Godless World Trilogy Comments
Godless World trilogy (Brian Ruckley)
The Godless World is a fantasy series by Brian Ruckley. It's an amazing debut that delivers everything epic fantasy fans are looking for. This series feels somewhat similar to George R.R. Martin? A Song of Ice and Fire. It? got that same sort of gritty world and cast of grey characters (though less grey then Martin? characters) that Song of Ice and Fire has. There is also a sense of ancient history and myth that pervades the novel. For those wanting to read a gritty fantasy epic with a wonderfully drawn world and really exciting plot, the Godless world delivers. The series is completed.
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Quite a few people have mentioned this series as being one of the better fantasy outings in recent years, and it gets compared to George R.R. Martin quite a lot. I have to ask...why? At best, this is George R.R. Martin Extra-Lite. 'Grey characters' here really just means characters who are obsessively not good. They aren't intriguing. They just try extra hard to not be conventional protagonists, with the aid of some mid-1990s video game JRPG villain rationale (I'll note that it works better in games because of the medium). I found nothing in the series surprising. The prose is average at best. The characters aren't really nuanced; you understand their personalities and can correctly predict their reactions to any given situation pretty much from the first paragraph you read. Deus Ex Machina is established early. The 'true villain' is not surprising, even before the ass-pull precedent is set, because everybody tells you who it is, but they all refuse to preemptively do anything about them.
The last book is actually a pretty good read, but it took me forever to get through the first two. I'd almost recommend just reading the last book first. Then just consider the others 'prequels' if you happen to be interested in some story going on.
If I had to say one thing good about the series, it would be this: the author doesn't lose sight of his story and devolve into gratuitous detail porn. Chapters generally say what they need to say, without a whole lot of filler. I guess this is a virtue, considering how inundated a lot of stories are with stuff no one needs to know about.
I could not agree with you more. It took me nearly 6 months to finally finish this book. The only thing epic about it is my level of not caring about the characters or the setting. I will eventually give books 2 and 3 a chance, but I have plenty of other stuff to read in the meantime.
This trilogy is OUTSTANDING. It has replaced my "old favorites", it's written well and keeps the reader VERY interested. I'm excited and sad to start the third book (if it EVER arrives from my seller!!) because I hate to see the series end.