Godsgrave

By: Jay Kristoff

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 19 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

A ruthless young assassin continues her journey for revenge in this new epic fantasy from New York Times best-selling author Jay Kristoff.

Conquer your fear, conquer the world.

Mia Corvere, destroyer of empires, has found her place among the Blades of Our Lady of Blessed Murder, but many in the Red Church ministry do not believe she has earned it.

Her position is precarious, and she's still no closer to exacting revenge for the brutal death of her family. But after a deadly confrontation with an old enemy, Mia begins to suspect the motives of the Red Church itself.

When it is announced that Consul Scaeva and Cardinal Duomo will be making a rare public appearance at the conclusion of the grand games in Godsgrave, Mia defies the Church and sells herself into slavery for a chance to fulfil the promise she made on the day she lost everything.

Upon the sands of the arena, Mia finds new allies, bitter rivals, and more questions about her strange affinity for the shadows. But as conspiracies unfold, secrets are revealed and the body count rises within the collegium walls, Mia will be forced to choose between her loyalties and her revenge.

©2017 Neverafter Pty Ltd (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"Come for the vengeful assassins, stay for the fear-drinking shadowcats. Godsgrave is a stylish, fast-paced and welcome return to the world of Nevernight." (Peter Newman)

Twists and Voice

There is no denying that nevernight books have among the best character voices in the fantasy genre. The language, is strong. Overwrought prose, top notch. In this book, info dumping is more sparse , but still there. So keept that in mind.

Violently good

I loved this book. Sometimes the violence made me cringe a bit, but Holter Graham is such a brilliant narrator that he sweeps you up in the fight. Can’t wait for the next book.

Mr. K... I love/hate you

The bloody beauty. That is this series ... and also the main character's nickname, but still. This book (and its firstborn sibling) are both beautifully written and bloody. I love them.

The world that JK has woven here is a place I never wish to leave. Even if, at the end of this series, we see no more of Mia, I would very much like a few more books from this world (please and thank you, Mr. K)

As for why I love/hate our dear author? Well, you will just have to read it and find out for yourself.

The only thing I would recommend to you is purchasing a copy of the paperback as well so you can look at the beautiful cartography within.

entertaining but with some problems

okay so I don't really review often but I have to with this book. whilst the book is pretty entertaining I can't help but be irritated by one major problem, and that is that the majority of the gladiatorial parts of the book are quite obviously ripped off from the Spartacus TV series. the task master with his whip, the champion gladiator disliking the main hero, his affair with the dominus, the expression that the hired help uses when talking to the dominus and many more, it's not even hidden, it's glaringly obvious. My only other problems with this book is with the narrator, whilst on the whole he is quite good, he often seems to forget who's voice he is doing and often Mia speaks with a man's gravelly voice. He also occassionly puts weird pauses mid sentence that can complete throw you out of your immersion. my final flaw is that he really needs to move slightly further away from his microphone when recording because you can hear every moist mouth smack and his overly loud swallowing, after a while it starts to grate and makes it hard to pay attention to what's being said. With these exceptions, on the whole it's still a fairly enjoyable book with the ups and downs you expect after the first one and had a solid ending that makes you look forward to the next installment. Not as good as the first book but worth listening to just to get through to what will hopefully be a good final book

5 people found this helpful

Awe inspiring

This series obeys none of the rules of books. Nothing can be taken for granted, nothing assumed. Just sit back and hang on for the duration. And prepare to swear a lot as Kristoff carelessly mangles your heart.

2 people found this helpful

hell yeah

every time I think I know where the story is going. I get a punch to the face as a left then a right turn is made. great book

1 person found this helpful

Nevernight Chronicles book 2

Below you'll find my original review of the story written after I read the hardback, I have since reread the whole series on audible and love it even more. Fantastic narration from Holter Graham brings the characters even more to life & I can't wait to listen to the series again!

Nevernight was my favourite book of 2016 so it's no surprise that my expectations for the sequel were incredibly high, especially as I read Godsgrave immediately after rereading the first book! I wasn't sure that it would be possible for Jay Kristoff to top the level of awesome he'd already achieved but boy was I proved wrong and this book was off the charts epic. It was so impossibly good that I've been struggling for weeks to write any kind of sensible review for it but I can guarantee it's on my favourite books of 2017 list.

