The Digital Renaissance: Review: Slaughtered Gods

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Review: Slaughtered Gods

Slaughtered Gods by Thilde Kold Holdt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Death to all gods” shout the Damned as the march into The Ragnarök.

And so we come to the Twilight of the Gods in this conclusion to the Hanged God trilogy is a modern rendition of Snorri’s Icelandic Eddas putting in just enough personal spin to make it fresh and interesting for everybody. None of these three (3) books should be read by themselves … so plan on reading the trilogy straight through for the best experience. As might be expected in mythology sourced stories, the more interactions you get with the supernatural … the weirder things get … book three (3) is no exception (so you do get some over the top fantasy here). If you are familiar with the Norse myths here … you probably have a good idea how all of this ends … but we get a few twists that keep you guessing until the end; such as a norm who no longer has a fate and who can theoretically weave a new one for the gods. The primary POV are from Hilda (fighting with the gods) and Einar (fighting with giants) … and these are by far my favorite characters. Supporting POV comes from Ragnar “The StoryTeller” and Tyra … who purpose is somewhat harder to figure out other than helping build out the world. The story actually spins Loki and the giants more sympathetically than I expected … making them something like tragic anti-heroes and the gods as really really cruel to match the hard life of the times. In all, I really enjoyed this twist on a familiar story.

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#SlaughteredGods #TheHangedGod #NetGalley.

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.