I’m so glad I got to read all of John Gwynne’s books and discuss them with friends like you, Petrik. I’d very much like to get a war band together to chat about The Fury of the Gods once it’s out. It’ll be a release day read for me. Truth and Courage!
Truth and Courage, my friend! It's one of my fond memory on Booktube to talk about Gwynne's books with you and the other booktubers. That felt so long ago now. We really should get the band back together for Fury of the Gods! :)
I started The Faithful and the Fallen because of your reviews, and my dad and I have buddy read each book. He finished Wrath last week and told me he cried! So now I am sitting at 82% done and just shaking with anxiety and not wanting to say goodbye to these amazing characters! 🤣 anyway, thank you for convincing me to read these - TRUTH AND COURAGE!
Aww, this is so cool! Glad your dad had a great time with the series and WRATH! For you... good luck. Saying goodbye to the characters of the series is a difficult thing to do! Truth and Courage!
I'm almost 200 pages into Malice, and wow -- you were right about the number of character names. And trying to match them to their location in the Banished Lands. But I will say, I'm enjoying the world and the lore. So far Corban is my favorite POV. I'm excited to see where this series takes me. I did read and love his first two books of Blood Sworn, and am very excited for the third!
Corban is superb. It's hard not to like him as a person. I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the series. It only gets better and better, imo. Truth and Courage! :)
@@jonathanhighland4507 Wheel of Time book 8 was terrible so I had to stop reading Jordan to finish the First Law World,it was a great move otherwise I would have thrown books 9 and 10 into a fire becuz of the horrible slog but yeah I love Jordan,overall ... my 4th favourite fantasy author ! Hope I will finish the Wheel of Time this year too ! :))
I’m reading Wrath right now, always love hearing your opinion on John Gwynne’s books! I haven’t finished FATF yet of course but I started with the Of Blood and Bone saga and I honestly loved it more than FATF I think! Maybe it was just the excitement of discovering this brilliant author, but that second series will always have a special place in my heart.
After Valor I knew I would read anything John Gwynne writes. I prefer to binge his series, so this is gonna be my fall/winter read. Ruin is definitely my fav.
Choco Boy approves this message... But really, thanks for providing this breakdown of my current favorite author! Can't wait to start reading F&F when I receive Malice. Going to be hard pressed to finish Wrath of the Gods before I receive Malice (I'm slow). But either way, it's going to be a very John Gwynne end of the year!
Choco Boy stayed awake for a while during this video. That means he approved it! Hahaha. You're so welcome. Here's hoping you'll continue to love his books, Andrew! :)
I read The Faithful and the Fallen over the last year from last May to this March, and the main reason I spread it out over almost a year is that I wasn’t ready to be without those characters. The series is now an all time favorite and I agree that while I did love them all I thought Wrath was the best. I finished at the end of March and I still think about those characters. I’m very excited to read more from John Gwynne.
Woohoo! I'm very pleased to hear this. It is such an amazing series. I still think about it often. Truth and Courage! Wrath is one of my favorite books of all time!
Never enough Gwynne love! I loved hearing your ranking, and I share a lot of your thoughts on the books! Fingers crossed The Fury of the Gods can top it all, Ed & Will's teases have gotten me extremely excited. Brilliant video 🤩
Thank you so much, Esmay! It's always a good day to talk about Gwynne's books. It's been difficult resisting to rob Ed and Will's PC from their teaser of Fury of the Gods! :D
I definitely want to read John Gwynne at some point, but I read very widely and have hundreds of books on my TBR lol, so will try after I finish Malazan & Joe Abercrombie.
Awesome reading guide Petrik! These are some of my favourite videos 😁 I read FatF in January and it was a story with a lot of heart that I enjoyed a lot. I actually think Malice would have been my favourite but I struggled a bit with the writing, which definitely improved over the series. I think the other caveat to the series is that it is very very action packed...Almost too much so for me, but that depends a lot on your mood! I'm excited to read Bloodsworn, but I will wait for October when Fury comes out 😁
Thank you so much! Yeah, that's understandable. Gwynne's books are certainly action-packed. I hope you will love Bloodsworn more than The Faithful and the Fallen! :)
Thank you so much Petrik! I always love your videos. Your personality, book recommendations , updates , information such as this & all the bookish news you deliver. You deserve so many more followers! Thank you so incredibly much
I've actually just gotten back into reading the last couple of weeks and have been really getting into the fantasy genre. Just started The Shadow of Gods and have been loving it. Also read The Starless Crown by James Rollins which I really haven't heard anybody talk about but that has been my favorite read since getting back into reading. Can't wait to add some more to my collection. Love your vids by the way.
