Godblind (The Godblind Trilogy, #1)

by Anna Stephens

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?

• ISBN10: 1940456932
• ISBN13: 9781940456935
• Publish Date: 27 July 2017 (first published 15 June 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Imprint: Talos
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 408
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

What an outstanding read! I read fantasy, but it's usually YA fantasy, and it's few and far between, and I've yet to read a Grimdark novel, but Godblind intrigued me. And it was, in fact, a pretty brilliant start to what I've come to learn is a trilogy (isn't it a pain, when you come to the end of the book, having searched fruitlessly online and on the book itself to see if it's part of a series, to get to the end and realise... Yes, it is). It's a bit infuriating, but I'm also kind of glad there'll be more books because I was properly into the story. A few bits left me confused - I don't quite understand why the Red Gods were banished, but overall, this was a pretty intriguing read.

I will also say that before you read this, be warned there is a ton of characters to keep up with, a ton of places, just loads of information. I didn't personally find it overwhelming - I thought I might, I thought it might be too much for me to read something with so much scope, but once you get the characters straight and you start to re-visit characters, you get used to them. I would, however, have loved both a) a character list in the beginning of the book and b) a pronunciation guide, because I hate trying to pronounce a word that I have no idea how to pronounce. If you're going to write a novel with strange names/places, at least have the decency to have a pronunciation guide.

Overall, I'm stoked to read more in this series - I liked getting to know (most of the) characters, I liked the world Anna Stephens built and it kept me hooked from start to finish.

[Kelly]

Just can't seem to get into it.