I hope to never read the phrase "thought-cage" again. I still don't know why this nonsense is used, when the author happily mentions lungs, tendons, hamstrings etc but no can't possibly use the word "brain".
Anyway, this is the third and final book in the Viking-inspired series of raising dead gods and seeking vengeance. We have the same cast of 5 PoV characters as in book 2, three "good" and two "villains", but most are telling the same story from different PoVs. The Bloodsworn and Battle-grim (I still don't know which is which as they are mostly identical crews of ... people on boats) are now united against the newly risen dragon god, along with their enslaved wolf god and his daughter. And that is literally the whole plot - they travel to the wolf god's ancient home to lay in wait for the dragon god - this takes over half of the book to occur. We also have the feared rumoured fleet of ships from some lord i had completely forgotten about because it doesn't come to anything and is mostly forgotten by the end of the book - it is very annoying to have a threat lurking in the background of the final book in a series that never emerges and just fritters out.
The language of the book was equally as irritating as in previous books - we have several made-up words for warriors or slaves and I never cared enough to go back to the glossary to check which was which and this became another unnecessary annoyance. Also some of the enemy creatures remain undescribed or explained - I still don't know what the skrealings are, whether the spertus are eels or scorpions or what the hell a night-hag is (except that it "flows" - seriously, search for the word hag in the kindle version and all you see is they they flow). And the swearing - one of my bugbe0ars in fantasy is the refusal to use proper swear words and attempt to make some up - here we have "nithing", "arseling" or "goat-humping something" - every single time these are used it takes me right out of the book.
As always with Gwynne's books, we have a massive cast of characters, and as always I only remember a handful of them, because they are all so forgettable and similar. I don't know what it is about his books, but I just don't care about/remember any but a few of the main characters.
And then we have the use of magic - previously runes were used for protecting and warding - carving them into something to protect it or strengthen it, but now all of a sudden people are throwing them at each other - if this were possible, why was it never used in the previous 2 books? And even now it is only used so a magic-wielder of either side cancels each other out, I don't think any advantage is gotten from its use - again this just took me right out of the book.
Most of the book is action scenes, but they all involve the over-use of shield-walls - once you've read one scene involving a shield wall, you've read them all - we have the hacking above or below and the massively overused "hooked the top of the shield with the beard of their axe", which is about as exciting as any shield wall scene ever gets. We have a flurry of more individual battles later in the book as each good character gets to exact their long awaited revenge on the villain that did them wrong - these come such that they give next to no real peril as you know the good will out every time.
The writing was pretty poor here, with odd phrasing here and there ("tremoring"?!) and much over-used descriptions that just grated after a while (Varg letting the wolf filter through his blood in every chapter) and it really didn't feel like a Gwynne book, more one that was padded out by someone trying to meet a word count but not willing to pay an editor. Some passages were so hard to parse that, given this day and age I started to wonder if AI had been used. At times we can see that the author has got a new idea and suddenly everything is a "nasal helm" or a "spectacled helm" out of nowhere. Again, jarring.
I wanted more from the gods but got very little, them fighting in the background while two humans had a fight or two sets of people with shields bumped against each other a bit. We also get no sense of scale, at no point did I know how big the wolf, dragon or rat gods were, let alone the snake god (not a spoiler, he is on the front cover of the book so if anyone dropped this spoiler it was the publisher!) who appears to be massive in his brief pointless appearance. Also, his appearance was, while obvious, by no means explained (raising gods was meant to be pretty hard but he just appeared for plot purposes) and his end even more ridiculous and a pointless waste ("oh no they have a powerful weapon that hasn't been mentioned at all before now, oh thank goodness that tooth fairy took it and we can now forget that ever happened").
In summary I really struggled with this book, the slow pace, the miniscule plot and its pointless diversions, the tedious battle scenes, the language and the infinite cast of forgettable characters. I realise now that I didn't finish the last Gwynne series for similar reasons, and part of me wishes I had just let this one go too. I doubt I will bother with the next one.

