The battle of the resurrected gods – Ulfrir (wolf), Lik-Rifa (dragon), and Rotta (rat) – is a conflict that escalates to a breaking point, in The Fury of the Gods, the last book of ‘Bloodsworn’, and Vigrið might be totally ripped asunder in the process.
The members of Battle-Grim, the Bloodsworn, and their allies and enemies meet their fates, and John Gwynne’s beloved and bestselling trilogy concludes as jubilantly as a warrior standing victorious over the body of their vanquished foe, with ‘The Fury of the Gods’.
Picking up right after the mesmerizing but perturbing cliffhanger in the ending of ‘The Hunger of the Gods’, Gwynne continues to take the reader through point-of-view chapters of five very different characters, some of them on completely opposite sides of the war for the world of Vigrið, who while they fight each other, are ultimately, in many ways, just fodder for the predation of vicious, powerful, and often completely callous gods.
Yet despite the odds, the fierce courage and indomitable spirits of these humans will shape the land, as much as the gods will.
Characterization is the first thing we always need to discuss with Gwynne, because he always brings the beautiful pain, using his character’s deepest personal motivations, quirks, dreams, bravery, sacrifice, and tragedy – even with characters that are highly flawed or seemingly beyond redemption – as the vehicle to make readers fall in love, then have their hearts broken.
Those profound dialogues, those tender moments between characters, make one ache with the hope that your personal attachment to them as a reader might spare them.
Alas, oftimes that is not to be.
What can one say about the stupendously epic worldbuilding in this novel, and this series? Syphoned from mythology such as the legends surrounding Ragnarök and Beowulf, this Norse-inspired series is a true saga, and the wordbuilding lives up to the epic scope.
Vigrið is a dark, inhospitable, and foreboding place, yet filled with beauty, magic and wonder, including fantastical and often frightening creatures like vasen and frost-spiders, dueling immortals who can take human or mammal form, Tainted mortals infused with the powerful blood and traits of deities, and cities and mountains built from the bones of slain gods.
Gwynne’s penchant for very accessible yet evocative writing, was validated in this last book of the series, where there were times that the effectiveness of how Gwynne expressed heroic aspirations, camaraderie and also grief, caused watery eyes, well before some of the main characters began to fall in battle.
The absolute bedlam, tumult, and horror of the shield-wall is brought to bloody life in a way that only authors at the high level of skill with ancient combat-writing (and combat re-enacting) like John Gwynne can.
For me, there is a top tier of authors I’ve read who possess this skill, and have proven it over multiple books. Along with those such as Cameron, Cornwell, etc. Gwynne can never be left off that tier, and there’s a strong argument for his position at the very top of it.
More than the preceding books in the trilogy, the pace for ‘The Fury of the Gods’ is completely frenetic. Gwynne’s books are generally very well-balanced in terms of pacing, with thrilling battle scenes and memorable acts of valour punctuated by compelling moments of character development and threaded with captivating, organic world-building.
While we still get all that in this final installment of Bloodsworn, periodically readers will scarcely have time to draw breath, as we fly from one sanguinary confrontation to the next.
Although normally, despite the amazing, pulse-pounding excitement and tension, the book would have been a bit too fast for my tastes, it truly worked for me in this case, despite feeling like I was constantly adrenaline dumping while reading this one.
That’s because Gwynne is such a phenomenal writer. Overall, this book was impossible to put down for any length of time. Only three days of every waking moment I could spare devoted to reading this one, was what it took to finish this whirlwind of a novel. Fans of the fast-paced will be completely enamoured here.
In terms of themes, the ones that stand out in this concluding novel of the series are found family, loyalty, betrayal, revenge, and honour. Most Gwynne books usually feature a heavy dose of these themes, but they are clearly the driving force behind this book.
The ending of ‘The Fury of the Gods’ is extremely satisfying, and showcases Gwynne’s adeptness at disentangling and reconciling specific plotlines, especially the numerous vengeful blood feuds that pervade the series, many of them originating from the first book.
If I say some of these resolutions were utterly shocking, heartbreaking and tear-inducing – they definitely are – should not be unexpected, because after all, this is a John Gwynne book. As I hinted earlier in this review, be prepared for a LOT of character deaths, both villains and heroes.
Some characters get the comeuppance they had coming, some miraculously escape retribution, some finally taste the sweet vengeance they’ve sought for years. And, of course, sometimes cruel twists of fate and swings of the axe or sword rob us of some of our most beloved players.
If I had to pick one thing about Gwynne’s craft that makes him standout among other writers in his genre, other than his combat sequences, it’s way he leaves you with that wanting, yet purgative feeling at the end of his series, when you know it’s the last time as the reader (save for re-reads) you’ll be with characters as worthy of veneration as Orka Skullsplitter.
Orka will no doubt go down in the annals of fantasy fiction lore as one of the most beloved characters EVER written.The Fury of the Gods is an incredible capstone to The ‘Bloodsworn’ Trilogy, which was an absolutely fabulous series that will no doubt go down as a seminal series in the fantasy milieu.
It’s a testament to how spectacular ‘Bloodsworn’ is overall, that it will officially be replacing ‘The Faithful and the Fallen’ as my favourite series by Gwynne.
To put that in context, ‘The Faithful and the Fallen’ currently ranks #5 on my list of favourite Science-Fiction/Fantasy series of all-time. You can see that list here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt8tW…
On a final note, most if not all of Gwynne’s fans, such as I, know that he and his family underwent terrible personal tragedy during the writing and publication of ‘Bloodsworn’.
Gwynne is to be commended and admired for how, despite such circumstances, he managed to still create such a stunning, masterclass trilogy, that only consolidates his place as one of today’s most popular and accomplished fantasy authors.
Read Our Other Reviews in The Series
Review – THE HUNGER OF THE GODS by John Gwynne
REVIEW – THE SHADOW OF THE GODS BY JOHN GWYNNE
Buy ‘Fury of the Gods’ here:
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