Gods of the Wyrdwood: The Forsaken Trilogy, Book 1: 'Avatar meets Dune - on shrooms. Five stars.' -SFX

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A splendid fantasy work, full of RJ's trademark invention." -Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author CW: violence, blood, injury, fire/fire injury, torture, death, animal death, animal cruelty, emotional abuse, child abuse, religious bigotry This is the beginning of something epic. It is true to the style of RJ Barker, being dropped into a world and allowing the reader to figure it out as they go. It is a dark world that has a beautiful setting with Gods that are worshipped in a way that is different than typical. It leads to wars and a magic that is pretty hot to handle. I continually found myself drawn to know more and could not get enough as the reader is pulled into the world of the chosen one, Cahan Du Nahere, who is no longer the chosen one. It proceeds to give us an insight into his life as he has moved on. Finally, even though I knew who the big bad was when they are revealed at the end it is such a crushing blow to know I was write I was genuinely holding out hope that I was wrong and it was just heartbreaking when it turned out I wasn't.

I liked the story and the characters were so well-developed! I don't want to give anything away, but the way magic and heroes were portrayed was really fresh and unique. Even though it's a long read that is not fast-paced and has not many events, I think the gradual exploration of the world is totally worth it. Gods of the Wyrdwood is book one in a new fantasy trilogy set within the bounds of a forest straight out of darkest folklore - with outlaws fighting an evil empire and warring deities. RJ Barker is the British Fantasy Society Award-winning author of The Bone Ships and Age of Assassins. Udinny is devoted to the goddess of the lost, in her quest to locate a missing child in the Deepforest, accompanied by Cahan. 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.Cahan the Forester isn't welcome to trade at the market. He is clanless. In a land where the gods sacrificed their link to the world to cut off the Osere and only give power to their chosen ones, the Cowl-Rai and the Rai, it was Iftal that had saved the people but made the land hard because the gods could no longer service it. Cahan is the outsider, the banished one. He is to be chained and cast to the Osere to be burned ever so slowly for his ignorance and indolence, but Cahan has a secret...

This just had everything I love but foresty themed, and lovecraftian themed as well because there are a lot of tentacles. Like I’ve always mentioned I want a good in depth adult forest fantasy and I got that here in fact the first half of the book I would consider purely set up, I think book 2 is going to be even better because of that. It is not character driven, not even really plot driven. it is world driven, history driven. Terminology driven is that I thing because even some family structure was strange, theres like firstmothers, secondmothers, firsthusbands, thirdhusbands, I don’t know what any of that means except maybe this was referring to poly relationships so, very inclusive if that was the case. Describing Gods of the Wyrdwood is tough because, to be honest, it’s plot is not its strongest element. I thought I should state this upfront because Barker’s plot here does meander quite a bit; sometimes the pacing is a bit slow, there are parts in the middle where it drags a bit, and things don’t accelerate until the last little chunk of the book. The book almost feels episodic at times, like an epic and dark slice of life book. Things definitely happen in this book, but they don’t build on top of each other as you would expect from a traditionally plotted story. If you mostly read for plot, you might walk away disappointed.

Founders

You have made me dislike this place even more,’ she looked around. He shrugged but it has not escaped his notice that, since they had encountered the shuyun, the monk had become less bright. As if until then she had ot truly understood that they were alien to the forest, and the forest was alien to them. ‘It is like the forest is some vast creature, and we are travelers through its guts,’ she said.”* A vividly realized high-seas epic that pulls you deep into its world and keeps you tangled there until the very last word."— Evan Winter, author of The Rage of Dragons on The Bone Ships I loved the world building, it made the book for me. There's a spooky forest with tons of creepy crawlies that have a mind of their own. But, they won't hurt you unless if you hurt them.