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Godblind

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Godblind

By: Anna Stephens
Narrated by: Maggie Ollerenshaw
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About this listen

Fantasy’s most anticipated debut of the year.

There was a time when the Red Gods ruled the land. The Dark Lady and her horde dealt in death and blood and fire.

That time has long since passed and the neighbouring kingdoms of Mireces and Rilpor hold an uneasy truce. The only blood spilled is confined to the border where vigilantes known as Wolves protect their kin and territory at any cost.

But after the death of his wife, King Rastoth is plagued by grief, leaving the kingdom of Rilpor vulnerable.

Vulnerable to the blood-thirsty greed of the Warrior-King Liris and the Mireces army waiting in the mountains…

GODBLIND is an incredible debut from a dazzling new voice of the genre.

©2017 Anna Stephens (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers Dark Fantasy Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical Humorous Military Royalty

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Critic reviews

‘Anna Stephens’ debut writes her name in blood on the roster of masters of grimdark alongside the likes of Mark Lawrence and Joe Abercrombie.’
B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

‘Anna Stephens is easily one of the most exciting début fantasy authors of 2017 … If you’re a fan of the likes of Joe Abercrombie or George R. R. Martin, then you’ll be pleased to learn that Anna Stephens has joined this august pantheon of lovingly horrible and deliciously dark writers. GODBLIND is a triumph of its genre.’
Starburst

‘Has all the signs of being a sensational series’
SFX
All stars
Most relevant  
the outline of the story is great but the prose feels like the author would rather write a screenplay. The characters lack dimension and the overly fast pace and the time jumps mean we never really get to know them or build any kind of connection with them. By the end of the book I was so disconnected that I didn't care what happened to any of them.

feels like an attempt to get a movie deal

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I liked that the story had god's in it, but would have liked the religions fleshed out more. Good strong female characters and pacing was excellent.

Good characters and an interesting premise.

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This first book is promising to be the start of an amazingly good, Grimdark trilogy.

Brutal

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Thoroughly enjoyed this. Looking forward to the rest in the series. Well read, strong characters and alive with dark ritual.

Deliciously Dark

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Fast paced, quite a few POV, all of which I enjoyed. Narrator took a couple of chapters to get used to but then really enjoyed her. Speeded up to my usual 1. 15 though.
Looking forward to the next book, hope it's not a long wait.

Loved it.

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A wonderful debut that left me dying for the next one. Gripping, and beautifully imagined; narrated perfectly.

Brilliant

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Fantastic narration of this debut novel. The narrator did an excellent job on a wife range of characters, giving each a distinct tone and speech pattern.

Fantastic narration

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If you could sum up Godblind in three words, what would they be?

What 3 words would sum up Godblind? For me they would have to be.

Back-stabbing
Brutal
Beautiful

Back-stabbing, just simply because there is quite a lot of it. Brutal as it is very much the way of the red gods as beauty is the way of the gods of light.

I did consider the word "Torture", but not because there are a lot of torture scenes but rather because of the ways in which some of the characters are tortured by their gods.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Godblind?

The torture scene for me was the most memorable for a few reasons. The most obvious is the detail in which it plays out as it is pretty detailed, but also because it conveys a lot about the lengths the followers of the red gods would go to for that grab at power they get through blind obedience.

Which character – as performed by Maggie Ollerenshaw – was your favourite?

Having grown up with Maggie play Mavis in Open all Hours I really wasn't sure what to expect but she does such an amazing job narrating the book. I think the cocky swagger she gives Crys and the start of his plunge towards a degree of madness are amazing. Equally the timid Rilirin to a character of grit and determination she narrates incredibly.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There is a moment in the book which involves Chrys's parents, which pulled my heart out and ripped it apart, I'd rather not say more than that through fear of spoiling it for anyone.

Beautiful and brutal

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By god it gets pretty violent

IMO a great start to a v enjoyable story. Mythical vibe with in-depth characters and a very nice writing style and the narrator did a great job on it too

The whole series is a great listen

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Had high expectations from other reviews and it's extremely rare I give up on a book but no, this one I struggled to finish, too many characters not grabbed by any of them, gave up in the end. Liked the narrator but for me the story had too many starts, too many characters introduced without development so I got confused and had zero interest in the end.

Too many characters

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