I actually got sent a copy of this book for review by Netgalley years ago. To cut a long story short, I went through a phase when I completely lost track of Netgalley approvals, so I’m really working through the backlog. So even though I was sent an ARC, the book has since been published, and I actually chose to listen to the audiobook via Everand.

Godblind focuses on the Mireces, a group of people who worship the exiled Red Gods. They want to invade Rilpor, where the King and the people worship the Dancer goddess. This is a big simplification of the conflict, but know that there are many characters from both sides and more! I think the religious aspect of the book was really well done considering how important it was. Saying that, I would have liked a bit more backstory on the past of the gods, and not just focus on the present moment.

Godblind is a dark fantasy with a lot of violence, so be aware before you read. Definitely look up trigger warnings because it can be quiet graphic in terms of violence and sexual assault. However, it didn’t feel senseless to me as it can do in fantasy books, and the atmosphere did really help to establish the world building.

I must admit that my time reading this book was all over the place. I started it in January, but I didn’t read much before I got distracted by new releases. I returned to the book in February, but I had already forgotten a lot of what had happened and who the characters were. So I did find the book a bit hard to follow at times, but take that with a pinch of salt, because I wasn’t reading consistently.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was very enjoyable. However, the short chapters felt very jumpy in this format. There are also SO many characters and I definitely kept forgetting who some people were and confusing others. This got better as the book went on, and by the end I was really enjoying it.

I really appreciated how the characters were so complex and morally grey. They all had different motivations and this led to a lot of twists and turns, as well as exciting conflicts. There were a lot of plot points that developed in a very interesting way! At first, I was unsure as to whether I would continue this series because of the struggles I was having, but by the end I was much more invested.

I was naive. I thought that this was to do with genuine mythology. I had never actually heard of the term 'grimdark'. And then when I learned what it was I thought oh dear well maybe this will be an interesting new read for me. But alas. It's just violence, violence and violence. No plot. Just the Dark Gods love torture and want to take over from the Light Gods. Clunky character development, no narrative progression, all just gore. I never engaged with it. Clearly I was not the correct demographic for this book and I will be more careful about genre terminology in the future. Rated two stars as it may suit people who like mega-violence.

I gave this one a shot and opted to DNF it - it's not quite my cup of tea. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy for review!

Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. Many thanks, Dave

After picking this book up a second time, I was sucked straight back into a world of Gods and war. Filled with blood, gore and magic, this book reminded me so much of Game of Thrones. Possibly give this a miss if you're not keen on graphic scenes of torture and battle.

Godblind is the hard-hitting debut by Anna Stephens and the first volume in the Godblind Trilogy. The novel is a medieval epic fantasy set in the small land-locked kingdom of Rilpor and its antagonistic western neighbours, the Mireces. The geography is small, but the cast is large, with ten point-of-view characters. All are variously traumatized, and none escape with clean hands. The rigorous pace and savage fight scenes make it compelling reading.

The bloodthirsty Red Gods used to hold sway over the region, but almost a thousand years ago some kinder, gentler gods exiled the Red Gods and their followers, the Mireces, from Rilpor. The cruel Mireces are holed-up in the Gilgoras Mountains from which they make occasional raids into pastoral Rilpor and hold the mother of all grudges. The story begins with the Mireces making a gruesome sacrifice and planning a major invasion into Rilpor. But when one of their slaves takes exception to her treatment, she escapes the Mireces taking her knowledge of the invasion with her. The desire of the Mireces and their Red Gods to conquer Rilpor and their Gods of Light forms the major conflict of the novel.

The kingdom of Rilpor is effectively a city-state with Rilporin as its capital. Rilporin is the city you’ve read about in countless fantasy novels. Situated at the confluence of two rivers, Rilporin is surrounded by impressive walls and has neighbourhoods that get progressively more upscale the closer you get to the palace. The palace is a large administrative complex where the affairs of the kingdom are managed. Of course, this being a fantasy novel the first we see of the city is the inside of a low tavern, so we can check that off the list, too.

Ever since the Gods of Light kicked the Red Gods out of the area, Rilpor seems to have thrived. It’s not exactly the Shire, but outside of the city it’s bucolic. The king is called “Rastoth the Kind,” though whether that is acclamation or propaganda is uncertain. However, there are hints at troubles. There are regular raids from the Mireces in the west and the Dead Legion (an ominous name) in the north. Though the level of technology is medieval; the military structure is more modern, with a standing army, centralized command structure, and garrisons at each border. Also, at that tavern in our first encounter with Rilporin, a group of angry patrons are close to violence over the inequities of rich nobles taking advantage of working people. So Rilpor isn’t a utopia, but it isn’t a hopelessly grim setting, either.

