The Shadow of the Gods

i struggled with whether or not to give it 2 or 3 stars but sadly i didn't really like it. it was my first john gwynne, i kept hearing that he is an amazing writer and this book being lauded as a masterpiece so went in with that expectation and kept waiting for it to get incredible....unfortunately it didn't hit those high notes for me. i didn't feel super attached to the characters (imo there was a lot of showing and telling what they were doing versus the characters reflecting and feeling anything other than anger and bloodlust of course), the chapters felt too short (i was constantly left feeling like i wanted to spend more time with a particular character before it switched off) and i kept mixing characters up between stories, which was frustrating. 

i would've really appreciated a glossary and a dramatis personae to be able to better tell characters apart and know what the heck was going on. i have been reading other books simultaneously that actually explain what foreign words/phrases were after using them, so it felt kind of obnoxious to me that that wasn't done here, especially when those words are used constantly.

i bought malice before i bought shadow of the gods so i hope i like TFATF better, but we'll see. i think my expectations are better tempered now.