I'm about to run out of my TBR list and was thinking about trying John Gwynne's books. Now this video comes out. That can't be a coincidence. I guess John Gwynne it is very soon! :)
Great video, my friend! Thanks to you, John Gwynne has become an all-time favorite author of mine!! 🖤 Malice took me a bit to get through as well, but once I picked up Valor, I couldn't stop and binge-read the rest of the series. This really makes me wanna reread TFATF ✨ I can't wait for The Fury of the Gods to come out, though, so I can (finally) binge-read The Bloodsworn Saga 🤓
Thank you so much, my friend! I'm pleased to hear John Gwynne is one of your favorite authors of all time, too. I already want to reread The Faithful and the Fallen again. It has been a while! But yeah. Bloodsworn Saga will have to be read to the end first! :)
i bought the shadow and wrath of the gods just because of the art work, fell in love with them was devastated when i realized book 3 wasn't out, so now I'm reading the faithful and the fallen on book 4, now i have to grab blood and bone lol because im addicted
I actually read A Time of Dread 1st back when it first came out that's how I found out about John Gwynne all of these books are on my top list John Gwynne is my favorite author along with Anthony Ryan they're both so action-packed authors with solid plots and World building and characters that are determined and intense keep making these Kick-Ass videos I'll keep watching
John Gwynne is truly one of the best authors out there. As an individual or storyteller. I need to continue with my journey of reading Antony Ryan's books! :D
As you recommended this to me last year...start with malice and read everything in the publication order ! Best move possible :D Btw,Brothers Gwynne will re-read Bloodsworn Saga in September with the realease of the Fury of the Gods in 24 October ! I wanna re-read the Bloodsworn Saga around that time too !!! Hunger of the Gods is my 3rd favourite John Gwynne book,I loved it ! :D 1.A Time of Courage 2.Wrath 3.Hunger of the Gods 4.Shadow of the Gods 5.Ruin 6.A time of Blood 7.A Time of Dread 8.Valour 9.Malice
Yeah! Start with Malice and then read everything in publication order is my preferred method. Straightforward and the best one. Glad you loved his books. Pumped for Fury of the Gods! :)
The audiobooks of the faithful and the fallen are great. Damien lynch is up there with Michael Kramer as far as narration goes. I’d love to sit and read but I’m so busy I have to listen to actually finish series. (Took years to read WoT). Audible has allowed me to reread WoT(with my ears) Stormlight archive, mistborn part 1, the Witcher books, asoiaf, LotR reread, and now the faithful and the fallen.
The Banished Lands saga is one of the best fantasy series I've ever read. I binged all of them in 2 weeks. I'm waiting for Fury of the Gods so I can inhale Bloodsworn in one go, too.
I would read The Bloodsworn 1 and 2 right now if I were you and re-read them in September with Brother's Gwynne b4 Bloodsworn 3 comes out.Its so damn good.God tier Fantasy 🙏
@@historymax5479 AT least you will read IT in one point and that's all that matters.Bloodsworn will probably end as The greatest trilogy ever written to my thought cage. 🤔
I do plan to read Shadow of the Gods and Hunger of the Gods leading up to the release of Fury of the Gods in October. Having read The Faithful and the Fallen, but never having read Of Blood and Bones, I do believe I’ll read the sequel trilogy in May - July. Looking forward to it. Thanks Petrik
You're welcome! Yeah, I plan to do a reread of Shadow and Hunger of the Gods near the release of Fury of the Gods, too! You should try reading Of Blood and Bone trilogy. I think you'll love it as well! :)
@@zenthepoet. By this point John Gwynne is as legendary as Tolkien,Martin,Abercrombie,Jordan and Sanderson so I really hope you will end up loving him too. 🙏
@@noname3609 that sounds exciting actually. I already own like 4 books of his, so you can be certain I'll be reading him. Thanks for the encouragement lol
I loved Malice, I’d read about 25 Star Wars books in a row and was getting bored of how everything essentially was either predictable as it had to slot into the cinematic universe or it was done and dusted in 350 pages. So I loved that Malice took its time and really allowed for a slice of life and intrigue to grow! Obviously everyone’s opinion is different though!
25 Star Wars book in a row is incredible. Not gonna lie. I would've been bored by the 2nd or 3rd book. 😂 Need more variety in my reading. I agree about Malice, though. The slow pace allow me to care about the characters first! 😄
I started reading Gwynnes books because you recommended them. I have just finished Valour, and I think I will follow you advice again, and drop the rest of the series. That did not work for me 😅
My ranking: 1. The Hunger of the Gods 2. Ruin 3. The Shadow of the Gods 4. Wrath 5. A Time of Courage 6. Valor 7. A Time of Dread 8. Malice 9. A Time of Blood
@@PetrikLeo yup. The Hunger of the Gods is one of my favorite books of all time tbh. The Hunger of the Gods and Ruin positions are solid, the rest change constantly aside from A Time of Blood. I didn’t particularly care for that book much.
Choco Boy: "Which John Gwynne book comes with cookies and a NAP...?" Hahaa! He's so cute! I'm glad to hear you say that John Gwynne gets better in writing style from Malice- that means I have so much to look forward to. And happy to hear too that there are fewer POVs in his other books. That's really my only complaint with Malice- there were so many POVs! It felt jumpy to me- and I really liked the characters and story- and got annoyed at changing POV so frequently. I wanted to stay with certain characters longer.
