It pains me a little to write this but I mostly just did not enjoy this book. This is a huge shocker for me since I ranked its predecessor Hunger of the Gods as one of my top 5 books of last year. 

Now it’s been almost two years since I read that book and I realize that taste can change but it was still baffling to me how hard of a time I had getting into this book.

It totally started out on the wrong foot right from the beginning. I remembered the predecessor ended on this big gut punch and thought that this a crazy move but then it became very apparent early that what I thought occurred in the climax actually wasn’t the case.

So with that already constantly nagging in my mind it made it even harder to get into the rhythm of the book. This book is very action heavy and I certainly have discovered that I am just not the biggest fan of action in my books. Saying that sounds kind of wrong because great action sequences usually are highlights in books in general but there needs to be a balance. You also need quieter character moments or humor or basically anything else that isn’t action to keep you grounded. And this book kind of felt like a giant mess that just stumbled from action sequence to sequence. 

Yes, John Gwynne is a great action writer and his battle descriptions are just very vivid and get you “in the zone” but maybe slowing down a little bit making the book longer or as a result maybe even not ending the series in a trilogy would have been a better move.

It could also be a mood thing because I am enjoying my other current read (Dust of Dreams) so much more and at least so far this book has been much much more quiet and reflective (except for the Horror and disturbing shit that’s going on there). Treating Fury of the Gods as a side read might have been a mistake but well what’s done is done.

Another thing that was a huge disappointment was the appearance of the titular character on the book cover. I remember being hype seeing that cover for the first and man how much of a total letdown this has been.

The book definitely had its moments there were some very cool battles and I thought the main character arcs concluded in a satisfying way that got the emotions rolling (although way too many revenge arcs that kind of jumbled all together - at least it felt like that). 

So yeah it all could very well be a me problem and I don’t want to fault the author for anything here, especially since he mentioned having a hard time writing this after the tragic death of his daughter. You have to respect and commend him for bouncing back after that and I still wanna shout out much for love for all his work!