Gods of the Wyrdwood

De: RJ Barker

Narrado por: Jude Owusu

In a land of gods and wars, a brave forester encounters prophets, warrior monks, and mysterious magic in this exciting fantasy novel.

Cahan du Nahare is known as the forester—a man who can navigate the dangerous Deepforest like no one else. But once he was more. Once he belonged to the god of fire.

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.

©2023 RJ Barker (P)2023 Orbit

The “main character” a man is a wimp

After all his education, after all of his training, after fighting in an army he can’t take the lead. A child saves him, then a woman saves him. Women save him throughout the story and the child again because he can’t do anything right. I wanted to like this story, I got within 5 hours of stopping but I figured lets finish it, I understand how some would like this, I could not. This isn’t a hero is born, this is a hero can’t be a man.
Every male character is either inept or evil. The only possible male figure that could be good is a child that may not even go by male as it goes by they/them 😂🤣😂

Better to read

Some of these long epics are better read than listened to. Generally I find a narrator adds to the experience, but this one was too mesmerizing. Great when I was trying to fall asleep, but not good unless I was paying close attention. Since I listen to books while doing other things, my mind kept wandering. Hard to keep up with who is who and what is going on. I suspect this is just an isolated problem with me and the book is great

Slow to start but this is a truly unique and creative novel

I love the concepts behind the author's world and really enjoy the unique 'magic' system behind the cows. It's a cool experience to learn about the alien Crua and it's mysteries.

Another great new world by this author

Great read and amazing narrator!

Another unique vision, this time of Forrest’s. It’s a different spin than I’ve read before and just the few small details made such a big difference in the big picture.

Loved it. Highly recommend

not enough world building for a first novel for my taste

this book was all right though I did find it frustrating pretty frequently. the main character being extremely resistant to using his powers throughout the book was quite frustrating. well I'm sure some people like a book that has you trying to figure out what's going on to the very end, I'm not that person. I don't mind someone leaving questions to be explained in future books, but this book seemingly has an interesting world and a fairly interesting magic system and by the end of the book we still know so little about it. Perhaps it gets explained more in the second book, but I'm not going to beat my head against the wall for that.

the narration was all right but monotonous and droning at times.

Simply (but not solely) good

This most rcent addition to my favorite authors once again wrote a story without obvious flaws.
As I reach ever closer to my 1000th audiobook, that has become my lodestone. The difference between a good and great fiction author, in my opinion, is allowing for conflict to develop without forcing it with
inexplicable stupidity.
Good (and great) authors come up with great story ideas, but story ideas don't come with perfect timelines. The author has to fill in the blanks.
I think "good" fiction authors work to fill these blanks until the chain of events is "good enough." That chain may allow some plotholes and require some inexplicable decisions to be made, or characters to simply have a character flaw of massive stubbornness to "explain" the inexplicable, but once they've reach what to the undiscerning reader is a likely to be a tolerable level of cohesion, they move on to the next part of the story they were originally planning.

In my opinion, very good and great fiction authors, on the other hand, search for plotholes and do not stop working until those gaps are filled by a logical storyline, no matter how long it takes.

A "very good" fiction author will work until those plotholes are filled, but may resort to acknowledging them and simply explaining afterwards that what LOOKED like a plothole really wasn't, because of something we didn't know yet.

A truly great fiction author, however, pokes and prods the road and stress-tests it for anything that could POSSIBLY turn into a plothole, then has others do the same, and then doesn't simply fill them, but tears up that portion of the road and rebuilds it so the plothole never existed.

There's more, but my brain is tired…

RJ’s Books Have a Hold of My Heart

As always, unique, wonderful, heartbreaking, and endearing. I love his flawed but ever evolving characters. They are lovable in their gruffness and to be cherished as they grow into themselves. I appreciate his voice for the marginalized in real world ways even though his worlds are so surreal. The books he writes are cerebral in a 1000 ways but so full of heart in a Million other ways.

Lot of potential but..

it is never explored. The high points are the world creation through the ecosystem around the characters. The Flora and fauna are interesting and the history is intriguing. The magic system is also interesting enough.

That being said the writing is very average and action on the dull side. I really wish the author went into some depth on the unique components of the world. a lot of hints are dropped, but it comes off more as something they plan to figure out later then a cohesive addition to the story.

The narrator did a really good job at narration. The narrator also has about two and a half different voices. outside of the main character and one other everyone more or less sounded the same. Didn't subtract from a story but didn't add to it either.

Barker Does it Again

RJ Barker does it again and is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors of epic fantasy. Some of the best world building I’ve ever read in Fantasy.

Cahan is taken at a young age to essentially become the avatar of a god. Raised to overthrow the current ruling god. However a different god and avatar rise leaving Cahan aimless and without purpose. Choosing a hermetical existence as a forester and clanless vagabond he just wants to live in quiet and peace. However the world of Crua has other plans for the false cowl-rai and Cahan is inexplicably pulled back into chaos and forced to help those which he has no love for.

I really enjoyed this one. An excellent and memorable cast of characters and a setting and world you won’t easily forget. It is hard fantasy and since all of the creatures, cast system, and flora are all unique to Barker’s world it can take a little time to adjust and figure out what everything is. It is also a bit of a slow build but I was never bored and once I got my head around what everything is I quickly found myself addicted once more to one of Barker’s fantasy worlds. Every bit as good as The Bone Ships.

Couldn’t put it down

I loved how complete the world seems to be that has been created although we only see a small part of it. The twists and turns kept me highly engaged and while I thought I knew where it was going, the story lead me down a path I didn’t expect. I would love to have the next installment, but it’s deep enough to work very well as a stand alone!