The action and buildup are satisfying, but the quieter moments are not as engaging and the story beats sometimes feel repetitive. That said, the ingredients are definitely here for a compelling series. With an opportunity to build upon the groundwork laid down in the book, I’m very intrigued to see where the next books will venture. Now, where does he get all these eggs to throw into his pudding of stylistic effect? Where did all these periods come from? Well, given Barker’s propensity to comma splices, I’d argue that they were donated from bits like this:

We also don’t get to know much about the trion, people who are neither male nor female, they exist to be a bridge between them. I liked the concept of families consisting of more people rather than only husband and wife. There are second and third wives and husbands as well as at least one trion, taking care of the children together. At least, that’s how it worked before the new regime arose in the name of a new god, who also decided to get rid of all of the other gods and their worshippers. Crua, as you might imagine is not a peaceful place in the present. Now the trion are used and abused and massacred for “the greater good”. We can only assume it’s not going to end well for those who took part in that. I also have to mention the magic system, it's as interesting as the world building. There were a few times when Cahan used his Cowl in the book, it was fascinating. I really can't wait to see what he does with it next. On the one hand, I sometimes wished I’d had a glossary to make sure I was interpreting unfamiliar in-world terms correctly, but on the other hand I also loved the sense of mystery and intrigue that permeates every aspect of this novel.On the other hand, I did struggle a bit more with the terms in the novel. While I hate information dumping and tons of exposition, and usually prefer when authors assume I can figure things out through context, it would have been helpful to me to have a bit more explanations for things in the novel like religious systems, certain plot points, and fantasy terms. I would have also appreciated a glossary of terms to reference, but we can’t always have everything. Despite struggling to fully grasp all of these concepts, I will say that keeping things on the vague side only perpetuated the pervasive sense of mystery swirling around protagonist Cahan’s past, the nature of the forest, and more. So this narrative choice to go lighter on explanations really did add to the general atmosphere, which I also liked. To top it all off, I do not jive with the writing style. Things get repeated, sentences go on with little punctuation (or have a period where it should have a comma or semi-colon, one of my biggest pet peeves), and some things are just plain weirdly-worded. There’s also a lot of passive voice and it’s grating. I found myself constantly re-reading sentences and even paragraphs because I genuinely didn’t understand what was being said because of how it was written. This is probably a me thing, but it is a thing, and it really detracted from overall enjoyment for me. TL;DR - This book has a lot of things going for it, namely the world itself and the magic system, but it’s also long and boring and shoots itself in the foot by including some puzzling, tone-deaf classism and frankly appalling treatment of non-binary people, and then offering no rebuking or commentary on these issues. 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. Cahan du Nahare is a warrior, a very special one who hides from his past, now he is known as the forester - a man who has expertise in passing through Deepforest.

With those two POV, a complex plot is woven; definitely in terms of pacing, I would say this book lands in the slow burn territory. Barker takes his sweet time introducing us to the world of Crua, another of the strengths of this novel, as it is quite fascinating, especially all the aspects related to the sentient forests and the different gods.An experienced novelist at the top of his game - this is Avatar meets Dune, on shrooms' Five stars from SFX 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. The world of Crua is largely familiar but Barker tries to make his world distinctive in a few ways. Other than the obvious godly avatars that populate Crua, Barker bases his whole world on forests. The people live on the edge of the forest and are in constant fear of the forest. But at the same time, they organize their army by branches and trunks. Everything they have, even their armor, is made of wood. Many of their idioms are based on trees or the woods. It’s not just the mysterious atmosphere of Gods of the Wyrdwood I liked, but the feeling that anything could happen in this world at any moment. The novel shines when it describes the eponymous forest, which has many of the hallmarks of the dangerous fantasy forest, but still manages to feel intimidating. The inhabitants of the forest, both plant and animal, are incredibly unique and creative. I can only wonder how the author came up with all of them. The religious system of conflicting gods and their followers competing for supremacy and domination felt really original to me in the way it was portrayed. The magical system was also interesting, though perhaps feeling a little less original, as it involves a lot around the common themes of malicious fantasy forests and “with great power, comes great responsibility,” the latter of which being pretty ubiquitous. An experienced novelist at the top of his game – this is Avatar meets Dune, on shrooms’Five stars from SFX

The ending of the book had such a long battle scene that was a blast to read. He’s no John Gwynne but he writes action just fine to me. Not to mention a crazy cliffhanger ending that will make you wanting more! The magic system was also fittingly mysterious and elusive, which allowed for some very cool and surprising displays of power. I particularly loved how it is so intricately tied to religion in this world, as that only made the magic feel more mystical. It might be a bit challenging for me to tell how the paths of these three crossed each other. There is a need to slowly start reading to fully understand the tale and the rules in R.J. Barker's fictional world.

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.”* There were also instances where it was challenging to discern who was speaking during dialogue scenes, which created some confusion while reading. It is possible that this is a stylistic choice by the author, but it impacted my reading experience. So you could say there's a found family theme throughout the book, not just with the villagers but also with Udinny, a monk of a forgotten God, and Venn a trion who desperately wants to escape their destiny. Gods of the Wyldwood is the first installment in a trilogy from RJ Barker. This is my first experience with his work and, while there were aspects of it that I struggled with, I’m sure it won’t be my last. The world of Crua is incredibly unique, utterly unlike anything else I’ve ever read. However, I think the story suffered a bit at the hands of the world building. There seemed to barely be a plot at all for the first half of the book. And while there was an immense amount of the narrative dedicated to the world itself, very little of that was spent explaining anything to the reader. It felt info-dumpy from the sheer amount of time spent learning about the world, but it also felt as if readers are simply tossed into shark-infested waters and expected to swim. This is one of the oddest things I’ve ever read.

Therefore, there are many elements of the book – the deities themselves, the role of the genderqueer but magically powerful trion, etc. – that feel underexplored and underdeveloped in Wyrdwood. It is likely that Barker will further develop these aspects of the book in future volumes of the trilogy, but here it is almost like you are looking at all of these cool things out of the corner of your eye. They are obviously there and important to the story Barker is telling, but they never quite come into full focus as the plot unfolds. He's kinda a hermit, somebody that is not well-accepted among the villagers from Hua, especially because he's a clanless; Cahan only wanted to renounce to his nature, and live peacefully. But when a traumatic event forces him to use his cowl, those powers inside him, he will have to start a journey (partly literal, partly metaphorical), changing in the process.Udinny serves the goddess of the lost, a goddess of small things; when she ventures into the Deepforest to find a lost child, Cahan will be her guide. But in a land where territory is won and lost for uncaring gods, where temples of warrior monks pit one prophet against another—Cahan will need to choose the forest or the fire—and his choice will have consequences for his entire world. 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. A splendid fantasy work, full of RJ’s trademark invention." —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Again, I’m not going to say authors should never use comma splices. But I will go out on a limb and suggest that when they use comma splices like Barker does, they give the impression that the writer is not intentionally breaking a rule for stylistic effect as much as blithely walking past it without realizing it’s there.