Title: The Fury of the Gods (Bloodsworn Saga #3)

Author: John Gwynne

Release date: October 24th, 2024

*Huge thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a digital ARC of this one!*

Book three of a three book series is either going to make the readers happy or piss them off. It’s like the series finale of a TV show, where expectations have been raised so high, that 99% of the time, no matter what the author/writers do, fans will be all grumpy and insist they could’ve done it better, even though they neither created the characters or the world that the characters live in.

I get it. You have this picture in your mind about what you want to happen, and you’ve become emotionally invested in their lives and the story.

I’ve heard nothing but great things about Gwynne’s other series’, but the Bloodsworn Saga was my first foray into his writing, and going into book three, I knew that he’d be delivering the goods.

Why did I have such faith?

Well, first, the characters were so fully developed over books one and two and the world so fully realized, that it would be a case of pushing through the plot, to get to the climatic finale. Gwynne is a master at writing action and battle scenes, so I knew when we got to the ending, it would be as though Peter Jackson was directing a Michael Bay script.

The second, was because of the personal loss that Gwynne suffered after book two was out. I won’t go too far into it, as I don’t think it needs rehashing – go Google it if you want to know – so I felt confident that he’d be layering this is so much emotions, that it would act as a type of therapy for him, even if it wasn’t from a fully certified and trained professional.

Now, 100% full warning here – this is book three – no chance there won’t be any spoilers for book one and two here, it’s really the nature of getting this far, so read no further if you’ve not read the first.

What I liked: Book two closed with Orka dying after being bitten by a frost spider, the gods returning to the world to try and regain all their dormant power and we had a number of open storylines between the numerous other characters we’d been introduced too.

I will fully admit that Orka was the driving character for me. Sure others were great, and some came close to Orka, but for me, she was the main character and I was more engaged in her chapters than the others. I wanted to see how her and her son survived and carried on, how Vespi and Spert played a role in the coming clashes and ultimately, how the battle for power would play out.

Like many of the greatest fantasy novels and series, there’s a ton of characters and a ton of subplots. Gwynne fully works through them, and, at times, there’s moments of slog with the dialogue and jumping around between the numerous moving pieces, but we get to where we need to get with plenty of tension ready to go.

The ending of this one was perfect.

That’s right.

Gwynne deftly tied up the storylines, gave everyone their moment to have their story told – and yes – some live and some die – but that’s the power of the character development here. It’s a case study in decision making and Gwynne plays no favorites. Not even Orka, who we see have to overcome extraordinary odds to continue surviving, though I won’t say one way or the other if she does or doesn’t.

What I didn’t like: As mentioned, there are some serious chapters focused on planning and learning news from afar, etc, etc, which means we get some truly slow moments. It’s all necessary, as we need to have all roads lead to the same destination, but at times it becomes maddening when we get right to a devastating moment and then the next four or five chapters all focus on different characters as you practically scream for Gwynne to return us.

Why you should buy this: If you loved books one and two as much as I did, book three is a no-brainer. This is accessible fantasy that features some of the very best storytelling out there. And even better – the series is finished. For all of those who have been burned by other big-time fantasy authors still not having finished their series’, Gwynne has delivered here (actually his third completed series now!) and wrapped things up in a way that I think fans will be elated with.

I know I was.

5/5