name of the channel. My first guess was William did, second guess was Maria. My husband and I were talking about good and bad channel names and he said that the best channel name he had heard was the name of this channel!! He doesn’t even watch it and he thinks it's good. You guys deserve a raise
I enjoyed Shadows of the Gods and got through it quickly. It was Hunger of the Gods that tripped me up. I felt like we were just doing book one all over again.
I read this book and I think the comment near the end of the video nails it, so much of this book could have been cut and it would have improved the story so much.
Ah, yes, the "TRollS wiTh gIanT BaLLs" book... It's clear to me that the big boulder-size balls were an important plot point, otherwise, the author wouldn't have bothered to have a huge swinging ballsack scene TWICE in one book 😂
I haven't read this book, but as soon as Will brought up the woman potentially having a wolf girl sidekick I was like, "Gay. Hot." I appreciate Will thinking the same way and sticking to the bit for so long lol.
Soooo, today I saw the third book in the series and I pre ordered. Was it coincidence that you guys did this episode on the same day? lol 17 hours prologue is just such the right fit for this book. Congratulations, your channel is incredible!
I have the second book on my wishlist, but I'm in no hurry to seek it out, I'm afraid it'll be yet another book of just setup, and then just a cliffhanger that basically just says "read book 3 please". I'm willing to be patient if it's a novella, but a 500+ page epic shouldn't just feel like act 1, then you just need an editor.
@@jaspervanheycop9722 Yeah exactly! I felt the same thing. I’m not a hater of book series, but in series every book has to have their own stories. Why would I read just a opening for 500 pages? I think it’s a disrespect to readers. (my english is not perfect, sorry for that btw)
So excited to hear your thoughts! Haven't even started watching the video yet but hyped up already. I read this book in the summer and although I loved the premise, barely got through it. When I finished it I was like, well that was a waste of time but at least I have context for when UTT eventually reads this
I remember this one. Rough pacing, more focus on the nuances of weapons and worldbuilding minutia than on keeping the narrative internally consistent. The author writes himself out of a corner to enact the climax, which just killed the tension for me and ruined the big moment he was trying for. Just felt really cheap. After as much of a slog as this was, and the lack of respect for me as a reader at the end, I couldn't go through with continuing the series. I think this deserved another handful of heavy edits and rewrites, with which it could have been a fine opening book to a series, but it didn't need to be so long, and if he wanted it to be this long, it needs to be better paced and internally consistent. But I know there's a lot that love the book, and there are some good elements. Solid worldbuilding, even if it's inefficiently written (and by the end of the book, the world feels really small and flat), and the combat is refreshingly written the first few times before you start to see the pattern and lack of characterization found within. There's some promise to the characters even if they're pretty shallow at this point (even Orka, arguably the most developed). I'm happy for them that the third book's out and available to be read, but yeah, this one's not for me as someone that needs a decent (and consistent) narrative at minimum.
If you want to read good fantasy, try the First Law. Or of course the OG Tolkien. There's loads of good stuff in the fantasy space, but yeah the r/Fantasy bait like this book is just... very poor. Seems these days you can just get away with some good worldbuilding and nothing else going for your book. As a fantasy fan I feel like we should all start demanding better, it's really slipping back into the genre ghetto. And it can be better! Just look at all the awesome, thoughtful scifi that comes out seemingly every month or so now!
So for those who don't know, Varg is Swedish for Wolf. It kinda is in Old Norse too, but conjugated to fit in Old Norse and depending on the period it might not have replaced Ulfe yet.