Although there are ten POV characters, we can narrow down the list of main protagonists to three. Rillirin is the escaped slave who is being pursued by the Mireces. She was originally a free Rilporian who had been captured by the Mireces years before in a raid. Her time in captivity has left her physically and mentally traumatized. When she encounters the rugged people of the Rilporian frontier, she struggles to trust them and they her. Rillirin’s story explores themes of trauma, recovery, and trust.

Dom is one of those Rilporian frontier people. They call themselves “Watchers” with their warriors called “Wolves.” Dom is the “calestar,” a Watcher who gets visions from the gods. Although some consider these visions a gift, the painful seizures that accompany them make it as much a curse as a gift. One of these visions leads Dom to find Rillirin, and he rescues her from a pursuing band of Mireces. Dom is outwardly altruistic, but he has darkness in his past. This darkness, along with his seizures, makes him vulnerable to the attention of the Red Gods. In Dom’s story we see the theme of the double-edged sword. His greatest gift is also his greatest curse.

The third main character is Crys. Crys is a captain in the Rilporian army and a bit of a scoundrel. He has been promoted several times, yet he always finds himself demoted again. Still, he is a decent, if not a model officer. Crys is a charismatic leader, but his off-duty carousing and gambling have sabotaged his career. Lately, his carousing has led to a friendship with Prince Rivil, the king’s younger son, and an opportunity to prove himself as commander of the honour guard for the two princes’ tour of the West Rank.

Stephens’ narration uses third-person limited point-of-view, with each chapter following one character. The ten POV characters are spread throughout 105 chapters plus an epilogue. Each chapter is very brief, consisting mostly of one or two scenes. Stephens’ language is impressively economical, focusing on the major action while still conveying the nuances of each character. The entire setup and inciting incident are conveyed in the eight-page first chapter. By employing short, focused chapters Stephens maintains a relentlessly fast pace and non-stop action throughout several months of narrative.

I have a little confession to make. I often glaze over during fight scenes in books. I don’t skip them, I just don’t retain all of the details. I’ll get to the end of a scene and realize that one character is injured and maybe killed another character, but even though I just read it, I don’t remember exactly how it went down. The fight scenes in Godblind, however, are highly visual and memorable.

We should note here that Anna Stephens is a second Dan black belt in Shotokan Karate. Why should we note it? Well, for one, it means that she has a whole lot of discipline and can kick a whole lot of ass. But also, it influences her writing. Tom Smith interviewed Stephens in Grimdark Magazine Issue #13, and asked how her martial arts impacts her fight scenes:

“I try my best to write very visual fight scenes, describing each duck and pivot and strike, to draw in my audience. In order to best effect that, I have a tendency to walk through the fights from both points of view and write exactly how my body moves… it enables me to envision exactly how a fight will pan out for both antagonists.”

Stephens impressively uses her martial arts knowledge and experience to diffuse narrative tension with an abundance of savage fight scenes. I tend to like my gritty fantasy with a heavy dose of snarky humour employed as bathos. That is, the humour relieves the tension that has been building up in the narrative, keeping it from becoming overly melodramatic. Stephens doesn’t use much humour, instead her fight scenes serve as mini-climaxes throughout the story. Rather than ratcheting up the tension until the climactic battle, Stephens’ fights allow the reader to step away from the larger conflicts and focus narrowly on the immediate combat and the relief of survival. They are not filled with overwrought emotions about the epicness of their struggle. There is no grand orchestral score by James Horner playing in the background. The fights are ferocious, immersive, and cathartic, relieving enough narrative tension to allow it to build back up for the next fight.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that there is a particularly brutal scene of human sacrifice in the book. I was in a coffee shop while reading that scene, and I winced and curled my face up like I had bitten into a sour lemon. I must have made some low mewling sounds, too, because folks nearby started shooting concerned looks my way. The straightforward clinical description of what’s happening in that scene creates an enormous impact. Other books include torture and brutality that could rival or exceed this, but the way those books describe it doesn’t quite pack the same punch. My point? Be careful when reading Godblind in public.

One last point. This novel sets clear sides of “Good Guys” and “Bad Guys.” Yes, all of the characters are morally complicated, but only one side has gods that require torturous human sacrifices. However, there are two more books in this series, and it feels like there is another shoe left to drop. I have a feeling that good and evil aren’t quite as cut-and-dried as the first book would have us believe, and more fronts may open on this conflict in the second and third books.

Godblind is a fast-paced and merciless tale. If you like multiple POV characters and good fight scenes, and you have a solid constitution, you’ll enjoy this book.

