Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  In this latest Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight one of the most anticipated books of 2024 with The Fury of the Gods by John Gwynne.

John Gwynne is an exceptional fantasy author who rose to prominence back in 2012 when he debuted his Faithful and the Fallen series.  Made up of four complex novels, the Faithful and the Fallen series is very highly regarded and featured a compelling dark fantasy storyline.  Gwynne followed this series up with his Blood and Bone trilogy, which served as a sequel series to the original Faithful and Fallen books.  While I really need to dive in Gwynne’s earlier books, I am a pretty massive fan of his, mainly because of his current books, the Bloodsworn trilogy.

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Set in a compelling dark fantasy world with great Viking aesthetics, the Bloodsworn trilogy follows several complex and damaged protagonists as they try to navigate a world still bearing the scars from the final war of the gods.  The first book in this series, The Shadow of the Gods, was an outstanding read that I mainly picked up due to the epic cover on it.  Luckily Gwynne had an excellent story to match, and I was quickly enthralled by the impressive overarching storylines it contained, especially as it blended a dark revenge mission with a search for self-discovery and a quest for lost treasure.  The Shadow of the Gods ended up being one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021 and I had such a great time with it.  Gwynne continued the magic in 2022 with the outstanding sequel, The Hunger of the Gods.  Also featuring an excellent cover, The Hunger of the Gods (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2022) expertly followed on from the first Bloodsworn novel, expanding out the existing character arcs while also adding in two fantastic additional perspective protagonists.  I really enjoyed how Gwynne continued his epic story and The Hunger of the Gods ended on a pretty big cliffhanger.

As such, I have been eagerly awaiting the third and final book in the trilogy, and it looks like we don’t have that much longer to wait.  That is because the third book, The Fury of the Gods, is currently set for release in October 2024, and I couldn’t be more excited for it.  The cover and plot synopsis for The Fury of the Gods was just released, and boy does it sound extremely epic.

Plot Synopsis:

The Fury of the Gods is the earth-shattering final book in John Gwynne’s bestselling Norse-inspired epic fantasy series, packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance.

The final battle for the fate of Vigrid approaches…

Varg has overcome the trials of his past and become an accepted member of the Bloodsworn, but now he and his newfound comrades face their biggest challenge yet: slaying a dragon.

All paths lead to Snakavik, where the lines are being drawn for the final battle—a titanic clash that will shake the foundations of the world and bear witness to the true fury of the gods.  

I am very excited after reading the above plot summary above as it looks like Gwynne is going to end this series with a bang.  Each of the character arcs mentioned are already quite interesting and I am looking forward to seeing how Gwynne brings them together in this final book.  I do note that one of the protagonists from the previous two books has been purposely excluded from the plot synopsis and I am eager to see what her fate was after the thrilling conclusion to the last book.  No matter what happens to the protagonists, you have to know that the book is going to end with the heroes facing off against the dragon god antagonist, and it will be fascinating to see what other gods and monsters emerge for this final battle.  The reveal in the cover of the gigantic snake god is pretty telling about how events are likely to unfold, and I am looking forward to seeing all the resulting carnage and devastation.

Honestly, after how much I have enjoyed the first two books in the series, there is nothing that is going to keep me from The Fury of the Gods later this year.  I really cannot wait to see how Gwynne brings everything together and I have very little doubt that this is going to be one of my absolute favourite fantasy novels of 2024.  I really do need to highlight the awesome new cove again, as it is so damn cool, and I have even featured an extended version of it that was also released during the cover reveal (as seen in Novel Notations).  If The Fury of the Gods is even half as epic as its cover, then we are in for a very, very good time.