I really feel that the characters are tools to explore this pretty cool world. Especially in book 1. It is very drawn out and I agree that Elvar is the weakest character out of the three. But I do have to say that last scene with orka and the mic drop of her title made me enthusiastic enough to excitedly wait for book 2. I like the writer's style of writing the most I think. The battle scenes were easy for me to follow (compared to a mistborn as an example). And the paces of sentences gets me to read further/faster. And where book 1 was set up for the world, in book 2 they all come together at points. Orka is the main drive though, and luckily the most interesting character to me. And it feels like the characters VS the world. Like the world is its own character with doom to give these characters. Perhaps, the world is the most main drive character of the book, haha. I do like the writers tools in book 2, where we get more POV's introduced. Where I again feel like the characters are used to show off interesting aspects of the world. Certain scenes are written from unexpected POVs and its unique enough to be interesting. But it suffers a bit from the same fate, the middle is frustratingly stale/setup.
Absolutely love this channel! For the sole reason that I disagree with like 97% of the takes in these videos😀 Shadow is very much a setup for Hunger, which is one of my favorites book of all time so would very much like to hear the thoughts on that one Shadow quite clearly has some pacing issues and on my first read was a bit of a slog, Hunger I devoured very fast. A lot of the criticism I hear about this one and the video on the Final Empire is things that get answered/explored in the sequels which I dont see as a bad thing. While I understand that you judge the book as a contained story within the single book. Something like a character arc can span multiple books, at least according to me
This ep. is just reinforcing for me that I desperately need either Will or the patreons to vote for Fonda Lee's The Green Bone saga please 😭 Even just the first book alone, Jade City, would make for such a fantastic discussion. 🙏🙏🙏
I read this about 2 years ago and judging by the FB review I left, felt it was ok, but wasn’t champing at the bit to read onwards. The worldbuilding being “just Norse” was annoying though, especially given this author’s previous work was similarly just basic-ass tropes slapped together. Also, thought-cage is annoying. Deep cunning is less bad, but saga-tale is then redundant. Also, thinking back, it really does feel like this could have been pared down a lot and reworked as the first half or third of a really good first entry to a series or trilogy. I get the point that long stories should be allowed to exist and have their breathing space, but at the same time I think that a discrete novel should have a full arc of its own to satisfy a read, even if the story does continue and many threads are left unresolved for future entires. This feels like half a book with a bunch of padding to extend the length.
When I read it, reading onwards wasn't an option as the second book wasn't even out yet. It felt like such a waste of my time. 2 weeks of reading and the end is just nothing.
I actually thought that the book was too fast passed. Action and betrayals would happen with characters I didn’t really know and I wished it worked in building the characters more
I agree completely. This book has so much cool atmospheric stuff and awesome subtle worldbuilding and then it just has a plot that doesn't resolve (this is a me thing but I just don't accept books that are just a "pilot", especially if they are this long), doesn't have an arc, no themes (beyond Grimderp) and flat characters. And considering this is actually Gwynne's second fantasy trilogy, it feels really underdeveloped, if this was a debut it would be great, but as a sophmoric effort it's kinda juvenile tbh. I found the Vikings kinda stock, and not really like actual Vikings, more Warhammer Norsca/Fantasy Norse than Early Medieval Scandinavians. Which is a real shame because the author is a re-enactor and yet he seems to have a very pop understanding of Vikings. Maybe that's just because I'm a historian, YMMV. If you want epic fantasy but with great characters and arcs, try the First Law by Joe Abercrombie. It also has better plots and action, and better Vikings too! ;P The cover is gorgeous, no notes. Just one of the best fantasy covers, even book covers period, I own. Whoever made that should be proud!
I had not expected you to so soon return to a book with the title of Shadow of the {figurehead that demands somekind of loyalty or following). Has your trauma gone away so soon?