What an absolutely incredible end to an incredible series! I marathoned this series and oh my god I loved every single second I was reading this series and I will happily read every single word this author writes. The world building in this series is absolutely top class, the characters are fleshed out and well developed and I am just absolutely in love

There’s a nice summary of the previous books which does a very good job of bringing the reader back up to speed with the events of the previous books before being thrown into the story. I very much appreciated that.

I enjoyed the first two books of the series and this one continues the trend of being excellent. I have always enjoyed Gwynne’s writing, ever since I first read Malice, and The Fury of the Gods is another fantastic book for Gwynne.

His battle scenes are just top notch. They really pull you in and they are excellently written. You can tell he knows his stuff when it comes to Viking-esque battle and they were a true highlight of the series.

I also enjoyed the characters. Sometimes, characters can get lost when there is a lot of emphasis on fighting but I never found this with this awesome group of characters. You really sympathise with all their struggles, and you always want them to succeed. I’m not going to going into plot details since it is the third book in a trilogy but I will say that I was hooked from beginning to end.

Is there anything I don’t like about this book? The frost spiders were a lowlight but I’m saying that as an arachnophobe who wishes that fantasy writers would choose another creepy crawly to use. I don’t like imagining them and every time they were mentioned, it made my skin crawl. Maybe killer wasps next time?

The Fury of the Gods is an excellent final book. It is exciting, it is emotional and I enjoyed reading it a lot. I’ve never been let down by Gwynne and his fantastic storytelling and this book is no exception. Like all of Gwynne’s other works, I highly recommend it, especially if you love epic battles and Viking inspired fantasy.

TLDR: An epic finale to a new all-time favourite series. Full of loyalty and betrayal, love and loss. Gut-wrenching. Perfection.

The last book in the Bloodsworn Saga did not disappoint. I was hooked from the start with non-stop action and stayed hooked right up to the end with the best battle scenes. I loved every moment of this. Even the heartbreaking ones.

There were a tonne of characters to remember but it was all worth it to see how their paths crossed. John Gwynne really knows how to make his characters bring out every emotion in you. Plus, the character arcs in this were chefs kisses.

Despite being a finale, The Fury of the Gods still brought more of the world of Vigrio to life. John Gwynne really has a way with words. He effortlessly put so much into so few words.

Even though this series is very much an epic fantasy, I feel anyone could fall in love with these characters and the Norse-inspired world. Highly recommend picking this one up!

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group for providing an eARC for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Fury of the Gods is the final book of John Gwynne’s Bloodsworn trilogy and i was waiting for the conclusion of this amazing series and i can say finally that the series ends on a banger.

If I were rating and reviewing the book based purely on my enjoyment, this would be an easy 5 stars. but for me, there are so many battles and fights for me to enjoy it completely. For someone who enjoys battles and action scenes, this was more than i can handle. I think this has to be because the author tried to include so many things at the final book. The first two books were perfect but this one needed more threads to close and eventhough these are closed, there are so much to grasp from here.

The Fury of the Gods is the final book of John Gwynne’s Bloodsworn trilogy. I loved the first two books, but this one is definitely more action packed as it brings things to a conclusion.
This involves lots and LOTS of battles - to me this was slightly boring and i ended up skimming. Then the plot would slowly move forward.
Everyone seemed to get some sort of vengeance.
However I still enjoyed being with the characters I had come to care about, and it is worth reading to finish the Trilogy and see how it all ends.
Thanks to Netgalley for the arc!

Omg where do I start! This has me moving through all emotions. The FMCs of this book are amazing as well as MMC but you have to love a strong FMC sorry! The revenge and battles are amazing. It kept me gripped through out. I’ve just binged all three books to get this review out and all I can say is “Read it, you won’t regret”. DO IT!!!

You know you've hit on something special when you fire through a book at a rapid pace but after half way through you slow to a crawl. Whilst you want to finish and find out what happens... you really want to just stay with these people that you have learned to love, hate and commiserate with.

Here we are at the end of the Bloodsworn Trilogy and it has been a journey and a half with blood, tears, laughs and adventure throughout. This has been a fantastic series and felt quite different from the Banished Lands. A brutal and dark world with all sorts of magic, gods, myths and living legends appearing on every page.

