In the Shadow of the Gods

A Bound Gods Novel

By: Rachel Dunne

Narrated by: Alex Wyndham

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

A breathtaking talent makes her debut with this first audiobook in a dark epic-fantasy trilogy, in which a mismatched band of mortals led by a violent, secretive man must stand against a pair of resentful gods to save their world.

Eons ago, a pair of gods known as the Twins grew powerful in the world of Fiatera, until the Divine Mother and Almighty Father exiled them, binding them deep in the earth. But the price of keeping the fire lands safe is steep. To prevent these young gods from rising again, all twins in the land must be killed at birth, a safeguard that has worked until now.

Trapped for centuries, the Twins are gathering their latent powers to break free and destroy the Parents for their tyranny - to set off a fight between two generations of gods for control of the world and the mortals who dwell in it.

When the gods make war, only one side can be victorious. Joros, a mysterious and cunning priest, has devised a dangerous plan to win. Over eight years, he gathers a team of disparate fighters - Scal, a lost and damaged swordsman from the North; Vatri, a scarred priestess who claims to see the future in her fires; Anddyr, a drug-addled mage wandering between sanity and madness; and Rora and Aro, a pair of twins who have secretly survived beyond the reach of the law.

These warriors must learn to stand together against the unfathomable power of vengeful gods to stop them from tearing down the sun...and plunging their world into darkness.

©2016 Rachel Dunne (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Excited for #2 on audible.

The narrator, Alex Wyndham is beyond words for me. A true master of storytelling. The book was great. I will admit, a few times I was a little confused.. I was able to figure things out as the book went on.. All the characters are amazing. Excited for #2 on audible.

Outstanding!

Epic world building and diverse and distinctive characters. Dunne paints a detailed and ever moving and evolving world of competing beliefs and cultures built around the faiths of men. Hidden motivations, ambitions and desires set our characters in motion and drawn inexplicably toward one another.

meh...

If it wasnt for Alex Wyndham (Narrator) Amazing .. i would have quit this book at chapter 8. slow and boring. Magic is there and used but randomly by a slave wizard. alot of walking and wandering with the story jumping around between 5 or so story lines so much that im not even sure who is where or even when ,half the time. And to top it off the book finally starts to get interesting and it ends...

Story inexplicably changes midway

Rachel Dunne's writing is very good as well as Alex Wyndham's performance. However, the performance played out like the author wrote, and had the narrator perform, the story of Joros and the twins Rora and Aro where the twins were born from a pregnant woman that Joro had taken to the northern tunnels and they were raised there.

Then, somewhere near the middle, we find the twins young again being tunnel urchins under a city with no hint as to how this happened. Then, when they finally meet up with Joro, neither he nor they knew the other. It was as if somewhere during the recording of the story, they decided to change the beginning and forgot to delete the initial recording.

I enjoyed the story that was mostly eerily dark but the abrupt change in the story made understanding of the whole story itself frustrating and disappointing. Audible should consider editing the performance to adhere to a single genesis backstory.

Slow, dragging, good narrator

I tried to physically read this book, changed to audio thinking a good narrator would help.
Just no. The language and world building was good, much can be improved, as this book fell a bit flat.
Didn’t like a SINGLE character. Not one.
Nothing happens really in this story. Don’t recommend.