31:45 what/who's video is Will talking about here? I'd be really interested in watching it, but when I try searching youtube just shows the history of the night's watch
The Shadow of the Gods for me was a 3/5 or 2.5/5 star read because while the world was interesting, I found that all of the characters were detracting from each other, the structure made the pacing hard to bear, and there was no reinforcement happening thematically. Orka is very archetypal and stereotypical in a sense, where she is pretty much the classic trope of Rugged Man With Daughter He'll Do Anything For, except gender flipped, and Gwynne's writing doesn't add much to that trope. I found Orka to be cold and distant from everyone, which was interesting, but this distance makes it strange that she'd inspire any sort of loyalty in the two vaesen she harbors; she is not charismatic, so the way the book treats her as though she is feels forced and outta left field. I especially found the pacing of her opening chapter to be weak and disorderly, with the exposition being very heavy-handed, and there were multiple moments which genuinely made me question if this novel was a debut bc of how strangely incompetent they seemed; I mean, Gwynne introduces a character, the dryad person, in the same chapter that Orka decides to leave to speak with her, and she's already dead when Orka gets there, and that's when Orka's home gets assaulted? I sat there thinking 'wow, could Gwynne really not come up with a more organic way to get Orka to leave?' The hand of the author was so clearly showing to me that it felt inept. Her story also was the most predictable to me, and thus the least engaging on all fronts--however, she was one of the most proactive characters, which therefore made her the most interesting. Varg had some immediate appeal for me because of his scrappy status, but his story isn't really one of revenge. Orka is Vengeance, but Varg's story focuses on Found Family and on becoming his own man after being a slave for pretty much his entire life. On one hand, his story ended up being the most emotionally engaging for me because his journey into becoming his own person was intriguing on some level, but his story has the lowest stakes and the slowest pace of them all, so it's not very exciting. But he and his crew were easily the most charismatic of the perspectives. Elvar.... I hate her guts so much. She's a slaver with seemingly no opinions on slavery (which becomes worse in the second book, I hate her there even more), she is presented as though she was skilled even though her guard does most of the job, and at the emotional climax of her story (which happens at the midpoint plot-wise), we meet her father, about whom she exposits at length and calls horrible, but she somehow still is stupid enough to nearly fall for his manipulations?? And she doesnt pull her own head out of her ass, she needs someone else to do it for her. The second book, yet again, makes this retroactively worse. Not to mention that she has such a late reaction to her father's audacious manipulations. She starts out shallow and boring, and Gwynne tries to flesh her out in the second book, but there is no foundation for him to build that house on, so she feels even flatter because her emotional journey simply did not exist. Honestly, this story would have been much better if it wasn't told in interwoven perspectives. It could have been split into Part 1; Orka, Part 2; Varg, and Part 3; Elvar, and it would work much better. Likewise, there was not enough poetic/lyrical elements from the Sagas employed, which made the few lyrical elements stand out badly. I really wish Gwynne had given the perspectives proper names like is done with the Eddic poems. He could've named Orka's story Orkasgráttr (The Lament of Orka) to focus on the tragic elements there, for example. he could've also been more creative with the norse words and names used, especially in relation to the gods! All of the gods are literally just the words for animals in Nordic and Anglo-Saxon I think?? (Ulfrir - Wolf-rir, Orna - She-eagle, Berser - Bear, etc.) with little imagination. Hell, even vaesen just means 'creatures'. This was annoying since I was getting very into the story and so I was working under the assumption that diegetically, in-universe, these characters were speaking in some Nordic tongue -- only for them to say shit like 'Gudfalla the Godsfall', which is like saying 'Godsfall the Godsfall'. Everything had this 'moon moon' or 'desert desert' naming system to it,t o a point where it felt like a Middle-Grade thing (or Lightlark). Honestly the more I think about this book the more my feelings for it sour.
Is that what it is? Prologue? I've been so confused so far, because it's . . . it's really good on some counts, but I'm struggling with characters and storylines that feel very similar and aren't moving very fast. The worldbuilding is excellent, but imo bogged down by this necessity to depict every role in society (warriors, guards, assassins, mercenaries, raiders, traffickers, you know-folks) as men and women equally. It feels forced. Varg is cool, though.
Varg haf so much potential. For some reason I got so hyped for his character at the very start, thinking he was going tobe this murder hobo who kills to get food and towards his goal. But he turned out to be as boring as the other two.
