The Hunger of the Gods: 2 (The Bloodsworn Trilogy)

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It's fewer than Gwynne's usual standard, but the Gwynnado in the middle part of the novel that revolved around his chapters were unputdownable. The Hunger of the gods is the second book in The Bloodsworn Saga and though it pains me to say it, I have to say this book didn’t live up to expectations, it was still a great book though 4/5 stars but I expected more.

My Patrons: Alfred, Andrew, Amanda, Annabeth, Ben, Blaise, Diana, Dylan, Edward, Elias, Ellen, Ellis, Gary, Hamad, Helen, Jimmy Nutts, Joie, Luis, Lufi, Melinda, Meryl, Mike, Miracle, Neeraja, Nicholas, Oliver, Reno, Samantha, Samuel, Sarah, Sarah, Scott, Shawna, Xero, Wendy, Wick, Zoe. So I finished fairly quickly for an almost 700-page doorstopper and now I am quite sad that I will have yet another long wait for the next one. I finished this book today and wrote this messy review before sleep so I'll do the editing tomorrow and add any other points I missed.It's frequent for the middle book in a series to be the worst one (looking at you Mistborn), but thankfully this book breaks from that trend. The Shadow of the Gods, the first instalment of The Bloodsworn, is released publicly next month, so I can't say too much. I loved all the characters, the battles, and the Norse-mythology world plus creatures, but having these traveling sections repeated until the end of the novel did get tiresome at times. The first few pages of The Hunger of the Gods contained a detailed recap of The Shadow of the Gods, a character list and what happened to them before, plus Norse terminologies and pronunciations guide.

At one point all of the POVs are travelling at the same time to different places and I'm like this is ludacrious haha. I learned later that some copies had extra material in this concern and some didn't for some reason. My minor issue with the pacing aside, The Hunger of the Gods have furious battle scenes, savage display of power, intricate world-building, and well-written characters. I am the author of epic fantasy series The Faithful and the Fallen, Of Blood and Bone and The Bloodsworn Saga.I did not like her in the first book, well, I was just bored reading her PoVs the most and I wasn't interested in her arc at all. It's probably due to a phase i've been passing through lately, being detached from the stories I'm reading, but then again, maybe not. There are moments of this book I absolutely loved, and I really enjoy this world and these characters, so even a step down is still fantastic.

If you are familiar with Norse mythology, I doubt it will be difficult for you to predict where the story will go or end up since The Shadow of the Gods. Each POV character has their own quest and cast of side characters to help them, and it grew very difficult to keep track of them all. I am not big into rereads and many readers are like me so I think more authors should be doing this small yet very impactful act of including summaries of the previous books in series. No longer are we dealing with disputes and battles among humans, now ancient (and in some cases downright evil) gods are attempting to influence matters. I am happy to say that The Hunger of the Gods is close in quality to TFATF and it is is the first book to get 5 stars from me in 2022 after reading almost 60 books!But he continues to amaze me with his ability to introduce unique compelling storylines, magnificent otherworldly creatures, interesting characters who you care about so deeply, and that trademark Gwynne writing that is always tight, witty, and filled with memorable quotes that you can't help but highlight and refer back to later.