The character arcs throughout were satisfying for me. I am a sucker for a revenge tale. My guilty pleasure is an origin story and a training montage. I love to cheer on a villain that pushes the bounds of what is expected and most of all I love any lore with a wolf/wolf pack in it. So one hundred percent the Bloodsworn Trilogy hit all the right notes for me. John Gwynne's writing for characters, descriptions, the sheer brutality of this world, the fast paced action and tying everything up in a neat wee plot bundle was fantastic.

Well done Mr Gwynne. Well done. This will live long in my thought-cage.

Note - This word (thought-cage) has now become a part of everyday use in my house.

Massive thanks to Orbit and NetGalley for the ARC.

The Fury of the Gods is the third and final book of John Gwynne’s Bloodsworn Saga. You’ll need to have read both previous books, and to have read them fairly recently, before embarking on this one. Although there’s a much appreciated cast of characters and a plot recap at the start of the book, given the two-year gap since the previous novel, it took me quite a while to pick up the settle back into the plot and characters.

Your enjoyment of this book will, I suspect, largely depend on how much you enjoy battle scenes in your fantasy reading. As might be expected, perhaps the last fifth of the book is devoted to the climactic battle sequence. There are also many, many battles and skirmishes in the run up to it too, though. This made the book a bit of a repetitive read for me and I found myself skim-reading large portions of the text. The book also seemed longer than its page count would suggest.

All in all a book I didn’t enjoy as much as I expected to, but there’s no doubt it’s a fitting end to the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers, Orbit, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I dont know where to start. After the ending of the hunger of the gods, I had to see what was going to happen with Orka?! How is this war going to end? Will Varg get vengeance? How is Elvar going to cope with new power?
To be able to achieve what John Gwynne did in just over 500 pages was beyond impressive. I could not have been more satisfied and pleased by an ending to a series. Relationships formed that I had been hoping for, people I didnt like got their well earned comeuppance. It left enough room and hope that maybe we could return to this world and the bloodsworn. A real passionate book from a hugely talented man who you can tell loves what he's writing about. A huge feat

In 2021 The Shadow of the Gods blew my mind. A year later, The Hunger of the Gods expanded the world and surpassed the series’ potential. How does Fury, one of my most anticipated releases of the recent years, compare?

Very admirably, I’m pleased to say. This series has maintained its strengths which for me are the palpable atmosphere, innovative and fresh worldbuilding, breakneck pace and relentless action. I do tend to prefer more quiet, character driven stories nowadays but I know now that should I need an epic fantasy action fix, I should reach for a John Gwynne story.

As it’s been a few years since I’ve read The Hunger, I appreciate Gwynne’s and Orbit’s decision to include a detailed character guide and summary of the plot. It did take me a second to distinguish between the Norse names and terms but the glossary helped me immerse myself in the characters’ narratives again. I loved being back in harsh, cold Vigrid with Orka, Varg, Elvar, the Bloodsworn, and the most wondrous and terrible magical creatures you wouldn’t want to mess with.

The world continues to be brutal and unforgiving; John doesn’t pull any punches and neither do his characters. Limbs and heads fly, teeth are smashed (or torn out and munched on…), skulls are cracked, entrails spill out, throats are ripped and devoured in almost every chapter. The battle rage and physicality of the fights are visceral; just when you think the characters can’t keep going, they push past the breaking point which makes this the most action-packed book I’ve ever read, even more so than The Heroes. I think that this will be in favour or to the detriment of people’s enjoyment depending on the kind of reader they are.

If I were rating and reviewing the book based purely on my enjoyment, this would be an easy 5 stars. I flew through this in less than 2 weeks (which is quick for me nowadays), I liked the well-established characters though their development (with the exception of Elvar and Biórr) took a backseat, and the writing was very gripping and evocative; nonetheless I do have a few bones to pick.