Question for you guys. Who came up with the name of the channel. My first guess was William did, second guess was Maria. My husband and I were talking about good and bad channel names and he said that the best channel name he had heard was the name of this channel!! He doesn’t even watch it and he thinks it's good. You guys deserve a raise
William did! -Kt
@@unresolvedtextualtension It’s really a very creative channel name haha
The cover is promising classic god of war action with giant mountain side dragons.....the story is giving .... prologue
Agree. The cover is so cool, and the world is actually pretty interesting. But the pacing was so slow, it was too boring for too long.
I enjoyed Shadows of the Gods and got through it quickly. It was Hunger of the Gods that tripped me up. I felt like we were just doing book one all over again.
William your beard is looking absolutely fabulous this time
It is indeed rugged and handsome.
Also, obligatory “Hot Fuzz” quote: “A BIG, BUSHY BEEEAAARD!”
I read this book and I think the comment near the end of the video nails it, so much of this book could have been cut and it would have improved the story so much.
Welp I'm just liking, subscribing, and now commenting....you heard Will's mom, do it too🤣🤣🤣
Ah, yes, the "TRollS wiTh gIanT BaLLs" book... It's clear to me that the big boulder-size balls were an important plot point, otherwise, the author wouldn't have bothered to have a huge swinging ballsack scene TWICE in one book 😂
“I am DIRECTLY below…the enemy scrotum!”
Did the author think Transformers 2 was peak cinema?
@@Ganondorfdude11 as much as I love that film, I hope not
commenting for williams mom 🫶🏻🫶🏻
Never been this early and im pumped
My favorite book review channel
FINALLLYYYYYYYY im excited for this one
"loom" "loomer" Katie, did you mean "weave?"
I just finished reading this book not to long ago so this is perfect timing! I look forward to hearing your guys' thoughts on it!
Thought cage. Thought cage. Thought cage. Thought cage.
Oh a book I've actually read and hated. My thought cage hurts just thinking about it :(
well well well, unresolved textual tension has uploaded, now I know what I'm doing for the next two hours
I haven't read this book, but as soon as Will brought up the woman potentially having a wolf girl sidekick I was like, "Gay. Hot." I appreciate Will thinking the same way and sticking to the bit for so long lol.
doing this for will's mom, what a legend
Soooo, today I saw the third book in the series and I pre ordered. Was it coincidence that you guys did this episode on the same day? lol 17 hours prologue is just such the right fit for this book. Congratulations, your channel is incredible!
I dnf’ed this book. It’s very obvious that it will be a series and nothing happens. Also I miss Maria!!
I have the second book on my wishlist, but I'm in no hurry to seek it out, I'm afraid it'll be yet another book of just setup, and then just a cliffhanger that basically just says "read book 3 please". I'm willing to be patient if it's a novella, but a 500+ page epic shouldn't just feel like act 1, then you just need an editor.
@@jaspervanheycop9722 Yeah exactly! I felt the same thing. I’m not a hater of book series, but in series every book has to have their own stories. Why would I read just a opening for 500 pages? I think it’s a disrespect to readers. (my english is not perfect, sorry for that btw)
Have I watched the episode yet? No. Have I started jumping as soon as I was made aware of its existence? Yes.
I DNFed this book like three times trying to get into it.
Same but I didn’t try for the second time. It was very slow and boring
@@serceskywalker I wanted to give it a second chance. Like I might have missed something. Big gnarly dragon on the front cover and I love dragons.
@@KewlImpyeah the cover! this was why we all fell for this book 😅
I really need you guys to do Red Rising and Empire of Silence.
Guys, I implore you to read "The Lions of Al-Rassan"!
The Patreon needs a tier just to get one of those ginormous water bottles (the Stanleys on steroids) for Katie.
So excited to hear your thoughts! Haven't even started watching the video yet but hyped up already. I read this book in the summer and although I loved the premise, barely got through it. When I finished it I was like, well that was a waste of time but at least I have context for when UTT eventually reads this
I like how some of your ideas to make this book better happens in book 2 😂
Has William's beard grown a few inches since the last video? 🧔
I’m a fan of the Bloodsworn saga. The third and final book Fury of the gods is out. I can’t wait to read it.