While the first book was all about Mia's training as she fought to earn a place as a Blade for the Red Church the sequel is a whole different ball game as she focuses much more on getting revenge for the deaths of her family. Mia spends much of this story undercover as a slave and fighting with a group of Gladiatii in the arena. We're introduced to a whole new bunch of characters and I loved them all for different reasons, there was the fatherly Sidonius who keeps Mia's secrets and is the joker of the group, brother and sister team, Byern and Bryn, who are champion chariot riders, Bladesinger, a kickass female warrior who is even better with a blade than Mia, and Furian, the champion who holds himself above the others and doesn't like the way Mia wants to take his crown. They're all trained by ex-champion Arkades and a young servant called Maggot is their healer. The group are owned by Dona Leona who is trying to prove herself to her father and the other nobles, she wants to make a name for herself and she doesn't care what price her gladiatii have to pay for that. It was so hard not to become attached to most of these characters but if you read the first book then you should already be wary about that because you know Jay Kristoff isn't afraid to kill major cast members so expect to have your heart ripped to shreds again here.

This entire series has been a complete rollercoaster, nothing is ever quite what it seems, there are betrayals within betrayals, friends become enemies and enemies can become allies. It's impossible to know who to trust and even our main character Mia has moments where she does things you would rather she didn't. Overall I just love Mia though, she's so fierce and determined to avenge her family and absolutely nothing will sway her from her goal. My other favourite characters include Mr Kindly and Eclipse, the two daemons that accompany Mia everywhere thanks to her darkin powers, the two spend a lot of time bickering but they are both devoted to Mia and are a huge help when she's in danger. The series is brutal, bloody and violent, it's full of dark humour and heartbreak but one thing you'll never be is bored. The Nevernight Chronicles is a firm favourite and I'm already desperate to get my hands on the final book, after that ending I have no idea what to expect next but I definitely know it's going to be one hell of a ride!

MORE!!!!

Inata-bought the third. I need more of this world right now! Excellence all around! Read it!

Best thing since Robin Hobb

I am an avid Hobb fan and nothing has ever filled the hole or even come close in terms of narrative since i closed the last page of her last book. But then this series came along and i am floored.

Mia Corvere is a seriously badass MC. In the first book Jay Kristoff made me loathe and detest a few characters so much they made my blood boil. In this book, weirdly, i am in love with them. Hats off to you Kristoff! Honestly, this is nothing like any fantasy book i ever read. The closest is probably Mistborn without the mist. Jay Kristoff is a brilliant writer. The twists and turns that just repeatedly blew me away were quite something to behold. He is up there with Pat Rothfuss, Raymond E Feist and of course Hobb.

Blown away

Simply breath taking ! This series is rocketing up my all time favourites list. Must read.

Phenomenal

A sequel that sets the bar even higher than the first book. I loved it.

A trick of light and darkness

Trick's absence from the story makes this book significantly less enjoyable than the first. Not being able to follow the development of their relationship further is frustrating. Still, there are plenty of twists and turns and surprises to enjoy.

Delicious second helping

I am getting old. I listen to dozens of audiobooks every year and promptly forget most of them. So when I saw that the third part of this trilogy was available I tried to remember the earlier books - which I listened to about 18 months ago. An almost complete blank. So I started with Nevernight, intending to listen to enough to refresh my memory. But I listened to the whole book, surprised that I could have forgotten such a vivid story. I really like the bloodiness (grimdark is the best!) and Mia's strength, how she evolves and grows - always trying to find her own opinion. I managed to overcome my aversion to 'magical school' settings for the first book, but was relieved when Mia got out of there and into the arena. Holter Graham's narration is wonderful. I very much enjoy the whispers of Mr Kindly. Even the sex scenes manage to be quite horny rather than corny. This book is better than the first in some ways. Nice twists and turns and good character development. So now I'm going to listen to Darkdawn, and try to remember it. If not - I'll just have to listen again next year! (It would be good to have more stars to play with in these reviews. I can't give this full marks - five stars have to be reserved for Joe Abercrombie)