Despite the fact that John Gwynne is clearly one of the best in the business when it comes to verbalising cinematic battles, this book had simply too much of them for my taste – I would say 70% is action, infused with some character development. The last 20% consists of multiple stand offs and character reckoning which would have been more cathartic to read had they been spread out across the book rather than having everyone face off their enemy one after another. I do find it impressive though that Gwynne managed to keep me engaged and orient myself in these scenes; my eyes didn’t glaze over, and I wasn’t lost which I can’t say for some other fantasy books’ action scenes. His personal experience as a Viking reenactor adds a lot of believable detail, such as exhaustion from the weight of the armour, soreness from hoisting a shield up, the consequences of crushed helmets in a shield wall, etc. One of my favourite parts of the book is an incredible (view spoiler) battle halfway through the book which had me inhaling my Kindle pages in anticipation and excitement.

The characters have been well established in the previous 2 books, in Fury they continue in a similar vein – mainly the quest for vengeance. Elvar gets the best arc where themes of acceptance, freedom, leadership and doing the right thing are explored. There is a strong element of found family in this series which shines a beacon of light amidst all the violence and darkness. As the title Fury implies, the gods’ wrath is certainly felt and seen on page, conflicts come to a head and are resolved with weapons, jaws, claws, fists and magic. However, I can't help but feel that the conclusion to the epic Gods saga was a bit too abrupt and almost… unresolved? The scene depicted on the cover is, as has become the tradition with this series, utterly epic and deserving of its gasp inducing illustration but I felt it happened way too late in the story and that character’s appearance wrapped up in a rather anticlimactic manner.

All of this aside, I still really loved the journey this book took me on. I think the fans of the series are bound to appreciate the scale of the conclusion to this wonderfully unique fantasy trilogy which leaves us wanting more. I hope John returns to this immersive world again as its scope offers plenty of opportunities for more stories.

Huge thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for the e-ARC!

Buy The Fury (and Shadow, and Hunger) of the Gods NOW, don’t miss adding that hardcover on the shelf before they’re all gone.

4.5*

By the gods, this was an eventful finale

There’s very little breathing room, it’s one bloody and exciting action scene after the next. If you’re like me who sometimes struggles to follow along with action scenes then not to worry as I had zero issues here. However, how prominent these scenes are in this book could be an issue for some people

Orka is up there as one of my favourite characters from all the book series I’ve read and it’s no different here. Other characters also got some of the spotlight which actually added to this finale massively, especially seeing how much they have developed

It’s rare for a book to give me tingles but the ending of this did. It was one hell of an epic conclusion with some heartfelt moments mixed in and I really hope we get spin-off series

John Gwynne wraps up his epic Norse fantasy of gods and warriors in fine fashion with The Fury of the Gods.
Book three of this brilliant trilogy sees all players brought together on the steps of a mountain lair for an epic battle which pits warring armies against each other and allows numerous scores to be settled in a winner take's all final fight.
Understandably, the final novel is a lot more action-heavy than previous books but there is still plenty of room for the characters to breathe, as Varg, Orka and others seek to finally find the redemption and peace they have been searching for.
It's an excellent end to a fantastic series.

"The final battle for the fate of Vigrid approaches"

Happy Release Day to John Gwynne for The Fury of the Gods, the final installment of the Bloodsworn Saga.

The first two books in the series were 5 Star reads for me and this one couldn;t be an exception. I read an eARC of it thanks to Orbit and to sum up my thoughts in one sentence: I loved it! It was the conclusion that this trilogy and our characteres deserved.

The fury of the Gods is a Norse-inspired epic fantasy set in the fictional lands of Vigrið and if you are looking for a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy you will find it here. The whole trilogy is a story of friendship,found family, loyalty and honour.

From the beginning of the trilogy my favourite characters were Orka and Varg and that didn't stop . I loved them even more now and their character development was perfect.
The author knows how to write epic battles scenes and this book has plenty of them.

What a book

This is a book about family at its core with a build up to a return of the king type battle at the end.

I adored the characters journey, how each of them built especially Elvar. I knew this is where she was going and I wasn’t disappointed with how she got there

I laughed. I cried. I had a blast of a time.

The last chapter got me. I enjoyed the idea that not everything is over for these characters even if I’m not going to be reading about them anymore.

10/10 excellent book

I had a strong desire to revisit the earlier two installments, yet my eagerness to begin this one prevailed.

I experienced some trepidation regarding how the narrative would conclude, but I believe it was executed flawlessly!