I remember this one. Rough pacing, more focus on the nuances of weapons and worldbuilding minutia than on keeping the narrative internally consistent. The author writes himself out of a corner to enact the climax, which just killed the tension for me and ruined the big moment he was trying for. Just felt really cheap. After as much of a slog as this was, and the lack of respect for me as a reader at the end, I couldn't go through with continuing the series. I think this deserved another handful of heavy edits and rewrites, with which it could have been a fine opening book to a series, but it didn't need to be so long, and if he wanted it to be this long, it needs to be better paced and internally consistent.
But I know there's a lot that love the book, and there are some good elements. Solid worldbuilding, even if it's inefficiently written (and by the end of the book, the world feels really small and flat), and the combat is refreshingly written the first few times before you start to see the pattern and lack of characterization found within. There's some promise to the characters even if they're pretty shallow at this point (even Orka, arguably the most developed). I'm happy for them that the third book's out and available to be read, but yeah, this one's not for me as someone that needs a decent (and consistent) narrative at minimum.
Will’s out here reusing thumbnail photos again
Absolute slog. This and Mistborn made me realize the bar for fantasy novels is very low.
Seriously. Couldn't get through it
If you want to read good fantasy, try the First Law. Or of course the OG Tolkien. There's loads of good stuff in the fantasy space, but yeah the r/Fantasy bait like this book is just... very poor. Seems these days you can just get away with some good worldbuilding and nothing else going for your book. As a fantasy fan I feel like we should all start demanding better, it's really slipping back into the genre ghetto. And it can be better! Just look at all the awesome, thoughtful scifi that comes out seemingly every month or so now!
I found this book to be...I think of it as a line of passably engaging line of colour across a very white, very blank page.
So for those who don't know, Varg is Swedish for Wolf. It kinda is in Old Norse too, but conjugated to fit in Old Norse and depending on the period it might not have replaced Ulfe yet.
I really feel that the characters are tools to explore this pretty cool world. Especially in book 1.
It is very drawn out and I agree that Elvar is the weakest character out of the three. But I do have to say that last scene with orka and the mic drop of her title made me enthusiastic enough to excitedly wait for book 2.
I like the writer's style of writing the most I think. The battle scenes were easy for me to follow (compared to a mistborn as an example). And the paces of sentences gets me to read further/faster.
And where book 1 was set up for the world, in book 2 they all come together at points. Orka is the main drive though, and luckily the most interesting character to me. And it feels like the characters VS the world. Like the world is its own character with doom to give these characters. Perhaps, the world is the most main drive character of the book, haha.
I do like the writers tools in book 2, where we get more POV's introduced. Where I again feel like the characters are used to show off interesting aspects of the world. Certain scenes are written from unexpected POVs and its unique enough to be interesting.
But it suffers a bit from the same fate, the middle is frustratingly stale/setup.
Shad broke maria.
~simply adds it to his list of crimes~
Absolutely love this channel! For the sole reason that I disagree with like 97% of the takes in these videos😀
Shadow is very much a setup for Hunger, which is one of my favorites book of all time so would very much like to hear the thoughts on that one
Shadow quite clearly has some pacing issues and on my first read was a bit of a slog, Hunger I devoured very fast.
A lot of the criticism I hear about this one and the video on the Final Empire is things that get answered/explored in the sequels which I dont see as a bad thing. While I understand that you judge the book as a contained story within the single book.
Something like a character arc can span multiple books, at least according to me
This ep. is just reinforcing for me that I desperately need either Will or the patreons to vote for Fonda Lee's The Green Bone saga please 😭 Even just the first book alone, Jade City, would make for such a fantastic discussion. 🙏🙏🙏
I’ve recently finished the first book and was thinking about it throughout this entire review
@@eugenebezpalko1631 Right? I really hope they eventually read it ^_^
I think you guys will really like the sequel
Especially if you like orka
Yeah I enjoyed the first one but the second one is really incredible.
