• A Painted Goddess

  • A Fire Beneath the Skin, Book 3
  • By: Victor Gischler
  • Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
  • Length: 12 hrs
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,380 ratings)

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A Painted Goddess  By  cover art

A Painted Goddess

By: Victor Gischler
Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
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Publisher's summary

When the gods go to war, who will stand against their divine fury?

In the thrilling conclusion to the A Fire Beneath the Skin trilogy, the enchanted kingdom of Helva faces a nightmarish future of endless bloodshed, and Rina Veraiin—a young warrior-duchess armed with mysterious, magical tattoos—must use her fantastic powers to save her home from eternal war.

As her far-flung friends scour Helva for additional tattoos to increase her formidable abilities, Rina reckons with an enigmatic death priest...the one whose contract grants her extraordinary magic but demands an awful price. When her debt comes due, can Rina make the ultimate sacrifice?

Deities clash and allies succumb as Rina strives to fulfill her obligation and confront her strange and shocking destiny. Becoming an ink mage taxed Rina's resources to their very limits; now she must become something else, something more, something awesome and terrible.

If she fails, her world will fall.

©2016 Victor Gischler (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

What listeners say about A Painted Goddess

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

No surviving Heroes ?

The first book of this series really drew me in. I couldn't wait to read the next one and when I finally got to the last one, I couldn't put it down. Yeah, I noticed that a lot of the good guys were being killed off and the love affair was hopeless but surely there would be a couple of twists to bring it all back in for the heroes. Sadly, I was proved wrong. Why build up Rina Veraiin's character so much and still doom her ? She had no justice for her parents death, her love interest bailed in her without explanation, and she was only able to rule her own duchy for a few months. What was the point?

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Bad ending

The story was good but the ending was empty. There was no closure or finesse.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Underwhelming

Any additional comments?

I apologize for any character name misspellings, as this is audible- I listened to this trilogy, and I could not find a character list on the Internet. Spoiler Alert:
Rina transcended and peaced' out. That was it. We have no idea where she went or what she went to do. Presumably, godly things too magnificent for our little, human minds to comprehend. How anticlimactic.

Maurizan gets the prime . . . great (¬_¬) Ok, fine, she can have it (to continue the family tradition, etc. Her Momdukes is cool, so fine), but Alem?! She gets Alem? She's petty, selfish, and bitter. This book did nothing to endear herself to me. I despised her wrongfully, entitled self all the way to the end. And was glad that Alem died, as it meant Maurizan did not get to have him.

How can Alem be so flaky? And all over a misunderstanding, the truth of which he never found out. Lame. I ended up disliking his fickle character and his death wasn't upsetting. Granted, I kind of expected the newly, all powerful Rina to heal Alem and the Bishop. Or, ferret their souls somewhere peaceful, etc., she is the God of Death now, right?

I don't understand why Alem never learned how to fight, or why Rina didn't make him a Lord after his service to Klarr and the Realm in the first book. She'd elevated everyone else . . . was Master of Horse truly the best she could do, really? And isn't one of the boons of having a bedfellow pillow talk? Rina never told Alem anything and oftentimes had him looking the fool for his ignorance, which also let to his misunderstanding about Gant. Silly.

Is Talben really dead?! I kept waiting for her to show up, "Surprise! One of those 29 spells I'd just spent hours studying and perhaps risking my sanity for saved my life." Not just use three of those spells (one was a repeat- and I don't recall her relearning that self-duplication spell) and die so mundanely at the hands of Ankar. After all, she was over hundreds of years old, survivor of an attack by the God of War, and had just finished studying the spell book of The Master Wizard . . . I at least expected her to escape.

Also, I'll note that none of the "bad guys" deaths were satisfying. General Chi, Yano, Queen Mei, General Thorn, the God of War, and Giffin all die so unceremoniously. Can I get a little bit of agony, regret, or self-doubt before they die? Giffin?! Come on . . . you could have at least let Rina or Stacia have him. Wth. The King's death was pretty cool though.

All and all, I loved the first book, but it went downhill from there. I kept expecting it to get better, but it didn't. There was so much potential. Sad.

Braisley's character was great though.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Holy Smack!

Although I wish there was more to follow, I truly enjoyed this harrowing adventure most thoroughly. It truly is a brilliant conclusion to a stunning epic. Thank you for sharing this bard's masterwork tale with us.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Long series...pointless./A written Soap Opera.

The characters are mainly sketchy. I can't say that the Characters "developed" throughout the series. Theu only became more complex in a twisted way.

I like to see a couple main characters trying to achieve something to better themselves or others. The "womanizer" is the only character that seems to obtain some positive growth. It also reads like a jumpy soap opera.

The gods are vaguely explained, then covered with the blanket statement that mortals (including the reader/you) can't even start to fathom what the gods are or what they do. 😣😓 Yeah, I don't even know how to decribe the frustrations from that plot hole.

If you really want to read this:
Be prepared for tragic ends..... that mortals can't comprehend.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

good

ending sucked but the overall story was great. great trilogy at least. left some things open ended but still a good story.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

meh

ending seemed a bit rushed, the rest of the book was good.
fiona hardingham was great

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Hated it

This book trilogy had a lot of potential but when the character Maurizan started to get more and more vindictive and hateful I stopped reading it. Had she been a better person I might have enjoyed the story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Just okay

It got a little boring for awhile but end picked up toward the end and wasn't bad. If you already read the other 2, you may as will get this one. It is cheap enough to make it okay.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

what a horrible ending

The end makes me regret wasting my tim we on this series. Don't bother reading the last book even if you enjoyed the others. Make something up about the characters, it will be way better than the terrible fate the author contrived. I was left angry at the end an just dumfounded at the direction the story went. AWFUL!!!!

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