A Time of Dread: 1 (Of Blood & Bone)

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Whether it’s in the form of their descendants or, in one case, as one of the main POV, I found all the protagonists endearing and the villains despicable. A Time of Dread marked the fifth time his work has been included in my ‘favorites of all time’ shelves; together with his previous quartet, that’s five out of five books.

She helped Corban build Dun Seren, where they teach men and women to fight and to heal, and is the Weapons-master; she often travels to hunt the Kadoshim. I highly suggest everyone reads this book, but you really do have to read the four Faithful and the Fallen books before diving into these. This isn't the book where you put it down and go, 'wow, I can't believe someone wrote something that dark'. This was a brilliant and action packed fantasy about honor, betrayal, loyalty, friendship, power and the importance of family.John Gwynne’s books are starting to get a lot more popular around the SFF community and I couldn’t be happier. PS: An honourable mention for that breathtakingly gorgeous cover and bonus points for the Old Norse runes on the hilt that spell DREAD! Finally, the world is often modeled after medieval times, featuring swords, castles, dragons, horses, etc. I'm also a Viking re-enactor and enjoy nothing more than standing in the shield wall with my three sons, who are as passionate about swords and axes as I am (when I'm not stuck in my coat of mail; it's harder than it looks). My favourites were the perspectives of Bleda, a warrior Prince who is superb at using a bow and arrow and Sig, a female giant that rides a huge yet loyal bear - she was also a minor character in Gwynne's previous saga.

You might know this if you’ve been a follower on my blog for about the past year or so: one of my favorite authors is John Gwynne. The very uncertainty about each group's motivations that keeps you guessing throughout the novel is precisely what gives Gwynne the latitude to let you trust in his heroes. Set over 100 years after the events of the last series, the story follows four new characters in the same world but altered from the results of the day of Wrath. My latest book, The Shadow of the Gods, book 1 of the Bloodsworn Saga, will be published in May 2021.

The moment you think you've found the side to stand with against them, you'll discover that they, too, have their dark secrets. However, the four characters in A Time of Dread are each compelling in their own way, and the transitions between one POV to another is fluid and well-timed. So series extensions usually means taking a huge risk, because if you as an author messed up the extension, it would mess the original series too which sucks! His prose is the glue that connected all the incredible plot, characterization, action sequences, and world-building to become one of the finest first books in a series I’ve ever read.

Fantasy can be an escape from reality, but some stories carry the reader to an enhanced reality, a place where the world seems to have brighter colors and sharper contrasts. As in the Faithful and the Fallen, there are a lot of POV (but not too many) that make the reading very interesting and allow the reader to know more about this world and the stories of the characters.In the west, the giantess Sig investigates demon sightings and discovers signs of an uprising and black magic.

The four main characters have the nuance and troublesome qualities we expect from modern fantasy novels, and yet they retain just enough of the classic heroism that got so many of us into the genre in the first place. John Gwynne is one of the modern masters of heroic fantasy' – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time . It shows John's unique skill as an author that him just mentioning Corban or Veradis had me so emotionally touched and gripped. The world building is excellent, the author spent a great deal of time crafting a unique world of warrior angels, giants, demons, talking crows and human warriors.I breezed through all 4 of those books earlier this year, thanks in large part to the memorable characters and the epic thread of action that runs through the heart of Gwynne's storytelling. It really must be difficult for an author to revisit a similar world and having to balance the desire to give fans something familiar, while also doing something truly unique, and Gwynne had to invest a lot of time trying to lay this backdrop.