I have to agree with Will - you don’t need to be a furry to advocate for gay rights
Oh, you post on Saturdays now? I was disappointed thinking you will skip this week
I read this about 2 years ago and judging by the FB review I left, felt it was ok, but wasn’t champing at the bit to read onwards. The worldbuilding being “just Norse” was annoying though, especially given this author’s previous work was similarly just basic-ass tropes slapped together.
Also, thought-cage is annoying. Deep cunning is less bad, but saga-tale is then redundant.
Also, thinking back, it really does feel like this could have been pared down a lot and reworked as the first half or third of a really good first entry to a series or trilogy. I get the point that long stories should be allowed to exist and have their breathing space, but at the same time I think that a discrete novel should have a full arc of its own to satisfy a read, even if the story does continue and many threads are left unresolved for future entires. This feels like half a book with a bunch of padding to extend the length.
When I read it, reading onwards wasn't an option as the second book wasn't even out yet. It felt like such a waste of my time. 2 weeks of reading and the end is just nothing.
This was a slog fest. I couldn’t get into it so I dnf’d. It was very paint by numbers but nothing happened.
I actually thought that the book was too fast passed. Action and betrayals would happen with characters I didn’t really know and I wished it worked in building the characters more
these books disappointed me. wanted to like them for the sick covers
Will, you are a furry, embrace it., and yes wolfgrl should have been in the party. Everything is better with a wolfgirl
I agree completely. This book has so much cool atmospheric stuff and awesome subtle worldbuilding and then it just has a plot that doesn't resolve (this is a me thing but I just don't accept books that are just a "pilot", especially if they are this long), doesn't have an arc, no themes (beyond Grimderp) and flat characters. And considering this is actually Gwynne's second fantasy trilogy, it feels really underdeveloped, if this was a debut it would be great, but as a sophmoric effort it's kinda juvenile tbh.
I found the Vikings kinda stock, and not really like actual Vikings, more Warhammer Norsca/Fantasy Norse than Early Medieval Scandinavians. Which is a real shame because the author is a re-enactor and yet he seems to have a very pop understanding of Vikings. Maybe that's just because I'm a historian, YMMV.
If you want epic fantasy but with great characters and arcs, try the First Law by Joe Abercrombie. It also has better plots and action, and better Vikings too! ;P
The cover is gorgeous, no notes. Just one of the best fantasy covers, even book covers period, I own. Whoever made that should be proud!
I had not expected you to so soon return to a book with the title of Shadow of the {figurehead that demands somekind of loyalty or following). Has your trauma gone away so soon?
Somebody send Will fanfic for this book.
31:45 what/who's video is Will talking about here? I'd be really interested in watching it, but when I try searching youtube just shows the history of the night's watch
So it's actually a blog post that I read that you can find here: acoup.blog/2024/08/16/fireside-friday-august-16-2024/
--Will
The Shadow of the Gods for me was a 3/5 or 2.5/5 star read because while the world was interesting, I found that all of the characters were detracting from each other, the structure made the pacing hard to bear, and there was no reinforcement happening thematically.
Orka is very archetypal and stereotypical in a sense, where she is pretty much the classic trope of Rugged Man With Daughter He'll Do Anything For, except gender flipped, and Gwynne's writing doesn't add much to that trope. I found Orka to be cold and distant from everyone, which was interesting, but this distance makes it strange that she'd inspire any sort of loyalty in the two vaesen she harbors; she is not charismatic, so the way the book treats her as though she is feels forced and outta left field. I especially found the pacing of her opening chapter to be weak and disorderly, with the exposition being very heavy-handed, and there were multiple moments which genuinely made me question if this novel was a debut bc of how strangely incompetent they seemed; I mean, Gwynne introduces a character, the dryad person, in the same chapter that Orka decides to leave to speak with her, and she's already dead when Orka gets there, and that's when Orka's home gets assaulted? I sat there thinking 'wow, could Gwynne really not come up with a more organic way to get Orka to leave?' The hand of the author was so clearly showing to me that it felt inept. Her story also was the most predictable to me, and thus the least engaging on all fronts--however, she was one of the most proactive characters, which therefore made her the most interesting.
