Godblind is one of the most surprising dark fantasies I’ve read in some time. The Godblind Trilogy is now complete and you can binge the hell out of these books. Anna Stephens lets her short and to the point chapters, in various points of view, build the world in Godblind. The characters are varied, unique, and unforgettable. It’s a rapid fire pace that never stumbles as it builds towards its climax. The cast is large and the various points of view are all riveting.
Heroes die, and a mad king in Rilpor sits the throne. His sons and heirs his only comfort while he stumbles in and out of reality, mourning his butchered wife and only lucid on occasion. In Rilpor, the army of watchers, called Wolves, are ever vigilant, but may be unprepared for the machinations their enemies have been plotting. Rilporians are worshipers of the Dancer, sister to the Red Gods, their belief is in love, kindness, and kin with all living things.
There’s no real grey moral area here, although a lot of good people have to do some awful things. The Miricenes, worshipers of the Red Gods, are savage, their gods feeding on blood and pain. They enslave all Rilporians, and they sacrifice the living to appease and commune with their Gods. The Red Gods want to reclaim the lands from which they were scourged and banished from generations ago. Full of decades of plotting, betrayal from within, the good and bad aren’t hard to distinguish in Godblind.
This is a bloody tome, but you won’t stop on that account, the story itself and the characters have too much draw to push readers away from her intense and realistic battles. The key here is realistic. It shies from no suffering, and there is a torture scene which will leave you simply sick, although it’s necessary to show the mercilessness of Rilpor’s enemies. The photo above, showing the front window of Goldboro’s Books, has a deeper meaning that will give you the shivers. It’s positively brilliant.
The violence and grief are tremendous. A surprise awaits at every turn and the pace only increases toward the end. As I’m late to the party, there’s a complete trilogy just waiting for you. I can’t wait to start the next book. Anna Stephens has stepped in as one of the queens of Epic dark fantasy.
Highly recommended reading for those who love Mark Lawrence, Anna Smith Spark, Michael R. Fletcher, and Richard Nell to name but a few.
5/5 stars
Print Length: 497 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0008215898
Publisher: Talos Press (July 11, 2017)
Publication Date: November 10, 2018
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B06XGQWG57
“A brilliantly brutal debut from an exciting new voice”—the first book in a grimdark epic fantasy trilogy (Michael R. Fletcher, author of Swarm and Steel).
The Mireces worship the bloodthirsty Red Gods. Exiled from Rilpor a thousand years ago, and left to suffer a harsh life in the cold mountains, a new Mireces king now plots an invasion of Rilpor’s thriving cities and fertile earth.
Dom Templeson is a Watcher, a civilian warrior guarding Rilpor’s border. He is also the most powerful seer in generations, plagued with visions and prophecies. His people are devoted followers of the god of light and life, but Dom harbors deep secrets, which threaten to be exposed when Rillirin, an escaped Mireces slave, stumbles broken and bleeding into his village.
Meanwhile, more and more of Rilpor’s most powerful figures are turning to the dark rituals and bloody sacrifices of the Red Gods, including the prince, who plots to wrest the throne from his dying father in the heart of the kingdom. Can Rillirin, with her inside knowledge of the Red Gods and her shocking ties to the Mireces king, help Rilpor win the coming war?
About Anna Stephens
Anna Stephens is the author of the Godblind trilogy. The titular first novel was published in North America in July 2017. Book 2, Darksoul, followed in January 2019, and Bloodchild hit shelves on 14 January 2020.
Compared to Joe Abercrombie and Mark Lawrence, the Godblind trilogy is a grimdark epic fantasy about war, religious fervour and intolerance, betrayal, political upheaval, epic battles and plenty of back-stabbing. How far will you go to achieve your ends, be those political, religious, or simply the survival of those you love? Who will have to die, how many will have to die, before victory is measured simply as more of theirs died than ours? The age of gods is ending.
You can find Anna at: https://anna-stephens.com/ on Twitter @AnnaSmithWrites and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/anna.stephens.71653
More from Anna Stephens:
Grimmedian 