Gods of the Wyrdwood

By: RJ Barker

Narrated by: Jude Owusu

Length: 22 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Dark take

Nice fantasy tale that contrasts good with evil. Hierarchies are shown to be the evil here as they are in life.

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 😂🤣😂

Definitely Different, I'm on the Fence

So, I was in the mood for a fantasy read, gave this one a run. I liked the beginning and the setup, main character developed well but then when I expected certain actions- nada.... That happened a little too often for me. Nice world building, definitely different- reminds me of that movie with the blue folks in it.... with evil earthers trying to destroy the nature. This was different in that the evil ones were native, but it seemed so was the natural world, so? I am not sure I will continue, I really wanted the main character to take a better stand earlier on, which would have been more predictable, and better for me.

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

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

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!

Deeply written

I really loved the world, magic and characters of this book. I hope there is a whole series coming!

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.