This is one of the best, most brutal fantasies I have read in a long time. Lots of places and characters to keep track of and took a while to get into the flow of things. It was really bloody and violent but I wound up absolutely loving it. Fresh, dark and original this book was awesome! Really look8 g forward to the sequel.

I was so excited to get this ARC but unfortunately, it took me a while to get into this book. For me the beginning of any book could make it or break it; and Godblind could have done so much better during the first chapters.
Overall once you get into it, you are able to appreciate the elements of epic + dark fantasy. It's certainly not for everyone - not for the faint-hearted for sure, but despite all the brutality, there are interesting elements in the world-building and its concepts.
I wanted to love this book more, but I didn't feel attached to the characters or committed enough to the story.
Overall, something still worth reading, especially for dark fantasy lovers.

Godblind is my new favourite grimdark. I can't believe I waited so long to read it but at least it meant I had Darksoul ready to devour. When recommending these books I would compare them to Game of Thrones for the unforgettable cast of characters and complex world-building (they also have a similar level of violence and profanity) but they stand on their own as a fantastic series.

The grimdark setting allows the author to explore the extremes of human emotion and it’s because of this heightened emotional element that the characters really stand out. The complexity of the characters in this series is phenomenal and they are also wonderfully diverse in age, race, sexual orientation, and gender. I found myself interested in the motivations and feelings of every character, even the despicable ones.

As you can tell, I adored this book and would whole-heartedly recommend it!

There was a spell last year where there were a lot of good fantasy books released. I’m sad that it took me so long to get to Godblind. I’m not sure I’ve ever consciously made the choice to not read another review book afterwards because I knew it wouldn’t compare. This played with my emotions on so many levels.

It was dark, gritty, gory, suspenseful and gripping as heck!

Ultimately, it is a story of good versus evil. There are the good guys, whose Gods are about flowers and dancing and light. Then there are the bad guys, whose Gods thrive off pain, blood and terror. Cliché, in a way, but the narration unfolds in such a way you never think that.

This is not a book for the faint-hearted. The entire plot is one consistent battle pretty much, and there are a few moments where I winced. The descriptions of the violence in a couple of places – mainly when a sacrifice was taking place – were so powerful it was hard not to visibly react. This doesn’t happen enough to put you off, but if you really can’t deal with that sort of thing, be warned!

From the beginning, the reader is aware that the “bad” Gods appear to be real. What I loved, however, is that this is not one-sided. These aren’t people clinging to old beliefs – their Gods do communicate with them.

It’s not only the Gods who are real: the world is a complicated, intricate one. I thoroughly enjoyed the world-building and it worked effectively to draw you in.

The book is fast-paced and while that is partly because of the effective tension building, it’s also because of the constant switching narrators. There are several characters we get to follow. It meant I didn’t always feel I got to know the characters as well as I would have liked, but it worked. It also meant that it took a while before I had a grip on who was who; who was a hero, who was a traitor and who just wanted to survive. All of the characters were engaging and either likeable or were so easy to hate it was just as enjoyable.

Crys and Rillirin were my favourites in terms of development. Rillirin was an escaped slave finally learning to live and love again. Crys was a bored soldier who ended up in the thick of things and learnt quite a bit about himself along the way. They were hardly recognisable from the characters we are first introduced to at the start of the book.

There are too many characters to go into them all in depth. Some surprised me – and not always in a good way. I was so engaged with the characters and their welfare, however, that I couldn’t put the book down. I was actually yelling at it by the end, and just knew it was going to end on a cliffhanger.

A whirlwind of a read and a definite recommendation from me!

I read this whole novel, trying desperately to remember which names were on which sides and I'll be honest with you - I was furious when I realised that there were another two books before there's any sort of conclusion. Basically, there are two sets of people who worship two different Gods, and then a war breaks out.

There's a lot of fighting, swearing and some weird stuff with Dom, a seer who is being manipulated by the Gods on both sides. It's an alright fantasy novel with a story that is quite interesting if you can remember who is who. I just don't know that I'll ever make it through two more volumes of it.

I liked how from the start I fell in love with the story and characters. The book had a nice flow to it that made it feel like something was about to happen. Great first novel and can’t wait to read next one

Gosh blimey this book was bloody and brutal and grimy...and I thought it was fab! It tells the story of the neighbouring kingdoms of Rilpor and Mireces and their long battle for supremacy...and the Red Gods are returning. Firstly, there are a lot of characters in this book, some of whom have quite similar names, so you do have to pay attention to who you are following at any given time. For me, I thought this was actually a boon because it meant that I didn't get swept away purely by the plot, which is fast moving and well crafted, but had to consider the implications of any action on the characters. It gave the novel an extra layer of depth that I appreciated. Secondly, holy cow is this book violent! Lots of death and torture pretty explicitly depicted but it never felt gratuitous to me. The characters are functioning in a violent world so their actions and motivations always made sense, both in world and also for the narrative. Thirdly, this is very dark. It is relentless and unforgiving which can be a little much to take at times, but again makes sense in the world and has an authenticity that can be lacking in some fantasy novels.. All in all, I really enjoyed this and will definitely read the next instalment with great gusto.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book. It is fantastically dark and engrossing, Game of Thrones-ish but better, in my opinion. I can't wait for the next instalment. Highly recommended.