Hahaha! thank you so much, Tiffany! I understand what you're saying. That can be a downside for Malice and The Faithful and the Fallen depending on its reader. The Bloodsworn Saga features fewer POV and I think more accessible to modern fantasy reader! :)
I picked up FatF based on Mike's Book Reviews pumping it up a couple years back. Since then I've acquired and read everything he's published except Hunger of the Gods. I really enjoy his storytelling, and especially in the Banished Lands, how despicable the "bad" guys end up being, I'm looking at you Lykos and Rafe.
So glad to hear you love this series, too, Adam. You're right, though. The villains in The Faithful and the Fallen were so utterly despicable! Don't forget the slippery Jael as well! :D
Hi Petrik, I was wondering if you could do a video to present books by theme. For example If I read The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner what other books in the same theme I could also read and anjoy.
Oh yeah! I need to work on making more videos like that. I've done a few of them, such as magical school trope, but forgot to continue. Thanks fkr the reminder!
I was waiting for this video most eagerly Petrik (I am reallllyyyy Jumping like crazy inside)....Bacause you promised you gonna make this video,,,,but the thing is,,im relatively a new fantasy reader,,so will it be a good series for me?considering the length,prose,story and also im not a native english speaker,,?
I think its a great place to start. John's stuff is easy to get into. He's an awesome guy too. There isn't a lot of crazy names or anything that could be difficult for non English speakers. I say go for it!
I think Brandon Sanderson is a great place to start (Mistborn series is the recommended starting point) because his prose is very simple, so you don't have to check a new word in a dictionary to see what it means but the story is very unique and good. Check out some reviews (with no spoilers of course) of Mistborn trilogy. Hope this helps.
You're so welcome! Pretty much what everyone said here. Either John Gwynne and Brandon Sanderson's books are suitable for non-native English speakers. Remember. I, too, started by reading epic fantasy with accessible vocabulary! :)
I started out with Shadow of the gods and didnt know what to expect except besides from knowing it had some Scandinavian folklore in it (im from 🇸🇪 so that was exciting). Unfortunately i found the writing style annoyingly repetative. Dont know how many times it was described that someone wore a brynja and had a sax in their belt... väsen, thought cage, fjord, the list goes on. Also too action oriented and gory for my taste. Im almost a bit jealous of everyone that loves the series but had to accept its not the one for me..📚💚
That's fair! Too bad the series did not click with you. But some books are like that. No matter how beloved they are by the many, they just won't click with us. 😂
@@PetrikLeo thats true! And sometimes you find a new favourite book in one you had quiet low expectations of😊 thank you for your great work, I always enjoy watching your videos!
I don't usually audiobook, but I have heard that while the narrator is good at voices, he has one massive flaw: All of the evil characters speak with a raspy lisp. Even the characters who you don't know are evil or not. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but if it is, you may want to avoid audio.
Youre usually so spot on that Im shocked where you place Hunger of the Gods. Hunger had things that Shadow was seriously lacking. Head and shoulders above Shadow of the Gods.
Agree to disagree. Hunger of the Gods, while still great, is imo the most repetitive John Gwynne book ever. It is the only book by him that has the infamous middle book syndrome. I still gave it 9/10 stars, so it's definitely not a bad book. An amazing one. Just my least favorite out of all of his books. :)
So I read Malice and without spoiling anything, it seemed like a bunch of characters went missing from book one to book two (but it's supposed to pick up right when book one left off). It made no sense because there are supposed to be like 20 characters on a boat, including a named character that is just never mentioned again. Maybe I missed something and I'll have to retry them.
This has been a while for me. So unfortunately, I cannot remember which characters you're talking about and whether there are actually 20 characters on the boat.
It's been a while for me too, but I remember it was one of the guys that trained Corban in the yard, I forgot his name, and he even killed a snake monster thing as they were escaping the castle. But after getting on the boat he's never mentioned again along with any other villagers that survived fleeing the castle. I would check but I had the book from the library. Maybe I just need to give it another chance
The only one I read was The Shadows Of The Gods, and all 3 POVs were so incredibly boring and similar, and there was zero world building, and the combat was very much Saex being repeated over and over with no other details.
Ohh, that is an unpopular opinion indeed. I think many actually consider Bloodsworn Saga to be superior. I love The Faithful and the Fallen more, though!
Bet you have like 15k worth in books lmao I've heard that some works of Gwynne are basically game of thrones and the wheel of time together as a fanfic hahah
I find it really impressive that you can make the time to read epic fantasy as you put it. I like the idea of world-building, magic, different cultures Etc. but personally I prefer standalone titles and self contained stories with more focus on characters than the world as a character. Small scale, found family type story in a lush fantasy world would be ideal. I guess I'll just have to keep watching your videos and see if any of these fantasy stories appeal to me 😊
@@PetrikLeo Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice. The Vampire Chronicles as a whole are amazing but if you only read the first or there were no other books in the series you could still enjoy it. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa, which is a sad but beautiful literary story. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is a must read in my opinion. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, which is the first book of my all time favourite trilogy and fantasy story His Dark Materials. Also anything by Jane Austen. :3