I am immensely grateful for the chance to read this before its official release

John Gwynne is one of my favorite authors. His ability to take you on an emotional, sometimes bloody, fighting journey is so unique. His warm authors voice and love for writing as well as his family shines through every character, regardless if he or she is good or evil or inbetween. His books are always a hit for me, even if it takes me longer to read.
Since this is the third book, i will not go into any details but its save to say, I enjoyed it til the final words.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me the opportunity to read the e-ARC of The Fury of the Gods by John Gwynne. I literally yipped in excitement when I received the email! I couldn’t believe my luck!

So, if you’re looking for an exciting story about love, friendship, loyalty and honour, this is it. This is what you’re looking for. THE story. And what an epic ending!

So, ladies and gentlemen, maybe not boys and girls, and definitely not children of all ages, welcome to the great finale of the best series I’ve read this year: The Fury of the Gods.

We’re back to the places “where the world seemed to unite against the living”. We meet once again some of our favourite characters. We say a sad goodbye to some of them. We laugh, fight and cry together with them. I cried my eyes out at the end because I was happy, proud and sad. All at the same time. It made me feel so many things, an avalanche of mixed feelings. I had to let the steam go and only ten hours later was I able to start writing my review.
We meet Orka (I’m Team Orka!), Breca, Spert, Vesli. We miss Thorkel. We stand in the shield wall with the Bloodsworn and the Battle-Grim, with Elvar and Sighvat, with Varg, Einar Half-Troll, with Svik... This time, it is not about fair-fame, it’s about changing the world.

We meet Gudvarr, that niding pile of smoking skraeling turd, the one with the drop of snot at the end of his pointed nose, with the smug, arrogant face. I think I might have mentioned once or twice how much I hate this one…

We meet Ulfrir, the wolf, the god made slave. We meet Rotta and Lik-Rifa. We meet Biórr, who truly believes he’s fighting on the right side...

I waited five months for this book. At the end, in the acknowledgements Mr Gwynne thanks his readers and says he hopes it has been worth the wait. It most definitely was! Thank you for writing the story for your readers despite all the terrible events you’ve been through.

I cannot say more without ruining your reading experience. So just go grab your copy as soon as you can and start reading from the first volume. You won’t regret it! It’s a promise!!

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! I have a hard time expressing into words how excited I was about this book and how good it was, and I didn't want it to end!
All this buildup from the previous books, the interwoven storylines of the characters like a masterful net weaving of a frost-spider to lead us to this epic conclusion of our journey.
Like in The Hunger of the Gods, we have the same POV's—Orka, Elvar,Biór and Guðvar to lead us through the story. Although I love all the characters, I must admit that since book one of that saga, Varg's personality and story was the one that resonated with me the most, and that hasn't changed.
As you can expect from John Gwynne , nothing short of epic battles that make you want to grab your own shield and join in😂, amazing storytelling that takes your hand and leads you through all kinds of emotions without any kind of mercy😈.
No stones unturned in this conclusion, no loose ends or unanswered questions that were torturing you through all the books to wrap up beautifully in this splendid and grand conclusion!
I know I will have a HUGE abstinence and a hard time picking a next book because that story and characters will be in my thought cage for a very long time and in my heart forever❤️

What an absolute epic ending to an amazing series! The only criticism I have is that there aren't any more Gwynne books to read... devastated 😭

The conclusion to the Bloodsworn series lives up to the highest standards that I’ve come to expect from this author, and somehow raises the bar too. Each book has been captivating, fun, gruesome and extremely harrowing for Gwynne's characters (and for me!). He is the master of making you feel like you're experiencing it all right along with them.

The third installment was a nail biter at times... There were moments where a conclusion seemed so far away I thought a fourth book might be necessary... everything seemed to be building towards a pretty dire end without a conclusion in sight, and then out of nowhere he produced a chefs kiss of an ending 🤌🏽

I love a series with brilliantly written characters and Gwynne's books are packed with them. Orka will always be the best throughout the series but for me, Elvar became the stand out character in Fury. I was just ‘Ok’ with her in book one but she absolutely stole the show here 🙌🏽

It’s such a shame there aren’t more books coming from this series, but then Gwynne has been known to re-visit his worlds... 🤞🏽🤔