This book has some especially dark scenes, but I think that sort of added to the appeal. Intricate and edgy, GODBLIND was a surprise, at least, it was in the first half! By the second, my interest just sort of waned. Overall, it isn't a bad start to a new series!

As much as I loved the story It was a little heavy for me to read at the time of the review. I will keep this on my reading list ready to pick back up when I am looking for a less heavy reading.

It was fascinating reading Godblind (Anna Stephens, review copy from Harper Voyager) and Blackwing (Ed McDonald, Gollancz) closely together. There are a lot of similiarities between both novels, but quite a few differences too.

Godblind features two warring civilisations. Rilpor, a largely peaceful, but still militarised kingdom is bordered to the West by the Mireces, a blood-thirsty alliance of tribes. Each worships two gods (one male, one female), but while one is peaceful and preaches redemption, the other thrives on violence and human sacrifice. Centuries before, the gods were thrust behind the veil, but the red cultists are plotting to tear the veil through the blood-shed of war, enabling the Red Gods to walk the world again.

In Blackwing, the existential terror lies to the East. The Misery is a warped and shifting landscape filled with mutated creatures and monsters that has been occupied by twelve evil immortals. Set against it is a city-state that controls the Engine, the only weapon capable of damaging the Deep Kings and their twisted troops. A weapon built by one of the twelve immortals set against them. Although stalemate has reigned for many years, there are concerning signs that the Deep Kings are mustering for invasion.

Ryhalt Galharrow is the titular Blackwing, a soldier marked by one of his gods and regularly tasked to undertake mysterious quests for little reward. As the novel progresses, his background as a battle-scarred noble who has turned his back on his heritage begins to emerge. Godblind features Dom Templeson, a warrior who is also a seer, with a portal in his head that he uses to communicate with his gods. He works as a Watcher, guarding Rilpor's Western border. Galharrow is cynical and self-reflective, where Dom mostly reacts, perpetually seeking to escape his role as seer.

Chance encounters prompted by their gods are the jumping off points for both novels. Galharrow is sent to one of the forts in the edge of the Misery which is shortly going to come under attack. His job is to save a particular person, who turns out to be his former fiancee, now a powerful magic-wielder key to repelling the forthcoming invasion. Dom receives a vision telling him to go to a particular place. There he finds Rillirin, an escaped Mireces slave, and saves her from her pursuers. She turns out to be the killer of the last Mireces king and the brother of the new one.

Both books are classic grimdark, featuring a high body count and lots of violence. Both use it to illustrate the horror of the enemy, but where Blackwing uses it to show the horror and darkness of war, Godblind veers close to torture-porn at times, glorying in showing the full horrors of Mireces rites.

I would also give Blackwing the edge in its world-building. The magic-system built on the use of light is fresh, but has a realistic industry supporting it. An industry that is subject to corruption, relies on the exploitation of workers and ties the kingdom together in its focus on battling the Deep Kings. McDonald's gods are clearly playing a long game. They are frequently absent and use humans as pawns in their centuries-long battles. By contrast, it's unclear to me how the largely agrarian country of Rilpor can manage to support a large standing army that doesn't appear to do much most of the time, or why its small towns and cities remain loyal to the throne, beyond that it's there.

While both are very enjoyable books, Blackwing just feels as if it has a bit more depth, more nuance and and greater maturity to it than Godblind.

Blackwing: 4*

Godblind: 3*

This was a dark and atmospheric fantasy novel. It was brutal, morally grey, with a great set of characters with depth and personality. I feel there could have been a bit more world building. The setting relied on fantasy tropes to inform the reader rather than becoming a self-contained and unique universe. But overall, this was a fun read and I'm looking forward to the next two books in the trilogy!

I struggled a bit at the beginning, there were so many characters but then I became engaged with a couple and the story started to flow. it is quite bloodthirsty in places with very realistic descriptions but this seemed to blend in well with the story and didn't disturb me. Lots of non stop action and wars between different Gods and their followers. The conclusion was rather abrupt but probably leading to a sequel. Absorbing read.

Quite entertaining, with an immersive feel and good pacing. Characters are vivid, but could develop more through the course of the story.