Gods of the Wyrdwood (Forsaken, #1)
R.J. Barker
In a world locked in eternal winter and haunted by prophecy, a young boy trains for years to become the Chosen One, only for another to rise and claim his place in the start of an unmissable epic from a rising star in fantasy. The northlands of Crua are locked in eternal winter, but prophecy tells of the chosen child – who will rule in the name of their God, and take warmth back from the South. Cahal du Nahere was raised to be this person: the Cowl-Rai, the saviour. Taken from his parents and prepared for his destiny. But his time never came When he was fifteen he ceased to matter. Another Cowl-Rai had risen, another chosen one, raised in the name of a different God. The years of vicious physical and mental training he had endured, the sacrifice, all for nothing. He became nothing. Twenty years later, and Cahal lives a life of secrecy on the edges of Crua’s giant forests – hiding what he is, running from what he can do. But when he is forced to reveal his true nature, he sets off a sequence of events that will reveal secrets that will shake the bedrock of his entire world, and expose lies that have persisted for generations.
Publication Year: 2023
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Overall, I walk away from this book feeling good about it, but it was a bit of an uphill battle. I struggled with pacing for most of the book, until the last third of it which I ate up in one sitting. What it does well is give us an interesting world with a lot of thought, detail, and intrigue, the action scenes are great, and the finale is very well executed. What it does less well is that the worldbuilding is often delivered in a way that leads to confusion, and I found some of the characters were a bit flat and almost frustrating at times, I did not find myself loving them like I normally would. I do think the sequel has a lot of potential from what I am seeing, so I hope I like the next one a bit more. 3 for being OK overall, +0.5 for a compelling finale
0Gods of the Wyrdwood is my first experience of RJ Barkers work and though it is well crafted it struggled to hold my attention. At first I was really drawn in by Cahan, the main character, as he is claimed by the Skua-Rai as the new Cowl-Rai, where he will live as a god. It does not take long for him to realise that this is not a position that will last and he is discarded for the next very quickly. After that I started to lose interest, the character development felt a little flat and there was so much going on I struggled to care for any of the characters at all.
0guys this is like the 6th book I have picked up this year and FINALLY it worked, maybe this will break my reading slump
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