Varg had some immediate appeal for me because of his scrappy status, but his story isn't really one of revenge. Orka is Vengeance, but Varg's story focuses on Found Family and on becoming his own man after being a slave for pretty much his entire life. On one hand, his story ended up being the most emotionally engaging for me because his journey into becoming his own person was intriguing on some level, but his story has the lowest stakes and the slowest pace of them all, so it's not very exciting. But he and his crew were easily the most charismatic of the perspectives.
Elvar.... I hate her guts so much. She's a slaver with seemingly no opinions on slavery (which becomes worse in the second book, I hate her there even more), she is presented as though she was skilled even though her guard does most of the job, and at the emotional climax of her story (which happens at the midpoint plot-wise), we meet her father, about whom she exposits at length and calls horrible, but she somehow still is stupid enough to nearly fall for his manipulations?? And she doesnt pull her own head out of her ass, she needs someone else to do it for her. The second book, yet again, makes this retroactively worse. Not to mention that she has such a late reaction to her father's audacious manipulations. She starts out shallow and boring, and Gwynne tries to flesh her out in the second book, but there is no foundation for him to build that house on, so she feels even flatter because her emotional journey simply did not exist.
Honestly, this story would have been much better if it wasn't told in interwoven perspectives. It could have been split into Part 1; Orka, Part 2; Varg, and Part 3; Elvar, and it would work much better. Likewise, there was not enough poetic/lyrical elements from the Sagas employed, which made the few lyrical elements stand out badly. I really wish Gwynne had given the perspectives proper names like is done with the Eddic poems. He could've named Orka's story Orkasgráttr (The Lament of Orka) to focus on the tragic elements there, for example. he could've also been more creative with the norse words and names used, especially in relation to the gods! All of the gods are literally just the words for animals in Nordic and Anglo-Saxon I think?? (Ulfrir - Wolf-rir, Orna - She-eagle, Berser - Bear, etc.) with little imagination. Hell, even vaesen just means 'creatures'. This was annoying since I was getting very into the story and so I was working under the assumption that diegetically, in-universe, these characters were speaking in some Nordic tongue -- only for them to say shit like 'Gudfalla the Godsfall', which is like saying 'Godsfall the Godsfall'. Everything had this 'moon moon' or 'desert desert' naming system to it,t o a point where it felt like a Middle-Grade thing (or Lightlark).
Honestly the more I think about this book the more my feelings for it sour.
I'll say, when my mom passed I was 20 and I had vivid dreams of her faking her death and running away from the family. 18:32
Is that what it is? Prologue? I've been so confused so far, because it's . . . it's really good on some counts, but I'm struggling with characters and storylines that feel very similar and aren't moving very fast. The worldbuilding is excellent, but imo bogged down by this necessity to depict every role in society (warriors, guards, assassins, mercenaries, raiders, traffickers, you know-folks) as men and women equally. It feels forced. Varg is cool, though.
More like Shadow of the Plots 😏
Did the screen go black while Katie was talking? Or do I need a new device? 😂🤣
Shh, don't tell the girls I messed up editing.
--Will
It'll be our secret. 😂🤣
Too late, you can hide nothing from my adhd eyes -kt
It always feels wierd when they use the nordic word väsen to describe Fey
Orka varg och alvar. Why do they use male names on female??
i could not get into this book at all
Man is when epic fantasy 🙄
Varg haf so much potential. For some reason I got so hyped for his character at the very start, thinking he was going tobe this murder hobo who kills to get food and towards his goal. But he turned out to be as boring as the other two.